Re: Semi Auto Trigger issues
Hard holds, free recoil, and several stages in between can all be made to work. The commonality comes in the form of consistency.
LL will tell you the NPA's the thing, and he's right.
Sterling Shooter will tell you the bullet always goes where the barrel is pointed, and he's right too.
I use the term, 'the system'. It's the entire process. It includes the firearm, the shooter, and the environment.
When the round ignites, masses start moving, and according to Newton, they all have opposite and equal reactions. So when the bullet's moving, so is the barrel, one a lot faster and farther than the other, but the other, also inevitably.
So while Sterling (Charles) is saying the bullet goes where the barrel's pointed, he means at the moment it emerges. But because the barrel moved, it may or may not be pointed at the precise same spot the sights were pointed before the bullet started moving.
So LL and Charles are talking (mostly) about different points in the bullet's dispatch. LL at the beginning of launch, Charles at the end of the same process.
What happens in between determines what happens way out at the targets.
The sight picture gets everybody aligned for the start. The NPA prepares the body for the recoil cycle.
When the round ignites, the process begins, and if the body recoils relatively consistently, the sight alignment and NPA will prepare the body so the barrel, at bullet emergence, is pointed so the bullet goes where the POA is. The recoil cycle continues until the body returns to a rested position, and if the NPA was good, it leaves it pointed pretty much where it started.
What happens next is just as important, because we're gonna take another shot. How we choose to ride out the recoil cycle determines how consistent the body's motions during the barrel transit time are going to be.
The barrel will only be as accurately/consistently pointed where we want the bullet to go as we are able to repeat the body's motions during the bullet transit.
While intuitively, we may think we need it to be pointed the same as the sights, but that's not really necessary. In fact, what's really needed is that it be pointed the same as the preceding shot, and the same as the next shot. That's what's actually important here.
Nobody's made of steel. The body's gonna move no matter how you approach the recoil. The key is to make its motions consistent. Whether you hold hard, free recoil, or whatever, it's not which one you choose to do that's key, it's how consistently you do it that's most important.
This is why one person's zero can often be different from another's with the same gun and ammo.
If you're gonna do it a lotta times, and you're gonna be straining at it, soon you're gonna get tired, and no matter how much you try, the process' outcomes will begin to drift. If you can get the same consistent outcome without straining, by relaxing instead and 'goin with the flow', so much the better.
Some of us can sustain the strain, some can't, and some don't need to because they choose not to and they can get it to be consistent anyway.
It's a relatively simple matter of <span style="font-style: italic">conscious</span> choice.
For me it's a matter of setting up the shot, then closing the eyes and relaxing completely, I call it 'noodling'. If, when I reopen my eyes, the target and sights are still aligned, I have a good NPA. If not, I adjust the body so on 'awakening', the sights and target still have a good marriage.
Never go to sleep on a bad marriage; it'll always bite in the end...
The harder part is disciplining oneself to remain 'noodled' while the trigger is manipulated.
Don't tense up. This where most shooters screw the pooch. They set everything up perfectly, then unconsciously blow it by tensing up. The get real frustrated because they're doing it right, all of it, and up to that point, they really are. But somewhere in between that moment and when they actual dispatch the shot, they let up their attention to what the body's doing, and it all get wasted.
I say do this for every shot. That's what makes things consistent. If you carefully watch a good shooter and look for these things, that's what you're gonna see, I promise you.
Greg
