New to 10m (and AP in general)

[Hurtigpelikan]

Hi,

I am a former archer, but an injury a couple of years ago has made it impossible for me to continue to shoot with a compound bow.

But I miss target practice, and since I always had a fascination for pistol shooting, 10m AP seems like a good match.

I have set up an 10m indoor range and tried to shoot a 10x6 series a couple of times. The results are posted below.

If You see something obvious with my shooting feel free to comment - I am here to learn!

Right now I am shooting with a HW40 and as the results show, it shoots much better than me at this stage. When I outgrow the HW40 I will probably buy a Walter LP2 or Steyr P11.

My ambition is to comped at a national level without embarrassing myself in 2-3. This means scoring at least 500/600.
It could also be fun to participate in an international event sometime in the future.

I will try to post whenever I feel like I have made significant progress.

Best regards

[fc60]

Greetings,

What is a "HW40"?

Perhaps a link to help educate me?

Regarding your groups, they should shrink in size the more you practice and build up your arm and upper body strength.

Cheers,

Dave

[GoodEnuf]

A quick Bing image search:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view ... edIndex=14

Image shows the relevant characteristics of the airgun.

JE

[Hurtigpelikan]

Greetings,

What is a "HW40"?

Perhaps a link to help educate me?

Regarding your groups, they should shrink in size the more you practice and build up your arm and upper body strength.

Cheers,

Dave

Perhaps I should have been a bit more specific - A Weirauch HW 40 PCA
https://www.weihrauch-sport.de/air-pist ... ca?lang=en

So not really a match pistol by any standard.

[charliemow13]

I loved the HW40! Got one midway thru 2020 and used it pretty much everyday, either in the back garden or shut in the garage when the weather was bad. It helped that I'd been browsing this forum for advice and tips and started doing things with more consistency and repeatability. Sold it to put the proceeds towards an old Steyr LP2 this year. Daily dry fire and some regualr light weight training has helped keep me focussed between weekly visits to the range and helped to gradually tighten my groups (sometimes).

Theres some great threads to be found here, a couple that I found very interesting . . .
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=63530
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=61113

[Agt. Smith]

If You see something obvious with my shooting feel free to comment - I am here to learn!

I'm in week 11 with 10mAP - your targets look familiar and mine were very similar. Lots of decent information here so keep you eyes and ears open. I also set up a small range at home, but I'm also told it's important to vary where you shoot.

My focus at the beginning was fine tuning the grip, and not over-holding. One of the best pieces of advice I got from here is the idea of "don't think about the shot - but rather think about the components that make up a good shot". Sounds benign, but I think having the same "mental checklist" with every shot is REALLY important.

Good luck - here's one of my 10X1's from week 11. I call it "the outliers moving toward the infield". Clearly still jerking the trigger - but I'm working on it.

[brent375hh]

If You see something obvious with my shooting feel free to comment - I am here to learn!

I'm in week 11 with 10mAP - your targets look familiar and mine were very similar. Lots of decent information here so keep you eyes and ears open. I also set up a small range at home, but I'm also told it's important to vary where you shoot.

My focus at the beginning was fine tuning the grip, and not over-holding. One of the best pieces of advice I got from here is the idea of "don't think about the shot - but rather think about the components that make up a good shot". Sounds benign, but I think having the same "mental checklist" with every shot is REALLY important.

Good luck - here's one of my 10X1's from week 11. I call it "the outliers moving toward the infield". Clearly still jerking the trigger - but I'm working on it.

I'm not so sure you are jerking the trigger. A jerked trigger usually goes into an 8 o'clock area, not high right. You might be gripping at the moment of trigger release, that usually will go up and right. Watching your front sight when dry firing is the key to finding if you are doing something that disrupts your hold at the moment of trigger release. If you don't think you are gripping, perhaps all you need is a sight adjustment. If all your groups look like that, coming down would eliminate your 7s.

[rmca]

Hurtigpelikan,

Your targets show that you are all over the place. It's pretty common in new shooters so don't worry too much about it.
Without seeing you shoot, it's very difficult to diagnose the problem (probably problems...).

So let's start with the basics.
1- Where is your focus? Target, front sight, rear sight?
It must be on the front sight, like this:

Fig_01_Focus_on_the_front_sight.jpg (23.79 KiB) Viewed 5599 times

2- What happens to the front sight when you break the shot? Does it move?
3- This is just a guess, but you are probably gripping the pistol too hard, trying to make it stop wobbling.

