Using the middle finger as the trigger finger

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This seems dumb to me, if you care about controlling recoil. If you don't, hell, you can hold the gun upside down and pull the trigger with your little finger. But if you do care about controlling recoil, the last thing you want is to leave the gripping of the gun down to just two fingers.

If you're really of a mind to try it out, go get a timer and do something like a Bill Drill or an El Presidente this way. I'm guessing the numbers will tell the tale.
 
This seems dumb to me, if you care about controlling recoil. If you don't, hell, you can hold the gun upside down and pull the trigger with your little finger. But if you do care about controlling recoil, the last thing you want is to leave the gripping of the gun down to just two fingers.
Click to expand...
Have you ever fired a sub-compact where your little finger is below the magazine? Using the middle finger for the trigger lets all fingers be on the gun. There are serious potential issues if your index finger can protrude past the muzzle or the barrel-cylinder gap, but it can be a useful technique especially for shooting one handed with a sub-compact.

As I said, if I need to pull my Bodyguard 380 from its pocket carry this is the grip I'd use as its "stronger" for a one hand hold and has my index finger ready to activate the laser on the draw. If I expect to draw from a normal holster and assume a two hand hold, it'll be index finger on the trigger as the off hand can activate the laser if it'd be useful. Like any technique, practice is the key and if it don't work for you, don't bother with it.
 
A guy who practices more with his middle finger will always be better than a guy who practices less with his index finger. Practice is what counts. My great grandfather father lost a few fingers in a sawmill accident but could outshoot all of us due to the need to hunt back then and the practice came with it.
 
OK, for anyone who is interested in the data on grip strength (or at least one internet dude's data*), I got out my grip dyno. First, I measured a "baseline" grip strength using the 3 non-index fingers on my right hand, to approximate gripping force available when running a gun with a normal strong-hand grip; my index finger was held out straight.

Then I held both the index and middle finger off the grip, to simulate a middle-finger-on-trigger grip. The force I was able to exert was 45% of the 3-finger grip. In other words, I lost more than half of my available grip strength. That's terrible. Giving up a middle finger's gripping power appears to be a terrible idea if you care about recoil control.

Next, in order to consider the case of tiny guns that simply don't permit 3-finger grips at all, I tested a grip holding both the index and little/pinky finger off the grip. This was 50% of the regular 3-finger force. Still terrible, although marginally better than the pinky-and-ring-only grip. So, for pistols that are so small you can't get all 3 non-index fingers on the grip, letting the pinky dangle is about 10% better than moving the index finger up in terms of straight grip strength. That's without counting any recoil control coming from curling the pinky under the grip, which I think would add to the measured advantage of the pinky-drop that uses the middle finger for gripping, not trigger. But that's at least in a zone where maybe for some rare individuals or weird guns maybe, maybe there's a plausible claim that recoil control might be kinda in the same ballpark with the middle finger running the trigger. Maybe.

For any gun where you can get your whole hand on the grip, it is not close. If you care about gripping ability on the gun (which is the primary determinant of recoil control), use all 3 fingers to grip and use the index finger like a sensible primate. Forget this middle finger triggering nonsense.

Note: This data would have no bearing on rifles or shotguns where strong hand grip strength plays little or no role in recoil control. And if you truly didn't care about recoil control with a handgun, this might also be irrelevant.

* I'm an early-40's male with no disability regarding hands or hand strength. I have moderately strong hands for a member of the general populace, and average to maybe slightly above average grip strength for a fairly avid handgun shooter. Others may have different experiences, but I think I am likely to be a reasonable approximation of "typical" for purposes of this experiment.
 
Well....I just reached over and picked up a K-Frame sized revolver next to my monitor, checked that it was unloaded, checked again, then grasped it with the middle finger on the trigger. First thing I noticed was that when I pointed it at the lock on a near by filing cabinet and pulled the trigger was that my pointer finger was dragging on the cylinder. Next I took a good look and my pointer finger was beyond the cylinder window and though at the bottom of said window past the barrel cylinder gap.

Hmmm. Doesn't sound good right there.

Picked up a mid sized auto from the gun cabinet and did the same. Finger ended up against the bottom edge of the slide and I got to thinking about those several inches of 90 degree corner steel sliding a inch and a half very quickly in one direction and then the other across my flesh. It also reminded me of the sort of MALFs one gets when using a high thumb grip on some semi autos with slide drag. Also put my pointer finger a half inch closer to where that hot and sharp mouthed brass flys out pretty fast.

Again......Hmmmm.

I am reminded of a buddy of mine, 6 foot Four pick up the basket ball one handed type he was. He was sure this was the way to shoot a High Standard DA derringer. I have to admit he did hit the soda can five yards away he "pointed at". I then helped him treat the burn and cut on the pad near the tip of his pointer finger where it had been past the muzzle and unloaded the remaining round from the derringer.

