When reading handgun tests, reviews, and comparisons, more often than not the article will address something referred to as “trigger reset”. It is often included as one of the more important metrics in evaluating and comparing handguns, with a comparatively “short” reset touted as a highly desirable feature. A quick Internet search will turn up countless articles touting the potentially life-saving benefits of mastering how to use your trigger reset point. To quote just one: “When every millisecond counts, the less movement – the better. If you’re able to play the trigger reset of your firearm correctly, you can learn to quickly put rounds on target. Rather than fully releasing the trigger, relax your trigger finger until it “clicks” into place. That’s the trigger reset threshold. It may be different for each pistol you own – so be sure to get a feel for each while at the range.”
Mastering your trigger reset is also touted as a way to increase your accuracy. From another article: “Allowing the trigger to move past its reset means if it’s necessary to fire again you have to take the slack back out of the trigger to start another press. This is wasted time, motion, and increases the possibility you’ll slap or jerk the trigger on the next shot, which is definitely going to affect accuracy.”
The subject is also often addressed in the training community, both civilian and law enforcement, and learning to use it to the shooter’s advantage is quite commonly part of the training regimen. The shooter is trained to take up any trigger slack, then press through the resistance until being surprised by the gun firing. Then the student is told to pull the trigger all the way back (often referred to as “pinning” it), hold it until the action cycles, then carefully release it until the “point of reset” is reached. The shooter is taught to sense this “reset” point either tactilely (feeling) the click, hearing the click, or both. At that point, the shooter repeats the process. This time though, the process begins at “step 2”, that is pressing through the resistance. The supposed advantage gained is not having to take the time to fully release the trigger, then having to again take up the initial slack to the resistance point. A trigger with a short reset is to be coveted, and one with a long reset is thought to be a curse. If you’re among the unfortunate ones who invested in a handgun with a long reset, there are various aftermarket parts available (triggers, springs, etc.) to help you escape this malignancy, all of course at some cost. Some of these kits cost several hundred dollars. We’re told that the advantages of a short reset are twofold. It will help you shoot both faster AND more accurately. What’s not to like? Get onboard!
This whole scenario appeals to our common sense. Eliminating a step in a procedure “should” always save time. And any time greater care is taken in the process of firing a gun, it should result in achieving greater accuracy. But there is a price to be paid for that greater accuracy, and that price is time. “Riding the reset”, as it’s commonly called, isn’t magic. In my opinion, it cannot offer an increase in accuracy AND speed at the same time. Greater accuracy is obtained because the shooter is exercising more care when pressing through the resistance until the gun fires. The greater the care taken, the greater the accuracy gained. But there will be a positive correlation (and causation) between the degree of accuracy gained and the amount of time taken to achieve it. I’m not refuting the gain in accuracy. I can prove it to myself by consciously following this procedure. What I am questioning is its application to defensive handgunning, and any practical gain in accuracy OR speed with regard to purely defensive shooting.
To consciously do anything means to add a step in the thinking process, and the more “thinking” steps, the more time it takes to complete a process. First of all, I highly question the ability of a shooter to consciously wait for the action to complete its cycle before going to the next step in the process, which is to consciously and slowly release the trigger until sensing the reset point. In my experience, the action cycle is complete before the shooter even begins recovering from the recoil. I question both the validity and value of actually thinking about the action cycling. I also question the value of spending precious time consciously and carefully letting the trigger go forward until reset. In competitive shooting, and any form of deliberative shooting, maybe such a procedure can have a place, but spending precious time on such things in a defensive encounter can be fatal.
Techniques that can make sense in the world of competition don’t necessarily carry over into the defensive handgunning world. Competitive shooters will often use the same handgun to fire many thousands of rounds. They know exactly how their handguns work and feel, especially the triggers. They experience stress, as all competitors do, but not the same type and intensity that a person does in a life and death situation. Another thing they don’t have to worry about is their targets shooting back at them, or otherwise causing them harm. Those are huge differences!
One can adopt more than one method for trigger control, utilizing the method that suits the activity. However, in a high-stress situation you will do as you’ve trained. This seems to me like a complication that could rear its ugly head at the worst moment. Letting your thinking and actions get muddled up with such things as trigger release and reset point are not conducive to the shooter prevailing in a life and death encounter. For a quite obvious example, you may “short stroke” the trigger, meaning you don’t let it go forward far enough for it to reset. This will result in wasted time pulling an unset trigger, along with possibly sending the shooter into a panic, thinking that there has been a malfunction.
In the first article I quoted, the author mentioned that the trigger “may be different for each pistol you own – so be sure to get a feel for each while at the range.” That is a huge understatement. I’ve shot, and currently own, dozens of handguns. I don’t think any two of them have triggers and trigger resets that feel identical to me. Even identical handguns will usually have at least small variations in how the triggers work and feel. I don’t always carry the same handgun when I’m carrying concealed. Over the years, I’ve probably carried at least 15 different handguns for self-defense. I also sometimes carry more than one at the same time. Neither of these make me a rarity among concealed carry people. Anyone can readily see how training to key off the trigger reset can pose a deadly hazard. Again, under the stress of a life and death situation, you will do as you’ve trained. Under this level of stress, fine motor skills are also lost, which includes such things as tactile detection of the trigger reset. Things such as tachypsychia (the subjective experience of time speeding up or slowing down) and auditory exclusion (the temporary loss of hearing) are also experienced in high stress situations. I seriously doubt that anyone would be cognitive of trigger reset at such a time. And if the situation calls for the saving of a few milliseconds, it’s most likely because the threat is extremely close. This would hardly be a time to worry about minute-of-angle accuracy!
Evidence shows that many of the world’s best handgun shooters fully release the trigger. In fact, the faster they attempt to shoot, the more likely they are to fully release the trigger, even to the point of losing contact with it. This makes sense when one realizes that “riding the reset” is more conducive to helping one shoot more accurate slow-fire shots, not speeding up rapid-fire shooting. The trigger finger can move very quickly, especially when you’re not sending it mixed or complicated signals. The signal for the trigger press to begin should be the instant the sight picture becomes precise enough to satisfy the degree of accuracy needed for that specific shot, not the sensing of the trigger reset!