This is what I would suggest:

- Get a chair and a table, and something you can rest the pistol on, that allows you to shot while sitting strait. Rest only the bottom of the grip, and nothing else. This takes the weight of the pistol (mostly...) out of the equation, and let's you focus on sights and trigger.
- Focus on a good sight picture as the one above. The rear sight will be a little blurry, and the target a lot blurry.
- Squeeze the trigger gently. Apply pressure in a continuous manner, and resist the temptation to smash it when the sights are align.
- Finally, find a club in your area. You can learn a bit online, but nothing close to what someone watching you shot can tell...

Hope this helps

[Agt. Smith]

Excellent advice from both brent375hh and rmca, and I'm sure others will add to this.

Hurtigpelikan..............see what I mean !

[Sergei1950]

Hi,

I am a former archer, but an injury a couple of years ago has made it impossible for me to continue to shoot with a compound bow.

But I miss target practice, and since I always had a fascination for pistol shooting, 10m AP seems like a good match.

I have set up an 10m indoor range and tried to shoot a 10x6 series a couple of times. The results are posted below.
068B6309-84C2-4582-8076-B365453A8622.jpeg
71873FC4-03E0-4B67-AAA5-46BB85DFCE5F.jpeg

If You see something obvious with my shooting feel free to comment - I am here to learn!

Right now I am shooting with a HW40 and as the results show, it shoots much better than me at this stage. When I outgrow the HW40 I will probably buy a Walter LP2 or Steyr P11.

My ambition is to comped at a national level without embarrassing myself in 2-3. This means scoring at least 500/600.
It could also be fun to participate in an international event sometime in the future.

I will try to post whenever I feel like I have made significant progress.

Best regards

You are lucky to have HW40. I am using stock Crosman 1377 for exercise and check my results with IZH46. Why are you shooting AP60? Why not to try AP20 at first "supported rest" ?

[Oldbear]

I think the term here is "to necro an old thread";
I have had a couple of jumps in my shooting scores. One was when I got a much better gun (an AV 46M). Another was when I watched a few high level competition shooters on YouTube.
Unfortunately, the video photographers are trying to capture the tenseness and images of the competition and not the technical aspects of the shooting. I suspect that the best technical photography would be in paid-for instructional videos, but you can get glimpses of proper trigger behavior and follow-through on some of the videos.

[whitefox545]

Hurting Pelican, I'm FAR from a good shooter but the one thing that has helped me the most is not letting the break of the shot be the end of my shot process!! Try to hold the sights on the bull for two or three seconds after the shot breaks better known as (follow through) That has meant more to my shooting than ANY other thing I have tried to master and worry about subconsciously. Good luck and don't expect to get proficient in a short period of time as it is not easy to master obviously as few have done it but it is very rewarding as you progress. J.L.

[Grippy]

I suspect that the best technical photography would be in paid-for instructional videos, but you can get glimpses of proper trigger behavior and follow-through on some of the videos.

Not sure how you would film that. Perfect trigger technique looks like... well nothing. On modern match pistols, especially electronic ones. You take out the pretravel as you lower your gun into the target and then you just increase pressure until it breaks. Which happens without any observable motion.

[PirateJohn]

Not sure how you would film that. Perfect trigger technique looks like... well nothing.

If you want to know how to film nothing, just ask the guy who directed Twilight.

[David M]

Find a local club and see if they have a club coach for training assistance.
Introduce yourself to the other shooters and look at the pistols they shoot.
If possible try some newer match pistols to find one that fits and feel right.
Then go and buy a top quality (may be a little older) pistol that has both a
local dealer service support and parts available.
Then buy the best pistol you can afford to buy and start training.
You will get a good 10-20yrs out of a quality pistol and not loose a lot of money.
You will out grow an old cheap pistol very quickly.
Stay away from old obsolete pistols.

[Sprocky]

Hello Hurtipelikan, You've been given great advice. I'd like to add that Dry Fire is incredibly important
for your training; I recommend you do more of that than lobbing pellets at a target. It is easy to dry fire
the HW 40, all you need do is lift the upper cocking section until you hear the trigger reset then lower
the upper section into firing position. then gently, smoothly pull the trigger.
I bought a Marksman 2004 decades ago, paying $23.99 when on sale at Wal Mart. It still performs like
new(with a bit of maintenance and Pell Gun oil). In case you don't know the Marksman 2004 was built
in China, either under license agreement or not from HW 40 drawings, The Beeman P17 is the same air pistol.

Okay, I did lube and smooth the trigger and added grip tape on the pistol grip to suit me and I glued fishing
weights to the inside compartments at the front of the frame. It's been over a decade since I shot a 60
shot practice match; I seem to recall scoring in the high 520's with it. That AP is capable of hitting 9's and 10's.
Your HW 40 should be even better... Best of Luck; Tony