Over the years I joshed him about this by holding various small autos with the pointer finger extended so the tip of my finger was beyond the muzzle and asking questions like "D'ya think .32ACP would cut and burn as bad as .22 Magnum?"

When I was a pre teen kid I tried pointing my air pistol this way after two different family members (one from each side) suggested it. I did not find that it worked any better than just pointing the gun normally and when I played with a sheet of paper found my groups spread horizontally (left to right) and I believe this is because when shooting under stress that the pointer finger DID tend to curl with the middle finger.

Yes I have seen folks shoot, and even hit, this way.

No thank, you I will not.

-kBob
 
daniel craig said:
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.
Click to expand...

"Craig-style" eh? Never tried it. Now that you have put the idea into my head I'll try it at least once.
 
Back in the '60s, my late uncle was a cab driver in Chicago. He habitually carried a High Standard .22 magnum derringer.

One day one of his fairs tried to stick him up.

He grabbed what the robber was pointing at him and began wrestling him for it, this being LONG before bullet proof partitions.

While they were fighting, the cab ran up on the sidewalk and into the wall of a dry cleaners.

The wouldbe robber bolted and my uncle took a shot at him with the High Standard... pulling the trigger with his middle finger... with his index finger partially masking one of the barrels.

He shot himself in the finger, breaking it, and missed the robber.

Returning to his cab, he found the robber's "gun", a water pistol.

No, I only use my index finger to pull triggers.

I would probably modify this somewhat if I were to own a PIAT...
 
I was taught the technique by an elderly European gent who carried a Walther. It didn't work for me so I never gave it another thought.
 
My forefinger is not long enough to have gotten burnt by my High Standard DA derringer while pulling the trigger with the middle finger. The technique worked for me.
I traded off the gun when I realized it was so convenient to carry that I was depending on two shots for self defense.
 
As mentioned, you are going to lose mass amounts of grip strength and recoil control in all situations doing this, not to mention the ergonomic issues that will be variable based on the pistol. This is an all around horrible idea.
 
There will generally be no problem using an auto pistol that way, but if you also shoot revolvers, don't get mixed up or you could lose the tip of the index finger.

Jim
 
I saw a gentleman shooting using the middle finger for trigger/index for indexing the pistol technique once. All I can say politely is it proved a couple of things for me:

1) 99% of the time you can ignore the "sage advice" of somebody using such an unusual technique when it isn't due to any handicaps or physical issues. This rolls up into the "if you want to be good, learn what the great shooters do."
2) Pointing your index finger is NOT a precision reference point. The. End.
3) If you carry a pistol with a thumb safety, you'd best be danged sure you practice disengaging and re-engaging it habitually! His first shot wouldn't go and it took some time before he remembered to flip the safety off. Buzzer Brain in action.
 
In the early 1960s actor Vic Morrow signed on to the WW2 tv series "COMBAT!" to play Sgt. Saunders. His character wound up with a 1928 Thompson. Morrow was born lacking the last joint in his right hand trigger finger, and wound up using his middle finger to shoot on the series.
 
I have tried this method at the range a couple times and was not too impressed, but then it is meant for quick point shooting anyway. Interestingly there is a Danish movie called Terribly Happy where the main character, a police officer, uses this technique. I thought it was an interesting tidbit that, if intentional, showed a real eye to detail.
 
I've seen footage of frontoviks fighting for the Motherland during the Great Patriotic War using their middle fingers to pull the trigger on their three line rifles.
 
daniel craig said:
Has anyone tried this style of shooting a semi auto?
Click to expand...

Yes many thousands have tried it, written about it and spoken about it. If you have fingers missing it's the way to go. If you don't have missing fingers then don't mess with it, that is the general consensus of the many.
 
Senseless idea, sacrificing grip to use a less dexterous finger while the correct finger does nothing except possibly cause a malfunction or sustain an injury.
I point at things with me index finger too but I'm not sure how accurate it is.
 
The problem with things like this is that techniques don't always work as well with everyone. Even the standard, accepted, or 'normal' ways.
Ever meet a true master of just about anything? There are exactly two methods of that. 1) They took the standard methods and applied practice, talent, practice, and practice, or 2) they're doing something different, that doesn't work for everyone else--and those it would work for hadn't learned it. And then they practiced the heck out of that.

Try it out. See if it works. It may be something that works better than usual for you or it may be a little quirk of the muscular system or your brainmeats that let you overcome a shortcoming in your own training or muscle memory. Just don't let it detract from improving along established methods.

On an aside, I can see that method for point-shooting a pistol, but it just seems like it would be terribly awkward with a rifle. Even worse with a shotgun. It's not even how people would naturally grip it the first time before thinking about it.
 
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