Practice and accuracy

[Member 52301]

I really don't need to be a good shot anymore, as I am 64 with eyesight starting to go south. I am working on my acting skills trying to get bg's to come close enough to "the feeble old guy" to do a mag dump into their faces.

Dang! LOL

Old Lady Cate

 

[RVTECH]

Been shooting handguns a long time myself and primarily it's been 'field' shooting offhand at random targets as well as at one time a lot of varmint hunting with handguns (primarily jackrabbits).
I'll occasionally shoot paper to test a new bullet/ load combo and am sometimes suprised with my abilities but for me offhand at random targets Is what I really enjoy with handguns.
Because I am in a pine cone rich area they provide unlimited targets at varying distances and fly well When hit!
I do plan to get out and chase some jacks again this summer as well!
The guns that get the most 'field time' are my 1911, CZ 75 and S & W Mod 66.
SD has never been a 'primary' reason for owning/shooting handguns but I have had a fair amount of training and give it some practice time - and a jackrabbit jumping out of the brush unexpectedly makes for great draw and fire practice!

 

[bbbass]

I share your sentiments on the feel & the pull of the Glock triggers, but 1) I want to keep my Glock stock & 2) I read all the time about people who can accurately shoot these guns(stock), so I accept it as a challenge I need to overcome with more practice. Not gonna lie, I like the 1911 triggers, too!

Understood.

But there is stock and then there is polished stock. Have you done a polish job on your stock Glock trigger? It makes a BIG diff if you spend a little time doing it properly. And on the Gen 4, there are 3 (I'm going to call them "rub bars") on the side of the frame where the trigger bar rides along the frame. These should be lightly polished with a Dremel buffer wheel and some Flitz or other chrome/silver/fiberglass polish. Don't overdo it in that area. Adding some of your fav gun grease where the connector rides the trigger bar will smooth things out also. Polishing the connector, the striker face, and the canticle sear should provide you with the best stock trigger possible. There are polished stock OEM trigger parts available too for those that don't like that kind of work. A polished stock connector is cheap enough, but a highly polished OEM striker from JohnnyGlocks.com ran me about $75... it was worth it!

 

[HaveGun]

^^^

Truth!

All of my Glocks (except the Gen 4 G29, which came with a freakishly good trigger) have an OEM (-) 3.5 lb connector installed and a polish job. They are all around 4 lbs and work for me. If I can get 1" groups at 25 yards with a stock Glock and a slicked up factory trigger system, then anyone can. Of course, that's also with tuned reloads.

I bought my first 1911 and the trigger is crisp with almost zero creep, but is heavy at 5.5 lbs. I started looking at getting it down to 3.5 or 4 lbs and it is not as easy or cheap as doing the same with a Glock trigger. I have to send it to a gunsmith, apparently, and spend who knows how much to have it as good as a Glock after a $20 part and 15 minutes of polishing.

 

[bbbass]

I bought my first 1911 and the trigger is crisp with almost zero creep, but is heavy at 5.5 lbs. I started looking at getting it down to 3.5 or 4 lbs and it is not as easy or cheap as doing the same with a Glock trigger. I have to send it to a gunsmith, apparently, and spend who knows how much to have it as good as a Glock after a $20 part and 15 minutes of polishing.

Both my Para P14 2011s had trigger jobs. My first competition Para was set at 2.5lbs and my second P14 carry pistol was at 3lbs. Both were unbelievably crisp and no pretravel. Speaking of pre-travel, for those that don't know, an adjustable trigger bow will take that out very easy, and there will also be a screw inside the trigger shoe to take up over-travel. I had a bit of trouble with the over-travel adjustment tho, sometimes the hammer would not release and I had to back off the adjustment a bit.

As far as getting the pull down less than 5.5lbs (lol, that's under stock pull for most Glock, 6-7lbs with a 5.5lb connector), it requires some polishing, an adjustment of the sear/disconnect spring (can be tricky to balance), and a grind to the hammer/sear that is indeed best left to a professional. My first 1911 trigger job cost $200 twenty years ago. The second one came with the used gun.

BTW, I put a Wolfe 6lb trigger spring in my wife's Taurus 605 that had a stock trigger pull of 12lbs (talk about heavy!) and it was beautiful... except it wouldn't detonate some primers, so I had to put the 9lb spring in... still better, those guns came with a very smooth trigger... just heavy.

I can shoot accurately with my buddy's stainless Springfield that has a heavy trigger, but it is not nearly as pleasant to shoot for target shooting. IMO.

 

[Lesliet]

I bought my first 1911 and the trigger is crisp with almost zero creep, but is heavy at 5.5 lbs. I started looking at getting it down to 3.5 or 4 lbs and it is not as easy or cheap as doing the same with a Glock trigger.

