Correcting a shooter’s trigger control is our main priority when teaching classes. One of the most common errors in trigger control is variety. We see shooters manipulating the trigger in a different way every single press. No consistency is what we observe.
Do not underestimate dry practice. It takes roughly 3,000 repetitions to create a new positive neural pathway and about 9,000 repetitions to fix a bad habit. The worst part about fixing bad habits is those 9,000 new repetitions have to all be exact. When dry firing, you can watch your finger.
It’s OK to dry fire your centerfire rifle. There should be no damage to the system. If you feel uncomfortable doing so, invest in a snap cap to absorb the impact of the firing pin. But it is generally safe to dry fire a centerfire rifle.
Dry practice needs to be carried out as if it is a live shot. Sloppy dry practice will instill sloppy fundamentals. Invest in perfect practice. Don’t just sit there snapping the trigger, engage the rifle like your life depends on it. The more you dry practice, the better shooter you will become. For indoor dry practice, consider purchasing an Indoor Optical Training Aid (IOTA) lens device; this allows you to focus your scope indoors at 11 feet.
On the firing line, we execute the fundamentals to the highest degree of accuracy possible. We want to be consistent behind the rifle.
Given time and opportunity before a shot, always dry fire. Set up your position so, without breaking that position, you can easily reach over and insert a live magazine or load a live round so the actual shot mimics the dry fire. We see shooters all the time dry fire perfectly and then change their hand position or cadence of fire by simply going live.
Follow-Through
Follow-through is the forgotten fundamental of marksmanship.
In everything we do, we need follow-through. I wrote earlier about other sports like football. Watch any Sunday game during a kickoff. When the ball sails past the receiver into the end zone, the kicking team will run beyond the receivers until they reach the end zone themselves. This is a basic example of follow-through.
Recently, I was browsing Twitter when I saw famous golfer Phil Mickelson shooting a 6.5 Creedmoor rifle. He was tapping the trigger with zero follow-through behind it. I sent a reply Tweet to him reminding him of this observation. Imagine if I took a golf class with Phil and after addressing the ball and adjusting my club to line up the shot, I swung and immediately upon making contact with the ball I stopped the club head or, worse, let go of the club. If he saw me do that, he would reprimand me like a puppy who just peed on the floor.
The final act of firing the rifle is follow-through. As I wrote earlier, pressing the trigger starts the machine and begins the bullet’s journey down the barrel. As with everything, this takes time. We have to allow the system the time to complete the cycle, so we have to follow through with our trigger press. This will assure shooters they are not disturbing the rifle and the sights before the bullet leaves the barrel. It’s a very simple concept. But many people, when focusing on precision, like to “tap” the trigger, allowing the finger to fly off the trigger shoe. At the same time, we don’t want to squeeze the finger and “crush” it to the rear because this also moves the rifle.
Follow-through is simply holding the trigger to the rear until the recoil pulse has ended. We don’t want to be in such a hurry that we are rushing for the bolt to reload before the bullet has left the bore. It is possible to disturb the system and cause the round to deviate off target.
When the rifle is firing, picture it as a large tuning fork. If we are allowing the trigger mechanism to move during the vibration period, when the bullet is still in the barrel, we can adversely affect the vibrations, thus changing the harmonics of the system from shot to shot. This is especially true with a larger caliber semi-automatic platform. Our goal is consistency. Not following through is anything but consistent and it will cause deviations downrange. With the finger giving the same consistent pressure it took to break the shot, the shooter wants to maintain that 90-degree position of the fingernail and hold the trigger shoe to the rear.
Lastly, we want to continue to watch the reticle on the target. Before breaking the shot, a shooter can lose focus, thinking about all the fundamentals, one then another, then another. The last thing we want to mentally think about, and focus on, is the reticle on the target. We need to watch this throughout the entire firing process. Here is where you want to put the bullet. So, it is here you need to focus. Observe the sights during the firing sequence. We already know what to do. We can press our finger without looking, we can break at our natural respiratory pause without thinking, and we can hold the trigger to the rear thanks to repetitive practice. So, the focus needs to be on the sights. If they are beginning to drift off target, we have to stop the process and reset. You’ll see it move, so if something is not correct, the sights will show you. Don’t fire. Reset your position.
I like to mentally follow the bullet to the target before moving at all. That means a delay in running the bolt. I have mentioned this before: Distance should give you time and opportunity to put all the fundamentals into play. If I am trying to spot my impact on target, if I start moving the sight picture will be compromised and I might miss the result. If I hit the target, I want to know without the aid of a spotter, and if I miss, I really need to know where so I can correct it. This flies in the face of old-school doctrine that once advised: The gun is broke, or empty, so run the bolt as quickly as possible. Most of the time of flight we are dealing with is relatively short, so don’t sweat the few seconds we are asking to freeze in place.
Some people might blink, lose focus, subconsciously look inward, etc. There are a host of things we will think about as part of the firing task, but not in the correct order. So, build the position and, when you are ready to shoot, focus on the sights and where they are in relationship to the target. Unsupported sling shooters will talk about calling their shots. Where were the sights when the shot broke? In supported shooting, especially on a bipod with a scope, the shooter should see the bullet impact the target and know “where” the sights were the entire time. Follow the bullet to the target by watching the sights. Through a scope, this is entirely possible if your position is correct and you follow through with your shot.
Follow-through is my personal pet peeve when it comes to the fundamentals of marksmanship. I harp on it more than any others. With our current state of affairs in terms of rifle systems, we can get away with many bad habits. We have exacting triggers; they break crisp and clean with minor contact. So much so, we see shooters employing triggers adjusted in single-digit ounces. Anything from 8-, to 4-, even 2-ounce triggers are hitting the street. This is an attempt at a mechanical fix to fundamental issue.
Does your instructor shoot in front of the students? The author and his instructors tag-team the rifle in each class, demonstrating the fundamentals.
Sure, you can buy a fix for just about anything these days. Add weight to the rifle: In fact, some stocks today come with heavy steel weight systems. Decease the caliber and increase the speed in which the bullet leaves the bore. The faster the bullet exits the less influence the shooter has on the shot. Employ a ported muzzle brake to keep the recoil inline so you can get back on target quicker. All this helps, but what happens when you can’t make these physical changes to the rifle system. Lighter bullets will have less recoil, less recoil means less movement behind the rifle by the shooter. All this is a factor.
Recognizing Time
With trigger control and follow-through working together, we have to recognize time. Every rifle system has a lock time. That is usually applied to the firing pin movement.