Rika Trigger Sensor

[funtoz]

In light of the trigger chasing sight versus sights chasing trigger discussions, I'm considering adding the trigger sensor to my Rika. There was quite a bit of bad press for the sensor in the past. Has anyone been able to get it working with an air pistol yet?

Larry

[Ed Hall]

The trouble with the trigger sensor wasn't Air Pistols, per se, but two-stage triggers. The difference in weight between the stages made it relatively insensitive for the small window of change in the second stage. If you can set up the sensor to only detect the second stage, you might be able to gain the resolution needed. The following is speculation only, since I don't have a trigger sensor to play with, but you might try to load the first stage prior to turning on the Rika, then see if you can get the trace to involve only the second stage. I don't know if this will work or not, but it might be worth a try by someone who has the trigger sensor already. I wouldn't purchase a sensor without finding out first. If you have a single stage trigger, the sensor should work fine and will allow you to see what effect your trigger operation has on the trace as well as whether it is in fact steadily increasing, or whether it has hesitations (or even relaxes) in its application.

Take Care,
Ed Hall
http://www.airforceshooting.org/
http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/

[Richard H]

The RIka trigger sensor is pretty useless. A collegue of mine has a Scatt trigger sensor and it is much better, its a true load sell and you take your tirgger off and bolt this one in place. I don't know if they sell it yet or not (don't see it on their website).

[John Ariani]

I've been using the trigger sensor this past month. It appears to be giving me an okay reading and with this discussion an opportunity to ask some questions as I'm not sure what the graph of the trigger pressure is supposed to look like. The rika data on the trigger sensor is given as a percentage of maximium 100% pull. Mine is showing continuos increasing pressure but over a very long period of time. I take up some trigger pressure on the lift to the aim area and this registers as around 40%. During a 10second lift, settle and then shot release, the pressure percentages level out with about 5 seconds before shot release and the increases are there, but very marginal. For instance the last five seconds may read: 75%,80%,90%,90%,100%. Rika provides the pressure for the last second in tenths of a second and my 10 reading for this last second are usually always 97% - 100% - more like a finger freeze? So overall my graph has a very long plateau of 90% - 100% for the last 3 seconds. As an experiment I tried aligning the sights and squeezing the trigger in a steady but swift motion to see how long it took me and was surprised it took around two seconds, often a little more. The last 5 seconds would then read 80%,85%,85%,95%, 100%. My perception was it felt very rushed and the shot result/hold trace was poor. Strange for me but I thought the time I took to squeeze the trigger was about half a second, so when I replayed the shot and saw two seconds, it's left me confused. Whilst it appears that not a lot of the forum users are familiar or use the rika trigger sensor, I'm sure you could give me some valuable advice on what sort of pressure and over what sort of time period I should be working on.
Ed. A long time ago you posted about blank target training with the rika and keeping the trace and subsequent shot release (especially the last second) concentric. (I lifted the instructions from your web site) This is a wonderful exercise with perfect feedback on hold, alighnment and the effect of squeezing the trigger over the last second. I'm doing it daily, and it is showing me that my hold and alignment in that final second is more often than not, affecting my trace. I think I may be anticipating the shot releasing as I'm trying to make the squeeze of the trigger consistant everytime. But by doing this I'm 'knowing' when the release comes. I'm still doing too much conscious thinking I guess?

[2650 Plus]

Please let me remind you of what Steve says about thinking. You have to think of something so think about sight allignment. There does'nt appear to be any effective alternative. Visualize the movement you want your tr.igger finger to make, order it to do exactly that and never think about trigger finger again until after the hammer/ striker falls.Spend that time on perfecting sight allignment. I hope I'm not getting ahead of myself incorperating the entire shot process in your trigger training program, If I am just take your red pencil and line out what you don't need. Good Shooting. Bill Horton