Made an effort to resolve a few issues I'd been having today. The top button of my jacket was not properly placed, and would undo itself as it wasn't sufficiently tight. I moved it about half to three quarters of an inch and moved the second button about a third of an inch and the fit is much nicer. I prefer to use only these two for shooting prone, finding it gives me improved space for breathing and comfort, as well as reducing the feeling of contact along both sides. This also had the effect of preventing the sling from dragging, as had been a conspicuous problem, with a well built and comfortable, stable position deteriorating after perhaps twelve to fifteen minutes. This also had the follow-on effect of reducing the truly awful pressure in my forward hand. The rifle sits deeper into the hand now with less suffering. While this has forced me to adopt a mild cant, the pressure on the cheekpiece and solidity in the shoulder is still good. Live fire will, I am sure, reveal strong and consistent recoil patterns. I'd like to invest in a spirit level for the foresight, but funds are prohibitively tight at the moment. I also need to invest in another carrier for the second buttplate, and to develop a system for changing it quickly from standing to kneeling. I don't need raiser blocks for either prone or kneeling, but may well do so when I get around to shooting more standing (probably next week sometime. I want to focus on polishing the prone and improving the kneeling for this week and weekend). I had some photos taken of the position and I'm very happy with how it's composed and oriented, so I'm pressing on with things as they are, keeping the prone skills good and just improving kneeling for this week. I expect I'll shoot both on thursday, and perhaps one each day saturday and sunday. I'd like to shoot a full prone match under improved circumstances to check out the current setup. Also going to shoot it as quickly as possible, breaking shots quickly on first good sight pictures. I must also look into a new set of frames or repairing mine, as the nose-piece has fallen off, and this was causing all sorts of interesting parallax effects at the weekend as they wouldn't stay steadily positioned behind the rearsight.
The kit list for the next while (five months or so) is as follows:
Jacket altered once I reach the weight I'm happy to stay at
Trousers made at the same time (Hopefully after the 50m Nationals in October)
Extra buttplate carrier
Extension tube (I just can't see any wobble in my hold. It will also help with my sight picture as my foresight is of a larger size)
Variable sight raising blocks
There are one or two other little bits. A new sling would be nice, I need a decent visor, wouldn't mind new and better shooting frames with more adjustability for the positioning of the lens. These are all relatively minor however, with the above far more important. Unfortunately, the cost required for the above is fairly substantial. Add in the batch testing in Lapua next spring and the cost of the ammunition itself, as well as hopefully a trip to Munich, and there's a good reason I can't afford a flat for this year. Hopefully it won't affect my training much, as the rifle will be stored in the college. I'll be attempting to get two mid-week sessions and two mid-week physical training sessions in, with a bare minimum of one weekend session at the 50m range as well. Still hoping for 585+ in the Nationals. It's very, very doable. If I can start moving upwards then towards the 590+ mark for next spring, a trip abroad is definitely on the cards. Even if I put in around 588-589 in the qualification I might be invited to go for the experience, which is the most valuable part of all. Here's hoping, anyway.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Training and Matches - Prone - Last Week
Going to do a general update on the training sessions running up to the weekend of matches and then the weekend itself.
The couple of training sessions before saturday were not satisfactory. I wasn't shooting for anything except groups and responses, but I wasn't happy. Groups weren't round and weren't tight, and the sensory feedback didn't perfectly match up with the evidence in the paper. I thought it might be the ammo, but I discounted this. The ammo was good quality and had been an accurate reflection before. Now, it wasn't great and I've had better ammo (A leftover hundred Eley Match I had in the safe shot very well for me when I first got it) but it was definitely good enough that the results were not the ammo's fault. This was apparent over both training sessions in the week from monday to thursday.
So I went into the match off the back of some very modest results in training, but with my head cleared and my focus on good technique. Started off with the 50m 60-shot match. Sighters were good. Wind and mirage was a little tricky, but I was getting shots off in good time in conditions like those I'd observed, so while there were one or two in the sighters I didn't get right, it wasn't bad. I started off with three solid tens in a row, then dropped an eight due to poor focus and something not quite right that I was too lazy to correct (more fool me) and dropped the last shot in that diagram, probably in annoyance and lack of focus over the previous shot. Things continued fairly normally for a while, though with a few more nines than I would like and would be usual for me. Then a pulse developed and, like a fool, I thought I could shoot through it by timing it right. The result was, of course, a seven and a red face for me. After this, the match went on with me shooting nine after nine. I couldn't identify why, as they weren't consistent. The position felt good, inner and outer, the hold was excellent, the sight picture was excellent, recoil was good, trigger control was good, and yet, no tens. This was extremely disheartening, obviously enough, and I never got hold of the match again, despite several breaks to try and sort the problem. The result was a 555, which I just can not understand.
