I need a coach

[JohnH]

I'm working on improving my off hand shooting. I can poke holes and ring steel all day, that may not make me a better shooter. Currently the loads I plink with average 1 1/2" at 50 yards off a bench. These are genuine plinkers, unsized, pan lubed sorted only for gross visual defects and the charge varies by +/- 2 tenths grains. Using a flake powder, I weigh check my charges only to detect low charge weight.

Currently, standing on my hindlegs, no sling and not resting my left elbow on my hip I'm shooting anything from 2.5" to 4", but there is no consistancy. I have a pig for NRA Hunter Pistol (50 meter target) that I can ring consistanly 90%, and 100% with first shot, but I want to get to 100% all around. I want to get to a consistant 2-2.5" group. (I shoot ten round groups) How do I get there? What kind of practice will make perfect practice?

Due to 30 years of smoking 2 or more packs a day, I can't breath right. (It's been 2 1/2 years since I smoked and I still can't hold my breath more than 30 or 40 seconds, so B R A S (breath, relax, aim, squeeze) is an excercise of it's own.

So anyway, the question remains, how do I get 5% better. Anyone willing to be a long distance coach?

[beagle]

Shoot some small bore rifle for several years and you'll get really good.

When I was in the Army we'd go to the big matches and shoot high power as we didn't have enough shooters to field two teams.

The guys that shot small bore tore up the old time shooters on offhand but they'd get their licks back in in the timed and rapid fire stages.

Shoot offhand for 2-3 hours a day for 5 days every week and it gets fairly easy.

I recall Charles Askins saying that being Nation Pistol Champ wasn't hard. All it took was 100,000 rounds a year of practice.

Now, that's business and shooting cast is fun so there's no reason to not enjoy it./beagle

[KCSO]

Concentrate on each shot as you make it and when the hammer falls forget it. I have seen so many people blow a good group or a good score by worrying where the last shot went or counting their score before the last shot is in. I just came back from our spring muzzleloading shoot and I could almost predict who was going to win by their comments on the line. The fellow that would say now I just need another 8 or 9 to beat so and so didn't get it. They were too focused on could be, to put the shots in the black. I was taught, and try to teach, consistancy. If you can keep all your shots in the black you are sure of 45 at least and usually 47 or 48. You can only do that if you concentrate on each shot like it is the only shot you will make. I once blew a perfect score at a pistol match because of a fly. We were shooting on an outdoor range and I thought i had, and did have a perfect score, but I saw a black spot in the 7 ring and thought I blew a shot. It bothered me so that I did blow a shot by looking at the spot, which turned out to be a fly on the target, rather than watching the sights.

[felix]

Here is an important phycho technique that really works. When ready to squeeze, pretend you are at the target PULLING the boolit through at that SPOT. This assumes you have enough hours of physical control experience.

Casius Clay said he aimed at the clock on the wall so he will have a constant target. He did not strike his challenger until the latter got exactly in front of the clock's view. The clock was his target and his fist was the boolit to be PULLED through the paper.

Once I read and heard that story, I personally practice it whenever I think about it.

felix

[sundog]

John, one of the reasons I have been doing well at the military bolt matches lately, besides finally 'discovering' a good load, is a conscious return to basics. You mentioned them, but there is one more that Felix kinda eluded to, in a way. FOLLOW THROUGH. It's a mind game. Pulling the boolit through the target is his way of doing it. Me? It's visualizing sticking my index finger on the ten ring and holding it there until I have a hole. After all, that's why God gave us index fingers, for pointing (and picking noses). Right? Another thing - TECHNIQUE. Get every thing the same way every time and be ruthless about detail regardless of shooting position and be sure your sequence is consistent. If you have to, make notes and build a checklist. Use the checklist until it becomes etched in memory. If you get interupted by a fly on the target, back off, take a breath or two, and start over. Bad habits are hard to break. Good habits are easy to enforce.

One of the most distracting things is waiting for the wind or changing light conditions as you have no control over it other than time, and that has to be factored in and you need to be ready to go when conditions dictate. Nothing like getting anal just for putting holes in a piece of paper, huh? sundog

btw, If you want something that will REALLY make you think about what you're doing, become an NRA certified rifle instructor..., even if you never teach anyone else to shoot! Immersion.

[DOUBLEJK]

John

I'm surprized with the high quality shootin' of lotsa folks on this here place of wizdom....
No ones mentioned it yet... but back when I was shootin' fer trophies insteada fer fun...
On the weeks I spent 10-30min. per day dry firing my chosen instrument at a small dot on my hallway wall my scores were easily 5% better mostly lots better...
Than on the weeks it sat in the gun safe from Sunday evenin' till Sun up Sunday the next week...;-)

[BLTsandwedge1]

Hate to tell you fellas......every post here- with a tiny bit of re-working- constitutes the latest and best teaching techniques.......in golf.

Regards........................