Don Nygord's Notes

I came across this webpage while perusing the web and found some very interesting reading from one of the all time shooting greats. I was fortunate to meet Mr. Nygord a few times at his home in the Los Angeles, CA area and this brought back some long forgotten memories of discussions I had with him when I first wandered into this sport a couple of decades ago.
I was a little surprised that I could not find any mention or link to this page on the forum, but here it is anyway. Enjoy!
NYGORD'S NOTES

Tony

I still have one of his pellet sizers, from when I was shooting International matches.  Got to shoot with him when we lived in California years ago.

Half way through reading the notes, lots that I already have read, but some new ideas as well.  Thanks for posting the link.

Maybe these can find a home on the Bullseye Encyclopedia some day, so they're easy for anyone to access?

Thanks again for posting this.  It took me several days, but I eventually read everything, taking two or tries to understand what he meant.

Not sure if I should post this elsewhere, but since it is directly from those notes, I'll ask here.



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From Don Nygord  -  Releasing the Shot (10/01)
 
Now being retired from competition for almost two years, it is interesting to observe the changes in my skills and the effect on my precision shooting due to the lack of concentrated training. The first lesson to be relearned was that trying to use a “breaking glass” crisp trigger will result in some awful slow fire shots! 

The problem with this kind of trigger is that you must be moving your trigger finger throughout the holding and aiming period! But, you cannot do this easily with a super-crisp 2nd stage setup on your trigger. Yet, I would guess that 90% of the “bullseye” shooters try to use this setup and also only begin applying the second stage or final release pressure AFTER they have recognized they are in the “best“ part of their hold! This, ladies and gentlemen, is too late. 

Today, we pretty much understand how the mind controls the body and agree that the sub-conscious aspect of the mind is the controller of all the elements in delivering an aimed shot. The only conscious act by the shooter should be the on-going effort to maintain the best alignment of the sights he can while all else is being coordinated by the sub-conscious. 
It is also my belief that once the sub-conscious has been correctly programmed (by careful training on each element in the shot delivery process) that it will integrate the observed movement of the gun and the movement of the trigger finger as it adds pressure to the trigger and moves to the rear to give you the result you want. However, that finger HAS to be moving! Otherwise there is no pressure/movement curve to integrate with the gun movement. Instead, there is a convulsive movement sometime during the hold — probably due to a conscious effort by the shooter. Not good. 
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For ages, I've been reading the information in The Fundamentals discussion here, and have found one thing after another that seems to be impossible for me to do.  One of them was "moving the trigger".   I was absolutely certain that the trigger on my Model 41 and Model 52 didn't "move" - I was certain that I was just building up enough pressure until suddenly it would "break" (like breaking a piece of glass) and the gun would go CLICK or BANG depending on whether it was loaded.  I was absolutely certain of this.   Then, over the past several months, with endless dry fire over and over and over and over, trying to "feel" what was going on, it suddenly hit me - the trigger WAS moving, and I could actually feel it moving along, and have a good idea of when it might fire based on DISTANCE, not PRESSURE.  

Maybe I'm a slow learner, or maybe I just don't "get" a lot of things, and once again, I read here in the Bullseye Forum what should be happening, but it's not happening to/for me.  Then Brian Zins wrote about using a roll trigger, to be able to sense those things.  Maybe that is what tipped me off, I dunno, but once I recognized what was actually happening, everything changed for me.  



The reason I'm posting this here, is because I'm probably not the only one who this applies to.  The better shooters here probably feel this is just part of shooting.  Truthfully, I don't think I would have EVER become aware of it, but for so much dry firing.    Lots of gems of wisdom in Don's notes.  Probably many have been said over and over, but Don has a nice way of explaining, different from most, and maybe that made it easier for me to recognize what he meant, which many people herehave been saying as well.

Nygord Notes PDF.
- Dave

Mike. welcome! Always a pleasure to share stuff useful to fellow shooters! Some good stuff here!