Practice: Moving the Trigger Straight Back

Don't have an unloaded handgun to practice with? No problem. Here's how to practice moving the trigger finger straight back. You can do this standing or sitting, any time day or night. All it needs is your attention and a credit card.

1. Hold your arm, wrist and fingers the same as when you are holding the handgun.
2. Hold a credit card vertically in your hand between the point on your trigger finger where you place the trigger and the web between thumb and finger where the back of the gun normally sits. Only the trigger finger and the web should touch the credit card.
3. Check the alignment: You should be seeing the credit card "edge on". Eye, "front sight" and "rear sight", the vertical edges of the credit card, should all be lined up.
4. Focus on the near edge of the credit card and then slowly pressure the trigger finger straight back.
5. The credit card should stay perfectly aligned with the eye.

Do you also have a GripMaster exerciser?

1. Hold it upside down and low in the hand with the middle two gripping fingers on what are now the "top" two finger spring pads. Note that, as when holding a handgun, the middle joint of the gripping fingers, not the finger tips, will hold the GripMaster.
2. Then, add the credit card between trigger-finger-position and web similar to before.
3. Compress the springs of the gripmaster with the middle two fingers and, thereby, grip the "gun" (GripMaster).
4. Focus on the credit card as before and pressure the trigger finger straight back. You should continue to see the credit card "edge on" at all times.

Alternatively:

1. Hold the GripMaster normally.
2. Fully compress the middle two springs with the middle two fingers.
3. Practice pressing the trigger finger spring slowly but fully.
4. Note that the middle two springs must be fully compressed throughout this exercise. If they aren't, when the trigger finger spring is pressed, it will change the tension on the middle two springs and everything will move as you pull the trigger. Instead, you want everything to remain locked and still as you move the trigger. This is called "trigger finger independence".

FYI: If you are shooting 45 ACP 1911 or other large caliber handgun, you will probably want the "heavy" (9 lb. spring) model GripMaster (http://www.gripmaster.net). (Their webpage lists this model as appropriate for those needing to do "weapon retention".)

Negligent (Accidental) Discharge

No, it wasn't me, thank the Lord, the NRA, most of the Bulleye shooters I know, and pure dumb luck when at a public range with ignorant novices and testosterone-pumped young studs all around.
Warning:

• The linked web blog (below) is graphic.
• There's blood, pictures of the wound, descriptions of the pain, etc..
• And the guy is not out of the woods yet: Just because he survived the gun shot doesn't mean he's going to survive the wound.

The link: http://dishhead.home.insightbb.com/leg.html

Jeff Cooper's Four Rules:

1. All guns are *always* loaded.
2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
4. Be sure of your target.

Someone Is Watching You!

Inspiration is a great motivator.

I've shot Bullseye at a lot of clubs around the US and, in every case, there were better shooters than myself on the line. I've been whipped, and I've been whipped a lot.

For beginners, Bullseye can be a humbling experience. But if you swallow your pride and pay attention, it's a great way to improve your game.

And it may be surprising to find out that you learn not only by watching them, but rather by pulling yourself up because they are there and will be looking.

Pressure is a good thing. Accept it, forget it, and then shoot.

For example, when I'm standing between two great Bullseye shooters, I know that one of them is going to be scoring my target. When in that situation, you can bet your bottom dollar I will try my very best. I will focus every bit of knowledge, training and practice on shooting that shot. And when that shot is gone, I'll do my best to forget it and start working on the next shot.

Oh, it's also true that, from time to time I let my head get to me. I might think a negative thought such as, "What's he going to think when he sees how bad I am?" And I doubt if you'll be surprised to learn that when I start thinking that way, my shooting gets bad, then worse, then absolutely awful. Negative thoughts mess me up faster than bad ammo. With bad ammo I might get the occasional lucky shot where two errors offset each other and the hole ends up in the X ring. It happens. Sometimes you get lucky.

But when your head goes, when you start talking down to yourself, the shots are gonna get wider and wilder. If you can't get your mind under control, it's hopeless.

Bullseye is a head game: To shoot right, you've got to think right.

And Bullseye is a control game: If you don't control your thoughts, they'll mess you up.

