How to stop “trigger slap”

[Northfl]

I was told on the last stage of a match that i was slapping the trigger, i have it set fairly light. How do i over come this?
Lots of dry firing on a target? Do i adjust it to a heavier pull and dryfire.??? Any help is appreciated

 

[RTH1800]

My most likely unpopular opinion would be to set trigger at a crisp 5# pull. Then firmly grip the rifle with your thumb over and around the grip.
Dry fire the hell out of it.
Also shooting a bow is a huge help but I cannot explain how or why. It really helps me with follow through.
Hand strengthening exercises are helpful as well.

 

[...]

increase to a heavier trigger pull definitely.

super light triggers are fine on benchrest, and static positional guns......but anything you are running around with, ive found its more of a detriment than a benefit.

 

[Northfl]

My most likely unpopular opinion would be to set trigger at a crisp 5# pull. Then firmly grip the rifle with your thumb over and around the grip.
Dry fire the hell out of it.
Also shooting a bow is a huge help but I cannot explain how or why. It really helps me with follow through.
Hand strengthening exercises are helpful as well.

I used to shoot a bow alot. Havent in a few years though. Not since shooting rifles more. Should start back i suppose

 

[Northfl]

increase to a heavier trigger pull definitely.

super light triggers are fine on benchrest, and static positional guns......but anything you are running around with, ive found its more of a detriment than a benefit.

As soon as i am off this night shift i am gonna tighren it up and get to dryfiring a lot more than normal. Thanks for the help fellas

 

[acudaowner]

stop it , you could punish your self , pay your kids to stone you when you do it your pretty much going to stop doing it or you could try this method
except don't punish your wife or kids lol

 

[CoryT]

Part of the solution is identifying the cause. Is it position related? By that I mean do you try to 'make' the gun fire when the crosshair is right where you want it? Some movement is going to be there, you are alive after all. Accept the wobble and press. This is a dry practice fix. If it's recoil/blast related, then ball and dummy drills should help. Load dummy rounds randomly during practice sessions, watching for crosshair movement.

Light triggers are a crutch, like high magnification. It does not help you shoot. A good rifle trigger breaks clean, like a glass rod snapping, between 2 and 3 pounds is just fine.

The trigger must be controlled, pressed straight to the rear until release, then maintain that pressure until the recoil impulse subsides. Hold the trigger to the rear, don't 'tap' it. Very light triggers encourage a tap, which is not good.

 

[808caliber]

The dummy round trick really helps with flinch and not mentally psyching yourself out about recoil. Def give it a try. Have someone load dummy rounds between live rounds in mag. Make sure u press and follow thru with each and every round.

 

[Powder_Burns]

Get a 2-stage.

 

[Moe Ron]

One good thing about being old. You can load up your own mags.

 

[roostercogburn98]

Trigger slap any kin to bitch slap?

 

[J McGriddle]

I used to have a habit of "slapping" the trigger also. Mine went undiagnosed until I took a precision rifle class. This is what worked for me.

As I squeeze the trigger- I focus on the target and think to myself, " slow slow slow" until it goes off. Once the rifle fires I count to three before I take my finger off the trigger.

I do that every time unless I'm running a drill or in a match; even when I dry fire.

 

[Choid]

Shoot handguns for accuracy. Best thing in the world for trigger control.

 

[DocRDS]

Another trick that works for me as a fellow "slapper" is to either count in your head or get a timer and set it to a LONG time (5-10s).

On the start beep/whatever, gradually increase the pressure on the trigger with each count (obviously with a timer there will be no audio counting). Aim for the gun to go off right at 10. But with the Long count, odds are you will ignite it early. That's good.

Whenever I start trigger slapping i go back to this drill. Even at 5 seconds. Squeeze....squeeze....squeeze...BANG (Just count in your head--every count increase pressure)

 

[goosed]

Can you marry your finger up to the trigger during awkward positions without any fear of it going off? If not, pull weight needs to go up.

If you can marry up your finger without any fear of it firing: Dry fire is your new best friend. Break it down, then build yourself back up. Go through each of four deliberate steps in slow motion (marry up, press, break, follow through).

Once dry fire is perfected and it feels completely natural add in positional dry fire practice, then live ammo from a single position, and finally live ammo in/out of position. Don't worry about time. The timer will prove that a deliberate pull with proper follow through and a slapped trigger is a much smaller time difference than your brain tells you while you're pressing the trigger.

Any time you start feeling bad habits are coming back take it back to square one dry fire and rebuild the good habits.

