I'm in the process of stamping grit dot's to put on all my pistols to have a consistent, spot for my trigger finger to register on, through out my auto's.

Then I started thinking about my small revolver's. Tt always seems like it takes a hard, conscious thought for me to keep my dang finger out of the trigger guard, whenever I pick up a J frame, or other small revolver. Anyone else notice this or have this tendency?

I never realized how bad it was til just recently. Just seems so natural to want to put it there when you pick it up.

My 638's getting a gritty dot, snap caps and lot's of basic, safe handling practice handling practice. I need to develop a practiced, unvaried, instinctive, placement of the booger hook away from the bang switch, until the gun is fully in my hand and 3x checked for empties.

This need's to become instinct, without conscious thought.This feels natural to me on full sized auto's, not so much small revolvers, I hate to say it, but most all revolver trigger guards, have a strange attraction to my finger.

I'm not saying I violate trigger discipline. Just that it should not require any conscious thought on my part.... Gritty dot's on most of my handguns sounds like a good idea and teach myself instinctive discipline in both revolvers and auto's. Put the dang finger here each time. This should help to teach myself to keep my finger on the dot on each platform with tactile feedback.

This is not something that I'm afflicted with...any time I pick up a gun my finger naturally indexes along the frame above the trigger guard...be it a revolver, semi-auto, or even a long gun. It's how I was trained and I've never deviated from it over the years. It's actually part of the reason I hate ambi safeties on ARs because the lever on the wrong side of the receiver gets in the way of where my finger is supposed to go.

It's good that you realize it's a problem and are taking steps to fix it. Forcing yourself to make sure you do it right every time is the only way you will train yourself out of a bad habit. If putting gritty dots on the gun helps you do this, I say go for it!

I’m with 92Fstech on this. I have the same trigger finger discipline on all firearm types. Also, like he said, it’s great that you recognize the problem and are working to correct it. I switch between a Jframe and 365 for carry so I understand what you are saying about different types of carry pieces.

92fstech, as a left handed long gun shooter, I was so used to non-ambi safeties on my duty rifles that now when I shoot with my ambi safety rifles I still swing my thumb to the other side of the grip to throw the safety…old habits…

Well, beats dropping a round to make you aware but now that your conscious of it, makes it that much easier to force a new habit ..

I can’t signal my virtue by claiming that I’ve never touched the trigger of a firearm before the decision to fire, partially because I’m an old guy who’s been handling guns for more than 60 years, but some comments about the issue.

First, for at least some of us, the “No toucha da trigger” safety rule became a thing in our living memory. When I first started promoting that practice from my position in Army CID headquarters, I pointed out in an in-house article that one of the Secret Service agents who was handling an Uzi during the Reagan murder attempt was being careful to keep his finger out of the trigger guard. I.e., in ca. 1984 it was still an uncommon enough concern for me to remark about it.

And why was it uncommon, or not a concern at all for most shooters? A large part, I believe, was how guns were typically used. Many gun owners today may not realize that carrying and handling guns in every day use was very unusual except in certain situations: hunting, formal competitions, and recreational shooting. At one time regular (legal) carry by anyone who was not an LEO was so unusual that NRA’s American Rifleman magazine was so squeamish about the practice that they included “We’re not advocating the practice unless legal” caveats in their articles about holsters that were suitable for concealed carry.

The situations in which non-LEOs handled guns were usually limited in time and place, and although keep your finger off the trigger would have been a good rule at any time, it simply wasn’t taught very often, if at all, and probably because it wasn’t a danger very often. This is obvious from the videos and photos of military and police personnel from earlier eras. In addition, attitudes about unintentional discharges have changed greatly over time. Today’s career-ending or even criminally-charged event would have often been viewed as, “Oh, well, those things happen,” in the past.

Military personnel of course handled small arms frequently, but much of the time they weren’t loaded. For example, in the 1980s company pay officers who handled the cash that was still sometimes used for payday payments were required to be armed with pistols—M1911A1 pistols whose chambers were empty and hammers were uncocked in the “Israeli” manner. No one fretted about how someone handled a gun in that condition.

In the case of revolvers, especially certain types, there’s more than common practice and culture at work. First is that there’s no danger of an unintentional discharge of the traditional SAA single action revolver unless the hammer is cocked first. Pull on the trigger all we want, and nothing will happen. Double action (actually DA/SA) revolvers are also very forgiving of having their triggers touched because of the long, heavy pull required to fire them, again unless cocked. I’m pretty sure that the incidents of unintentional discharges skyrocketed when police agencies started switching from DA revolvers to Glock pistols for that reason. The habits remained the same, but the guns were different.

Even today, though, revolver design and operation may contribute to a tendency to ignore the no touch rule, especially if the user knows that a mere touch won’t fire the gun because they require a long, heavy double action pull, or perhaps even be manually cocked first.

Another thing is that revolvers are often muzzle heavy and as they sit in the hand it’s simply easier to help keep them from rotating down by including the index finger for the support, especially if the grip is a “round butt” style. And the index finger is pretty much useless for support unless it’s on the trigger. I can hold my muzzle heavy S&W model 686 or Ruger Old Army without touching the trigger for support, but finger on the trigger makes it much easier and, to admit the truth, without much danger. These days I’m good and do the right thing, but it’s harder to avoid with such guns than with an AR or P320.

Sigfreund I think you hit the nail on the head saying the revolver wants to rotate down and I naturally want to control that. Index finger almost useless for support...it's all making sense now. This is absolutely why my finger seeks out the trigger guard. Thank you. Gun handling comes up against the different ergonomics of the revolver.

Most of my revolver handling is J-Frames these days, and although one of my "regulars" is a steel 3" gun, it's still not as muzzle heavy as some of the larger guns. That said, I've found that if I extend my index finger onto the frame up against the bottom of the cylinder, it provides that desired forward support without necessitating placing my finger inside the trigger guard.

And yes, the DA pull on a wheel gun is much heavier than that of most semi-autos, especially the striker-fired varieties, but I still think it's safer and better practice to maintain trigger discipline across all platforms.