Surprise Break

If you have not experienced it, you probably have read about it - "the surprise break is always a good shot".

I can recall many times in the past when aiming carefully and the gun suddenly goes off. Then when looking through the spotting scope expecting to see a complete miss there would be a 10 or X!!! Wow, lucky shot I would think. This happens a lot to mid-level shooters, and dare I say, it happens a lot more to highly skilled shooters! If you have not experienced this, you may have read about it or seen it harshly debated in one of the on-line forums. At present, most shooters will not admit to "not knowing when the gun will go bang". Brian Zins very much denies the surprise break, he always knows when his gun will go bang. While the debate is strong against making the claim of a surprise shot, there is enough evidence that more often than not it is a good shot. Myself, I am in the middle of the debate and I think both sides of the argument are correct.

To understand this, let's first look at a critical fundamental, trigger control. Our natural tendency is to pull the trigger the second the sight picture is perfect, commonly called "snatching the shot" or "Grabbing a ten". This thought process is innate or instinct level which is why it is so hard to change. As has been told by nearly every champion level shooter, this is also the wrong thing to do! You think you know when to pull (Jerk) the trigger so you do - meaning you know exactly when the gun should go bang. You have also been told not to jerk the trigger because you will alter your point of aim and the resulting shot will not be a 10.

Now let's take a look at proper trigger control. The trigger should be in constant motion the moment the gun settles in the aiming area until the gun goes bang. Each shooter will execute this motion at a different speed and the speed changes between slow and sustained fire. The difference here is subtle but important to understand. Notice that nothing is mentioned about waiting till the sights are in perfect alignment, nothing is said about stopping the trigger pull till the sight picture gets perfect again, notice that nothing is said about when the gun should go bang. The trigger pull should be a constant motion - specifically in a straight line towards the back of the gun. High level shooters have long since forgotten that when this was occurring to them, it was a surprise break. After countless shots that were a surprise break and countless hours of dry fire, the surprise went away. The intimate feeling of that trigger is so well known that it is now known when the shot will break. However, the process is the same, a controlled and constant pull on the trigger till the gun goes bang.

So, what is the difference between a jerked trigger, a surprise break, and a good shot without a surprise break....

You will jerk the trigger if you pull the trigger the instant you have a perfect sight alignment.

You will have a surprise break if you are applying pressure to the trigger without waiting for perfect alignment

A perfect shot without a surprise break happens when you master the skill of pulling the trigger and maintaining your aiming area.

As of this writing, I am transitioning into knowing when the gun will go bang yet not exactly knowing. More often than not I am pulling the trigger so it is in constant motion, I am maintaining my area of aim, and I am resisting the temptation to finish the pull the instant the sight picture is perfect. I would say half my shots are a surprise break and the other half I know when it will go bang, in other words I still don't have the intimate feel of the trigger. So, for those high level shooters that argue that they always know when the gun will go bang, they do know, but they are also doing exactly what happens in a surprise break - pulling the trigger without forcing the shot when the sight picture is seemingly perfect. They have done it so many times, it is now the natural way of shooting. They have replaced their original innate knowledge with the corrected knowledge and it is no longer a jerk on the trigger or even a surprise break, it is a process with a known beginning and end.

For those that experience the surprise break and get a 10 or X, you are doing exactly what you should be doing. You just have to let go of your innate belief that a perfect shot can only happen with a perfect sight picture thus forcing the shot at that instant and trust in the constant pull and area aiming.