Chapter 288 - Training - A handshake?! (1/2)

”The wall.” I widened my eyes as I repeated what I said.

”Yeah, I heard you but what is it?” he looked at me, eager to learn.

”Okay, let me borrow that and show everyone. Not just Iskoh but all of you are shooting from the slack and not the wall.” I said as I took his gun.

They all gathered around me and I told them to watch my trigger press. I cleared the chamber first and removed the magazine though I'm still pointing the gun to where the targets were. The pad of my finger is now on top of the trigger and I'm slowly pressing it until I meet the wall of resistance after the slack.

”See it?” I asked them.

”I see no difference.” Roque is shaking his head.

I let go of the trigger and did the same thing again.

”See it?” I asked again.

”Umm, is it the thingy where you could press it and it would still not fire?” Jade raised her hand.

”Oh, that 'thingy' your referring to is called the slack. I guess this is something you all need to feel. Clear your guns first and try to press through the slack until you reach some resistance. It varies from gun to gun so what I'm showing with Iskoh's 1911 can't be the same for your guns. Iskoh, try it again. Feel it first and burn in your head as to where it is.” I replied as I handed him back his gun.

All of them, even Rod, is slowly pressing their triggers and some of them succeeded in finding the wall. However, some of them would press too much and would actually dry-fire it.

”Oh~ found it~ It's this, right?” Micah looked at me.

”So it's the point where it gets a bit harder to press...” Roque muttered, holding his chin.

”Yeah, I encourage you to practice that each time you draw and point it, before you shoot, it would be right up to the wall and not the slack.” I replied.

”Sure, but why? It still shoots the same, right?” Roque said, curious.

”Not quite...” Iskoh trailed.

”Best way to explain it is to try it for yourself, right? Shoot at the targets a few more times but make sure to do it as I instructed. You don't need to shoot fast yet, only proper. You guys have a few more things to adjust in shooting but we'd tackle it one by one.” I said to them.

They shot a couple of rounds and Iskoh immediately felt the difference.

”Doing that makes me yank it less... right?” Iskoh looked at me half-guessing and I nodded.

”Yeah, proper trigger management could also help you to shoot faster and accurately. Sometimes, when you pull it from the slack, like you said, you could yank it to different directions and it would make you miss.” I replied.

”Hah! You still have a lot to learn Iskoh!” Rod mocked him, laughing.

”Yeah~ you have a problem too.” I scratched my head.

”What?! I'm hitting them perfectly, aren't I?!” Rod was shocked.

”You're aiming way down. Can't you see most of your shots are lower than the nose? It wouldn't matter as much close range but when we go to the middle range and above, problems would appear. What you're doing is anticipating or timing the recoil incorrectly. Don't drive your gun down just before you shoot or else all your shots would go lower or farther than what you're aiming at. Just hold it tight and drive it back to the target after it recoils. I'm not telling you to wait for the gun to settle but drive it down after you shoot, not before. You would be able to shoot much faster and more accurate that way,” I explained.

”Well son of a bitch, f.u.c.k me.” Rod is shaking his head.

A few soldiers and residents that have nothing to do started to make a small semi-circle around us to try to listen in to what I'm teaching.

”Is there anything wrong with me you could point out?” Jade asked me.

”For you, since you've just been learning for the first time like Roque, practicing more if you could is the way to go. The only thing I've noticed is that you're holding your gun a bit low and loose. Hold it up as much as you can up to that tail just before the slide and grip it as tight as you can so it won't veer off. You could place the fingers of your supporting hand right on the grooves in between the fingers of your other hand aside from just on top of it so you would have a tighter fit.” I replied.