If there is one pet peeve I have, it is people who are trigger snobs. These are the people that will refuse to shoot a stock firearm and will critique anything that has a trigger pull over 3 pounds. If the trigger pull is not dangerously short and light, it is dangerously long and heavy in their opinion. Unfortunately, a lot of impressionable newbies to the shooting community tend to get drawn into what these snobs say and feel that the pinnacle of skill and competence revolves around being picky. However, in my years of shooting with and against these types of people, I have found that trigger snobbery is merely a symptom of problems and failures in skill. This article is going to examine a couple of the failures trigger snobs have. This article may hurt a few feelings, but it is all in pursuit of the truth. It is time that trigger snobs get called out for the frauds they really are.
FEAR OF THE DA/SA
Almost every trigger snob out there will tell you that the DA/SA first trigger pull is “SO LONG AND HEAVY” that no one can shoot that first shot accurately. At the least, trigger snobs will recommend a lighter DA spring and a polished sear for a lighter SA. This is nothing short of absolute BS, and I have watched new shooters take a stock DA/SA and shoot the 12lb DA accurately and quickly from the draw without much issue. All it took was light instruction in proper technique and a few dry fire drills and exercises.
One of the first issues trigger snobs have is their trigger pull method. They don’t actually know how to manipulate a double action trigger. They think they are supposed to pull it as slow as they can with the theory that this minimizes movement of the gun. In reality, this increases movement and weakens your trigger finger. Plus, this is not how you will pull a trigger when you actually mean it, so this method is pointless as much as it is a demonstration of a lack of knowledge and skill.
FEAR THE STOCK TRIGGER
God forbid a trigger snob shoots a gun with a stock trigger. These people will always complain about every micro millimeter of travel. It will be too heavy, too gritty, oddly shaped, feels weird, too hard of a wall, too much overtravel, etc. But my favorite one is when the trigger snobs plunge themselves into the 18th century of shooting skill and say that the reset is not audible or tactile enough.
I’m sorry that I’m not sorry, but if you cannot handle a stock trigger and think it needs a change in shape, tension, travel, character, you are focusing on the wrong thing. When you are shooting for your life, or even for score, you should be focusing on making your hits, not getting in touch with your feelings. If you don’t get your shooting skills set, you will be feeling more than just hurt feelings.
OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY
The point of a pistol is to use it to kill another person or animal. That is the bare truth. Some are made to play in a game, but few are. The majority of guns are meant to kill. Unfortunately, this snobbery is rooted in gameplaying and using timers. The truth is that when you are shooting to kill another person, your focus is a constant cycle of shoot and evaluate until the threat is down. You don’t want to shoot more rounds that needed, and you don’t want to shoot so few, so slowly that you get overrun and taken out. Each and every shot needs to be intentional and aimed because they do indeed have a lawyer attached to them. If you miss, you are screwed legally. Heck, even if all your hits are perfect, you are going to court for using deadly force.
Trigger snobs love to treat any kind of shooting like a game and they tend to think outside of reality. They tend to do well only when they practice static on the flat range and their idea of testing and judging a pistol is grouping. Their favorite drill to do on the range is the dot torture drill where they think they can show how amazing they are at shooting. The most common and funniest characteristic though is that they dare not admit that their wide shot pattern/groups from shooting fast is merely an illustration of their poor grip and trigger skills. In their mind, you are either a fast shooter, or an accurate shooter. But again, history has shown us that you need to be both fast and accurate in order to survive in a gunfight. Being accurate doesn’t matter if you can’t apply it quickly. Trigger snobs will get iced while they are still getting in touch with their trigger feelings. Seeing a trigger snob try to shoot fast and accurate at the same time is one of the funniest things you will ever witness because their failure will be most likely blamed on the reset or the recoil, or some other erroneous thing.
THE UNFORTUNATE SITUATION
Today, most of the influencers in the market can be classified as trigger snobs. Try handing these yahoos a random DA/SA or any gun from a lineup and watch them squirm to make hits. They will blame the gun, the air, the time of day for failing to make their hits. Very few shooters out there seem to truly want to become masters of the art of shooting. Rather they just want to learn to shoot THEIR gun better, and then charge people to develop the same trigger snobbery. What a wicked world we live in.
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