TargetTalk

I have a question for the experienced folks on this form. When I'm shooting prone matches with either the 23/5 or the 3 bull 100 yd targets, I can set up my sights and NPA for the sighter target fine, generally staying in the 9/10 ring. But when I move to the scoring targets even though I feel like my NPA is centered back up on the new target, I'm finding that I have to adjust the sights for each target. What I not doing that I should be? I do wear glasses so I guess that it is possible that I'm shifting the sight picture looking thru the corner of the glasses, but I'm having the same problem when shooting any sights with a 20x Unertl scope which should eliminate the eye glass input I would think.

Thanks much for any thoughts,

Nimrod

Hello Nimrod,

How much adjustment do you need when moving from diagram to diagram?

I'm wondering if your problem is caused by not getting your NPA fully realigned with each new target. How are you adjusting this? Moving your hips/chest and pivoting around the left elbow is generally accepted as best over here.

Tim

Your NPA has got to be PERFECT. But the other thing that has to be the same is the position. You may be changing your position between bulls. And the best way to work on that is to do up-downs. If you aren't familiar with up-downs they are pretty simple: Put out a target and get all sighted in, move to your first record bull and shoot 5 shots. Then get up out of position (the best would be for a few minutes) and then get back down into position. On the next record bull shoot five shots. Continue doing this for the rest of the target. The goal is to get able to get up and back down and shoot deep Xs (or tens if you are shooting the A50).

Another thing that might help is WHERE you set up your NPA. My coach David Kimes (former world record holder in 300 Meter) gave me a bit of advice. When he shot on any target that had three bulls in a line on it (100 yard and A50s) he would set up his primary NPA on the MIDDLE bull. He would get all settled in and dry fire on that bull then move up for sighters.
Best wishes,
Matt

I have had similar problems in prone matches, esp. on a 50m conventional target with the one center top sighter bull. Besides the obvious statement (perfect NPA), there may be another factor your are running into. When moving your NPA left or right on a multibull target, check your cant. You may discover that you cant more when moving to a left target and less when you move over to the right. If for instance, you move to the right, and have a tendency to cant less, this means you have not moved your NPA far enough to the right, thus you may naturally cant less.
As for combating such a problem, make sure that your cant indicators are set correctly (assuming you use them). Now, I use a spirit level for standing and kneeling and the cant indicators for prone. However, in a prone match, I adjust my level for my slight prone cant to gain an advantage with another guide. If you cannot solve your problem, observe your sight changes. If their is a distinct pattern, move your sights a couple of clicks when moving to the next bull left or right. Although this is technically not correct (solving an NPA problem with sights) the goal is to shoot tens, regardless of how you accomplish that. Also, make sure your are shooting in a U Shaped pattern on your record bulls. As for 100 yards, I am not sure what to tell you, since the bulls are all vertical of each other.

Thanks, all of your suggestions made a lot of sense, especially about canting differently left to right. As I think on it more it was the left/right targets (A23's and 50M reduced) that were giving me the most grief. I know I'm still wiggling around to much when I'm down in position, so that's probably an issue as well. I've got to get the glove hand set and quit fiddling with it.

I'm shooting a practice match this weekend so I'll have a chance to test out your suggestions.

Many thanks again, the more precision shooting I'm doing the more information I'm getting out of this forum.

nimrod

Guys, thanks for the advice. I worked both with WesternGrizzle's up and downs, and really, really focused on the NPA and I was able to finally shot my last bull of the set of eight with 5X's. That's the first time ever. Now I just have to work on consistency, but it really helps knowing you can do it.

Thanks again,

Nimrod