 

[hereinaz]

Can you marry your finger up to the trigger during awkward positions without any fear of it going off? If not, pull weight needs to go up.

If you can marry up your finger without any fear of it firing: Dry fire is your new best friend. Break it down, then build yourself back up. Go through each of four deliberate steps in slow motion (marry up, press, break, follow through).

Once dry fire is perfected and it feels completely natural add in positional dry fire practice, then live ammo from a single position, and finally live ammo in/out of position. Don't worry about time. The timer will prove that a deliberate pull with proper follow through and a slapped trigger is a much smaller time difference than your brain tells you while you're pressing the trigger.

Any time you start feeling bad habits are coming back take it back to square one dry fire and rebuild the good habits.

Amen!

Add weight to your trigger if you can't marry it without worry. And, dry fire, dry fire, dry fire.

 

[Northfl]

Can you marry your finger up to the trigger during awkward positions without any fear of it going off? If not, pull weight needs to go up.

If you can marry up your finger without any fear of it firing: Dry fire is your new best friend. Break it down, then build yourself back up. Go through each of four deliberate steps in slow motion (marry up, press, break, follow through).

Once dry fire is perfected and it feels completely natural add in positional dry fire practice, then live ammo from a single position, and finally live ammo in/out of position. Don't worry about time. The timer will prove that a deliberate pull with proper follow through and a slapped trigger is a much smaller time difference than your brain tells you while you're pressing the trigger.

Any time you start feeling bad habits are coming back take it back to square one dry fire and rebuild the good habits.

Trigger isnt that light. My fclass dasher was but not this one. Will add pull weight to it and go through the dry fire steps. And dry fire dry fire dryfire.

 

[Shootin Stuff]

Do you have a shock collar and someone you can trust with the remote?

I’m betting the fear alone of getting zapped will keep you from slapping that trigger.

 

[Northfl]

No and absolutely no. Lol. Most of the folks i know have a sick and twisted sense of humor so the shock collar idea is defined out

 

[Shootin Stuff]

In that case, increasing the trigger pull weight and lots of correctly executed dry fire is probably a good way to go.

It could also be a timing issue of not being able to consistently break the shot at the bottom of your breathing cycle so you “snatch” at the trigger rather than a nice gradual application of pressure.

 

[isofahunter]

Ripped from the front page: https://www.snipershide.com/precision-rifle/beyond-trigger-control-the-imperceivable-press/

 

[Dthomas3523]

Just like anything else. Practice doing it properly.

And there is likely a bigger picture issue. As stated above, are you building unstable positions and trying to time the trigger press? Are you building stable positions but feel like the wobble you have is too much and timing the trigger (when the wobble is acceptable and you’re just not accepting it)?

Or do you just have a bad habit of slapping trigger?

All of those require different remedies.

 

[hereinaz]

In that case, increasing the trigger pull weight and lots of correctly executed dry fire is probably a good way to go.

It could also be a timing issue of not being able to consistently break the shot at the bottom of your breathing cycle so you “snatch” at the trigger rather than a nice gradual application of pressure.

Sounds like you already avoided the light trigger problem.

Stability was/is my biggest problem. I press the trigger and have pretty well eliminated my flinch factor.

I dry fired at home for a couple months off a barricade. I realized that my snatching/slapping/jerking/etc. were far more related to unstable positions and "crap, I am just gonna send it". I get caught up in the moment at timed matches, but the best thing for me is to build/rebuild position if I can't get my wobble zone small enough that it is on the plate at the bottom of my breath.

So, practicing the fundamentals and building a position helped eliminate the desire to snatch.

If you aren't slapping the trigger in prone positions or off the bench, and the pull weight is high enough, to me, I say it isn't a trigger pressing problem as much as a trying to time the shot problem.

I use matches for pressure shooting, learning how to slow my mind and think with adrenaline and build operational knowledge. It is super helpful. Now, I can make one really good shot in 90 or 120 seconds because I know how to get into position much better.

 

[Powder_Burns]

See if @lowlight has any cans of slap-off left over.

 

[Lowlight]

90% of shooters we see SLAP the trigger, it's either a straight-up slap or lighter tap,

The reasons are

1. The trigger is too light the shooter is afraid of it
2. Speed: they are moving faster than they can manage
3. Poor Fundamentals and understanding, they want to influence the rifle less so they tap it vs following through.

I call "follow-through" the Forgotten Fundamental because we use lighter calibers with heavier rifles so you can get away with a lot. By adjusting the trigger down as far as possible they are hoping to minimize the shooter influence on the shot, fast caliber, light bullet, less recoil everything is over quickly, hopefully before the shooter moves.

