Poor shooting is most often caused by disturbing your aim as the bullet is leaving the barrel. This is usually the result of jerking the trigger, or flinching. The trigger does not have to be jerked violently to spoil your aim; even a slight off-center pressure of your finger while squeezing the trigger is enough to move the strike of the bullet several inches. FLINCHING is a subconscious reflex caused by anticipating the recoil from firing. JERKING results from attempting to fire the pistol at the precise time that you align the sights with the target. Both flinching and jerking will cause the bullet to strike the lower left section of the target. An attempt to correct flinching and jerking by tightening the large muscle in the heel of the hand may cause heeling. HEELING causes the bullet to strike the target high and to the right. You can correct all these shooting errors by understanding and using the correct trigger squeeze. Improper trigger squeeze will cause more misses on the target than any other single step of preparatory marksmanship training.

You obtain correct trigger squeeze by applying a uniformly increasing pressure on the trigger straight to the rear without disturbing the sight alignment until the pistol fires. The trigger slack, or free play, is taken up first, and the correct squeeze continues steadily until the hammer falls. If the trigger is squeezed properly, you will not know when the hammer will fall. This is the best way to prevent jerking, flinching, and heeling.

To assist you in squeezing the trigger properly, use the acronym BRASS as you did with the rifle. You must also learn to call your shots. If you cannot call your shots correctly, you are not concentrating properly on sight alignment and trigger squeeze.