New Glock 26 and pulling left

[Jeff Barriault]

I shoot a lot of IDPA matches with my G17. When the Arms Room held a GSSF League match I entered and discovered I had a few problems with my accuracy. I enlisted the help of Larry, I believe he is one of the instructors there who happened to be shooting some bulls eye on the range that day, and after 10 rounds he noticed that I was tightening my grip right before the shot in anticipation of recoil. After I wrapped my brain around that and did a little grip, sight picture, trigger squeeze my next 10 rounds were for all practical purposes in the same hole. My advice, show up at the range when a good bulls eye shooter is there and ask him if he'll spend a minute looking at what you might be doing wrong. My problem was fixed in less than 30 seconds and I went on to with the match.

[Yarborough]

Through some dry firing, I've identified a definite issue with my finger placement. With the Glock, I was gripping so that the trigger was nearly at the middle of my pad. Per Skiprr's advice, I adjusted my grip around proper finger placement and found the G26 to be very uncomfortable.

I went through the same process with my Sig 2022 and found a) My finger placement was nearly perfect (off by a little; the right edge of the trigger--and this is decocked--lay right down the first bend in my finger) b) the gun still felt better. Actually, it feels pretty great.

Given: I've spent 1000+ rounds more time with the Sig than with the G26, so there's still plenty of intro-time required. All things considered, I'll take my time getting to know my Glock, but if it becomes a distraction or point of concern, I'll investigate a Sig P250 or similar.

We'll see how my range visit plays out next week. If the light-bulb comes on, I'll post some target pics.

[Matt78665]

"The one thing I've seen most often relates to trigger control, and that is the tendency to have too much finger on the trigger. That's usually the first place I start when discussing trigger control."


I had the exact problem with my Glock 27. As stated so astutely above, the cure was better trigger control. I had a trusted range mate shoot the gun and he was dead on.

[Skiprr]

I went through the same process with my Sig 2022 and found a) My finger placement was nearly perfect (off by a little; the right edge of the trigger--and this is decocked--lay right down the first bend in my finger) b) the gun still felt better. Actually, it feels pretty great.

Just a quick follow-on: For most people and with most semi-autos, you don’t want the trigger aligned with the first joint of the forefinger (technically, the joint formed by the distal and middle phalanges). You typically want the trigger right in the middle of the pad of the first finger bone, the distal phalanx. The exception here is usually for DAO triggers that are very heavy and have a very long pull.

If you go to the link Andy posted of his write-up from a couple of years ago (Trigger Length – Why It can Affect Your Accuracy), you can see the reason for this.

None of our joints move in a straight back-and-forth motion: everything is radial; everything rotates in a semicircular motion from a pivot point. The way we achieve (nearly) straight movements is by combining two or more joints into the same motion. For example, if you want to push a barbell straight up off your chest, you’re combining the radial movements of the shoulders, elbows, and wrists to accomplish it.

In the case of a trigger, the straightest possible path, one precisely in line with the axis of the barrel, is the best possible path. It makes sense: You’re applying pressure while wanting the keep the POA alignment of the barrel perfectly steady. If the pressure is applied absolutely parallel to the barrel, the barrel won’t change its horizontal alignment; if the pressure is applied with any sideways force, the barrel is subject to a change in its horizontal alignment.

Here’s an experiment. Stick you hand out in front of your face so that you’re looking edge-on, at the outside of your index finger. Trying to keep everything else in a fixed position, move the second joint only (the joint formed by the middle and proximal phalanges). Since the finger’s first joint is closer to the second joint than is the pad of the finger, it moves in a tighter circle than does the fingertip. It’s this second joint that sees the most movement when pulling a shorter trigger; the second and third joints combine more to achieve a very long trigger pull.

Actually, John Farnam teaches this sort of isolated finger movement as method for practicing trigger control that can be done virtually anywhere. Relax your fingers and thumb a bit—but leave them only slightly bent, not closed as if around a pistol grip—and then pretend you’re slowly pressing a trigger in a perfect straight-back motion; don’t allow movement in any other finger, and strive for a perfect, smooth press-back. You’ll quickly see how tough it is to actually accomplish.

