Goal setting and expectations for beginner

[merlin32]

About a month ago I decided to get into the sport and have been doing weekly shoots at my local pistol club. Mainly 10m air pistol and a bit of standard pistol. The licensing laws in Australia mean that I will be on a probationary license for the next 6 months, and only after then will I be able to purchase a pistol. So I'm using whatever club gun is available!

Initial impressions
- I'm really enjoying 10m air pistol. I like that it's competitive, it's accessible and cheap to shoot, and I can focus on perfecting / improving technique
- I've also shot a little bit of 25m standard pistol on .22's, and the steel targets with centrefire revolvers and semi-auto's
- The club I've joined seems like a good fit, everyone's really nice and I'm getting good guidance
- I've been reading quite a bit online, and on this forum
- It's going to be frustrating waiting 6 months to get my own pistol. I'm often using a different pistol each week, I have to dial in the sights from scratch every week, and all of the club guns are a bit different (some spring guns, SSP's and compressed air pistols)

going forward
- I like the competition aspect, there is a system for grading, there are competitive shoots every week and intra-club shoots most months
- I think a good approach would be to focus on 10m air pistol and get my technique down + scores up, and then 22LR pistol (standard / rapid fire). The centrefire/steel target stuff can wait

me
- I'm 39, I can practise once / week for the next 6 months, and then I should be able to do 2-3 nights / week once I get my own pistol
- I'd like to eventually start competing in the intra-club shoots regularly
- I may need to do something for my eyesight - I'm cross-dominate and also short sighted + astigmatism. So I'm thinking at some point I might need to get some lenses made up
- I'll be buying an air pistol after the 6 months, I could probably afford a top-tier air pistol if I wanted to (ie. the buy once, cry once philosophy), but I'm not sure if I would be better served by getting something cheap and then upgrading down the track once I have a better feel for what attributes I like in a pistol.

So far I've shot on 5 evenings, and 3 of those were matches. So far scored 459, 466 and 490 in the past 3 weeks with the 10m air pistol. I've also been doing some of the shooting exercises and games on the electronic targets

Unfortunately I can't own a pistol for the next 6 months, so I can't practice at home, and I can only shoot once a week during this time.

What are some realistic goals / objectives for the first 6 months and for the first year? should I be striving for a particular score/grade in the 10m air pistol, or just try to continually improve? Are there any training plans I should be following when I'm at the range?

Anyway, this was my effort last night using a club Hammerli AP20

[rmca]

Hi merlin32, welcome to the forum.

It's sounds to me that you are on track with most of what you wrote.
I would advise this:

1- Get some glasses made. You won't shot better without them.
2- Get a top tier pistol, either new or second hand. Don't wast time with cheaper stuff. You will progress faster with good equipment. I would recommend a Steyr, any of them. You can always resell them for almost the price you paid.
3- Stay with air pistol. Learn to shoot it. What you will learn with air pistol will help a lot when you'll go for .22s or centerfire.
4- Don't set a number as a target. First, try to keep all 60 shots in the black. Then eliminate the 7's, and so on.
5- Find a coach or some more experienced to help you at your club. You don't know what you don't know, and having someone look at what you are doing, helps a lot more than some guy writing on the internet ;)
6- And do as many matches as you can!!

Hope this helps

[Grippy]

I'll be buying an air pistol after the 6 months, I could probably afford a top-tier air pistol if I wanted to (ie. the buy once, cry once philosophy), but I'm not sure if I would be better served by getting something cheap and then upgrading down the track once I have a better feel for what attributes I like in a pistol.

There isn't a whole lot of "tiering" going on in this market anyway. I'd pick from among Steyr, Morini, Feinwerkbau, Pardini and Walther. Almost all of those have a top tier model, maybe an electronic trigger version and a junior/club model. Anyone serious should just go with the top end model. Only Walther has a more fine grained model selection.

I'm not sure most people, even experienced ones, can really identify "what attributes they like in a pistol" in an objective sense. I get the impression most of the time when someone says "they clicked with a pistol" it really just means they liked the factory grip or how the trigger happened to be set up on that specific instance. But grips should be customized and triggers etc. be set up to the individual shooters liking. And after doing that all the top end models are surprisingly interchangeable. At least that is what I found after doing so as an extended experiment.

[David M]

Use the 6 months to try different pistols.
Try and borrow different pistols to try from club members.
When buying, buy the best you can afford to buy.
Do not rush out and buy 3 or 4 pistols.
First buy a Airpistol, your main training gun, then a good .22.
Do not be in a rush to buy a 9mm.
A good quality pistol will hold its value.
A good quality Air pistol will serve you for at least 10-15 yrs.
My origional Morini I shot for over 20yrs.
My current Walther I have been shooting now for 13 yrs.
Buy a pistol that is in current production, this guarantees parts supply if needed,
Buy with a local dealer, this should guarantees servicing and support.

