Pistol Question

Hoping I can adequately get my question across here.

With most pistols offering, back straps, side inserts of varying sizes, is there a proper length your trigger finger should be to get a consistent straight pull?

Should a finger knuckle be in this position for consistent straight pull?

I know what feels good in my hand, I’m just not positive I’m using proper placement.

Some pistols I shoot really well, some not so much, trigger weight I get is a big part, I would just like to know if I’m placing my finger correctly for its length. Am I to far Foward, am I to far back on the trigger.

Hope my babble accurately describes my question.

I think the most important thing is for the flats of the middle bone of your middle and ring finger to be flat across the front strap of the gun. Ideally, the flat of the middle bone of your little finger would be as well, but that’s harder to achieve. The reason this is important is so that slight changes to increase or decrease your grip strength for a given shot will have minimal effect in torquing the gun to one side or the other. You can demonstrate this by getting a good sight picture with a gun with a non-ideal grip size…squeeze slightly harder or less hard and watch the front sight skew to the left and right…

As for the trigger finger, one school of thought is to have the flat if the first bone of the index finger flat on the trigger. That keeps the trigger squeeze oriented straight back through the grip, again minimizing the tendency for the sights to drift left or right as you squeeze. The downside is that you’re putting the fleshy part of the finger pad on the trigger, and it might make the squeeze a little more variable. For that reason, some precision pistol shooters use the first joint of the index finger to pull the trigger. That avoids the ‘squishy’ part of the finger on the trigger, but makes it more important to have a very consistent pull to avoid torquing the gun to the side.

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Thanks to the reply.

I need to pay attention to my grip next range trip, some pistols I pull left, some I push right, some I shoot better with the pad of my trigger finger flat, some I shoot better with my trigger finger joint on the trigger.

I think my grip pressure is consistent, but now I’m second guessing, smaller snappier guns I must be gripping harder, I have a lot to play with now, thank you

This is my take on shooting accurately. I shoot mostly action disciplines so shooting fast and accurately enough is my focus. If you are doing precision slow fire, the emphasis will be slightly different.

Firstly, a piece of very important information - nobody, that is absolutely nobody can hold a gun completely still. There is always some movement. Practice can improve your abilities, but while you are still made of flesh and bone with a pulse and muscles, you will always have some movement. Try to minimize the movement that you see in the sights, but accept that there will be some.

Trigger finger placement is not the be all and end all. What you want to achieve is to be pulling straight back at the point where the trigger breaks and the shot fires.

Your finger cannot be pulling straight back for the entire trigger pull because it is rotating on 2 pivots - mostly your 2nd knuckle.

Where on your trigger finger you place the trigger will depend on the size of your hand, the length of your finger, the size of the gun - both width and length of pull.

A good place to start is with the middle of the pad of your finger centered on the trigger. You will almost certainly need to adjust depending on your observations.

With the gun unloaded - double check - and then triple check - hold the gun as if you are going to fire. Grip it tightly. The gun isn’t going to fire this time, but it will when you do this at the range so grip it like you mean it.

Align the sights aiming at some small object, maybe a light switch across the room, concentrating focus on the front sight and watching closely to maintain equal amounts of light either side. Put your finger on the trigger and slowly press it back watching for any deviation in the sight alignment while doing so. When you see movement in the sights correct it, but do not stop adding pressure to the trigger. Stopping and starting your trigger finger during the press is another way to induce inaccuracy. You need to find your sweet spot with your hand and that gun. You can experiment with different positions of your trigger finger as well as grip panels or backstrap inserts to see what works best for you.

When you get to the range, press the trigger slowly so you can see any movement in the sights as you do so. A very common error that newer shooters make is they align the sights with the target and see a good sight picture and then they press the trigger really quickly to try to grab that shot before it goes away. What happens is that they move the gun as they do this, but it is so quick and the recoil comes so soon after that they do not see the change in the sight alignment and cannot figure out why they didn’t hit where they expected.

The more important part of shooting accurately, is your grip on the gun, rather than your trigger finger placement. Hold the gun firmly in your dominant hand - as tight as you can without limiting your ability to control your trigger finger. With practice you will be able to grip firmly with 3 fingers while maintaining independent movement of your trigger finger. That is unlikely to be an ability that most people have naturally. Grip with your support hand as tightly as you can without introducing a tremor. Most people can grip with a pressure measured in 10’s of pounds. Most triggers are 6lb, many significantly less. Let’s say your grip across both hands is 30lb. Pressing with 6lb of pressure on the trigger should have little to no effect on that grip - try pulling a 30lb weight with a 5 lb spring. It isn’t going to move much.

One place that trigger finger placement can become a factor is if the part of your palm at the closest knuckle of your trigger finger pushes on the gun when you pull back on the trigger, it will push the gun away from your dominant hand. Try not to put that much finger into the trigger.

If you are having accuracy issues, it is usually worth spending some time with an experienced instructor who can diagnose what part your technique you need to work on. It is a fallacy that you “just need to practice more”. Most newer shooters are doing something to make their shots inaccurate, but don’t know what it is and it is hard to spot from directly behind the gun. A 2nd person watching can see things you cannot. Repeatedly practicing whatever poor technique that is being used will only make it harder to correct once it is identified.

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Thanks Mr.Stu
More food for thought, a lot more.

Your reply I quoted is what I have been leaning towards, I’m just missing something that stops me from having that great box of ammo down range.

At 10 yards I can put 10 rounds in a 4 inch circle, my issue is, I don’t know if that is normal for a weekend shooter or terrible for a weekend shooter. That also depends on the pistol I’m shooting.

What gun are you using? Tiny guns are harder to shoot accurately than full sized ones. What sighting system are you using? Irons or a red dot? What is your pace for firing those 10 shots? If you fired 10 shots in less than 10 seconds and got a 4 inch group, that’s better than average. If you were doing deliberate slow fire, most guns are capable of much less than that.

I can do the 10 in probably 15 seconds with a Kimber KDS9c and with a couple other 1911’s I own, all larger pistols and all 9mm.

I have an HK VP9sk with a red dot that I installed larger blackstrap and side panels on that is like wearing a glove, I shoot that also very well, can’t do the 10 rounds quickly with it though, that’s the red dot slowing me down with sight acquisition.

My preference is iron sights over a red dot, the red dots on the few pistols I own are more range toys.

I shoot left handed, and pretty much always pushed my shots right, with some practice with a new gun I am able to tame that with concentration. My latest head scratcher is a new beretta, that pistol I am pulling my shots left, first time this has happened, the beretta has a curved trigger, I’m attributing my pull to the uncomfortable curved trigger.

If you are losing your dot after a shot, there is something wrong with your grip. The gun should return to just about the same place it started after the slide goes back into battery.

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I’ve found that when shooting pistols, either DA SA or striker… that a firm but not death grip has helped immensely…

Also, if found that on pressing the trigger and not pulling, jerking… helps as well. Finger pad placement is also key.

Additionally, for me, your mileage may vary, pressing pulling via the center joint, curving the tip joint in theirs my shots…i try to let the tip joint collapse as I’m pressing… this allows the pad of the tip of the finger to come straight back… tough to describe… easy to show.

My opinion is if you can place all your shots into 4" at 10yds… that’s not horrible at all. That will get the job done.

Also remember, some guns are more inherently accurate than others…

And I’ve been told shooting well is a perishable skill…ive come to believe that