Odds are, the press won’t be perfectly straight back, and it won’t be smooth: you’ll probably see fine-motor control issues and your trigger finger will move a little jerkily, not smoothly. It’s easier to do when our other fingers are anchored, as around the grip of a gun, but if you can control a perfect trigger press in an exercise like this, then you’ll be perfection when it comes time to do the real thing. (BTW, this little exercise can also help the recoil-anticipation grip-tightening that Jeff mentioned.)

That’s the long and short of it...pun intended. For a shorter-pull trigger like a 1911 or most striker-fired pistols, you’ll want to work from the center of the fingertip pad to achieve the most perfectly straight-back press you can. Even if you have very large hands, the temptation shouldn’t be to put too much finger on the trigger and move the contact point to the first joint of the finger. Mechanically, you just can’t achieve as flat a press with the first joint.

With very long, heavy trigger pulls, it may be necessary to move trigger contact to that first joint. And generally speaking that’s why I don’t advise a shooter with small hands to start with a large DA/SA autoloader like a 92FS, or a large-frame revolver like S&W’s N or X frames. Not that they can’t learn to shoot them well; it’s just that learning good trigger control on a shorter-pull trigger is going to be easier, and reward the shooter with better accuracy more quickly.

As always, just MHO. I am not a lawyer or expert of any kind (IANALOEOAK).

Here’s somebody who knows much more than I do (Il Ling New was Gunsite’s first female instructor, and has taught there for many years; however, I’m not a fan of her thumb placement for semi-autos; fine for revolvers; but that’s just me...):

[youtube][/youtube]

[hirundo82]

I've had an issue with my Glocks of putting too little finger both trigger, pushing my shots to the left as I'm right-handed. I've been working on correcting this by being aware of trigger position and lots of .22 practice.

[rentz]

i have the same problem.
when i dry fire looking in the mirror, everything stays smooth and steady. But when I get to the range my shots are all over the target even going nice and slow.
Strangely enough I decided to try the 26 one handed and i was hitting dead center of the target.

[Yarborough]

I made it back to the range this afternoon, and things went extremely well. The G26 and I made our peace.

There was probably an immediate 30% improvement in overall accuracy. I fired the usual 200 rounds and, when grouping was my goal, I had acceptable (for a week-old relationship with a new gun) groups. I started with some bulls, noticed a pronounced recoil-anticipation, worked at it through the first fifty rounds. I also focused more on finger placement and discovered--to my relief--that I just needed a tiny bit more finger on the trigger. I was becoming pretty concerned about the discomfort during some of my dry-firing through the weekend (to the point of wondering whether I was going to end up selling the gun), and found a the perfect spot (dead center of pad) while having ample grip to control recoil.

The second fifty rounds were phenomenal, and that's when everything came together: I ran a B27 out to seven or eight yards and put two full mags (excepting one round, which I pulled left to just inside the 9 circle) in the red. That included a few double-taps.

I tried to refrain from openly celebrating

The rest of the session was solid, though not as prodigious as rounds 50-100. I also tweaked my stance a bit (I prefer Weaver, though I've noticed a tendency to relax my grip-arm at the elbow, which also seems to cause severe accuracy concerns), and my next project (while monitoring trigger control) will have to be working-out recoil anticipation/muzzle flip.

Again, many thanks for all of the excellent advice, exercises and links. I'll revisit these posts on a regular basis.

[Mr.ViperBoa]

Let me ask you this...Do you put your finger of your non firing hand on the front of your trigger guard? I used to have the same problem and someone told me to stop putting my finger on the front of the trigger guard and it corrected my problem. It may not be what you are doing but it sounds like what happen to me. let me know.

[Yarborough]

Mr. VB: Sure enough not. I don't particularly remember where I learned not to do that, though . . . I probably just watched too many movies.