I won't go into the hundred yard stuff from the weekend here, as it's not what I'm training for, bar later, in part of an anecdotal note for one of my biggest problems and my next big block of training material. Suffice to say, it's extremely challenging, and I didn't get into it at all this weekend.
I went home after work on sunday and spent an hour or so trying to sort out what might be the issue. Everything felt fairly alright and I couldn't think of any reason for it not having worked, so out of desperation, I reverted to the absolute basic setup I'd had when I first got the rifle. (Going to have to start taking better and more useful notes on changes I make however, or it's all going to get a bit confusing soon) It didn't really feel noticeably better, but I decided to run with it for sunday anyway after some dry-firing. The buttplate needs more work for the best fit, but I'll manage that either later today or tomorrow with some dry-fire training (maelstrom outside, not a range day) and I need to find some way to place my forward hand to take pressure off it. The stock is much narrower than my old one and is absolutely agonising after about fifteen or twenty minutes. Comfort being all-important, that's got to get sorted soon.
So, setup having been revised, I got down for the 40-shot match on sunday. Conditions were definitely easier. There were no excuses now. Sight picture was still good, trigger was still good, hold was still good, and ten after ten fell right into the middle, with a good few of the bad shots being called, and one or two wind errors, also called. There was no excuse in this one and while the shooting didn't really feel better, the result was a 384 (dropped a couple of points unnecessarily when a wasp landed on my hand as I was about to take the shot and cost me an eight and broke one or two shots before I was perfectly happy with them for nines). Really should have been about a 388 or better, but it's definitely my fault, nothing else going on there, with the range nicely readable and the shooting predictable. Since I'd have been happy with that standard (576) on saturday, I'm calling that a qualified success and going back to the drawing board with more work now.
The weekend's anecdotal evidence for my head problems is the hundred yard card I shot when I was running out of time and just rattled the shots through the target without even checking them in the spotting scope. The result was a 96 or a 97, I don't recall, but the group was very tight, and it was certainly the best hundred yard shooting I did all weekend. The annoying thing about this is that the shots didn't look great and nor did the responses. I was not expecting much from it as from a technical standpoint, the shooting was not good. There's definitely a problem with my mind and how it perceives the information being fed to it. The empirical evidence tells us here that the shooting was better than my eyes and my head were telling me. It's this lack of proper correspondence between the perception of the shot and the empirical evidence of the target that's confusing me. As illustrated by the 50m section, sometimes it's there (and, notably, the results are almost always distinctly unremarkable) but other times it's not, and it may be either very very good, or awful. There's a problem with getting myself wrapped up in it and somehow I've to get my own head out of the game and develop a set of automatic responses to conditions to let me shoot to the best of my abilities all the time. I don't know how to do it, but I'm going to acquire and consult some material on psychological training to try and make inroads into the problem.
A small note is that there is currently no way to guarantee a consistent supply of quality ammo. I have to get this fixed by importing a good quantity from Intershoot, as buying mixed batches from day to day is ridiculous, as it prevents proper training which, for me, is that which will lead to the exact correspondence, all the time, between my perceptions and reality. Having ammo as an untested variable in the equation makes this significantly more difficult.
I'm going to spend some of this week trying to make the position more comfortable and revisit my stock setup with this in mind. I'm also going to look to acquire ammo of a known quality in sufficient supply that I'm not wasting my time. After that, it's all mental, as my technique is solid. Unfortunately, this is far and away the most difficult thing I've got to get over. I'll be shooting some kneeling and possibly some standing later on in the week as well, but for the psychological aspects, my focus is going to remain firmly in prone, where it's most important to me and where I'm most familiar.
The couple of training sessions before saturday were not satisfactory. I wasn't shooting for anything except groups and responses, but I wasn't happy. Groups weren't round and weren't tight, and the sensory feedback didn't perfectly match up with the evidence in the paper. I thought it might be the ammo, but I discounted this. The ammo was good quality and had been an accurate reflection before. Now, it wasn't great and I've had better ammo (A leftover hundred Eley Match I had in the safe shot very well for me when I first got it) but it was definitely good enough that the results were not the ammo's fault. This was apparent over both training sessions in the week from monday to thursday.
