TargetTalk

I've been shooting air pistol on and off for about 8 months now and am pretty happy about my progression as a shooter but there is one problem.... My house is too small! The longest range available is about 7 meters, so I have been shooting at 50 ft smallbore targets as a makeshift reduced target. I have also have been dry firing facing a mirror with a target taped to the wall behind me, creating a 9ish meter "virtual" range. Any ideas on how to practice?
I'm considering joining a gun club that has an active air rifle and pistol program as well as indoor bull'seye and smallbore matches, but it is about 45 minutes from my house.

My interest is especially high recently because I won the Missouri State AP Junior match this past weekend with a 519... not too hot but I'd like to be in the 540's by the summer matches and JO's (thanks to those who organized the match)

Thanks
Houston

The majority of my training is dry firing. Yes it can be very boring and you get do not get a hole in the target. If you apply yourself you can get lots of feed back from dry firing. It provides you the benefit of learning how to focus on the most important item....THE FRONT SIGHT.

You have the right idea by making use of what you have. It is also important to live fire so you can see where you are at. If you have the funding you can get your hands on a Rika or similar training system. Search the archives for several discussions on them with pros and cons of each.

Hope that helps.

I only have 8 meters at my home and I shoot over my girlfriend's piano. I made up reduced targets (single and 4-bull) that you can print out yourself.

Chris, long time no see. Glad to read that you're still shooting.

Houston, congratulations on your accomplishments and best of luck on your future shooting goals.

for 5m (half distance for Air Pistol) the Air Rifle target is nearasdammit the right sight picture...

Spencer

Houston,
Have you considered placing the target and bullet trap outside one of your windows to get the 10 meters? Shoot through the open window. Or do you live where that would be frowned upon? If that is the case you can build a wooden tunnel or a frame covered with a tarp so no one knows what you are doing and to keep the heat in the house. It's not difficult to make a target return system.
Good shooting!
Ben

Spencer wrote:for 5m (half distance for Air Pistol) the Air Rifle target is nearasdammit the right sight picture...

...or you could use our webmaster's 5m AP target. It not only gives the correct sight picture but, unlike any other scaled down target I have seen, also gives the correctly scaled scoring rings.

Thanks for all the replys....

"Have you considered placing the target and bullet trap outside one of your windows to get the 10 meters? Shoot through the open window"
I wish! I live in very urban St. Louis, so that would probably cause some attention from some of STL's finest (i live on the corner of two very busy streets). I think my best option is going to be to shoot on reduced targets but that gets old. Luckily I also shoot Air Rifle in high-school, so I have a range when I have an upcoming match. Even still, rifle is a 4-5 practices a week, 3:00-5:30 and matches on Saturdays, 9 months a year! Heck, maybe we'll win the 3p JO's (actually likely, we place 2nd last year) and I'll do good at the pistol JO's. I can always dream...

HB