laststandonzombieisland

If you have heard it once, you have head it a thousand times: squeeze the trigger, don’t jerk it-nobody likes a jerk. The reason for this is simple. If you slap that trigger, you are going to pull your muzzle off target. At close range, you won’t notice it, but at distances 7 yards and further, the slap of a trigger can lead to throwing off your shot by several inches.

Further back and you won’t even hit the target at all.

One sure way to fix this is to train your brain to have a slow and steady trigger squeeze. A trick that has worked for generations of shooters is the old quarter trick.

What’s that, you ask? Keep reading.

With this simply place a coin, the larger the better (quarters and similar tend to work best), on the top of the slide of an *unloaded semi-auto near the front sight, or the top strap of a similarly empty revolver and dry fire it. If you have a good, smooth trigger squeeze, the coin won’t fall off. If not, then the result will be obvious.

*(check it twice, drop the mag, work the slide three times and point in safe direction at all times)

Keep working on this slowly until you can keep the coin on there for one or two clicks of the hammer. Most modern centerfire handguns can be dry fired without causing any damage to the hammer or firing pin, however, snap caps (they are cheap and never wear out) can be used to make sure. Once you can keep that coin up there and on target through a solid 100 trigger squeezes, you should be in business with a nice, smooth pull.

Note, each model firearm is different so you need to work on this to train your brain where the trigger breaks at, and therefore helping you aim point stay true. This also works on rifles by putting the coin or washer on the muzzle behind the front sight.
Read the rest in my column at Springfield forum