If it was the average CCW class they don't really have the time and/or ability to do a lot of real instruction. It's mainly just trying to keep people from shooting themselves or others.

Snatching the trigger is the most common problem shooters have, from high-speed super ninjas to people who just picked up a gun for the first time.

There are ways to combat it:

1. Dryfire practice –– To establish what a proper trigger pull is, place a case or a dime on the front sight, and then pull the trigger without dropping the coin/case off of the front sight:



When the trigger is pulled, the case should stay on the front sight:



The ability to pull the trigger without dropping the case off the front sight will give you a baseline to establish proper trigger control. You can refer back to this trigger pull whenever you find yourself snatching the trigger again.

NOTE: ONLY DO THIS WITH A CLEAR WEAPON.



2. Live-fire/Dryfire practice –– Trigger control is easy when you know the gun won't go bang. Thus the next trick is designed to psych you out so that you don't know if the gun is going to go bang or not. If you have a buddy, have him set your weapon up with either a loaded chamber or an unloaded chamber while you are not looking. When he has set it up the way he wants it, he hands the gun back to you. Then on the command (or buzzer, whatever you are using) you come up from a low ready and fire one shot on target. If you have trigger control issues and you expect the weapon to go boom, then you'll see the El Snatcho virus popping up. In other words, when you are expecting the gun to go off, you'll revert to what you do naturally. Your buddy should be watching you carefully to see whether or not you jerk the weapon downwards in anticipation of recoil. When you drop the hammer on an empty chamber and you jerk the piss out of the gun, both of you will be able to see it.

When that happens, you stop, clear the weapon, and then do 5 PERFECT dryfires with the case/dime on the front sight to re-establish that proper trigger pull. This drill is called the ball and dummy drill, and it's one of the best ways of demonstrating proper trigger control that I know of.

If you don't have a buddy, you can accomplish the same thing by buying some dummy rounds and having the wife or somebody load mags for you with a mixture of dummies and live rounds. You can dump ammo and dummies in a pile and close your eyes to load mags as well. Whatever works. Just remember that the point of the drill is to keep your mind unaware as to whether or not the weapon will actually go bang.

There are variations of the ball and dummy that you can add to to increase the difficulty. Command ball and dummy requires a second person to give you the command to fire...as in the call out "Shooter ready.....standby......FIRE" and you have to break the shot on the command to fire. To do that drill your buddy sets up your gun as in the standard ball and dummy drill, and then you line up your sights and take the slack out of the trigger so that you are ready to break the shot when he gives the command. This added bit of stress usually shows the El Snatcho virus again.

You can accomplish a similar effect with timed ball and dummy using a shot timer.


3. Training –– Sign up for quality training from a competent instructor ASAP. Vickers Tactical and Ken Hackathorn offer some superb instruction on the handgun that will stand you in good stead. So will the US Training Center, (Formerly Blackwater USA) Magpul Dynamics, and others are good options as well. Just remember to take HANDGUN training first, as trigger control on handguns is FAR more difficult than on carbines...thus carbine training will be of limited utility for you.

You want to pull the trigger with the pad of your trigger finger:



The line that says "Distal phalanx" is pointing right to the sweet spot on your trigger finger. Sometimes it's not possible to use that precise location on your trigger finger because the gun doesn't fit you well. On a Glock fit issues are hard to deal with.

Generally the situation can be improved by addressing your grip. Watch Todd Jarret's video on grip found here:

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=todd+jarrett+grip&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#

If you have trigger control issues, an improper grip makes them even worse.

EDIT ––

While on the subject of trigger control, let me give you a secret to controlling the Glock trigger well. Many people try to pull completely through a Glock trigger. This generally results in snatching the hell out of it. What I've found works quite well is to teach beginners to think of the Glock trigger pull in 2 stages.

Every factory Glock trigger has a period of "takeup" or "slack" in it. This means that there's a portion of the trigger's movement where it is not actually moving the striker. To see what I mean, take your UNLOADED GLOCK and put only as much pressure on the trigger as you need to make the trigger start moving. At some point in the pull you will find that the trigger stops, requiring more pressure to go fully to the rear. The movement in the trigger up to that point is the "slack" or the "takeup" of the trigger. Once you hit that point pulling the trigger requires more force because it is actually moving the striker of the weapon to fire the pistol.

I've found that new shooters on the Glock do well when they first take the slack out of the Glock trigger and pause for a moment at that stopping point, and then carefully and deliberately squeeze through the rest of the trigger pull. As you get used to the trigger and build skill the pause becomes shorter and shorter until it's not there anymore.

You may want to edit your title to something like "Help with developing proper trigger control" to solicit more opinions and get more people to look at some of the good information posted in here.

Plus, nobody will think you are ghey.

Oh, and be sure to re-read the posts in this thread, as with edits Shovel and I have added some useful info to them.

Your title is wrong.

Either too much trigger finger or you are squeezing and pulling with your support hand at the time of the shot.

On a Glock dryfire is just fine. On some weapons dryfire is a no-no, but the Glock isn't one of them. That being said, investing in some quality snap caps (I prefer A-Zoom snap caps) isn't a bad idea...it's just not a necessity on a Glock.