Using the middle finger as the trigger finger

[daniel craig]

Has anyone tried this style of shooting a semi auto? You rest your pointer finger along the side of the weapon (obviously not on the slide or over the ejection port) and point at the target while pulling the trigger with your middle finger. It was taught a long time ago, apparently the theory being that you'll naturally point your pointer finger where your eyes are looking.

I was doing some dry fire drills and using my middle finger seems to give me a smoother trigger pull and prevents me from pulling left or right.

 

[Good Ol' Boy]

Your thumbs can act in the same way, as far as the "pointing" toward the target.

I want as much grip as I can so losing the middle finger on my strong hand does not appeal to me.

 

[ilbob]

it was once taught, at least by some. various point shooting methods have been taught over the years. most have not been especially effective for more than a few people.

 

[Jim Watson]

Once upon a time, there were a lot of posts on TFL by a Middle Finger Expert known as Smoke 'em Joe.
Not convincing to me, although I DID shoot a High Standard Derringer that way.

 

[ilbob]

BTW - I knew a guy who shot with his middle finger because most of his first finger was missing. He was quite a good bullseye shooter.

 

[Corpral_Agarn]

I want as many fingers on the gun as possible, so the thumbs do the pointing.

 

[RPZ]

Has anyone tried this style of shooting a semi auto? You rest your pointer finger along the side of the weapon (obviously not on the slide or over the ejection port) and point at the target while pulling the trigger with your middle finger. It was taught a long time ago, apparently the theory being that you'll naturally point your pointer finger where your eyes are looking.

I was doing some dry fire drills and using my middle finger seems to give me a smoother trigger pull and prevents me from pulling left or right.

I would not go that route. Your index finger outside the trigger guard, parallel with the bore axis, coming up on target accomplishes the same thing until your sights are on the target. For point shooting it revolves around the "point" and feel qualities of the pistol. At short ranges where point shooting works having just your fourth and fifth fingers around the grip are not going to help control.

 

[FL-NC]

The grip we train shooters to use on a pistol uses the thumbs to point to the target. I have seen some soldiers in Latin America using the middle finger for the trigger on guns like the G3. Very hard to break them from that habit.

 

[RPZ]

The grip we train shooters to use on a pistol uses the thumbs to point to the target. I have seen some soldiers in Latin America using the middle finger for the trigger on guns like the G3. Very hard to break them from that habit.

And this is a danger; the old habit. Even if it is broken on the range, the change may cause a fumble down the road when the action starts. Just sometimes it is better to stick with what you already have ingrained and second nature. As opposed to trying to change to gain a micro fraction of a second faster, or a very small degree of accuracy, etc.

 

[bluzman]

I've heard it said that it's a a good way to get off quick, accurate shots at very close range. It's alleged that this was the method used by Jack Ruby when he shot Lee Harvey Oswald.

 

[Ramone]

I knew an NYC detective, years and years ago, who used it, but the general consensus was that he was crazy. Never tried it myself.

I have some vague recollection of a middle finger shooting technique being used with an early 20th century military rifle, but I can't remember why.

 

[<*(((><]

I knew an NYC detective, years and years ago, who used it, but the general consensus was that he was crazy. Never tried it myself.

I have some vague recollection of a middle finger shooting technique being used with an early 20th century military rifle, but I can't remember why.

I think you're thinking of the "mad minute" with an SMLE Enfield .303 British where the shooting hand was working the bolt and as the bolt is coming into locked position the shooter would touch off the trigger with his middle finger so as not to have his hand leave the bolt knob to allow faster reworking of the bolt. It was said that the German's often thought they were under automatic fire from British using this method.

 

[Armored farmer]

In the weeks preceeding an annual flintlock match, I got a splinter in my trigger finger that became infected.
It became so swollen and angry that I had to use my middle finger on the trigger. Much to my surprise, that quickly became a non-issue. Two or three shooting sessions, and I was shooting just as well as I did with my trigger finger
Luckily, the antibiotics, kicked in and healed the trigger finger by match day. I was able to shoot normally.

 

[JohnB-40]

If you did this on a 1911,I think there is a good chance of pushing the slide stop out of place

 

[Shaq]

I've heard it said that it's a a good way to get off quick, accurate shots at very close range. It's alleged that this was the method used by Jack Ruby when he shot Lee Harvey Oswald.

Ruby was missing his trigger finger.

 

[wally]

As long as your index finger doesn't get beyond the muzzle it can be a good way to shoot the sub-compacts and does aid with "point shooting" in my experience. Only way to know for sure is to give it a fair try, but forget about it if you index finger tip exceeds the muzzle!

Its the way I shoot my BG380 when coming from my pocket carry, it also makes it easy to turn on the built in laser -- but I've short fingers and my index finger can't get closer to 1/2" behind the muzzle!

 

[JTQ]

I would use my index finger, unless unable to, but the question did make me think of this video...

 

[daniel craig]

Well the main reason I was wondering is that I noticed that it's easier for me to pull straight back with my middle finger than with my pointer.

 

[MachIVshooter]

I've done it when my trigger finger was injured, but see no reason otherwise.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Post #17 And that is why I ground off the bulb on my slide stop's pin to sit even with the frame.

If the arthritis in my trigger finger is giving me problems (like flinching), pulling the trigger with the middle finger can help



Shaq #15: "Ruby was missing his trigger finger."
How did Oliver Stone miss that? Obviously JFK was a Yakuza plot!

 

[stoky]

BTW - I knew a guy who shot with his middle finger because most of his first finger was missing. He was quite a good bullseye shooter.

I knew a guy like that too. He'd champion the middle finger to youth, learning to shoot rifles.
I asked him if it had been recommended to him by a former girl friend.

 

[DeepSouth]

I've tried it in the distant past with several different pistols and to be honest I think if you got used to it then you could be proficient like that. I doesn't feel natural to me but I do seem to recall at least one pistol that I seemed to shoot better like that, but don't recall what it was.

I say give it shot if it works good if not, move on.

 

[Kp321]

I had a good friend who says he was taught to shoot using his middle finger on the trigger in basic training in the 1940's. He was Army Air Force, B-17 crew, by the way.

 

[sgt127]

My dad actually shot handguns that way. No idea why.

I would be a little wary of that technique shooting some of the truly bad boy rounds we have these days.

Get that index finger near the barrel cylinder gap of a .460 XVR and you
WILL be shooting with your naughty finger....since it will be the only one left that's long enough to reach the trigger.

 

[Malamute]

I don't believe the theory holds water. For one thing, what makes anyone think a finger is a precision pointing instrument? They are far from it. Someone may think its pointing EXACTLY AT something, but I think its all in the mind of the viewer. Most fingers aren't that straight either. Looking at my finger that seems to be pointing PERFECTLY at whatever object Im focusing on, a careful look at my finger shows its curved, and not really pointing at anything very precisely. More hand on the gun to hold and grip it is a better program to me. "Pointing" a gun is partly learned habit, or happy coincidence. I think it has little or nothing to do with your fingers and where they may or may not be pointing. Operating the gun is the best place the fingers can be.

A theory was floated years ago that autoloading pistols were better "natural pointers" than revolvers because of the belief in the finger being somehow more aligned with the target. Looking at the hand on the gun, none of my fingers are pointed at the target, nor ar any Ive seen in pictures. The scads of "point shooting" ive done over the years seems to indicate that the majority of autoloading pistols are much harder to "point shoot" than most revolvers, though I have to say Ive shot vastly more with SA and DA revolvers than autoloaders. Ive never heard anyone that felt autoloaders were in fact easier to "point shoot" than revolvers.