Pity party has to end

[bpscCheney]

Maybe you just have to concentrate hard on one shot at a time not a whole match.

This is very correct. You cannot change the past but you can change the shot in the barrel. ;)

[ron88nnie]

A couple of nitpicks;

At 8.6 metres a 10 metre target is frankly HUGE. Scaling isn't only a percentage, but a percentage with compensation for the fact that the pellet diameter remains constant at 4.5mm, not scaling. So targets scaled for 8.6 metre use would likely be closer to 83% (guessing, from having run the numbers at a few different distances) of full scale. When going to a full 10 metre range, especially in the inherently stressful situation of a match (whether some shooters choose to acknowledge the stress or not), and shooting at the same full-scale targets now 1.4 metres further away, the black is going to look too small. Your sight picture is radically different between those two distances, which is an important consideration when training at scaled-down distances. Scoring at home isn't so important. Seeing a consistent sight picture is, as anything substantially different is going to toss a monkey wrench into your shot plan, making you think about it instead of just knowing it's right. Print at least one properly scaled black spot for your home distance, such that it sits the same diameter in your sights. Even consider slightly blurring the black dot you print if the edges are too clear compared to shooting at 10 metres. You want everything to look the same, even the relative size of the target paper square.

I practice at home at several distances, from 4 metres in my workshop at targets with about a 1" black circle, 6 metres in another part of the house, up to 10 metres when no one's at home and I can safely set that up. 6 metres and 10 metres seem virtually identical in terms of POI for my Pardini at the current velocity setting and pellets. 4 metres means if I want to group in the middle I have to click up about 4 clicks. So my pellet trajectory is passing upward through the 10 metre bullseye at 6 metres then dropping back down to the same point at 10. Guessing from there, I'd suggest your pistol sighted in for 8.6 metres is likely shooting between 1 and 3 clicks too high for 10 metres, depending on the pellet, pistol, relative heights of the front and rear sights to the barrel, and muzzle velocity. As others have said, sight it in for 10 metres and adapt one way or another for practice at your home range distance. When you're having an 'on' day is a great time to adjust the sights, not when things go sideways. Your pistol should be sighted in such that when you just know you shot a 10, the dang hole is dead centre, no question. Start clicking in any direction and you're as good as shooting holes in your boat, your confidence will leak away.

How about the distance of the target from the floor ? for all these distances ? Thanks , ron.

[Rover]

Never mind that crap!

"Improvise, adapt, overcome!"

Trigger squeeze, sight alignment!

[Gerard]

While what Rover's saying is true, there's other stuff which is similarly important. Of course it's up to each shooter to select how 'technically' they pursue the craft of shooting 10's. For some an almost purely instinctive approach works. For others 10,000 pages of reading, bushels of coaching, and thousands of hours of practice are the true path. Most of us fall somewhere between.

As for distance from the floor... that varies depending on your height. For me at 6 foot nothing and with long legs and wherever the heck my eye is, that puts my sights at about 1.68 metres for a target at 10 metres and a bull at 1.4 metres. Every shooter is going to have to figure for themselves how to scale their target heights for various scaled target distances. You could try running a strong wire very tightly to a full 10 metre target bull then take height readings at various distances so as to have a chart.

This seems to be kind of an important point. We work on repeatable grip, stance, posture, breathing, shot plan, and some fuss over pellet selection even to the point of weighing individual pellets. !!! But if we're doing all that on scaled targets and incorrectly adapting the heights we're actually training wrongly for a full 10 metre range, building a wrong-feeling position in the whole body and especially in the shoulder.

With my 'wingspan' of 6' 4" that puts my muzzle about 1 metre ahead of the firing line, leaving 9 metres between it and the target. So a drop over 9 metres from 1.68 metres to 1.4 metres is 28 centimetres, divided by 9 equals about 3.11 centimetres per metre. Easy enough to add or subtract from either end. Try it yourself; hang a tape measure out at the end of your muzzle so the tip's touching the floor, take a bead on a 10 metre target bull, then re-focus your eye so you can see the spot on the tape where your front sight lines up on the tape. All bulls should be 1.4 metres plus or minus 5 centimetres, floors should be level or any slope taken into account when measuring relative height of the bull from the firing position.

[john bickar]

I shot a pretty decent match (for me) yesterday. My shoulder was really bothering me so I had a hefty jolt of Jameson's at the start.

What event, and what was your score?

[Rover]

Air. 561 with an 'Oops" seven. I think it'll go in as a new national record for my age group, not that it's all that mind-boggling.

I don't say small things can't be important, but after getting your gun fitted there is not much you should be thinking about at a match.

[Gerard]

Exactly. And one thing you shouldn't be thinking about, or struggling with at a match is the height to which you're raising the pistol. Getting that right in training at whatever distance seems a critical thing in preparation for NOT thinking about it at a match. If suddenly the shooter is having to elevate the arm 2 degrees higher than in training that's going to toss a big old monkey wrench into the works, even with a coupla beers down the hatch. And by the way, yeah, my best so far match score was in the middle of a 180 shot weekend just after a 2 pint lunch.

[john bickar]

Air. 561. I think it'll go in as a new national record for my age group

Nice shooting!

[Rover]

Well, here's some more advice from the Great White North, eh.

http://www.targetshooting.ca/reframeriz ... aining.htm