So I went into the match off the back of some very modest results in training, but with my head cleared and my focus on good technique. Started off with the 50m 60-shot match. Sighters were good. Wind and mirage was a little tricky, but I was getting shots off in good time in conditions like those I'd observed, so while there were one or two in the sighters I didn't get right, it wasn't bad. I started off with three solid tens in a row, then dropped an eight due to poor focus and something not quite right that I was too lazy to correct (more fool me) and dropped the last shot in that diagram, probably in annoyance and lack of focus over the previous shot. Things continued fairly normally for a while, though with a few more nines than I would like and would be usual for me. Then a pulse developed and, like a fool, I thought I could shoot through it by timing it right. The result was, of course, a seven and a red face for me. After this, the match went on with me shooting nine after nine. I couldn't identify why, as they weren't consistent. The position felt good, inner and outer, the hold was excellent, the sight picture was excellent, recoil was good, trigger control was good, and yet, no tens. This was extremely disheartening, obviously enough, and I never got hold of the match again, despite several breaks to try and sort the problem. The result was a 555, which I just can not understand.
I won't go into the hundred yard stuff from the weekend here, as it's not what I'm training for, bar later, in part of an anecdotal note for one of my biggest problems and my next big block of training material. Suffice to say, it's extremely challenging, and I didn't get into it at all this weekend.
I went home after work on sunday and spent an hour or so trying to sort out what might be the issue. Everything felt fairly alright and I couldn't think of any reason for it not having worked, so out of desperation, I reverted to the absolute basic setup I'd had when I first got the rifle. (Going to have to start taking better and more useful notes on changes I make however, or it's all going to get a bit confusing soon) It didn't really feel noticeably better, but I decided to run with it for sunday anyway after some dry-firing. The buttplate needs more work for the best fit, but I'll manage that either later today or tomorrow with some dry-fire training (maelstrom outside, not a range day) and I need to find some way to place my forward hand to take pressure off it. The stock is much narrower than my old one and is absolutely agonising after about fifteen or twenty minutes. Comfort being all-important, that's got to get sorted soon.
So, setup having been revised, I got down for the 40-shot match on sunday. Conditions were definitely easier. There were no excuses now. Sight picture was still good, trigger was still good, hold was still good, and ten after ten fell right into the middle, with a good few of the bad shots being called, and one or two wind errors, also called. There was no excuse in this one and while the shooting didn't really feel better, the result was a 384 (dropped a couple of points unnecessarily when a wasp landed on my hand as I was about to take the shot and cost me an eight and broke one or two shots before I was perfectly happy with them for nines). Really should have been about a 388 or better, but it's definitely my fault, nothing else going on there, with the range nicely readable and the shooting predictable. Since I'd have been happy with that standard (576) on saturday, I'm calling that a qualified success and going back to the drawing board with more work now.
The weekend's anecdotal evidence for my head problems is the hundred yard card I shot when I was running out of time and just rattled the shots through the target without even checking them in the spotting scope. The result was a 96 or a 97, I don't recall, but the group was very tight, and it was certainly the best hundred yard shooting I did all weekend. The annoying thing about this is that the shots didn't look great and nor did the responses. I was not expecting much from it as from a technical standpoint, the shooting was not good. There's definitely a problem with my mind and how it perceives the information being fed to it. The empirical evidence tells us here that the shooting was better than my eyes and my head were telling me. It's this lack of proper correspondence between the perception of the shot and the empirical evidence of the target that's confusing me. As illustrated by the 50m section, sometimes it's there (and, notably, the results are almost always distinctly unremarkable) but other times it's not, and it may be either very very good, or awful. There's a problem with getting myself wrapped up in it and somehow I've to get my own head out of the game and develop a set of automatic responses to conditions to let me shoot to the best of my abilities all the time. I don't know how to do it, but I'm going to acquire and consult some material on psychological training to try and make inroads into the problem.
A small note is that there is currently no way to guarantee a consistent supply of quality ammo. I have to get this fixed by importing a good quantity from Intershoot, as buying mixed batches from day to day is ridiculous, as it prevents proper training which, for me, is that which will lead to the exact correspondence, all the time, between my perceptions and reality. Having ammo as an untested variable in the equation makes this significantly more difficult.
I'm going to spend some of this week trying to make the position more comfortable and revisit my stock setup with this in mind. I'm also going to look to acquire ammo of a known quality in sufficient supply that I'm not wasting my time. After that, it's all mental, as my technique is solid. Unfortunately, this is far and away the most difficult thing I've got to get over. I'll be shooting some kneeling and possibly some standing later on in the week as well, but for the psychological aspects, my focus is going to remain firmly in prone, where it's most important to me and where I'm most familiar.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Training - Prone - DRC - 16th August 2010
I'm still tweaking, very subtly, the new rifle setup, and keeping primarily focused on prone for the time being, with the other positions as supplementary. The results from the session were that I lengthened the butt somewhat, providing very solid pressure in the shoulder, which requires me to open the shoulder deliberately, insert the butt of the rifle and close it up again. The other beneficial side effects are that the handstop does not bite into my hand so much, and my trigger hand is extended straight and solid from elbow to grip. It feels excellent, allows my head to sit comfortably and naturally, applying plenty of pressure, and the improved feeling between elbow and hand allows a firm grip, which enables good, solid shots to be released in good time. Recoil is small and while not yet perfectly consistent, is improving dramatically.
