Next, try to place the center of the pad of the end of the finger on the trigger, rather than the very tip or the crease of the last joint. It is worth noting that the length of the finger versus the length of reach to the trigger may cause some variance here.
Hold the pistol as high up on the grip as you can. For a revolver, the top of the hand should be about even with the top of the stock. For semi-autos, cram your hand as far up against the rear tang of the grip as it will go; no space should appear between the top of your hand and the bottom of the tang. This helps mitigate muzzle jump during recoil, due to your hand being closer to the axis of that recoil (which is along the barrel).
Once you’ve established the correct alignment in your grip, relax the grip of the gun hand. Beginners often death-grip the pistol. But a tight gun hand prevents the trigger finger from moving rapidly, which keeps us from being able to gain speed in our shooting. In reality, you should have no more tension in your gun grip than that used when having a slightly firm handshake with a woman. The bone-crushing John Wayne grip is a no-no. The reason for this is that, when your hand is that tight, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to allow the trigger finger to flex independently from the rest of the hand.
This independent operation is crucial. Without it, the entire hand has a tendency to squeeze when pulling the trigger, which will move the gun a considerable amount; for a right-hander, this will often result in a shot low and to the left of the aiming point (the opposite, of course, for a left-handed shooter). We want to eliminate all motion of the gun while pulling the trigger, and the gripping techniques described here, including the gentle, non-violent pressure straight rearwards as applied by the fingertip, are the methods that best accomplish this.
The action of the mind has the greatest effect of all. Ideally, you want a relaxed, calm, and empty mind when firing the shot. The only thought you should have is one of admiration for your sight picture. It is preferable to have no conscious thought of the act of pressing the trigger, or of wishing or expecting the shot to fire. If you believe that your only job is to aim, and that someone else will pull the trigger for you, you’ll be on the right track.
Why this kind of “disembodied” mindset? Because the three greatest impediments to firing a clean shot are the push of the hand against the gun in anticipation of recoil as the trigger press starts; a perceived need to force the shot, when a wobbling gun presents a perfect sight picture for an instant; or an impatient desire to force the shot, even if the sight picture is incorrect. The emotional baggage we bring to the act of shooting — fear, nervousness, excitement, ego, pride, impatience, etc. — clutter our ability to perform the simplest physical act of moving our fingertip a sixteenth of an inch. It is imperative you learn to empty your mind of any thought or emotion beyond simply focusing on your sight picture.
The single greatest impediment to fast and accurate shooting, in my opinion, is the anticipation of and premature reaction to recoil. This is known as a “flinching.” This happens when, as soon as we press on the trigger to discharge the shot, our subconscious mind, anticipating the recoil to come, starts our hand dipping downward to counteract it. Our subconscious knows that the recoil impulse arrives pursuant to the press of the finger. The result is that the shot goes low. If the whole hand clenches convulsively at the same time, the shot will often go to the side, as well, usually left for a right-hander.
Further complicating the problem, since the flinch reflex almost always includes an eye blink, we do not see our sights dipping in the instance before the shot fires. This is probably the biggest problem encountered by people shooting a centerfire pistol with any appreciable recoil, and it is a difficult habit to break. Even a shooter with proper trigger control will often start flinching eventually, after firing enough rounds to become either fatigued or over-sensitive to the recoil pulse. If this happens to you, take a break or end the session.
The best method I have seen for eliminating the flinch is to not allow the subconscious mind to know exactly when the piece will discharge. This method is called the “surprise break.” Simply put, you’ll pull the trigger gradually enough so that the exact instant of firing comes as a surprise to you. Your subconscious cannot direct a flinch action, then, because we don’t know just when the gun will fire.
To effect the surprise break, we must first start with a fairly slow trigger pull, one that takes place over a period of several seconds. With time and practice, this interval will be shortened more and more until you have a fairly quick trigger motion, even though your mind will have been trained to still sense the time interval involved and still not know the exact instant of discharge. This requires constant practice to achieve, but, eventually, you can fire shots in fractions of a second. The mind will have been trained to consider that even such a short time interval carries in it the uncertainty of when the shot will fire, and the flinch action will be kept at bay.
How do you know if you’re not flinching? If you see your muzzle flash or see your front sight lifting in recoil, you can be pretty sure you are not flinching. Either visual will allow you to call your shot in your own mind, and without viewing the actual hits on the target.
The counterpoint to all this is the yanking, mashing, and jerking of the trigger. Not only does this impart a violent physical impulse to the gun, it is also a prime enabler of the flinch. A desire to force speed causes this problem. That desire, or impatience, comes from an inability to hold the sight alignment on the desired target aim point. The gun weaves all around and, when the sights cross the aiming point, there may be an overwhelming desire to yank the trigger at just that instant. Don’t do it! Instead, consider this alternate method.
Every time the sights cross your desired aiming point, add a little pressure to the trigger, maybe a half-pound at most, and not enough to fire the gun. When the sights weave off your aiming point, stop adding pressure, but continue to hold the pressure you already have, rather than releasing it. When the gun weaves back to your aim point, add a few more ounces. Maintain this schedule, and, at some point, the gun will fire as you add the last few needed ounces while the sights are lined up. It will be a surprise, and it will happen only when the sights are on the desired point of aim.
One other aspect of trigger control deals with the motion of the finger after the shot is fired. Ideally, you should let the trigger finger forward only enough to allow the trigger mechanism to reset itself. The finger should stay in contact with the surface of the trigger, not move forwards off of it. In this manner, the motion of the trigger finger is minimized. Also, try not to fling your finger all the way forwards, off the trigger and to the front of the trigger guard. This is pointless, unnecessary, and wastes both time and motion.
The best results are obtained when all the above tactics are combined. The proper grip on the pistol, proper placement of the finger pad on the trigger, the relaxation of the trigger hand, the independent and proper motion of the trigger finger, the relaxation of the mind, and the surprise break all work together to produce a firing action that will not disturb your perfect sight picture at the moment of discharge.