Set back triggers

[charub]

Never had one, never felt the need. I was just wondering what all the fuss is about.
I have shot all manner of rifles over the years, I have small hands but reach is not a problem for me. I tend not to grip the pistol grip as I find this is another point of inconsistency that I can eliminate. Instead, I basically hang my trigger hand by thumb around the area above the pistol grip (thumb forwards if stock allows) and my trigger finger on the trigger - that’s it, no other point of contact with trigger hand.

It sounds unorthodox, but I would be interested to hear how others get on trying it. Go on, humour me - 50 shots keeping everything else the same as you would usually shoot.

In the meantime, I may order a set back trigger, see how I get on.

[cooper_dan]

Never had one, never felt the need. I was just wondering what all the fuss is about.
I have shot all manner of rifles over the years, I have small hands but reach is not a problem for me. I tend not to grip the pistol grip as I find this is another point of inconsistency that I can eliminate. Instead, I basically hang my trigger hand by thumb around the area above the pistol grip (thumb forwards if stock allows) and my trigger finger on the trigger - that’s it, no other point of contact with trigger hand.

It sounds unorthodox, but I would be interested to hear how others get on trying it. Go on, humour me - 50 shots keeping everything else the same as you would usually shoot.

In the meantime, I may order a set back trigger, see how I get on.

My HFT stock was designed to help achieve essentially the same thing, you aren't the only one
I have thumb like you describe, but allow my palm to rest on the stock (as flat/neutral as possible) without gripping it. I tried it without the palm touching at all (like you describe) but had some trouble with downward pointing HFT shots.

[Shed tuner]

the position you describe is generally known as thumb up, and has been used for decades to get an inline squeeze on the trigger, rather than a twist. Many (aftermarket/hi end) stocks have cutouts to facilitate a compy thumb up position, especially thumbholes, ironically. The amount of contact with the palm of the hand is normally a little more than the zero you describe, but it's very low forces involved.

Here's an example:



and a factory stock with a thumb up poistion groove:

[cooper_dan]

Not sure about those examples. 'thumb forward' is very different to 'thumb up'. I don't think the traditional thumb up you could 'hang' the hand from the thumb like charub is describing.
Also that first example has got finger grooves round the grip. Having finger grooves generally means your hand is on the stock and fingers wrapped round it, which will always be imparting some force. (Although I accept you don't have to).
It's nit picky things but I'm a big believer that even the smallest tweaks to hand placement on a springer will be a big difference to consistency.

[Shed tuner]

Ahh, maybe I misunderstood.

BTW Dan, I started this hold sensitivity test thread a while back... may be of interest:

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....tivity-testing

I found the excessively limp hold actually the worst then, but that doesn;t mean it'll be the case with all shooters, and all guns, or even any except for me and mine !

[cooper_dan]

For me (I guess that's the important bit!) and my experiences with HFT. Thumb up works very well on the straight and level (I.e practicing, zero ranges, some courses). But on angled shots can cause a bit of vertical wandering. The best explanation I had was from the main man Jim who described the thumb as basically acting like a spring which will absorb some of the recoil, then push it back into the stock. Possibly the different angles means that 'thumb spring' is acting in a different way?
The idea behind 'thumb forward' is that the thumb is to the side of the action, so the stock will slide past, essentially removing the 'thumb spring' from the equation.

The main issue is that every individual person, stock fit, rifle tune/characteristics, shooting discipline, conditions etc will probably require different hand placements to really get the best out of them. I've known people with standard 30mm thumping pistons hit everything they looked at, and other people with fancy 22mm or less tunes and target stocks not be able to hit the side of a barn.

For me, shooting a springer consistently well boils down to 4 main things. Stock fit, hand placement, trigger control and fitness/conditioning of the shooter. Find someone with all that and they'll win with anything regardless of rifle or tune.
I've by no means mastered it yet, but maybe next year