TIME OUT!
ROFL...Whoa fellers!
Lemme see...Who do I respond to first?
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First off, one of the things that I look for in an insulting tone is words like "Idiot" and "Moron", etc. Aside from things like that, I don't really consider a debate of this type having an air of attack. This discussion
only divides a line between one approach to a "fighting pistol" and another.
Nothing more.
Anthony Lombardo...Yes. I use a slightly different technique than what is generally accepted, and it works well for me. No...I don't recommend it for everyone. It was born of experience.
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Dave...I seem to remember that, not so long ago, you were known for your insulting responses and condescending tone on another forum, and the mods were very lenient with you in that arena. Fuff hasn't insulted you.
He has challenged you. There's a difference. I've let you blow off a little steam here...Others may do the same as long as they don't cross the line.
Fuff can be a bit gruff...but he's simply trying to make a point that doesn't seem to be gettin' through...and he gets a little frustrated. I can empathize.
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Raja!
Yes...Training is part of the answer, and No...2 extra pounds of trigger won't make up for bad technique...but try to remember that I...and a few others...take a much different view of the 1911 pistol and its use as a defensive tool. (and I realize that we're a minority) I've pointed out repeatedly that I'm a reliability smith, pure and simple...but consider these points:
Reliability is much, much more than just going "Bang" every time the trigger is pulled. That's the easy part. It's got just as much to do with NOT going bang until the shooter fully INTENDS for it to fire, and makes a conscious decision and effort to bring that about. Under stress...and I can't emphasize this enough...even when a well-trained finger is on a 3.5-pound trigger, it's hard to tell exactly where that line between "shoot" and "hold" is. I want to KNOW when that shot is about to fire. That extra 2 or so pounds may be just enough to let me know that I'm about to do something that can't be undone. It kept me from doing just that on one occasion
not too long ago. If the trigger had been tuned to 4 pounds, a man would have been killed a half-second before he stood down...because I had already started pressing the trigger. A man went home to his family
instead of going to the morgue over simply being a belligerent drunk. I'd
say that was a good ending...Wouldn't you?
I also accept that 100% reliability in any machine is a mathematical impossibility...It can't be attained. In this light, there is also no such thing
as perfectly trained. Reliability is about reducing the chances of a mis-feed, or a broken part to as low a number as we can manage, and trusting that.
An extra 2.5 pounds of trigger isn't a guarantee that I won't light one off
before I'm 101% ready to. All it does is reduce the chances. Between 4 and 6 pounds..it reduces the chances 50%. That's substantial for somebody who fights for one or two percent on a regular basis.
Jammer!
I'm not tryin' to have it both ways...but for anybody who truly understands
the human response to a deadly threat, or the potential of one...things go
a little haywire in your motor skills. The finer the movement, the more haywire they get. Adrenalin gives us "The strength of ten men" and it's
hard to put the brakes on a conditioned response as fine as pulling a trigger...once that movement has started. Under the influence of adrenalin,
a 10-pound trigger will feel like it's not even there. Trust me. You can train 'til it hails in hell, and you can't bet on just how much adrenalin dump you'll have in a given situation.
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And finally...
The 1911 pistol was designed to take to war. If we consider the rifles that have been designed for that purpose over the past century, you'll notice that none of them had anything even approaching a target trigger, even though they could have. part of that is no doubt due to the fact that the rush to production didn't allow for hand-fitting the firing mechanisms, but I'd
say that most of it was because it was requested. Why? Because the
Ordnance Department is partly made up of men who have been there and done that, and they understand perfectly what such a trigger could mean
whenever a 20 year-old comes under fire. In other words...There are very sound reasons that these weapons had triggers like that...There are very
sound reasons that the 1911 had long, undersquare hammer hooks and
23 pound mainsprings and heavy tension on the sear springs, etc. The fact
that the armorers of the period could tune them down for target use didn't mean that that type of pistol was well-suited for the more serious task that the gun was designed for. Technology has evolved, but the human
response to stress has changed very little...if any. So has the performance of the automobile superceeded human ability to control it.
This discussion is in no way meant to discredit anybody's abilities or practices. It's only meant to present ALL the facts so that the readers may make a more informed decision as to how they want their own pistols to be set up...rather than buy into the "Gunzine" approach that a target trigger in a fighting pistol is always an asset. It can be just as much a liability, because we can't all aspire to the level of skill of John Farnham or Chuck Taylor. Most of us are Joe Averages, who spend a limited amount of time on the range as opposed to men who generally spend almost every waking moment with their weapons. If the average man buys into the
sub-4 pound trigger school of thought...he may discover too late that it wasn't the best choice.
Now then...let's all go have a cuppa coffee and start over.
