We’ve all heard the saying “the devil is in the details.” At least sometimes, we have to balance that with the words of the great architect Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe: “God is in the details.
It’s true in a lot of things, and it’s certainly true in shooting. Let’s look at one such detail: the exact placement of finger on trigger.
Conventional Wisdom
In the history of handgun training, the standard rule was that the pad of the trigger finger would be the contact point on a gun with a short, relatively light trigger pull, and the distal joint for a pistol with a long and heavy pull.
Let’s define our terms. The pad is best defined as the whorl of the fingerprint centered on the face of the trigger. Double-action revolver masters recommended what was called the “power crease”: the distal joint of the index finger on the palmar surface.
There was a reason for that term “power crease.” Here’s how you can see for yourself.
You don’t even need a pistol. Take the index finger of your non-dominant hand, extend it, and stiffen it up. We’re going to pretend that finger is a trigger with a heavy pull. Point the fingerprint away from you.
Now, with the trigger finger of your gun hand, place the pad on the support hand finger and pull it toward you while the still finger is resisting. Assess how much force it takes to move it. When it does move, it may move in fits and starts.
Now, do that again, but with the “power crease” of the distal joint pulling the finger that is now the trigger. You’ll find you have much more strength, born of leverage, to smoothly roll that finger back.
Finally, triple-check an empty gun and point in a safe direction for dry fire and do the same, pad versus distal joint. It will feel as if a couple of pounds of pull weight have been removed from the trigger.
The Trigger Reach Dimension
Every marksmanship manual tells you to buy a gun that fits your hand … and most of them then neglect to tell you what the fit criteria are! The key dimension is trigger reach.
On the gun, it’s measured from the center of the backstrap of the frame at the top, where the web of the hand should rest in a proper high hold, to the center of the face of the trigger. On the hand, it is measured from the center of the web of the hand in line with the long bones of the forearm to the chosen point on the trigger finger.
The object of the whole measurement is to finish with a grasp on the pistol that will give the shooter the maximum ability to press the trigger straight rearward without deviating the muzzle of the gun from point of aim.
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Let’s look at the ever-popular 1911 pistol. In its first iteration in 1911, it had a long trigger. After WWI, returning troops were surveyed as to how issue weapons could be made to work better for them. One complaint on the 1911 was that the trigger reach was too long. (Bear in mind that a century ago, Americans were shorter on average than now, with proportionally shorter fingers.) Accordingly, when almost a hundred years ago the 1911A1 came out, it had a much shorter trigger and the frame behind the trigger was “niched out” to allow still more finger inside the trigger guard.
(Learn more about the history of the 1911 versus the 1911A1 here.)
Today, most 1911-style pistols have the long trigger of the original, and virtually all have that niche in the frame. However some, like the Springfield Armory Mil-Spec 1911A1, have the short trigger. This turns out to fit smaller hands better. Little known fact: It also allows the hand of today’s average-sized adult male hand to take advantage of distal joint placement to allow greater leverage and require what feels like less pressure to fire the pistol.
One thing this writer appreciates in the Springfield Armory XD, XD-M and Echelon product lines is a short trigger reach, which allows distal joint trigger finger placement while the barrel of the gun is still in line with the long bones of the forearm.
Beware the “h-Grip”
The “h-Grip” is so called because, to get more finger onto the trigger for greater leverage, the pistol is turned in the hand so that the base of the thumb is directly behind the grip-frame — and the line of recoil.
It’s a Band-Aid fix for getting more finger on the trigger, and it works okay with the minimal recoil of a .22, but it greatly compromises recoil control with any more powerful handgun. This causes greater muzzle rise, which slows re-alignment between shots, and it also beats the hell out of the proximal joint of the thumb.
I’ve asked hand surgeons, “Would constant recoil from this hold artificially induce arthritis in the proximal joint of the thumb?” The answer has always been “Yeah, it’ll do that eventually.”
Try for Yourself
Try for yourself, drill for drill, with the pad of your index finger on the trigger and then with the distal joint. The quest for excellence is always advanced by trying new techniques and giving them a fair chance. You might be surprised at what you learn.
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