I recently had the awesome privilege of shooting with only two shooters on the line, me and another shooter at an indoor range and he was one of, if not the very best Bullseye shooter in the world.

We fired two NMCs for the NRA Indoor postal, 22 and CF. He stood right next to me and fired a 599, one point short of perfection.

When the shooting was done and targets collected, we swapped. He scored my targets and I scored his and, yes, I really looked hard at that nine, hoping there was some way it would turn out to be a ten. But no, it was a nine. No question about it.

When I handed him the targets I said, "Sorry, but I have to score this target with one shot in the nine ring." He looked and agreed. No hard feelings. It was a nine.

On my way home from the range, though, I realized I was looking at this wrong. It wasn't important that he'd fired a nine. What he had accomplished instead was fifty-nine tens and Xs. Out of 60 shots fired in a half hour, he'd put 59 of them in the ten or the X ring. 59 tens!

Holy Cow!!

And you know what else? He puts his pants on the same way I do.

He's got brown hair and so do I.

He stands at the firing line and pours everything he has into each shot. I've done that, albeit with less consistency, but I know I can do it too.

And he's also a really nice guy, married, likes a good joke, sometimes shoots with a couple of day's growth on his face. I do all of that, too.

Role models are good.

Remember: somebody will be looking.

Focus, do your best, punch a hole in the X.

The Attraction of Bullseye

Seven-eighths of the way through the first day of work after the Christmas and New Years holidays and it suddenly hit me why we like Bullseye.

It's quite simple: it's because it's simple.

To shoot an X, get good quality equipment and ammunition, stand in a stable position, line up the sights, forget the wobble, focus your attention on the front sight while maintaining the alignment and all the while moving the trigger straight back, and "Bang!", you'll shoot an X.

Now I know that sounds like a lot and, trust me, saying is a lot easier than doing but, nonetheless, if you do what it says in the previous paragraph, you'll shoot an X. And if you can do it again and again, you'll shoot X after X. It really is that simple!

But when I look at "real life", things are not so simple. Shooting an X in your day to day life is a whole lot more difficult.

First of all, there are an enormous number of rules to follow. I got a bunch from my Mom and Dad (which sometimes conflict), of course, and my wife has her own set, too. The state of Arizona has its rules some of which are dramatically different as of the first of the year (so don't be drinking and driving here, to mention just one change). Then there are the US laws to know and follow not to mention those I read or hear about on Sundays.

The boss seems to have his own ideas, too. Not always knowing what he has in mind, it gets a little confusing sometimes. ("Faith" is a useful concept in many places, not just church.)

And we all know that the customer is always right, don't we? Don't we??

Second, the rules in real life keep changing.

Everybody is up to date on all the US income tax changes for the year just ended, right?

New state and federal laws?

But thank goodness I've got a good strong moral foundation. That never changes, right? (Well, I vote Republican or Libertarian now but, yes, there was a time when I thought the Democrats really knew what they were doing. Oh but don't get me started.) Suffice it to say that, yeah, my ideas of right and wrong have been tested by the winds of time and there are a few bent reeds from all that.

Oh, life would be so much easier if we just had a rulebook, wouldn't it?

And I guess that's why I like Bullseye. There *is* a rulebook, and there *is* an easy to remember way of shooting absolute perfection.

A little memorizing, a little practice -- well, maybe a *lot* of practice -- and, voila, X after X after X.

Bullseye really is simple. Just do what it says and, "Bang!", there's your X.

So here I am now with a half-hour to go in the workday. I'm hunkered down in my hole in the ground and, you can bet your bottom dollar that after what's been flying back and forth already today, I'm not stickin' *my* head out. Nope, no way. I'm staying down here in my hole and I ain't comin' out no matter what.

Instead, I'm dreaming of something simple.

I'm mentally lining up the sights, keeping my attention focused on the front sight and moving that trigger straight back.

Bang!

An X!

Yeah, I could spend a lot more time shootin' Xs, a *lot* more time.

Why can't life be this simple?

Bang!

Another X!

Oh yeah. A fella' could get used to this.

I *like* simple.