TargetTalk

I read a nice paper by Eric Uptagrafft on part time shooters in the last issue of the USAS magazine. Probably applies to a lot of people in this forum, and certainly to me as a lonely part- time shooter! Somehow makes a point about really taking advantage of less frequent training sessions as compared to full time shooters.
the link: http://www.webpublished.com/gallery/vie ... 1021235619

Since this isn't getting much mileage, either the article sucks (which I can believe) or the new USAS magazine online format leaves something to be desired. Let me know which so I can either stop writing articles or let USAS know at the next board meeting (21 Nov) that the online magazine format isn't working out too well.

Thanks,
Eric

Page 18:
http://www.usashooting.org/mag/nov-dec-2009.pdf

See you again,
space cowboys,
LukeP.

Eric -

This will sound like I am either sucking up or being overly negative. Take your choice, I suppose. I thought the article you wrote was one of the better (best) pieces USAS has published since I began reading the publication in print or on-line. It more specifically describes what the majority of competition shooters encounter in a practical or real-life sense. Almost all of the articles written for USAS are the same generic recycled dribble that have no practical application for readers. Almost all the articles in the past have a strong pseudo-psychological orientation and are written by people who are not actively training or competing nor do they have a professional psychological background. I think people would be interested and hungry for meat on the bone information whether it is technical/equipment oriented or descriptions of problems encountered in competitions and how they can be specifically managed.

Most of the people that I know in smallbore are not members of USAS and don't particularly have an affinity for the metric target as can be seen from the fairly small turn-out at our Georgia Metric Regional a couple weeks ago. However, your article was published on-line a day or two later and I sent links to several people and saw it referenced on other shooting forums. I found it helpful as did others I spoke with later. I wished you had mentioned it at the match we attended so it could have been discussed there. Keep writing.

Regards - Dennis Lindenbaum

Nice article Eric. I agree with your comments about coaching helping my own shooting. I even managed to write up some of my coaching for some beginners, it was amazing how that helped reinforce those points in my own shooting.

I also liked the part about using your well known position instead of searching for that ever elusive perfect position. I think everyone at some stage is fiddled with this or that adjustment instead of just getting on with using good technique with their own well known postion.
Cheers
Martin

Eric,

As both a professional communicator and an isolated, do-it-myself ISSF smallbore shooter, I thought your article was well-written, informative and summed up a lot of what I'm trying to figure out right now. Good stuff.

I recently joined USA Shooting (even though I'm Canadian) so I could receive the magazine. I was a little surprised to find out about it from Guido's link as I'd expected to receive some sort of email notice that it was available.

My advice is to keep at, please. I'm trying to write a training plan for myself right now and am really struggling with finding a balance between a results and a performance focus. How can you have one without the other?

I struggle all day trying not to write what Dennis correctly termed "generic recycled dribble" because I know how quickly it turns off readers. So it was nice to read an article written by a "real" shooter.

Jason

I though the article was very encouraging and inspiring for an inexperienced shooter such as myself, The article answered several questions I had posted over on the Competitive Rifleman Forum, that no one had any comments on.

http://forums.delphiforums.com/matchsho ... msg=3534.1

Eric
The paper is actually very good, and well written. It is very reality-based and balanced and I personally felt it could apply to me, as opposed to other papers in the magazine. I personally prefer the paper-based version of the magazine over the on line version, for some reason. May be it does not get publicized enough by USAS ?
I look forward to reading more of these kind of papers.

Eric,

Well written. Sometimes when you hit the nail on the head there is not much to say or talk about.

In my mind I am a full time shooter who works 40+ hours per week, has a wife with 2 and 4 yr old boys. The only time I have to train is after 8pm and some weekends and most of that is dry-firing and/or air pistol. I was once a rifle shooter but moved to pistol. To get more matches I shoot bullseye. Like you said...it is still a match and you have to focus a lot on the basics.

I am glad to see it is possible to be a top level shooter and not be a "supported" shooter.

Keep up the writing.

Eric, it was a good article. Look forward to your next one.
I don't see anything wrong with the electronic version.

The articles in the USAS magazine are excellent! I usually read all of them, even the shotgun ones which I really don't shoot at all.

I prefer the printed version because I take it to bed and read the articles before I go to sleep. I spend enough time at the computer working and don't want to do it reading magazines.
Thanks for the great information!
Ben

Thanks for the encouragement. I've never considered myself any kind of writer.

Ok, if I write another article, what topic would you like to see addressed? I've been thinking of the part time shooter article for quite some time but I really don't have another subject in mind.

Thanks,
Eric

One of the best writes I have seen in a long time. The recent Sanderson article is good too. Neither are the same old same old. A welcome lack of talking over our heads. Some articles are too scienific, and looooong. Eric's article actually covered a new area. Thank you

Eric, I get a link to the online magazine every month but never read it. I think the software is not as good as it could be. It takes too long to navigate between pages. I suggest you just make each magazine page a web page, and add a navigation bar to the left side of each page. It will make the whole magazine a lot faster to load and read.

Eric,
That was a great article and very informative. I had not recieved the hard copy of it so I went ahead and checked it out online. My daughter will be reading this shortly. There is a lot of good info that she can use in her shooting and training. You sure gave me a few ideas that will come in handy. I appreciate the time and effort you took to write this. Thanks.

LukeP,
Thanks for providing the link to the PDF file.

S.

Eric,
That was a great article and very informative. I had not recieved the hard copy of it so I went ahead and checked it out online. My daughter will be reading this shortly. There is a lot of good info that she can use in her shooting and training. You sure gave me a few ideas that will come in handy. I appreciate the time and effort you took to write this. Thanks.

LukeP,
Thanks for providing the link to the PDF file.

S.

Hi Eric

A couple of suggestions for a follow up article(s):

Ammunition selection / grouping requirement / methods used (Rest / Machine/ shoulder/ distance etc.) for ISSF for the part time shooter

Suggestions on wind shooting; aim off, wind on, is there a preferred method

Blind Kiwi

I'd like to hear more about your experiences with your shooting diary. Why not look back through it until you find a particular problem and then walk us through how you used your diary to help you resolve it?

And I'm still trying to figure out this whole "mental" training stuff, so any thoughts on that is always appreciated, especially for those of us training on our own without the benefit of a coach (or other shooters in my case).

Jason

Eric U wrote:Thanks for the encouragement. I've never considered myself any kind of writer.

Ok, if I write another article, what topic would you like to see addressed? I've been thinking of the part time shooter article for quite some time but I really don't have another subject in mind.

Thanks,
Eric

American Made Smallbore Rifles, Stocks and associated Equipment.

Thanks,

Roy McClain
(678) 772-8185 cell

Here's another idea.

How about the real-world differences between wood-stocked rifles and today's newer aluminum ones?

Two years ago our club statistician dissapeared between relays at Perry to talk to the AMU folks, and reported that to a shooter, they all shot wood stocks.

Others with aluminum stocks report harmonic issues (shot ping) that might be affecting accuracy.

Some (like me recently) had wood stocks in a very high humidity situation - forced air induction, 98% humidy in an indoor range - and ended up clicking right like crazy to keep up with the warpage.

I don't think anyone has done a real investigation into these issues.