I shot a practice match, resulting in 574, with two of the cards being fairly disappointing, the first and third, a 190 and a 189, and the middle card a 195. I'd like to keep my 50m cards above 193 as a minimum, and am typically able to with the new rifle, so it's just a case of spending more time in position and getting plenty of shots down. The wind was a bit tricky during the match. I had one flag set up fairly close in, but couldn't set one up further down, and this was telling, as there were some uncalled nines where you'd expect to find them from wind errors. My own typical errors were vertical, usually from holding on target too long or visual defects. I'd taken a smack to the head that day, which may account for vision issues. I was testing some RWS R50 I'd bought as well, and while I'm not a hundred per cent convinced of its usefulness, it seems fine for now. I'll test it some more tomorrow and thursday, with thursday being indoors. Hopefully it will be good as I may use it for the weekend aggregate matches.
I'd like to shoot 580+ in the full 50m match and 388+ in the forty-shot one on sunday. I know it's achievable, but I'm still very much getting back into shooting after the break, so hopefully my stamina and muscle memory won't hold me back. I'm going to try shoot fast and take a two-minute break in position every ten shots to rest my support hand to prevent fatigue as much as possible. I'd expect that over the next month or so, I'll happily get up into the 580s for 50m prone, and hopefully by the end of the year be averaging in the high 580s. Just a case of building on stamina and spending time in position now. I'll post again before the weekend after I've done some more training and after it with match results and observations.
I shot a practice match, resulting in 574, with two of the cards being fairly disappointing, the first and third, a 190 and a 189, and the middle card a 195. I'd like to keep my 50m cards above 193 as a minimum, and am typically able to with the new rifle, so it's just a case of spending more time in position and getting plenty of shots down. The wind was a bit tricky during the match. I had one flag set up fairly close in, but couldn't set one up further down, and this was telling, as there were some uncalled nines where you'd expect to find them from wind errors. My own typical errors were vertical, usually from holding on target too long or visual defects. I'd taken a smack to the head that day, which may account for vision issues. I was testing some RWS R50 I'd bought as well, and while I'm not a hundred per cent convinced of its usefulness, it seems fine for now. I'll test it some more tomorrow and thursday, with thursday being indoors. Hopefully it will be good as I may use it for the weekend aggregate matches.
I'd like to shoot 580+ in the full 50m match and 388+ in the forty-shot one on sunday. I know it's achievable, but I'm still very much getting back into shooting after the break, so hopefully my stamina and muscle memory won't hold me back. I'm going to try shoot fast and take a two-minute break in position every ten shots to rest my support hand to prevent fatigue as much as possible. I'd expect that over the next month or so, I'll happily get up into the 580s for 50m prone, and hopefully by the end of the year be averaging in the high 580s. Just a case of building on stamina and spending time in position now. I'll post again before the weekend after I've done some more training and after it with match results and observations.
Friday, August 13, 2010
ISSF World Championships - Munich
Well I said I'd do a post on this trip, so here goes. It won't be a long one, just a short bit to state things which for the most part I've said elsewhere but which are the key elements for the trip.
I went out to the World Championships as a spectator for a number of reasons. On the one hand, I had some spare money and quite wanted to take a holiday for myself. On the other I wanted to go out and support the Irish shooters competing out there and help out with the team where possible. On a more personal note, I wanted to see the place, because obviously this is somewhere I want to compete and an environment I want to be immersed in on a continuous basis.
It has to be stated outright: An ISSF World Championship is the single biggest shooting event on the planet, many times the scale of the Olympics, and with a host of events not featured in the Olympics, such as the centrefire pistol and rifle events. While an Olympic Games has a pressure and an aura all its own which distinguishes it, it does not compete in terms of sheer scale. Now, that having been said, and knowing the size of event it was, it's still mind-bogglingly huge. The complex of ranges is just bafflingly large, from the cartridge rifle range, which comprises nearly a hundred firing points for 50m rifle and forty for 300m rifle, along with crossbow facilities, to an airgun hall which features nearly a hundred firing points back to back, either half of which is difficult to appreciate on its own as an Irish shooter, who sees UCD's fourteen firing points as huge. It's a magnificent atmosphere, with no personalities interfering with reverence for the competition, which creates a truly electric atmosphere. I fell in love with it, frankly. All I wanted was to go home and start training. While I was there, I started feeling that I was wasting time and should start jogging laps of the compound to get started! Anyone who's thought about trying to compete internationally *needs* to see something like this in order to appreciate what it's really all about. It's just not possible to comprehend unless you've done so. Since I've come home I've been full of renewed vigour. I've been making notes, dry-firing and live-training regularly, developing my prone position and kneeling position, with standing yet to go. I genuinely feel like shooting has gotten better, easier and more enjoyable since I got home. There's been something more obvious about it. Perhaps it's a personal breakthrough, but it's all seemed more simple since.