The rifle is a musical instrument, we talk barrel harmonics all the time when it comes to shooting, reloading, etc, don't let stuff touch the barrel. But the barrel is attached to a metal action, and trigger connected with metal screws, when you move and tap or slap the trigger you are changing the note you are playing. Consistency is king.

Follow Through is about consistency, I use the golf analogy all the time because there is a video of Golf Great Phil Mickelson shooting a 6.5CM and tapping / slapping the trigger. If I want to golf school and as soon as the club hit the ball I disengaged or let go of the club everyone would freak out... I can then argue that once the ball is touched by the club it is moving away and follow through in Golf is Meaningless because the club is no longer influencing the ball. Think about that a second... In shooting the bullet remains under influence for a much longer period of TIME.

remember we key off the sound, and releasing of the firing pin is turning the MACHINE ON, not off... we are starting the process and not ending it. We can look at lock time for firing pins, but there are is also personal lock times and then the dwell time in the barrel. We have to recognize that time and understand because we key off the firing pin drop and the primer being hit we can beat the bullet no problem. A bolt action has about a 4ms lock time, an AR about 8ms to 12ms, which is why people can't shoot them well, they are moving during the firing process. Once you understand this, your shooting will be on a different level.

to get 20 MOA At 100 yards we use an angled or canted base, those 20MOA bases are .11" different from front to back. Movement no thicker than a human hair can have inches of repucussions are 100 yards and beyond.


Follow Through the Forgotten Fundamental

 

[ScottDWallace]

There can be a lot of things that are going on, but I will give you a quick exercise that won't hurt.

In dry fire, build a prone position behind the gun with a perfect sight picture/alignment in the scope. You do not need anything particular to focus on in the the scope, but a perfect NPA is the goal. Inhale, exhale, at the bottom of the exhale start your slow squeeze. Hold the exhale at the bottom until the trigger breaks. Now inhale while holding the trigger back until you get to the top of breath again and repeat.

If you decide to do this in live fire, use a large target. Accuracy isn't the drill here. Breath control and trigger squeeze are.

As your fundamentals get stronger, you will modify this exercise, but for now, this should help your trigger slap. And like the others have said, you must be able to marry your finger to the trigger without it firing.

Good luck!

 

[Dthomas3523]

There can be a lot of things that are going on, but I will give you a quick exercise that won't hurt.

In dry fire, build a prone position behind the gun with a perfect sight picture/alignment in the scope. You do not need anything particular to focus on in the the scope, but a perfect NPA is the goal. Inhale, exhale, at the bottom of the exhale start your slow squeeze. Hold the exhale at the bottom until the trigger breaks. Now inhale while holding the trigger back until you get to the top of breath again and repeat.

If you decide to do this in live fire, use a large target. Accuracy isn't the drill here. Breath control and trigger squeeze are.

As your fundamentals get stronger, you will modify this exercise, but for now, this should help your trigger slap. And like the others have said, you must be able to marry your finger to the trigger without it firing.

Good luck!

Just a quick note, we don’t want to hold at any point. The natural pause at the bottom has a 1-2 second window we want to be hitting naturally.

If you are unable to break trigger in this window, go through the cycle again. Sometimes field or match conditions don’t always allow perfection, but we don’t want to practice holding our breath at any point.

 

[ScottDWallace]

Just a quick note, we don’t want to hold at any point. The natural pause at the bottom has a 1-2 second window we want to be hitting naturally.

If you are unable to breaker trigger in this window, go through the cycle again. Sometimes field or match conditions don’t always allow perfection, but we don’t want to practice holding our breath at any point.

Exactly right. Thank you @Dthomas3523

As you gain experience, this exercise will be almost automatic at the bottom of the respiratory cycle. I'm confident that 50 reps of this during a lazy afternoon would get you well on your way.

 

[Northfl]

Thanks for all of the replies folks. Will take them all and put them in use.

 

[Lowlight]

Part of the process of learning, or what I describe as "given time and opportunity"...

During Dry Fire, you are not only learning the trigger break but establishing your rhythm or understanding your rhythm when breathing. Breathing is another area where new shooters have a problem. They foolishly believe holding their breath makes them steadier vs the reality that your brains immediately start throwing red flags up and sounding the alarms. It is not a lack of oxygen that has the brain upset, that takes about a minute, but instead, it's the addition of CO2 that causes the problems. It wants the CO2 expelled immediately and holding it in opens the doors to problems.

