Trigger freeze

[Shaun Hopkins]

Usually trigger freeze blights me once or twice a round resulting in a miss by miles although sometimes lucky enough to still break the clay, although it does not affect my scores to much a lost bird is often the difference between first and second or even being pushed out of the prize money altogether, But today shooting a round at greenfields it happened about five times on various stands each time resulting in a miss lucky for me it was just a practice but equally frustrating. If anyone has ever suffered with this and managed to cure it please pass on anything you think may help...

 

[WelshKen]

You need to speak to Optima, I'm sure he had the same problem but I think he found a cure.

 

[Will Hewland]

I must state that it only happens to me slightly and occasionally. However, I have heard of two things that assist. Firstly, try shooting using the middle finger to operate the trigger.

In an extreme case, success came from a practice round where the shooter didn't use cartridges. Just shouted 'bang' at the clays. After 100 of those, shooting them for real wasn't an issue.

Just stuff to try, I'm not an expert..

 

[Fuzrat]

Get in touch with Phil Coley at http://www.clayshootingsuccess.co.uk/ I know he is doing some really in-depth research into trigger freeze and the causes and can probably help

 

[Hawkeye]

Phil Coley , on here , has been researching this problem I believe.

 

[Hawkeye]

beat me to it Fuz

 

[GlenPresley]

People I have seen suffering from this is due to them shooting too many heavy loads and severe recoil in general. They are bsically freezing because they know whats coming in the form of heavy recoil.

Glen.

 

[bob]

I have only suffered from this once and that was when my gun I had owned a number of years came off face and started kicking me, I bought a new gun and the flinch went, I only shoot dtl 300 carts which are very soft so I guess a punchy shell may have the same effect.

 

[Hamster]

Yep, it's almost always recoil related but fear of missing can be a blight too. It can be a very serious affliction if you don't do something about it so maybe a drop down to 24g along with a good hard look at your gun fit particularly around the cheek might be a good idea. I had it for a few weeks once but that was thankfully 20 years ago, no magic cure just bits here and there.

A green Izzard pad and a 6mm sorbothane sheet for the stock is a small price to pay for a start. You may be over concentrating on the birds a bit too and mentally beating yourself up a bit?!

 

[Shaun Hopkins]

See where your coming from Glen but never really suffered from recoil or the fear,, having shot many different shells some more punchy then others but shoot eley supurbs now and find them very smooth through my DT10 problem with trigger freeze in my case is how random it is, sometimes its the last shot before a straight on a stand resulting in a nine or could just as easy be the begining or middle of a stand add to this i never seem to suffer with nerves even with digweed standing behind which could put most off!!......... answers on a postcard

 

[Shaun Hopkins]

Fit could could cause it i guess Hamster but as you know i had a pfs fitted to my 682 and was a keen member of the adjust every week club plus what with the recoil reduction as you would agree very little compared to solid wood stocks interesting about the fear of missing though as i find this my biggest downfall most weeks..

 

[Hamster]

This is quite a big issue apparently in the USA where they routinely shoot 32g shells and even through heavy guns they seem to believe recoil is the primary cause; more often than not the trap shooters then have to switch to release triggers which seemingly helps.

When it happened to me I wasn't in any pain either and had already been using the old action 682 for a while and went on to for many years after. Do you have access to another gun to see if that makes any difference? It's a damn good way of finding out, you can have a full round with the Zoli to see if you like, it's all tricked up as you know with a reducer. At the end of the day it's either recoil or fear of missing, can't think of any other causes put forward when discussing this problem.

 

[EdSolomons]

Get your eyes tested- another one to add to the list of possibles above.

 

[Salopian]

I have written an article about this before, it should be on Phil Coley's website.

 

[Salopian]

Shaun DT10,

Just checked, and my article about trigger freeze is on Phil's website, under Peter Harris Blogs, date April 2012.

You will find things you identify with and ideas to rectify. As said earlier Phil Coley would like to hear from sufferers to enable him to identify causes and help to find a cure.

It sounds, from what you have already said like it may be triggered (pardon the pun) by fear of failure.

Relax, take a chill pill, it's only a game.

 

[psych4shooting]

Shaun DT10,

Just checked, and my article about trigger freeze is on Phil's website, under Peter Harris Blogs, date April 2012.

You will find things you identify with and ideas to rectify. As said earlier Phil Coley would like to hear from sufferers to enable him to identify causes and help to find a cure.

It sounds, from what you have already said like it may be triggered (pardon the pun) by fear of failure.

Relax, take a chill pill, it's only a game.

Yes please anyone suffering from it, there is no conclusive evidence that there is one thing that causes trigger freeze or there is one symptom. I am working with a number of shots, those who do and those that don`t have trigger freeze, please help with the research by getting in touch. The research study starts on the 1st September for an intial 12 months, the more people who volunteer (no names are ever used or seen, except by me) the better the results. I am doing this to get fact related evidence on the causes, then to look at solutions. There has never been a study like this ever carried out, so please all support.

 

[VicW]

A few years ago the CPSA were looking for volunteers for an insight into trigger freeze and a friend of mine was selected as sufferer.

As a result he met up with Lesley Goddard and lo and behold his trigger freeze was cured.I think hypnosis was involved.

Vic.

 

[Skeet UK]

You may be over concentrating on the birds a bit too and mentally beating yourself up a bit?!

I have had this a few times. Just recently too. I didn't miss this time, but I broke it late.

I think you are right about the over-thinking...I am definitely doing that at the moment...with all that going on, it is no wonder my brain forgets to pull the trigger!

I do shoot with a guy who has it so bad, for whatever reason, that his trigger now operates on release, not pulling...seems to work for him.

 

[Shaun Hopkins]

Thanks for all the imput guys keep it coming!! interesting to see how soon a pattern begins to emerge as far as tension is concerned resulting from the fear of missing, oddly enough personally it never seems to occur on the real tough targets but more so the very easy ones and always the second barrel..... Thanks for your reply Phil would be happy to help with your research will email you with my details and look forward to making a start in september, in the meantime will make a log of every instance including target type, mental state (i.e tiredness) and anything else that i feel could contribute..