Just on a side note, the trigger on my Springfield range officer was pretty heavy, like 5.5 or so, when I got it. Kept thinking I'd get a drop in polished sear, but as I kept shooting it, the trigger kept improving. I should take the scale to it, and see how much the pull has changed, but it's good enough that I no longer notice it. Kind of a slow way to polish the sear, but

The Sig p320 x5 legion, on the other hand had a really soft trigger out of the box. A bit squidgier than a 1911, but it doesn't mess with accuracy, so I'm happy.

 

[Koda]

I share your sentiments on the feel & the pull of the Glock triggers, but 1) I want to keep my Glock stock & 2) I read all the time about people who can accurately shoot these guns(stock), so I accept it as a challenge I need to overcome with more practice. Not gonna lie, I like the 1911 triggers, too!

My guess is a majority who shoot any gun well have modified their triggers, the rest just spend a lot of time at the range (which high use also smooths out sear surfaces). If your gun is a carry or defensive gun I agree its very good advice not to modify the trigger. Now while my bias is heavily in favor of the 1911 trigger, it doesn't really matter as much if you spend a lot of time at the range is the real key.

 

[VancMike]

My guess is a majority who shoot any gun well have modified their triggers...../QUOTE]

Even those of us who aren't expert shots. I'm trying to think of a gun I've owned that I didn't tinker with the trigger.
Nope, can't think of one.

 

[bbbass]

@VancMike
Note: it's pretty hard to quote your post when it's inside of the post you were quoting.

However, yes, all my triggers have been worked on, at least polished. I'm a triggerholic!!!

 

[sobo]

...who studies triggernometry!

 

[crstrode]

My standard is 10 shots from a pistol into the belly of a ram at 220 yards. No bench, no scope, iron sights.

 

[RVTECH]

We should all aspire to the level of the legendary Lawman Delf 'Jelly' Bryce!

I watched a good documentary about him yesterday on the AHC channel.

He was pretty dang good with his S & W!

 

[CLT65]

It's interesting what a diverse crowd we have on this forum. We've got ideological views all across the spectrum. We've got millionaires and paupers. We've got hunters, competitors, preppers, collectors, and tinkerers. We've got very serious, hard-core marksmen, and casual, afternoon plinkers.

The marksmanship abilities and accomplishments of some here are really impressive. At this point in my life, though, I really don't see myself diving in and spending the amount of time and energy to really improve to any impressive degree. I'll also keep shooting from a rest once in a while, when I feel like it. I see that seems to offend some folks, but to each their own. I mostly shoot for fun.

Any improvement at this point, I think, is just competing with myself for fun. I'm not a prepper. I don't carry a gun on my person religiously. I don't practice incessantly to become the quickest and best. Nothing against those who are or do, it's just not where I'm at. I have young kids; My typical week involves locations such as work, grocery store, church, etc., typically quite safe locations in our small-ish town.

I see it a bit like a fire extinguisher. Hopefully you'll never have to actually use that fire extinguisher, but in that very rare incidence that you do, you REALLY need it. You do need to know how to use it effectively, but unless you're at high risk for fires, for whatever reason, I don't think you need to be a highly trained fire-fighter. There's always that one-in-a-million incident that could happen where you'll wish you were of course, but that's extremely unlikely for the average person.

I did look around the "Crocodile Dundee" website a little, and I'm going to have to give that a try someday. Like I said, I'm just not a competitive person, but it does look like fun.

 

[coop44]

To all those guys infected with the "perfect trigger pull" syndrome.
What a trigger job does is advance wear, if you get your 1911 (specifically) down to 3.5 lbs it is only a matter of time and wear until it becomes an issue, at some point the hammer will start to "follow". I actually find a 4.5 pound trigger pull acceptable, as long as it has a clean break. Also in a stress situation, a 5 pound trigger may be entirely too light. I wouldn't want to shoot inadvertently just because I'm jacked up on adrenaline.

BTW the absolute worst trigger pull ever, mauser hsc super, d/a was somewhere north of 10 pounds. Bought it because it was cool, kept it about ten days.

 

[Lesliet]

I bought a H&K ( actually made by Umarex) 417 in .22lr for Rimfire Challenge competitions... trigger was seriously about 12 lbs out of the box. I knew that was an issue going in, so I already had the $20 spring kit on hand to fix it. 5.5 lbs after springs, which has worked well. The GF's pistol for Rimfire has a 2.2 lb pull, which is perfect to her. To me, it's kinda scary light. Seems like the 1911's, at least the ones I've had/have, and given a fairly high volume of fire, tend to need a bit more work to keep them running, anyway. Haven't had to replace a sear, yet, I could see that wearing out like coop44 said, but the drop in kits are pretty straightforward to install.