Trigger Control

Trigger control is by far the most important thing to learn in order to hit what you are aiming at. I use two different drills in order to help teach this skill. The first drill is easy to do and only requires dry firing. If your gun has a laser sight, it makes it real easy. Make sure your gun is unloaded, pick a small object to sight on and smoothly pull the trigger. You should see only a very small movement of the red dot on the target. The Crimson Trace laser grips are outstanding in this regard. This immediate feedback works very well in reinforcing good trigger control. The alternative to this drill with a semi-auto is to put a coin or cartridge case on the slide just behind the front sight. You should be able to do 20 trigger pulls in a row without the case or coin falling off.

The other drill is to have the student hold their loaded gun at the range and line up the sights while I pull the trigger. They are usually amazed at how well they can shoot. Mastering the trigger control of a handgun normally pays dividends for all of your other shooting as well. Shooting a handgun well is a tough skill to master for several reasons. First, holding a handgun out at arms length is difficult and awkward. Secondly, you typically have a 5 to 10 pound trigger pull on a 2 pound gun and it is very easy to disturb that sight picture.

Practice some of these trigger control skills in your spare time and watch your group sizes go down next time you are at the range.