Congratulations to the Irish team who went out, who acquitted themselves admirably to a man. It made me very proud to see, and I hope the next time I see Munich's hallowed hall, it'll be with kit in tow and as a competitor. If you're reading this and curious at all, or have ambitions of your own, please take the opportunity to travel next June for the World Cup there. It will change how you shoot and how you think about shooting.
I went out to the World Championships as a spectator for a number of reasons. On the one hand, I had some spare money and quite wanted to take a holiday for myself. On the other I wanted to go out and support the Irish shooters competing out there and help out with the team where possible. On a more personal note, I wanted to see the place, because obviously this is somewhere I want to compete and an environment I want to be immersed in on a continuous basis.
It has to be stated outright: An ISSF World Championship is the single biggest shooting event on the planet, many times the scale of the Olympics, and with a host of events not featured in the Olympics, such as the centrefire pistol and rifle events. While an Olympic Games has a pressure and an aura all its own which distinguishes it, it does not compete in terms of sheer scale. Now, that having been said, and knowing the size of event it was, it's still mind-bogglingly huge. The complex of ranges is just bafflingly large, from the cartridge rifle range, which comprises nearly a hundred firing points for 50m rifle and forty for 300m rifle, along with crossbow facilities, to an airgun hall which features nearly a hundred firing points back to back, either half of which is difficult to appreciate on its own as an Irish shooter, who sees UCD's fourteen firing points as huge. It's a magnificent atmosphere, with no personalities interfering with reverence for the competition, which creates a truly electric atmosphere. I fell in love with it, frankly. All I wanted was to go home and start training. While I was there, I started feeling that I was wasting time and should start jogging laps of the compound to get started! Anyone who's thought about trying to compete internationally *needs* to see something like this in order to appreciate what it's really all about. It's just not possible to comprehend unless you've done so. Since I've come home I've been full of renewed vigour. I've been making notes, dry-firing and live-training regularly, developing my prone position and kneeling position, with standing yet to go. I genuinely feel like shooting has gotten better, easier and more enjoyable since I got home. There's been something more obvious about it. Perhaps it's a personal breakthrough, but it's all seemed more simple since.
Congratulations to the Irish team who went out, who acquitted themselves admirably to a man. It made me very proud to see, and I hope the next time I see Munich's hallowed hall, it'll be with kit in tow and as a competitor. If you're reading this and curious at all, or have ambitions of your own, please take the opportunity to travel next June for the World Cup there. It will change how you shoot and how you think about shooting.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Training - Kneeling - DURC - 12th August 2010
Spent the evening shooting kneeling in the college range. That was the first time I'd shot kneeling with that rifle and since I have a 3x20 in just over a month I'd like to spend a good bit more time shooting it and getting used to the position.
There's a good bit of work still to be done to sort out the kneeling position. It's not stable enough to begin with. The heel of the shoe does not locate solidly in the seat of the trousers and so slips. Thr trousers, being right handed, are a hindrance in that the zip is on the wrong side, so the left leg is dragged inward, narrowing the base of support. The jacket is sitting nicely, feels good. The buttplate may need to be offset to sit better in the shoulder however. The right leg does not locate in such a way that it stays solid. A solution must be found for this. In additon, the rifle is not tight enough in the shoulder for my own liking.
The hold is inconsistent. One shot it will be solid, sitting on the ten ring. The next shot, it will be moving, either vertically or horizontally. Trigger technique with this much movement is an issue, causing shots to go wider than they otherwise might. This is compounded of course by the looseness of the position, which exaccerbates the effects of recoil on shot dispersion. While new trousers are definitely necessary, I will have to persevere for the time being with what I have until I reach my target figure, at which point my jacket will also require adjustment.
The following are the points to note for improvement of kneeling shooting.
1. Better location of heel, slight increase in filling of kneeling roll and consistent stability of lower half of position, from waist down. This is the core focus as all else depends on it.
2. Consistent, solid location of forward leg in such a way that it does not move from side to side but rests comfortably and vertically, providing maximum support for elbow.
3. Increased tension of setup. Experiment with increased butt length, tighter sling and handstop adjustment to increase pressure in the shoulder for better control of recoil. In conjunction with improved core stability of the position, this will also improve the hold and enable better trigger control.
