Question about trigger practice

InterestedOnlooker

InterestedOnlooker

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Hey, i'm inexperienced in firearms and curious about cross platform proficiency. My question is a two parter, first would practicing with a DA/SA pistol improve your skills with a striker fired pistol? This is assuming you have spent time with both platforms, also what are your opinions of dry firing and 22 LR practice?
 
Never dry fire a rim fire, as you will damage the firing pin without doubt ! Dry firing a da/sa is recommended for a striker fired pistol by almost everyone without any chance of damage , provides great trigger practice and also it loosens up the trigger frictions. I dry fire my da/sa handguns all the time.
 
The trick to trigger management on a pistol IMO is separating your mind from the trigger squeeze. If you can't do that you won't shoot any pistol well, whether a striker or hammer gun. It's a mind trick and once you have it you can pretty much shoot any gun to its human potential once you learn it. Follow through is critical, you have to aim all the way through the shot.

They have snap caps or dummy rounds made expressly for trigger practice down at the gun shop.
 
Never dry fire a rim fire, as you will damage the firing pin without doubt ! Dry firing a da/sa is recommended for a striker fired pistol by almost everyone without any chance of damage , provides great trigger practice and also it loosens up the trigger frictions. I dry fire my da/sa handguns all the time.


My bad, I think i worded the question poorly. What i meant was, does shooting a pistol with a DA/SA trigger in anyway hinder your performance with a striker fired pistol and vice versa, or is range time effective across platforms? The question about dry firing and rimfire was unrelated... probably should have been a separate thread.
 
HIGHRPM said:
Never dry fire a rim fire, as you will damage the firing pin without doubt !
Click to expand...

This is untrue more often than not. The Ruger Standard Auto pistol is said to have been the first .22 rimfire that was designed from the get-go to be dry fired without damage (in 1949), and virtually any .22 pistol designed ever since can be merrily dry fired away without worry. I have extensively dry fired Ruger Mk I/II/IIIs, Browning Buckmarks and my S&W M18 without a second thought.
 
I find that it takes me a while to settle in when I switch between something like my CZ SP01 Shadow and my Glocks. The trigger pulls are very different so it takes me a mag or two before I can get accurate groups with them. Having said that, I do think dry firing in DA and even SA will help your trigger pull discipline. I sometimes do dry fire drills in DA and concentrate on making sure my front sight does not move during the trigger pull, break and follow through.

Which 22 LR handgun are you thinking of using for dry fire practice? I have no problems dry firing my Ruger 22/45's or Browning Buckmarks. I won't that with any of my Colt Woodsmans or High Standards, and am starting to notice a mark on the chamber face of my Grand Power K22 X-Trim caused by the firing pin. An easy way to tell if you can dry fire your 22LR handgun is to slip a piece of paper between the chamber face and the slide. When the slide is fully in battery, dry fire 5-10 times. If the firing pin leaves a mark on that piece of paper, you should not dry fire that hand gun. If there's no mark, then it's safe to dry fire - but be aware that the firing pin stop pin will wear and may eventually break, but that may take many many thousands of dry fire cycles.


InterestedOnlooker said:
Hey, i'm inexperienced in firearms and curious about cross platform proficiency. My question is a two parter, first would practicing with a DA/SA pistol improve your skills with a striker fired pistol? This is assuming you have spent time with both platforms, also what are your opinions of dry firing and 22 LR practice?
Click to expand...
 
I once bought a ruger Mk1 standard that had been dry fired so extensively that the chamber was peened and wrecked. Every case split on firing. I don't dry fire a rimfire ever.
 
InterestedOnlooker said:
Never dry fire a rim fire, as you will damage the firing pin without doubt ! Dry firing a da/sa is recommended for a striker fired pistol by almost everyone without any chance of damage , provides great trigger practice and also it loosens up the trigger frictions. I dry fire my da/sa handguns all the time.


My bad, I think i worded the question poorly. What i meant was, does shooting a pistol with a DA/SA trigger in anyway hinder your performance with a striker fired pistol and vice versa, or is range time effective across platforms? The question about dry firing and rimfire was unrelated... probably should have been a separate thread.
Click to expand...

To answer the OP's question: No I don't believe practicing with a DA/SA trigger in any way hinders performance on a striker fired gun. In fact I'd go so far to say that if you learn to shoot a DA/SA trigger well you will improve your striker fired shooting. That is, if you are using your dry fire time wisely.

I don't believe the reverse is true, as my experience with shooting a striker fired gun did not prepare me for a DA trigger or an SA transition, at all. That took some work. :D
 
colt45cz75 said:
I once bought a ruger Mk1 standard that had been dry fired so extensively that the chamber was peened and wrecked. Every case split on firing. I don't dry fire a rimfire ever.
Click to expand...

I was referring to the Mark IIIs. My mistake for not being specific.

From the Ruger web site: http://www.ruger.com/service/FAQs.html#Q114

Can I dry fire my Mark III pistol?
Yes. The Mark III has a firing pin stop that prevents the firing pin from contacting the rear of the barrel and damaging the edge of the chamber. If you are going to dry fire the pistol extensively, the stop pin and firing pin will eventually wear and contact could occur, and we recommend replacing both the firing pin and the firing pin stop from time to time. You should also monitor the contact of the firing pin with the rear of the barrel.

and

http://www.ruger.com/service/FAQs.html#Q31

Can I dry fire my Ruger rifle?
Yes. All Ruger rifles can be dry fired without damage, and dry firing can be useful to familiarize the owner with the firearm. However, be sure any firearm is completely unloaded before dry firing!
 
I practice my trigger finger on my DA/SA revolver (in DA only with snap caps). Good results on all my "toys"…..semi HGs, rifles, SGs, etc.
 
I've got a wide variety of guns. No striker fired pistols but I do shoot my revolvers in DA mode almost exclusively as well as having DA/SA guns, 1911's and single action revolvers.

The answer to your question is "no", shooting one trigger won't aid you in shooting a different trigger. In particular this applies to semi autos. First off each gun is different. Even examples of the same model will have triggers that feel slightly different. Also since the guns self reload and self re-set from the slide motion what you feel when dry firing isn't what you'll feel when actually shooting.

Then there's the whole thing about "riding the reset". On a semi auto when shooting a continuous string of shots you shouldn't be letting the trigger come fully forward. Instead you should be correctly following through with the trigger held back during the recoil. Once settled again THEN you should be easing off the trigger pressure and allowing the trigger to push your finger ahead until you feel the trigger reset click. At that point you can reverse the pressure for the next shot. With a striker or DA/SA trigger you'll find that when controlled this way that the trigger travel is greatly reduced.

You can try this by dry firing the semi and then while holding the trigger back rack the slide to simulate the cycling of the action by the recoil. Now ease up on trigger until you feel a little click through your finger. Now pull back again and the hammer or striker will drop again.

If you choose to buy and shoot a wide variety of handguns you'll soon figure out that if you train yourself to pull the trigger correctly that the same action is useable for all guns. Namely you want to approach any trigger with an even and continuous buildup of pressure until the trigger is fully back to the rear travel limit. At that point you equally ease off the pressure to let the trigger spring push your finger back forward. Note that I didn't say "until it fires" or "until the trigger breaks". These things happen along the way but YOUR job is to pull the trigger back evenly to the rear stop, hold it there long enough to be sure you're there and then ease off. The gun just happens to shoot along the way.

If you work the trigger in this manner then you can shoot anything from a long and heavy DA revolver trigger to a short, light and crisp 1911 trigger and everything between. And once you learn to do this well it won't matter what sort of gun anyone hands you.
 
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