When given time and opportunity you want to dry fire and get into a rhythm, then as you address the shot your breathing is not focused on, after all, you all know how to breathe, we do it every day. We never want to hold our breath, especially if you are engaged in physical activity, you control it. The worst thing you can do when breathing heavy or on the edge of out of breath, is to stop breathing. Exaggerating it helps control it when faced with elevated conditions.

Dry fire has a ton of advantages, we always encourage people to dry fire

 

[Northfl]

Ya know its funny( not really) i have shot rifles for most of my life and have never taken any formal training and have always been a fairly decent shot.
never has someone said you are slapping the trigger. I have always thought i was doing things the correct way, until that exact moment. So that got me to thinking if i could be afar better shooter if j am doing things the right way. Gonna start looking into some formal training in my ao and get things going the right direction. And dry fire more

 

[308pirate]

We never want to hold our breath, especially if you are engaged in physical activity, you control it.

I've started working on this by consciously slowing my breathing but not stopping it as I start the trigger press.

So far it shows promise.

 

[Dthomas3523]

Ya know its funny( not really) i have shot rifles for most of my life and have never taken any formal training and have always been a fairly decent shot.
never has someone said you are slapping the trigger. I have always thought i was doing things the correct way, until that exact moment. So that got me to thinking if i could be afar better shooter if j am doing things the right way. Gonna start looking into some formal training in my ao and get things going the right direction. And dry fire more

There’s a ton of “good bad” shooters out there. They make hits but not utilizing proper or correct fundamentals.

 

[Lowlight]

As noted several times, I do a fundamental Eval before ever teaching a class, line the students up and ask them to SHOW ME first.

Our Eval sheet has 19 different areas we look at, most "fail" the initial eval, really only the ones that either watch my videos here or heard me talk about it get a passing grade.

I am on my third revision of the eval because we see so much variety in doing it wrong, we had to commit those variations into writing

People who have shot a long time doing it wrong, often adapt to their poor fundamentals, and often it may appear they are good shooters, I call them Good Bad Shooters, guys who have learned to adapt to their bad habits. The issue is, change one variable and most have to start over or don't progress as quickly as others.

 

[Choid]

I have never shot professionally, but I played golf at better than scratch for a dozen years, so let me further Frank's analogy. In golf you really only need to be good at one point in your swing -- impact. There are a lot of guys out there who can look good during the whole swing, have great fundamentals and hit it pure. All you need is practice and good coaching. Guys like Jim Furyk, who look like dogshit the whole time, but like an angel at impact are one in a million. You probably aren't that one.

 

[Northfl]

I am more of a john daly type. Whiskey, cigarettes and no damns to give. Lol

but i understand your point

 

[ManOfMystery]

Just a quick note, we don’t want to hold at any point. The natural pause at the bottom has a 1-2 second window we want to be hitting naturally.

If you are unable to break trigger in this window, go through the cycle again. Sometimes field or match conditions don’t always allow perfection, but we don’t want to practice holding our breath at any point.

Something to add onto this. When I did Olympic shooting we spent more time setting up the shot than we did with finger actually on the trigger.

Once we had taken our last breath out if we couldn't break the shot in about 2-3 seconds then we would reset. It would take about 20-30 seconds to set up a shot from reload to back on the sights. Get training, have a shot plan, do the correct thing the same way every time and don't accept anything less.

 

[Choid]

I am more of a john daly type. Whiskey, cigarettes and no damns to give. Lol

but i understand your point

That guy was a fucking witch. He had more talent than almost anybody who ever played.

 

[Northfl]

And could drive the ball a mile

 

[Moe Ron]

I had a scratch golfer buddy of mine tell me on the range one time.
“You look so good at being so bad

 

[seansmd]

Interesting video to visualize Frank's analogy to the golf swing and time in contact with the ball, and follow through.

 

[oldiephrt]

Dry fire... is a must. I find shooting a .22 unsupported proves my practice is perfect, or not. No recoil to flinch at. Unforgiving of fundamentals.

 

[Matagorda308]

^^^^
I have an 8” steel plate hanging 150 yards off my deck. I shoot a TC Contender break open single shot .22 standing unsupported. The single shot action slows me down. The trigger is pretty decent but the long hammer fall means if I don’t follow through I don’t hit. Great practice and a good stress reliever.

