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.