I must say, I like shooting kneeling. It's despicably uncomfortable, but I like the challenges it presents. I like the coordination between the two halves of the position it demands and I like the psychological element of it which demands strong focus and the exercise of good technique in spite of the physical discomfort. I can see kneeling being a strength of mine once I overcome the current technical obstacles. However, once I have worked through the issues listed above, and acquired a properly fitting set of trousers, I expect respectable kneeling scores. Along with my decent prone, standing is the last major obstacle, and one I expect to start tackling shortly.
Currently, my goal is to average over 90 in kneeling by that match on the 18th of September. Depending on my progress, I will revise that upwards and will hopefully improve significantly on that by the end of the year. I would like to shoot 1050+ in October. Assuming a prone score of about 385 (fairly pessimistic) and a kneeling score of about 365 (optimistic but readily achievable) a standing average of 75/100 would see me through. This is certainly achievable by October. So my 3P training is off to a decent start anyway. The path to decent kneeling scores is pretty clear, so wrap up with a decent standing position and I'll be doing alright. Medium term goal is to be hitting 1100 comfortably enough by next year and to work towards 1140 thereafter.
On the kit front, interestingly enough, I may be okay without sight raisers for kneeling, and am definitely okay without them for prone (until I add a tube). I'll see how my head position and pressure develops in kneeling, but for now I'm happy enough not to use them. The current kit list is a new pair of trousers (once I'm down to the weight I want) and my jacket altered at the same point. A tube would be nice to play with for prone but I'm still not certain I could make good use of one yet. I'll need a decent fore-end raiser for standing and possible a set of sight raising blocks. I'll know that once I start working on the position. Apart from that, I don't think there's anything I can't get from the club for the time being. Unfortunately, I need a big stack of ammo over the next while, so while some money is going to be squirrelled away, there won't be that much to spare. Need to get back doing more running and cycling, then I'll be buying those trousers and having the jacket altered and that will be the big buying done.
There's a good bit of work still to be done to sort out the kneeling position. It's not stable enough to begin with. The heel of the shoe does not locate solidly in the seat of the trousers and so slips. Thr trousers, being right handed, are a hindrance in that the zip is on the wrong side, so the left leg is dragged inward, narrowing the base of support. The jacket is sitting nicely, feels good. The buttplate may need to be offset to sit better in the shoulder however. The right leg does not locate in such a way that it stays solid. A solution must be found for this. In additon, the rifle is not tight enough in the shoulder for my own liking.
The hold is inconsistent. One shot it will be solid, sitting on the ten ring. The next shot, it will be moving, either vertically or horizontally. Trigger technique with this much movement is an issue, causing shots to go wider than they otherwise might. This is compounded of course by the looseness of the position, which exaccerbates the effects of recoil on shot dispersion. While new trousers are definitely necessary, I will have to persevere for the time being with what I have until I reach my target figure, at which point my jacket will also require adjustment.
The following are the points to note for improvement of kneeling shooting.
1. Better location of heel, slight increase in filling of kneeling roll and consistent stability of lower half of position, from waist down. This is the core focus as all else depends on it.
2. Consistent, solid location of forward leg in such a way that it does not move from side to side but rests comfortably and vertically, providing maximum support for elbow.
3. Increased tension of setup. Experiment with increased butt length, tighter sling and handstop adjustment to increase pressure in the shoulder for better control of recoil. In conjunction with improved core stability of the position, this will also improve the hold and enable better trigger control.
I must say, I like shooting kneeling. It's despicably uncomfortable, but I like the challenges it presents. I like the coordination between the two halves of the position it demands and I like the psychological element of it which demands strong focus and the exercise of good technique in spite of the physical discomfort. I can see kneeling being a strength of mine once I overcome the current technical obstacles. However, once I have worked through the issues listed above, and acquired a properly fitting set of trousers, I expect respectable kneeling scores. Along with my decent prone, standing is the last major obstacle, and one I expect to start tackling shortly.
Currently, my goal is to average over 90 in kneeling by that match on the 18th of September. Depending on my progress, I will revise that upwards and will hopefully improve significantly on that by the end of the year. I would like to shoot 1050+ in October. Assuming a prone score of about 385 (fairly pessimistic) and a kneeling score of about 365 (optimistic but readily achievable) a standing average of 75/100 would see me through. This is certainly achievable by October. So my 3P training is off to a decent start anyway. The path to decent kneeling scores is pretty clear, so wrap up with a decent standing position and I'll be doing alright. Medium term goal is to be hitting 1100 comfortably enough by next year and to work towards 1140 thereafter.
