Military triggers of old had what are called 2-stage triggers. The trigger moves freely until it comes to a stop just before the sear "breaks" (fires). Modern sporting rifles have single stage triggers which break without the initial takeup (or are supposed to). Many have "creep", which is sear movement that can be felt before the sear disengages. All rifles have creep (sear movement) or they would not fire, but in a good trigger, creep cannot be felt by the shooter.

Personally, I find creep extremely annoying. I have been working on my own triggers since I began target shooting about 50 years ago. Over the years, I have been quite successful in removing all felt creep in factory bolt action triggers. A challenging trigger I have worked on is in my Encore 209-50. I had it apart again yesterday, since it had the tiniest bit of creep in it's 2.5 lb. trigger pull, and I am determined that there be none. There are no adjustments, so in order to remove creep one must stone surfaces, change the sear notch angle, etc. Testing to insure that the trigger is safe requires reassembling the action repeatedly to see how I am progressing.