General Update for Week 14-18/12/09

Have not gotten around to blogging individual training sessions recently. As such, this is a general purposes update to keep useful information logged.

I recently attempted to change the buttons on my jacket, since it has now broken in and shifted about slightly. After some time and quite a bit of help, I achieved more form-fitting jacket arrangement. This, however, was not beneficial, and particularly for prone, was considerably less comfortable. A crease down the left of my jacket in the standing position is completely removed in the prone position when the trigger hand comes around. I reverted to the original button placements and my shooting returned to its previous state. The jacket will remain in its current settings until I find that there's a serious issue or until new information presents itself.

Onto training itself, it's followed a rather predictable pattern lately. The standard of shooting has been very good, shooting at a single aiming mark. In most cases, eight or nine shots of a ten-shot group will fall in the ten ring, though there have been cases where as many as four fell out. Actually shooting cards for postal competitions has been less good. I can't seem to shoot more than 97/100. Can't seem to shoot less, mind. Last four or five cards at least I've shot have all been 97s. One might be a 96, but I'm fairly confident. Results on a single aiming mark would indicate that competition results on electronics or Gehmann boxes will be more successful. I can only hope that this proves to be the case.

I've been working on my new position and setup. I haven't had to tweak anything, but it's a good position. It's simple, relatively straight, high enough not to be risky, solid and comfortable, but with no delicate points which require the sensitivity of touch and control that my previous, very low one did. It's also, as I've said before, removed a lot of the issues I had with cant. The biggest thing I've found lately is a new method of placing the trigger hand elbow. This arose from discovering the significance of keeping my wrist straight into the pistol grip. The trick is to grip the pistol grip, straighten the arm to the elbow, and let it fall straight down with no extension outwards from the side of my body apart from that generated by the height of my position. This has been very effective and has resulted in marginal nines falling into the ten ring, generally well into it. Most of my tens are good, deep centre tens. I would estimate that over two thirds of my shots are centre tens, probably nearing three quarters. In addition, the nines are almost always very close; I would say 9.7 or better. This is indicative of an overall improvement in shooting technique, which is fast progressing.

On to equipment, I've been trying to find the perfect foresight element size for my standard training range in Trinity, and, predictably, it's the one that makes a gap in my collection. (3.9 isn't right. 4.1 isn't quite right either. But there's no 4.0 in the box) so I've borrowed one from the DURC toolbox. This has been of benefit. Previously, my eyes had tired over long series of shooting and lost definition in the sight picture while using s 3.9, while the 4.1 just shows too much light and my groups open up slightly. The 4.0, while a standard metal insert rather than my usual plastic and glass elements, is perfect.

This leads on to my next issue. I need to replace my sights. My rearsight is a not particularly reliable old Anschutz unit, which has been proving deficient in sensitivity since last year. In the Isle of Man last year, I noticed that I couldn't quite click into the centre. 10.6s at seven o'clock turned into 10.5s and 10.6s at one or two o'clock with one click up. I'm planning to buy a Centra rearsight when I have some spare cash. In addition, I'm planning to buy an adjustable foresight, in order to have the facility to combat eye fatigue through long matches and to quickly and easily decide on the appropriate foresight element size for varying light conditions on the day. I've been intending to get a 22mm foresight in order to facilitate future use of an extension tube should I go down that route in the future. I've gotten a different trigger blade from a generous donor which I intend to experiment with. I've yet to try it on my prone rifle, but I've quite liked comparable triggers when shooting air rifle and expect excellent results.

For the next short while, I'm on holidays, so will have more opportunity to train outdoors, and will hopefully be able to post good results from some 50m shooting. I intend to shoot a couple of full matches in the near future, which will give me an indication of my current standard. I've sent the NTSA an Expression of Interest for the World Cup in Belgrade, the World Championships and the University Shooting Championships for the coming year, so I'll be continuing to train four times a week for the rest of the year, barring times when academic work absolutely precludes it. It should be possible for the foreseeable future however, and in the vast majority of cases. My goal of 585 in the Isle of Man Easter Shoot still stands. I'm forsaking my intention to attend the Grand Prix in Plzen due to proximity of exams and financial pressure due to my intention to attend the aforementioned events, scores permitting. 585 in Sinclair would be indicative of the strong likelihood of a better performance at a less difficult range. We remain optimistic for the time being! Hopefully my next few 60-shot training matches will be in the 580s on six-bull cards. If they are, I'm well on track and can definitely hope to do so.

Training - Prone - DURC - 7th November 2009

Have been experimenting lately with shooting trousers for prone. I've have some good days and some bad days with and without them. Am beginning to conclude that I'm best off with consistency, and for convenience's sake, I'm going to continue without them for the time being, barring further involvement with three positions.

The objective today was a positional rebuild. What I was looking for was
Tightness
More elevation
Less angled from line of fire

Results were that those were achieved. I shortened the buttplate carrier, brought in the handstop slightly. initially, this wasn't quite right, tension was poor, but I pushed the handstop back out slightly and tightened the sling, keeping the carrier short, and it allowed a good, relatively straight on position, with good tension.

A bonus effect was that a good deal of the cant I've been trying to reduce on my setup disappeared. The buttplate carrier is still canted, but the system has been made simpler and this will hopefully transfer to easier control under match conditions, less sensitivity and ultimately, better scores.

Shot some groups with the setup, which were very promising for initial testing. I was also looking for greater comfort in my wrist from the elevated position, and this was definitely a major benefit. I spent forty shots in position between groups and a card, and comfort was massively improved. If I improve my tempo and train for it, a whole match without a break is conceivable now. The card was only a 96, but the tens were dead centre, consistently, and the 9s were just slightly out, due to small variations in vertical cheek pressure. I need to play very delicately with my cheekpiece setting, seems to have changed by a couple of millimetres by raising the position. Might get a training session in later, in which case I'll see how solid I can get it. It's the last thing I need to tighten with the rebuild, and then it'll be a case of learning the subtleties of it and shooting in it a lot.

The new jacket is fully broken in now. As such, the buttons have shifted and are no longer quite perfectly positioned. I'm going to go down to the range tonight and get some help with that. Hopefully will improve things further.

Aims of This

This is a blog to act as a training diary for my target shooting ambitions. It'll hopefully contain photos and regular, detailed analysis of my training.

To start with, I'm an Irish target shooter, shooting the three Olympic rifle events, along with a few other shooting sports. My primary shooting interest is in 50m Prone Rifle however, and most of my training will be detailing this. I'll also hopefully have some commentary on my forays into 10m air rifle and 50m three positions rifle.

That's all for now. Going to get started with a proper training entry in a few minutes, so will hopefully manage to keep this on track now.