On the kit front, interestingly enough, I may be okay without sight raisers for kneeling, and am definitely okay without them for prone (until I add a tube). I'll see how my head position and pressure develops in kneeling, but for now I'm happy enough not to use them. The current kit list is a new pair of trousers (once I'm down to the weight I want) and my jacket altered at the same point. A tube would be nice to play with for prone but I'm still not certain I could make good use of one yet. I'll need a decent fore-end raiser for standing and possible a set of sight raising blocks. I'll know that once I start working on the position. Apart from that, I don't think there's anything I can't get from the club for the time being. Unfortunately, I need a big stack of ammo over the next while, so while some money is going to be squirrelled away, there won't be that much to spare. Need to get back doing more running and cycling, then I'll be buying those trousers and having the jacket altered and that will be the big buying done.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Training - Prone - DRC - 8th August 2010
Today was the first day of live fire at 50m. I'd just done a preliminary setup with the rifle and some dry-firing to get comfortable. Since the last update I'd also figured out how to attach the System Gemini buttplate to the Anschutz Precise carrier. There's some more fine tuning to do of that relationship, but it's not bad for the time being. I'll have time to work on it the next day I'm out and should shoot better as a result.
My impressions from the shooting are as follows. The stock, being narrow, sits hard on the forward hand and causes numbness faster than old stock. The answer to this is going to be a faster tempo to avoid discomfort. In addition, the forward hand seems to rotate to the left slightly when completely numb, causing wild and unpredictable shots. This is something to watch out for, and when that numb, take short breaks and massage the hand.
Rifle is sitting nice and vertically, allowing for plenty of head pressure, easy trigger control and nice, vertical recoil. I want to try and add a bit more strength in the grip as time goes on, but that needs to be developed around a system for maintaining my current pressures at the same time.
As time went on, things seemed to feel a little looser. This may indicate dragging of the sling and jacket shoulder, or may be a result of the kinking of the right wrist as it goes numb, offering less straight resistance. In any case, this needs to be monitored, as when the position loosened, the results were not predictable.
In the end, the first two cards were good, showing 97, 98, 97, 95 (with the issue being a slight wind change dropping three through the one hole on the last diagram, along with one wild shot, which was called, and another, which wasn't) for 387/40, and which could have been as high as 390 with ease. Not a bad return to shooting! Unfortunately, the third card was a disaster. It took a long time to sight in and then the shooting was just poor, whether through slight loss of focus or through the combination of the looser position and the loss of the straightened wrist over time. It went 93, 91, leaving me with 571 for the 60 shots, and which should have been a good ten points better. I'll have to pay attention to that hand and to the solidity of the position. The buttplate needs to be addressed for better fit in the shoulder. May have to enlist someone for that. The first forty shots are very positive however. Hopefully as time goes on I'll get that 585 I want in the 50m national championships. A medal would be quite nice.
My impressions from the shooting are as follows. The stock, being narrow, sits hard on the forward hand and causes numbness faster than old stock. The answer to this is going to be a faster tempo to avoid discomfort. In addition, the forward hand seems to rotate to the left slightly when completely numb, causing wild and unpredictable shots. This is something to watch out for, and when that numb, take short breaks and massage the hand.
Rifle is sitting nice and vertically, allowing for plenty of head pressure, easy trigger control and nice, vertical recoil. I want to try and add a bit more strength in the grip as time goes on, but that needs to be developed around a system for maintaining my current pressures at the same time.
As time went on, things seemed to feel a little looser. This may indicate dragging of the sling and jacket shoulder, or may be a result of the kinking of the right wrist as it goes numb, offering less straight resistance. In any case, this needs to be monitored, as when the position loosened, the results were not predictable.
In the end, the first two cards were good, showing 97, 98, 97, 95 (with the issue being a slight wind change dropping three through the one hole on the last diagram, along with one wild shot, which was called, and another, which wasn't) for 387/40, and which could have been as high as 390 with ease. Not a bad return to shooting! Unfortunately, the third card was a disaster. It took a long time to sight in and then the shooting was just poor, whether through slight loss of focus or through the combination of the looser position and the loss of the straightened wrist over time. It went 93, 91, leaving me with 571 for the 60 shots, and which should have been a good ten points better. I'll have to pay attention to that hand and to the solidity of the position. The buttplate needs to be addressed for better fit in the shoulder. May have to enlist someone for that. The first forty shots are very positive however. Hopefully as time goes on I'll get that 585 I want in the 50m national championships. A medal would be quite nice.
Friday, August 6, 2010
New Rifle
So, my new rifle has arrived, and over the course of a couple of sessions of tweaking and dry-firing, I've got it set up now. While it's a fairly complicated beasty, I've kept everything simple enough for the time being, and to be honest, having spent a good session with it today, I don't reckon I'll be making any major changes. I'll just throw up a few comments, since there aren't many people blogging about this stuff and I figure a few first impressions might be valuable for people. I'll detail the rifle first and then talk about it.