 

[Moe Ron]

These guys knew/know about follow through I’m sure

 

[Hillpuller]

It's impossible to shoot fast and not slap the trigger. Just watch a few Rob Leatham videos on you tube. Funker Tactical is the name of his channel. These tards that teach classes on how to shoot tell their students "don't slap the trigger!" Well if you are shooting slow and easy you can do that, but jump in a USPSA match or 3 gun match and if you don't slap the trigger you are not and cannot shoot fast. Get a timer and time yourself. Slap the trigger, than don't slap trigger and see which one wins.......everytime.

 

[308pirate]

It's impossible to shoot fast and not slap the trigger. Just watch a few Rob Leatham videos on you tube. Funker Tactical is the name of his channel. These tards that teach classes on how to shoot tell their students "don't slap the trigger!" Well if you are shooting slow and easy you can do that, but jump in a USPSA match or 3 gun match and if you don't slap the trigger you are not and cannot shoot fast. Get a timer and time yourself. Slap the trigger, than don't slap trigger and see which one wins.......everytime.

Slapping the trigger is not necessary to shoot fast splits. It's counterproductive, actually. By slapping the trigger I take it to mean the finger coming off it and slamming back into it again.

I don't say this from watching videos. I say this from being able to shoot .18 - .20 splits at 10 yards with very little vertical dispersion.

 

[CoryT]

I'm going to say 308pirate has it right. A controlled surprise break is what we need. Slapping or tapping is not faster, and it positively reduces accuracy.

 

[walt willis]

I was told on the last stage of a match that i was slapping the trigger, i have it set fairly light. How do i over come this?
Lots of dry firing on a target? Do i adjust it to a heavier pull and dryfire.??? Any help is appreciated

A better trigger may help some but it's hard to undo a bad habit.
Try asking a guy with a good trigger if you could use his rifle as he observes your problem.
It will still take time to change old habits.

 

[Dthomas3523]

It's impossible to shoot fast and not slap the trigger. Just watch a few Rob Leatham videos on you tube. Funker Tactical is the name of his channel. These tards that teach classes on how to shoot tell their students "don't slap the trigger!" Well if you are shooting slow and easy you can do that, but jump in a USPSA match or 3 gun match and if you don't slap the trigger you are not and cannot shoot fast. Get a timer and time yourself. Slap the trigger, than don't slap trigger and see which one wins.......everytime.

Zero to do with a bolt gun. And nothing to do with a gas gun when running as precision rifle.

 

[Superdave001]

90% of shooters we see SLAP the trigger, it's either a straight-up slap or lighter tap,

The reasons are

1. The trigger is too light the shooter is afraid of it
2. Speed: they are moving faster than they can manage
3. Poor Fundamentals and understanding, they want to influence the rifle less so they tap it vs following through.

I call "follow-through" the Forgotten Fundamental because we use lighter calibers with heavier rifles so you can get away with a lot. By adjusting the trigger down as far as possible they are hoping to minimize the shooter influence on the shot, fast caliber, light bullet, less recoil everything is over quickly, hopefully before the shooter moves.

The rifle is a musical instrument, we talk barrel harmonics all the time when it comes to shooting, reloading, etc, don't let stuff touch the barrel. But the barrel is attached to a metal action, and trigger connected with metal screws, when you move and tap or slap the trigger you are changing the note you are playing. Consistency is king.

Follow Through is about consistency, I use the golf analogy all the time because there is a video of Golf Great Phil Mickelson shooting a 6.5CM and tapping / slapping the trigger. If I want to golf school and as soon as the club hit the ball I disengaged or let go of the club everyone would freak out... I can then argue that once the ball is touched by the club it is moving away and follow through in Golf is Meaningless because the club is no longer influencing the ball. Think about that a second... In shooting the bullet remains under influence for a much longer period of TIME.

remember we key off the sound, and releasing of the firing pin is turning the MACHINE ON, not off... we are starting the process and not ending it. We can look at lock time for firing pins, but there are is also personal lock times and then the dwell time in the barrel. We have to recognize that time and understand because we key off the firing pin drop and the primer being hit we can beat the bullet no problem. A bolt action has about a 4ms lock time, an AR about 8ms to 12ms, which is why people can't shoot them well, they are moving during the firing process. Once you understand this, your shooting will be on a different level.

to get 20 MOA At 100 yards we use an angled or canted base, those 20MOA bases are .11" different from front to back. Movement no thicker than a human hair can have inches of repucussions are 100 yards and beyond.


Follow Through the Forgotten Fundamental

Very well stated/explained. Yes, the rifle is definitely a machine, and needs to be utilized exactly as you described.