Advice on triggers, the technical aspects

[Bret P]

Hi all,
I was at a pistol training camp last weekend and triggers came up. I have a manual steyr evo 10 sport pistol with a standard curved trigger. One of the coaches advised I should sand down the palm side of the trigger, make it thinner, to help reduce the chances of the trigger finger doing an uneven pull and deflecting the end of the pistol.

My shots are quite calm and even but I then noticed nearly every one had a filed down trigger. It would appear the thinner the better. There is one female shooter who had a small ball bearing embedded into the trigger so that she gets instant feed back on the same trigger position every time (she's an absolutely fantastic shooter).
Since researching triggers, there are many different types, curved, straight, wide, thick, button triggers, button with pip etc etc.

So a few questions here, buttons look interesting but are they ISSF legal? How can you put a weight on a button trigger? trying to get into international pistol shooting so if breaks the rules, not interested. Or is it better to have a thin bumpy or pointy surface to help replicate trigger position?

Interested in all points of view, but not in "go with what's comfortable" this is about maximising the next best shot. None of these triggers look painful, but some must be better than the others.

If you are an international shooter would be interested to find out what is commonly used and any big do's and don'ts when it comes to triggers.

Thank you all in advance for your help and advice.

Back to filing the trigger.

Regards
Bret

[David M]

Interesting .....but the trigger or more correctly the trigger shoe very much depends on the type of pistol and the trigger weight it uses.
The mate between trigger shoe and finger is very dependant on trigger weight.
ie a Free pistol with a light gram weight trigger needs a feel that will feed back to the shooter. Hence you use a thin, narrow trigger with a slight curve only.
It would gently touch the pad of the finger and the fat or touch of the finger pad will act as first stage and give feed back.
As you go up in weight and calibre the trigger needs to fit better to the finger for control.
Air pistol needs to have the trigger shoe position in a relaxed position with no stress in the trigger finger (in the fired position).
Shoe will be a narrow 6-8mm shoe with a little curve and grooves.
Most airpistols the trigger position is adjustable in the length, vertical, horizontal and rotational position's.
The trigger finger shold find a natural position in mid pad. This may also include grip modification to find this position.
A good fit is essential for the timed fire events where you do not have time to reset between shots.
As an example my Centrefire Revolver thas a wide trigger shoe 12mm, deep grooves, it fits from the pad to the joint but the trigger weight is 1250g.
The trigger weight limit is 1000g but as a centrefire a firm grip is required and a heavier trigger works better and gives control.
The Service/WA1500 revolver has a double action trigger only, so lots of trigger movement. It has a narrow, smooth highly polished trigger to wrap my finger around it for quick double action shooting.

[Gwhite]

You might want to take a look at the discussion here: viewtopic.php?t=64825