Anschutz selected 1913 barrel and action
Anschutz 1918 Precise stock
Centra Duo Glass foresight (larger size as I intend using a tube in future)
Centra 10-50 left hand rearsight
Gehmann 565 rear iris with colour filters, polariser and iris
System Gemini Aktiv Free Rifle buttplate
Anschutz 4765 buttplate (to be used for standing and kneeling)
I've only a few remarks really.
First thing I noticed is the fore-end, being so much narrower than my old wooden stock, puts more pressure on the hand. This will take a while to get used to. However, not being as broad, it sits flatter, and I have significantly less cant as a result. This is something I'm quite pleased about, as I'd like to keep my cant absolutely minimal. The extra pressure will just be a case of learning to deal with it. On the whole I'm quite happy with this.
The second point is that the Centra 10-50 is an absolutely marvellous rearsight. Since the iris hangs suspended from the cross bar, there's no rearsight body impeding your view of the wind flags. Since I've got a personal dislike of the tiny rearsight units which are currently emerging, since I think they allow too much light at the eye, this is great. The cross bar shelters the eye somewhat, while still allowing a complete view of all flags. I can thoroughly recommend this bit of kit. It's also significantly smaller than one might imagine from catalogue photos. It's certainly much smaller and much lower in profile than any of the various rifle manufacturers' proprietary rearsights, and smaller and lower profile than the majority of the rest of the market too.
One more point is that the System Gemini buttplate does not come with a carrier and adaptor for the Precise stock, as this has thicker pins than the older Anschutz aluminium stock. I'm hoping they change this policy, and I'll certainly be investing one, as I can't for the life of me figure out how to attach it to the Precise carrier as HPS suggest. I also wanted the plug and play buttplate setup to save changeover time from prone to standing. This is my only real gripe about the setup. I had no intention of using the 4765 buttplate for prone, as I just do not like it much as a unit having had one before, but until I can figure out how to attach the Gemini, that's what I'm going to be obliged to do. Something of a pain, but I'll spend some more time with the dismantled buttplates and see what I can come up with.
So, having achieved a decent setup, and spent some time dry-firing to get the feel for the rifle, position and trigger (which is sufficiently good from the factory that I'm not going to play with it for a while), it's time for some live fire. Hopefully I'll get two sessions in at the range this weekend and I'll have something to report back. For now though, I'm off for a 5k run. Munich has put serious drive behind me to make a go for the world cup there next June. I'll post an update about the trip later on or whenever I find time.
Anschutz selected 1913 barrel and action
Anschutz 1918 Precise stock
Centra Duo Glass foresight (larger size as I intend using a tube in future)
Centra 10-50 left hand rearsight
Gehmann 565 rear iris with colour filters, polariser and iris
System Gemini Aktiv Free Rifle buttplate
Anschutz 4765 buttplate (to be used for standing and kneeling)
I've only a few remarks really.
First thing I noticed is the fore-end, being so much narrower than my old wooden stock, puts more pressure on the hand. This will take a while to get used to. However, not being as broad, it sits flatter, and I have significantly less cant as a result. This is something I'm quite pleased about, as I'd like to keep my cant absolutely minimal. The extra pressure will just be a case of learning to deal with it. On the whole I'm quite happy with this.
The second point is that the Centra 10-50 is an absolutely marvellous rearsight. Since the iris hangs suspended from the cross bar, there's no rearsight body impeding your view of the wind flags. Since I've got a personal dislike of the tiny rearsight units which are currently emerging, since I think they allow too much light at the eye, this is great. The cross bar shelters the eye somewhat, while still allowing a complete view of all flags. I can thoroughly recommend this bit of kit. It's also significantly smaller than one might imagine from catalogue photos. It's certainly much smaller and much lower in profile than any of the various rifle manufacturers' proprietary rearsights, and smaller and lower profile than the majority of the rest of the market too.
One more point is that the System Gemini buttplate does not come with a carrier and adaptor for the Precise stock, as this has thicker pins than the older Anschutz aluminium stock. I'm hoping they change this policy, and I'll certainly be investing one, as I can't for the life of me figure out how to attach it to the Precise carrier as HPS suggest. I also wanted the plug and play buttplate setup to save changeover time from prone to standing. This is my only real gripe about the setup. I had no intention of using the 4765 buttplate for prone, as I just do not like it much as a unit having had one before, but until I can figure out how to attach the Gemini, that's what I'm going to be obliged to do. Something of a pain, but I'll spend some more time with the dismantled buttplates and see what I can come up with.
So, having achieved a decent setup, and spent some time dry-firing to get the feel for the rifle, position and trigger (which is sufficiently good from the factory that I'm not going to play with it for a while), it's time for some live fire. Hopefully I'll get two sessions in at the range this weekend and I'll have something to report back. For now though, I'm off for a 5k run. Munich has put serious drive behind me to make a go for the world cup there next June. I'll post an update about the trip later on or whenever I find time.
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