I got within 5ft. of the target and focused on just squeezing the trigger
I am going to go against the grain here
You should not be squeezing the trigger. What you should be doing is hooking the trigger in the second knuckle as Doug has said previously but instead of squeezing your finger use your back muscles to fire the trigger.
But for mine if a release hangs up then its trashed and out comes the back up release.
As we all know we should carry more than 1 release whether its hunting or 3d.