Is trigger finger position important when shooting?

When shooting, too much finger movement can cause bad timing.

By Rob Eaton

Friday, 27 January 2012

Believe it or not the position of your forefinger on the trigger is very important for a smooth, gentle, minimalistic squeeze of the trigger.

If you have your finger wrapped around the trigger or even in the first joint, you will find the amount of movement you need, to both squeeze and release the trigger, (in order to cock the internal mechanism) is quite a lot.

The cure for this is to put the first pad of the finger (that's the one with the nail on it) on the trigger, with the trigger exactly halfway across the middle of the pad.

This will give a lot less movement in the finger and even stop 80% of what's known as flinching, where you go to pull the trigger but don't (so you have another go), all in an instant.

Very frustrating is flinching!

Some guns have an adjustable trigger and may need adjusting to feel right when shooting this way.

But it can be done on guns with fixed triggers with a little practice.

This trigger technique will also help when you’re having trouble with shooting behind everything as your timing is better.

Shooting with a shotgun is very instinctive and your instincts are usually spot-on!

You have to trust them when to pull the trigger.

So if you have a lot of extra movement in the pulling of the trigger, you’re going to find that you will pull the trigger very slightly later than necessary, resulting in a miss right on the clay or bird’s tail.

If your’re shooting game then it's fine to have your finger on the trigger guard or the wood above it for safety - but practice this finger technique before going into the field or you will have trouble.

For clay shooting, find the trigger with your finger pad before you call PULL!