TargetTalk

Am still getting to grips with the insanely simple (sounding) advice of:

"watch the fore-sight" and "squeeze the trigger".

The biggest problem for me is to try and chanel my concentration on the fore-sight. My eye has a mind of its own and drifts focus back to the rear sight and forth to the target.

Part of this is down to the poor lighting on my range, but a large part of it is down to my eye's mind and my mind's lack of concentration.

Are there training excercises to get those bloody peepers under control?

Mike

First thing is to improve your lighting. Especially on the traget. A spotlight from the local hardware store isn't expensive and you will be amazed at the improvement in your shooting, and in the lower eye strain.

Mike,

What you experience is not uncommon even for very experienced shooters.

It sounds like your conscious mind KNOWS that focusing on the front sight and keeping the sights aligned with each other is far more important than the relationship of those perfectly aligned targets to the bull.

It also sounds like your subconscious mind has some doubts and wants you perfect BOTH the sight alignment AND their position relative to the bull before it will allow you release the shot.

In other words, your eyes are trying to accommodate both relationships at the same time and that may be why you find yourself "optically hopping" from the front sight to the target.


I use the following dry fire exercise which eliminates the target so that there's one less place for the eye to go. You can use either a blank wall or the backside of a target. Once you have your "target" in place, begin your shot process as usual and maintain your focus on the front sight against the blank backdrop. Concentrate only on that front sight in perfect alignment with the rear sight as you release the shot.

I find that this exercise helps train my eye to stay focused on the front sight even when I introduce the black bullseye back into the mix.

This has been a very effective exercise for me and one which I use as a warm up before a match and sometimes during a match.

Credit goes to Ed Hall for sharing this technique. Ed has posted some other helpful and well written articles which I think are a must read at:

http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/articlesand.html


Good luck Mike.

F. Paul in Denver

Agree totally with the above post. Basically it is a skill that you have to train on and the best way is dryfiring (lots) on both blank targets and faced targets. Shooting on target backs is also a good exercise.

The plain blank targets are good if you normally shoot six or sub-six but if you shoot center hold you might want to try black construction paper.

As for the lighting, the light should be within standards but that being said if you have a great difference in lighting intensity from the firing line, mid range and target (with the target being the brightest) you may actually find that you mid-range more because your eye actually wants to focus on the brightest object. So just increasing the light on the target face while it seems like a qucik fix it might not actually be one.

Shooting at a back-to-front target is part of my "warm-up" and "warm down" routine anyway - 20 shots at the start and 20 at the end.

There are times when I can hold those aligned sights in crisp front-to-back focus, squeeze and pow - a lovely release. Beauty.

However, the thing that screws it up most often is this damn focus drift. It seems that sometimes there is a slight blur around the inside edges of the rear-sight and as soon as that happens I often loose it.

One of the shooters in my club suggested trying a yellow filter to sharpen up the contrast (it is a dim, but ISSF-lighting-compliant range and there ain't no chance of getting it changed I'm afraid).

I have found the best way to keep those fore-sights in focus is to watch them as I lower the gun into my hold on the target. I hold them slightly higher than in the notch, but level them out as everything falls into the hold. I wondered if there are accepted training routines for stuff like that (alongside trigger release, etc).

M.

Mike:

Use the "front sight slightly higher as sights settle then drop to perfect align as intensity of focus peaks" technique not as a training aid or ocassional tool to get you back on track but as part of your "every time I pick the gun up" shot plan.

Dry firing against a blank surface while concentrating on keeping the sights perfectly aligned . . . with rapid, smooth, straight, uninterrupted, continuous application of increasing trigger pressure . . . is about the dandiest training method for technique ever discovered.

Steve

Steve Swartz wrote: Dry firing against a blank surface while concentrating on keeping the sights perfectly aligned . . . with rapid, smooth, straight, uninterrupted, continuous application of increasing trigger pressure . . . is about the dandiest training method for technique ever discovered.

Steve

Steve,
What do mean when you say "rapid" when practicing trigger release?
Is it a faster action than you would use in a match, or is this your normal triggering speed?
Do you put the gun down between releases or do multiple releases with one lift (Morini electronic)?

AJ wrote:

Steve Swartz wrote: Dry firing against a blank surface while concentrating on keeping the sights perfectly aligned . . . with rapid, smooth, straight, uninterrupted, continuous application of increasing trigger pressure . . . is about the dandiest training method for technique ever discovered.