[thirdwheel]

From your attitude and your first scores and the 60 shot you have posted I know you will do well and quite quickly too.
Agree with all advice re pistols - especially trying other club members pistols.
You may be cross dominant but if you blind your left eye if you are righthanded you may be surprised how well you can use your non dominant eye, so many get into the fix of I'm cross dominant from the start without even trying to use their non dominant eye. Having the sighting eye on the same side as the pistol sights has so much more going for it, and yes get proper shooting lens sorted or even a pair of glasses with the correct lens in and putting a little bit of tape on the other lens - this is cheaper and works very well. Good luck in your quest it is a great sport to get involved in.

[Gwhite]

As Thirdwheel said, lots of people get overly bent out of shape about cross-dominant vision. For target shooting, as long as the vision in the non-dominant eye is good (or at least correctable to good), you are best off shooting with your non-dominant eye so you can shoot with your dominant hand. Block the dominant eye with a translucent piece of tape, and off you go.

To start out, if the vision in your dominant eye is significantly better than in your non-dominant eye, you can twist your wrist to get the sights lined up with your aiming eye. This is not ideal, but you are a ways off from where it will make much difference. Once you settle on a pistol, you can get grips from Rink that have a 7 degree offset so that you no longer have to twist your wrist.

If you are only slightly dominant and the vision in both eyes is equally good, you can also change which eye is dominant. My wife was on the pistol team in college, and wore an eye patch over her dominant eye for many months to do just that.

[merlin32]

Thanks for all of the feedback - I've been shooting weekly, and there is a bit of a contingent of club members going to an open regional comp in early Feb. So I have my sights set on training as much as I can for this comp, and pretty much entering 10m AP and the 25m 22LR events.

In our region, men shoot 25m sport pistol (same comp as 25m centre fire pistol but using 22's) as well as standard pistol + RFP. So, I'm still practising AP and Precision .22 shooting but have also been building skills for RFP and the rapid stage of 25m pistol - so practising a fast + accurate lift + first shot using a shot timer. I'm getting mostly 9's and 10's on my 5 x 3sec rapid stage shots now, so now trying to get down to an accurate 1.8 sec lift + first shot and then getting a consistent first + second shot within 3 sec are my current goals, and then i'll be building up for consistent 6 second RFP series's.

I've picked up a Steyr LP10 and a Moriini CM22M (both second hand) for good prices, which are being stored for me - currently being cleaned + serviced by our local ISSF pistol guru gunsmith. Should be able to sell them for the price I paid if they don't work out, but pretty happy, they both look to be in very good condition, the air pistol is an earlier modle, but just needs a good clean and a new seal and the morini needs a new grip.

[merlin32]

with the eye dominance thing. I've just been closing my left (dominate) eye and shooting with my right eye, and that's been working fine. I was at the range for 8 hours yesterday, and I was physically tired at the end, but not really feeling any eye strain from closing my eye the whole time, so I think it'll work fine like that for the time being.

[aspan76]

Let me share my thoughts https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... tid=Nif5oz
I should add that all you need right now is to stabilise your arm and even that you can come to the club only once a week, at home you can do holdings of 1- 1.5 kg (no more) weight to strengthen your shoulder muscles.

[javaduke]

Welcome to our beautiful sport! You will find it very addicting, I promise :) Here are some of my thoughts regarding your questions, but take it with a grain of salt, at the end of the day you just do what works for you.

- Expectations - NONE whatsoever! Every time I think to myself before the match "I'm going to shoot a high score", "I want to break 560 or 570", whatever, it ends up in a disaster. What I try to do (and it is MUCH, MUCH easier said than done) is to condition myself to not pay any attention to my scores, even not to check if my shot was 10, or 9, or anything else, just see if an off-center shot is an indication I need to change something, e.g. adjust the sights or change my stance. What I do want is to shoot 60 individual shots, as opposed to a 6-shot match, and before each shot focus on my shot process and try to execute this process as perfectly as I can. Grip, trigger finger position, breathe, focus on the front sight, keep the perfect sight alignment, get a good sight picture, trigger break, follow through. This usually ends in tight 10 or X. Just do it 60 times and get a perfect score :)

- Goals - yes, of course, every practice session must come with a certain goal. For example - keep all your shots within the 8 ring. Or improve your trigger technique. Or refine your shot process. But your goal should not be to win a match, winning is a result of good shooting, and good shooting is done by consistently executing your shot process.

- Air pistol - definitely, get the best you can afford. With proper maintenance and care they last forever. My personal favorite is Morini 162EI, other people prefer Steyr, I also was quite impressed with Pardini K12, not so much with Walther LP500 (but I know a lot of people who love their Walthers). It's a matter of personal preference plus availability of services and parts. If possible, try different ones and see which one speaks to you ;)

- Practice as much as you can. Dry fire to live fire ratio should be minimum 5:1 (i.e. for each live fire shot you should do at least 5 dry fires). Start with blank target, then add windage and elevation marks, finally practice with actual size target, closely observing your sights and eliminate the sights movement during the trigger break. Some people even suggest dry firing while you are sitting on your couch and watching TV, it kinda makes sense, helps developing a habit of pulling the trigger subconsciously. I don't watch TV so I cannot say how good this advise is :)

Just my 2c.