Update on Recent Progress

This is just an update on this weekend, as it's been fairly eventful. Shot a three-positions match on the saturday, which was conspicuous for a terrible prone and standing. The prone was a 181, which is about thirteen points off my usual standard, and the standing wasn't even worth mentioning. The kneeling was noteworthy for having far more tens than I expected, and more properly bad shots as well. Overall, I can't say why the prone went so badly. There's no real reason for it. However, hopefully it'll never be so bad again. The standing had some decent moments when I remembered to hang onto it and keep myself from leaning into the gun, which collapsed my position. I really need sight raising blocks to allow me to keep my head upright. I think I'll get a set of adjustable ones so I can use them on a low setting of about four or six millimetres for kneeling and a considerably higher setting for standing. While not absolutely necessary for kneeling, I think the extra bit of height will give me the option to keep my head more upright and put more downward pressure on the stock. The next result should be much better though, more consistent and more in keeping with my progress.

There was a prone match today, and again, there were problems settling. I could not buy a ten for the life of me in the sighters. I spent over half an hour and forty shots to get remotely settled and consistent. I opened shakily, with a 95, then took a break. After the break, the first shot was an eight, but then I got comfortable and shot a good string of about fifteen tens in a row. The string was broken by a 9.8, which was entirely my fault, but after that, while reasonably good, it wasn't nearly as clean or obvious. However, I take a lot of heart from that kind of progress. I was pushed for time towards the end, but managed to finish with four tens inside thirty seconds. That demonstrates a solid and consistent position and set up and clean technique.

I need to spend a lot more time and effort on both kneeling and standing, once I get equipment to help me, and my prone is a long way from where it needs to be, but nothing is too stagnant at the moment. I dropped quite a few points unnecessarily when I was forced to speed up towards the end, but I came out with a 576. It could easily have been about six points better, and really should have, but there'll be a next time.