Trigger Discipline: Proper & Poor Examples

Trigger discipline breaks down into not having your finger on the trigger until you are ready to shoot.

Why? Because keeping your booger hook off the bang switch until you’re ready to fire is a critical safety measure.

Most negligent discharges are the result of poor trigger discipline! So pay attention, because this could save your life or the life of a loved one.

Proper Trigger Discipline

The go-to technique is to extend and rest your trigger finger against the frame of the firearm.  This makes it much more difficult for a series of events to happen where you accidentally shoot someone or something.

Otherwise, if you rest your finger on the trigger or even in the trigger guard, you can fire your gun due to being startled, stumbling, getting spasms, or even bumps in the road.  Remember that scene in Pulp Fiction?

Examples in Media

Now that you know, you’ll start to see examples of both good and bad trigger discipline all over the media.  Here’s some of our favorites.

Double good trigger discipline in Inception.

Good ole Feinstein practicing poor trigger discipline AND poor muzzle discipline.

James Bond definitely had some proper training.

And even Mr. Kalishnikov himself is guilty once in a while.

Parting Shots

Good trigger discipline really is as simple as it sounds, but it’s important to always practice. It can be easy to develop bad habits or let yourself get complacent — but that is also how people get hurt.

Now that you’ve seen some good/bad examples…head out and learn how trigger discipline affects control.