Training - DURC - Air Rifle

Further progress with the air rifle tonight. Still throwing weird shots, but the methodology of creating good shots is getting more consistent and consistently tighter. Strange shots tend towards vertical, but are all visible. It seems to be an inner position and elbow position combination which causes sudden relaxations to drop the shot low or twitch it high, more often the former. I expect a few hundred more repetitions of good shots will drill out the inconsistencies. Another training session or two between now and the nationals and a decent score should be possible, though not hoping for anything particularly special. I won't pretend these groups are representative of my shooting but they do show how the good shots tightened up over the night, while the fliers remained bad. The first one was shot relatively early on, while the second one was the last ten shots of the match. Both are ten shot groups. It's getting there. I'm more concerned with getting the shot release and follow through down than anything else. That'll eliminate weird shots and get more deep tens and less scratchy nines all in one go. Most productive thing for now is to go ahead, focusing on getting good shots consistently.

Training - DURC - Kneeling and Peashooter

Got called down to the range tonight to help out as another range officer was going to be late. Figured I'd get some kneeling training done while I was there using the mirror. Had been ages since I'd shot any so needed to spend a while tweaking a setup for myself. Got fairly comfortable with a thicker kneeling roll. My old one was causing immense discomfort for some reason and generating no push into the front foot. Grabbed a big, thick club roll and the pain subsided to normal kneeling discomfort. It still feels balanced with the tube on the end, which is nice, and if I get a live fire session or two in now it'll be pretty well good to go for the 3P nationals once I've ironed out any faults that show up. Will try get three or four sessions shot before the thirtieth of April and should be in good stead then. Would like to average over 92 kneeling, with the intent of getting it up past 95 over the summer. Lots of work, but I'm well capable of that.

Standing training went particularly well. Never have managed to crack air rifle, despite feeling like I have on a number of occasions, so I'm hesitant to say I've done so tonight, but I have a workable system which merits a few notes.

In the beginning, I had two distinct problems. The shot would drop dramatically as I squeezed it off and it would veer left or right as I let it off. The first issue pointed to an inconsistent and inefficient elbow position on the hip. This I solved by making a point of pulling the elbow around to the front of my hip, with the index being that the outside of my elbow would be touching the inside of my hip, holding the arm in place.

The rifle sits on the front of the palm of my hand, which is turned back, so the backs of the fingers face me. This is slightly more uncomfortable long term than using a fist to support the rifle, but serves the dual purpose of getting the rifle very close in and providing superb, stable support for the gun. I shot for over an hour like that tonight without feeling real strain, just the soreness which is typical of match-length shooting in standing. I can feel a real difference in the strain on my legs, due to the physical training I've been doing, though feet were certainly sore at the end of it. Need better socks. May look into the compression fabric ones, see how those feel.

The horizontal issue stemmed from two things, slightly poor balance indexing and awful trigger control and follow through. The follow through is still terrible. Lots of work needed there anyway. The improvement there came from very slightly raising the left elbow until the hand had a better position on the trigger and until the position balanced consistently. The horizontal movement died down a lot, the trigger releases were smoother (They still need work, little bit more aggressive than they might be) and the shots were not unpredictable. Shot a few groups at the end which were nice and tidy. The rifle came down, the foresight buzzed around the aiming mark, the trigger was taken up and squeezed through and the shots went into a nice tight group, culminating in a final three shot group that looks like this.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j111/David_Franklin/Image0047.jpg?t=1301354233

Now, considering how rarely I shoot standing or air rifle, I'm happy to think that's a good few problems ironed out. Obviously need to spend a lot more time actually shooting it, get some groups and some cards in, but that looks good to me.

General Update at 14th March 2011

I've left this alone because due to academic commitments and lack of consistent training opportunities my shooting results have not been usefully progressive lately. Since I've had a bit over a week of solid training sessions now though, I feel justified in doing some writing up.

In the first place, the new position I've been developing so long has been battle tested and has come through with flying colours. It's solid, stable and comfortable for the length of a match, which is something I've never had before. I played around with a couple of variations on it over the last while to refine it and the following are the results.

1. A straight wrist, at the expense of some hand contact (it sits slightly more into the V of the thumb and forefinger than along the base of the thumb is much more solid, and doesn't compromise the comfort enough to make it a bad idea as I can still comfortably get twenty or more shots off quickly with no numbness or discomfort.

2. The left shoulder is slightly cocked. This allows for very strong contact between the trigger hand elbow and the mat, allowing freedom of movement and grip strength from the elbow down.

3. A slight cant allows a comfortable head position and a good attack on the trigger with a strong grip.

4. A high left knee gives plenty of pressure behind the rifle in the left shoulder, good ability to breathe and locks the right hip solidly in place, which seems to give a distinct feeling in the right elbow and leads to the left elbow dropping comfortably and consistently into place and locking the structure together.

5. A head position which is solid without being forceful complements the other elements of the position to give a firm clamp around the rifle, leading to small recoil and tight groups. A firm clamp around the rifle also makes good trigger control easy.

There are some tricks to this new position, which I'll outline now for future reference and to give voice to the process.

When I get down on the mat, I pull the corner of the right side of the jacket under me down towards the groin, then let it slacken very slightly as I settle on it.

I clip into the handstop and push my right elbow forward in a straight line until it rests naturally on the back of the elbow. There must be no tension in the tricep and the position should feel relatively high at this point.

I make sure the right side of me runs straight to the foot by extending the leg so I can feel the straight extension of the spine. I then turn the heel of the foot outwards which digs in the edge of the foot and locks that element of the position in place.

I raise the left knee until the sensation of the right hip digging into the mat is experienced and breathe deeply to confirm that the ribcage is limited in contact. The knee remains in place and the leg from the knee down can be used to very slightly tweak zero position.

When placing the rifle in the shoulder, the top of the buttplate should be drawn in until the hook cannot be felt contacting under the arm. When the rifle is loaded, the cheek is located on the cheekpiece, the shoulder is rotated until the buttplate sits without tension, the cocked shoulder is flattened slightly and the left elbow is leaned into, with the final check being a relaxation to feel the delicate pressure balances between the shoulder, the elbow and the pistol grip. A breath will confirm that the zero position is good and if not, this last step is the most likely source of issue and can be easily repeated until satisfied.

While delicacy is required to construct the geometry from the left shoulder to the hand and to ensure proper placement of the buttplate and hook, when achieved, fast shooting with an extremely good hold, good recoil and an easy follow through is readily achieved. This can only be built on, so I'm happy.

Scores have fluctuated quite unpredictably lately, but I'm beginning to get to grips with my consistency and comfort and expect good things in future. I shot fifteen quick shots tonight, and dropped two I called and one I didn't, which could be something I didn't see or might be the cheap ammo. It's not important in any case. Far more significant is that I buried almost all of the rest in the inner ten, including those I shot rapid, without a scope, to check the flexibility of the position under pressure.

I hesitate to be too optimistic when the position still needs a successful match to advocate it, but I do feel I'm on the brink of a useful step forward. There's a match in Midlands on the 3rd of April which will hopefully verify this.