Steve

Steve,
What do mean when you say "rapid" when practicing trigger release?
Is it a faster action than you would use in a match, or is this your normal triggering speed?
Do you put the gun down between releases or do multiple releases with one lift (Morini electronic)?

I can't speak for Steve but when dryfiring I treat every shot just as I would a live shot ie go through the same mental and physical prep. I think by rapid he means not to be overly critical and overhold. Learn to trust your hold and raise, settle with continuous, steady, trigger pressure break the shot, and follow through. He doesn't men quickly jerk the trigger, I beleive he is advocating a trigger release in a shorter amount of time of your entire hold.

Steve from lift to shot break what is your approximate time?

As always my humble, personal opinions of this marvelous obsession we call shooting well (or "Kinda the way I personally see it"):

I.

By "rapid" I mean "not gradual while thinking about how bad your wobble is and oh my now I need to stop squeezing and what am I going to have for dinner" etc.

Rapid = when release permission given (you recognize that you are in your settle) the shot breaks without your thinking about releasing the trigger.

If you train to perfectly align the sights against a blank sheet, and repeatedly press the trigger perfectly while aligned, from release signal to click should be well less than half a second. Beyond that I scouldn't tell you other than if you have time to think of anything at all after you recognize you are settled then you are taking too long.

In the Pistol Shooter's Treasury one national champion took the entire "off season" to dedicate to dry firing as rapidly as he could (from release signal to hammer fall). Good advice.

II.

Always use the same technique whether training for a match or in the match as much as possible. While consistent trigger pressure application is more important than raw speed, it's easier to be consistent when you apply pressure to the trigger "positively" so to speak.

Sometimes when I am having trouble breaking shots I will "double tap" with the Morini but don't train this way generally. One lift, one release. Just like when things are going well in a match.

III.

Shot plan goes like this

a. Eyes closed inhale lift above target
b. Eyes open at apex exhale pick up front sight align relax into target
c. Inhale settling breath sharpen focus align
d. Neutral breath sharp focus align align align
**NOTE: There ain't no step in the shot plan for "squeeze the trigger"**
e1. Wow that was great
e2. What? It didn't break? Abort.

From third party observation a,b 1.5-2 sec c,d cumulative 4-5 sec e1 cumulative 6-9 sec (only 2-4 sec actual settle); else e2 at about 13 secs total (8-10 secs settle).

If shot takes longer than ~7 secs to break after establishing initial settle "It Won't Be Pretty."



All just one man's opinion . . . sorry it sounds like I'm saying "this is the way it should be;" your mileage will vary; results not typical; past performance is no guarantee of future results; etc. Hope it helps!

Steve

(Disclaimer: the above description is what's happening when I am shooting "well behaved shots" [usually 10s]. Didn't think you would be interested in what happens when the holes are showing up all over the place!)

IMNSHO, the purist trigger application is one which is free from any interference. This would be illustrated by the application of pressure without allowing the picture to alter the application. I usually describe the method of finding that operation as starting with a totally empty gun, set up for dry firing, pointed in a safe direction, and dry fired without looking at the sights or gun. This can even be done with the gun comfortably placed in your lap. As always, for safety, treat the gun as if loaded and observe the area into which the gun is pointed while you operate the trigger. Then take several dry fire shots paying attention to how the operation feels and the length of time it takes. This is the purist form of trigger operation and is quite personal in nature. You may also find it is rather quick from start to finish. Once this operation is studied, you can progress through several steps to a full level of live fire training using the following exercises:

- dry fire while looking at the gun, but not through the sights (can be over a support for the arm)

- dry fire while looking through the sights against a blank surface (again, can be over a support for the arm)

** For the above step, if the sights are disturbed, work with the preceding steps while trying different positioning and application of the trigger, until the sights are no longer disturbed from their natural movement. Do not continue until a clean (sights undisturbed) break is achieved.

- dry fire while in proper position at a blank surface

- dry fire while in proper position with an aiming point (bull)

- live fire at the range at a blank target

- live fire at the range at an aiming point (bull)

For all the above steps, try to have the same exact, consistent, uninterrupted, trigger procedure. This will be the purist trigger operation you can perform. This is the trigger operation to use for all training and matches.

