Flyers = Trigger finger placement??

[Fritz]

Into my second day now shooting at paper as opposed to plinking, and whats been bugging me is why is it that that I usually always get a flyer. Always to the right and down.
I've spent most of my time focusing on stance, breathing etc. but never where I place my trigger finger and vaguely remember reading something along the lines of "if you use the tip of your finger you will shoot to the right, finger in too far you will shoot to the left".
What do you guys think?? Is it my finger or am I just jerking on the trigger?? (Can't test it out for sure for a few days)

Afterthought. Looking at it again, I do seem to be shooting to the right.

WP_20151007_001.jpg (1.25 MiB) Viewed 5637 times

[Noisydad]

I've posted this before when I was scratching my head over the same issue. Hope it helps....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIwokYOdpag

[Mr Pete]

Three things:

1) Are you right handed?
2) Are you shooting with a rifle or handgun?
3) Also, in the [indoor] range I first learned to shoot the ventilation system causes shots to be slightly high. Is this type of thing a factor in the range you used?

I've found that (using rifles) the angle of finger movement has more influence than the part of the finger used. But as I have double-jointed fingers, wrists and shoulders, I don't claim to be normal.

A google image search for "trigger finger placement" brings a metric crapload of images demonstrating the effects of differing finger placement. It also occasionally shows some very attractive young women with various firearms. Bless 'em.

[Fritz]

Thanks for the link Noisydad, that's cleared a few things up for me.
I'll head out on Saturday and have another whirl keeping all that in mind. See how that goes.

Mr Pete..Right handed, using a rifle outside in calm nice conditions. I did do a google image search, but at the time it looked like it was only really relevant to handguns.
Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

[sandgroperbill]

here's a thought out of left field... is this the first set of targets or had you already warmed up the barrel?... Are you stopping after you have noticed the flyer to think what may have caused it? perhaps then shooting more groups and then stopping to think of the flyer again? if so, it may be possible that it may have something to do with the barrel heating up, then cooling while you stop to think.

Quite possibly not, but I'm just thinking outside the box here

[Xerox]

Just my personal experience here but I haven't been able to find much difference in my shooting by varying the finger position on the trigger.

Tip, first joint, middle of whatever the middle section of your finger is call, tried them all and I can't see anything. Other guys swear by it though

As for always pulling right or left I put it down to the fact that you're holding a right by one side. e.g. Holding it on the right side of your body, holding the rear (grip) with your right hand and front (foregrip) with your left hand your not symmetrical so if you flinch or tense or pull a shot or even just how the rifle flows when recoiling it has to move to one side.

If you where shooting with the rifle in the middle of your chest with both hands on the grip it would go back, as we do shoot though it has to go to the side.

That's how I see it.

[Fritz]

I was able to knock off from work early today so I went out and fired a few more rounds.
The first 10 shots, with a cold barrel, were all over the place. The next 5, in quick succession ended in a nice little 6mm group.
I fired about 50 rounds, taking note of where my finger was. I did notice that I tended to place very close to the inner joint of my finger on the trigger, so I quickly changed that to what I think is the "correct" placement. This felt a little more natural, and comfortable.
I also noticed that my right hand doesn't conform to the grip on the stock very well and I was sort of holding the grip fairly tightly. Might have to change around the length of pull to see if that fixes it. (it almost feels like the grip isn't wide enough).

After about another 50 rounds, I've come to one main conclusion as to the cause of my flyers...... I'm flinching.
For almost all of the flyers today, I knew I screwed up the shot before I even knew where it landed. Which is a shame really when I can see myself heading for a nice sub 1/4" group and then ruin it.
But at least I've got something else to take notice of now. I'll just keep going until I nail it, consistently.

[sarki]

The first 10 shots, with a cold barrel, were all over the place. The next 5, in quick succession ended in a nice little 6mm group.

Cold clean barrel, or still fouled from last shoot?

[Prettybird]

Just looks like the scope needs a few clicks to me.

[Wm.Traynor]

I am new to this site mate, so I don't know your history............shooting position (bench, offhand etc), calibre.
However, if you reckon you are flinching then practicing follow through has always been a big help to me. It is not a cure hwever, because shooting actually spoils follow through. That is how it was for me, anyway. So the more you shoot, the more you have to concentrate on follow through. I did it for every shot but YMMV. How to follow through, is something else again that you can ask about if interested. You might already have your own method for all I know.

[Gwion]

I personally find that finger pressure and placement on the trigger can indeed produce a flyer and effect grouping in general. Consistency is the bus word. Same place, same pressure, same group......

[Apollo]

Placement on the trigger is very vital, probably with any firearm, the most suggested for accuracy is the middle of the first finger pad BUT how that is positioned then goes to your own position in general.

As mentioned in the video agout grip, length of pull etc .. what wasn't mentioned was trigger pull weight. One might think that has little to do with it if you are thinking trigger pull weights of many pounds / kilos but what if it's just an ounce or so. You can't put your finger into the trigger guard and position it on the trigger or you'll find out it's alread fired. Centre position from under the stock and slide the finger pad down onto a direct / inline touch.

Flyers, well. There are many, many reasons for a flyer and it's a big task to resolve the issue. Start one idea at a time and see what improves the issue.

We don't even know what the issue is here and/how reliable the ammunition being used is. Are we an experienced handloader producing precision ammo or are we using factory produced ammo. What distance are those targets shot at and what type of firearm / quality. Too many possibles without knowing specifics.

Target shooting can be helped by having an experienced person watch what's happening, including blind loading a firearm so the shooter doen't know if a live or dummy round has been loaded, that will show up a flinch. An experienced precision shooter will also be able to call a shot as soon as the round is fired if there was a technique issue.

[happyhunter]

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[Turkle]

Nice shooting otherwise.

Bottom second from the left is a cracker