Do you teach to "Take up the trigger" or not?

[Guest tngw1500se]

Wife has a LC9 and it has a long trigger pull. Should I teach her to "take up the trigger" so she's accurate, or is that asking for an accidental discharge during a panic situation? And before you suggest taking a class, it's already in the works.

[MacGyver]

No.

I can "take up the slack" on my J-frame, my LCP and a couple of other weapons that have really heavy pulls when I'm plinking cans out in the back forty.

In a defensive situation however, the only thing I would advocate or practice is a slow, steady intentional pull straight to the rear. Even if you had the manual dexterity in a defensive situation to hold it right on the edge of the sear, which I would challenge anyone on, you're asking for trouble.

Edited July 26, 2011 by MacGyver

[East_TN_Patriot]

I always train people to practice proper grip, proper sight alignment, and proper trigger squeeze. I have never even heard of "taking up the trigger." Based on your original post, my impression is that it means you start pulling back on the trigger, which is unnecessary and could cause someone to fire off a round without intending to. Once the finger hits the trigger, the shooter should be squeezing it in order to fire. Until that time, their finger should be outside of the trigger guard.

[peejman]

I'd also say no.

If you're shooting bullseye with a DAO gun, maybe. But otherwise, no. Her accuracy will improve with practice.

[Guest bkelm18]

I always train people to practice proper grip, proper sight alignment, and proper trigger squeeze. I have never even heard of "taking up the trigger." Based on your original post, my impression is that it means you start pulling back on the trigger, which is unnecessary and could cause someone to fire off a round without intending to. Once the finger hits the trigger, the shooter should be squeezing it in order to fire. Until that time, their finger should be outside of the trigger guard.

Taking up the trigger refers to pre-staging the trigger, ie. pulling the trigger to right before it breaks. It's ok for range time, but not safe for anything else.

[Jonnin]

No. If you cannot shoot the gun the way it is designed, you may have the wrong type of action for the shooter. Its ok to take it up on the range for fun but you do under stress what you practice and under stress, taking it up is begging for trouble. If she can do OK with it as is, great, if not, consider a SA or DA (not DAO) or light DAO (there are a couple with long 3 ish pound triggers, para has one, I have seen others but they may be modified?).

[daddyo]

You should know where the trigger reset is for every weapon you carry.

[bigwakes]

I wouldn't teach that for defense. If the trigger is a problem try a revolver so she can shoot some with pulling the hammer for smoothest shorter trigger. My wife prefers revolvers for this reason.

[Jonnin]

I wouldn't teach that for defense. If the trigger is a problem try a revolver so she can shoot some with pulling the hammer for smoothest shorter trigger. My wife prefers revolvers for this reason.

For defense? It takes a while to learn to jocky a SA revolver fast enough for defense shooting, some never do learn it well enough, and a lot of the carry revolvers are only 5 shot. A SA semi is the same concept except it self cocks and can be rapid fired easily. Does not have to be huge, but most of the small SA guns are a bit pricy ($600-1300 price range NIB). Actually, I guess most of the big SA autos are pricy too. I love a good revolver but I dont think I would pick one to carry as my first choice, esp if I had to pull the hammer back each time (I would consider the right DA (not dao) revolver in some circumstances). Edited July 26, 2011 by Jonnin

[bigwakes]

My wifes range gun is a GP100. She alternates practicing with pulling the hammer or DA. Her carry gun is a Ruger LCR. No hammer. I was referencing using a revolver in single action for the range not for defense.

And yes, I have tried to nudge her to a semi especially a Glock. It's a no go and I'm just happy that she carries semi regularly now.

[Jonnin]

Ah ok, yea a DA revolver isnt so bad. I have picked up a few with really nice DAO triggers, including a taurus that I almost bought.

[PC7]

Is this what you are referring to?

pistol-training.com » Blog Archive » The Press-Out

[wjh2657]

Definitely. Teach staging the trigger, checking to make sure you have a good stance, exercise proper breathing and get a proper sight alignment. While you are at it, teach her to scream. If she does all of steps I mentioned (all part of target shooting) she needs to scream because she is probably getting raped. She will have given the BG time to get to her. The LC9 is designed and meant for in close, down and dirty "there is no time for fancy footwork" shooting.

Draw, Point, Fire(many times.) Do not teach any time consuming "nice" steps.

In a "GunsiteRanch" (I can talk about it, I attended it) type scenario, where all the niceties are practiced, the LC9 would not have been permitted on the range. In it's own environment it is a very fine little tool, but keep the drill simple.

Edited July 27, 2011 by wjh2657

[Guest Marine03]

"Taking up the trigger" is taught in the military I know. But there if you draw its because your defiantly going to shoot. I was trained this way and it gets aggravating when I pick up a single action or striker fire like my Walther PPS. In a combat situation its perfect by eliminating an extra 1/8th of a second to pull the trigger once on target. But for most folks it would be dangerous to teach without thousands of rounds of practice and a complete knowledge of what their carrying at any given moment.

[Guest Victor9er]

Wife has a LC9 and it has a long trigger pull. Should I teach her to "take up the trigger" so she's accurate, or is that asking for an accidental discharge during a panic situation? And before you suggest taking a class, it's already in the works.

I wouldn't suggest it. That sounds like asking for trouble. Suppose she's home alone at night, hears a sound and grabs her gun. It's dark, her heart is pounding and she's breathing heavy. Shadows seem to move in front of her. She "takes up the trigger" as you suggest and suddenly a loud noise startles her, she screams and... BANG! She just shot your cat.

Or she could trip on something in the dark, stumble and BANG. Maybe it was you coming home late and getting something to drink out of the fridge. Maybe one of the kids (assuming you have kids) got out of bed and wanted a glass of water. What if she has to grab your gun for some reason, and the trigger pull is different? She's used to hers and when she tries to do the same on yours... BANG.

I think there's just too many bad things that could potentially happen. Not worth it to be half an inch closer on target IMHO.

If you want her to be accurate, take her out to the range once or twice a week.

Edited July 29, 2011 by Victor9er

[Jonnin]

Definitely. Teach staging the trigger, checking to make sure you have a good stance, exercise proper breathing and get a proper sight alignment. While you are at it, teach her to scream. If she does all of steps I mentioned (all part of target shooting) she needs to scream because she is probably getting raped. She will have given the BG time to get to her. The LC9 is designed and meant for in close, down and dirty "there is no time for fancy footwork" shooting. Draw, Point, Fire(many times.) Do not teach any time consuming "nice" steps. In a "GunsiteRanch" (I can talk about it, I attended it) type scenario, where all the niceties are practiced, the LC9 would not have been permitted on the range. In it's own environment it is a very fine little tool, but keep the drill simple.

This. That last bit is why I have not blown hundreds of dollars to take some of these classes where, from what I have seen and heard, nothing but a glock will do (this isnt a comment on glock, its a comment on instructor mentality and the one size fits all attitude). For a very blatent example, take the spamsight quiz, the answers are all tailored to make the poor sap reading them think that anything but a glock is about as effective as a squirt gun, its funny but its also sad to think of the noobs that wasted money on it.