Take Care,
Ed Hall
http://www.airforceshooting.org/
http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/

Steve and Ed have combined, directly and indirectly, to sort out my confusion.

The stuff on shot process and trigger practice were gems and much appreciated: threw several things into clear focus. Thanks for that.

But the REAL answer to my (admitedly poorely phrased) question lay in chasing down the URLs at the end of Ed's message.

A couple of clicks took me to:

http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/nwongarts.html

All the answers to my focussing 'issues' are in that wonderful page. I am also going to see my optician with a copy of it and see how that pans out.

Thanks guys.

Mike,

You have received very good advice from a lot of good shooters, now here's my 2 cents. I have learned this from reading and attending semiars. Some shooters put a scratch, painted dot (White Out correction fluid) or other identifying mark on their front sight. This gives the eye something smaller to focus on. This might help you get the mind trained on what it is supposed to be focused. Some very good shooters have said that they focus on just a small part of the front sight like the top right corner. That front sight can seem awfully big and causes the eye to wander. Hope this helps.

Hey the wierdest thing just happened.

Went down to my range to try out all the good advice on this thread and there was a recent article by one of the UK coaches on stance.

Had a read and realised I was doing a few things that needed attention.

Lined everything up: feet, hips, shoulders; brought up the gun, dropped the sights into my usual hold position (feeling a bit uncomfortable because of the 'unnatural' positioning) and POP - the perfect sight picture. Beautiful. Crisp as a cucumber. Sharp as a pin. And it stayed that way. Shot, after shot after shot.

OK - so my scores were not good (I reckon the new positioning wasn't too intuitive for my muscles) but the sight picture was UN-BLOODY-BELIEVABLE.

How does that work? Actually - I don't care. I am happy that it does work.

Its funny - several months ago I read a thread on this post that likened one's shooting skills to a box full of bits. As you got better you needed to fiddle less and less with each of the bits, and put it back in the box: the box was the shot process. I think I am at last getting to a point where I not only am begining to understand what each of the bits does, but I can see the effect of fiddling with it.

Am trying my darndest not to worry about my average and concentrate on the process.

Mmmm. Life is good...

Mike

Mike S-J wrote:Hey the wierdest thing just happened.

Went down to my range to try out all the good advice on this thread and there was a recent article by one of the UK coaches on stance.

Had a read and realised I was doing a few things that needed attention.

Lined everything up: feet, hips, shoulders; brought up the gun, dropped the sights into my usual hold position (feeling a bit uncomfortable because of the 'unnatural' positioning) and POP - the perfect sight picture. Beautiful. Crisp as a cucumber. Sharp as a pin. And it stayed that way. Shot, after shot after shot.

OK - so my scores were not good (I reckon the new positioning wasn't too intuitive for my muscles) but the sight picture was UN-BLOODY-BELIEVABLE.

How does that work? Actually - I don't care. I am happy that it does work.

Its funny - several months ago I read a thread on this post that likened one's shooting skills to a box full of bits. As you got better you needed to fiddle less and less with each of the bits, and put it back in the box: the box was the shot process. I think I am at last getting to a point where I not only am begining to understand what each of the bits does, but I can see the effect of fiddling with it.

Am trying my darndest not to worry about my average and concentrate on the process.

Mmmm. Life is good...

Mike

Where did you see this article on stance, I'd be interested in reading it.

It was by Tom Redwood and I think it was an NSRA magazine (the most recent).

I have forgotten what its called - will find out on Sunday (next time the range is open) and give you a reference.

He took 2 male and 2 female shooters (international standard) and dissected their stances. Although each looked different, he discussed what the important similarities were.

Basically the philosophy behind good stance (according to him) was to provide an inherently stable platform with the minimum amount of muscle tension contributing to that platform. The idea being that adrenalin affects muscle tension - so everything goes to pot in a competition. If your stance is stable via balance and skeletal stability then it is affected less by adrenalin.

There was other stuff about eye, shoulder, arm alignment, which I can't quite remember.

Clearly there is no point me re-writting the whole article so I will stop now.

Any UK shooters seen it?

I have the mag with the article and have already made a copy for my library. If any of you want a copy, let me know at my email: bawilli@attglobal.net and we can make arrangements, etc.

Don in Oregon