TargetTalk

Looking for a good way to avoid those shots you know are going to be hit or miss but you shoot anyway.
I can easily call tens, but not lower scoring shots except for coordinates up/down/right/left from center.
How do I stop from shooting the ones I can't call a ten while they are being produced?

The short answer is that if any element of your shot plan goes astray, you abort the shot.

Can I list the ways?
Here is a partial list of the more usual reasons I abort a shot, in no particular order.

1. My pistol does not settle into its usual arc of minimum wobble.
2. A stray thought enters my mind.
3. My trigger squeeze does not progress like it should.
4. My focus on the front sight is not exact.
5. My vision gets a little blurry.
6. I am holding too long.
7. An external distraction occurs.

Many of the above errors can occur in several different ways for each of them. Experience will give you more insight into recognizing when something is departing from your plan for a perfect process in executing a shot.

If your shot plan is executed well, you will still get shots that fall out of the ten ring. This is based on your ability to hold, and you should not be disapointed with something less than a ten if you executed your shot process without error.

Best Regards,
Slo cat

paulo wrote:Looking for a good way to avoid those shots you know are going to be hit or miss but you shoot anyway.
I can easily call tens, but not lower scoring shots except for coordinates up/down/right/left from center.
How do I stop from shooting the ones I can't call a ten while they are being produced?

to expand on SloCat's answer, what tens...
There are well executed shots, and the others - the shot value / score is immaterial as a good score follows from the well executed shots

In a precision series, if it ain't a good shot process (any of the things SloCat listed), back off and start again

Yeah, but make sure that you abort while still in the aiming area, release the trigger pressure, finger off then move out of your aiming area.
Restart the whole process when ready.

this is all very well but i sometimes get a shot when you think "Oh my god wheres that going to hit "cos your no where on sight and it takes the center out of the bull . also i always re cock my pistol just in case i took some of the second stage out and i don't get any surprises then

You need to practice it. It's when you really know afterwards that you should have rejected the shot, not just on the result but on feel. If it was an out of control lucky ten that was all it was, luck. It could just as easily have been a 7. Learn from it when it happens, sit down and think what indicators were there telling you you should have rejected it and then learn to recognise them, and vow to act on them next time, it takes a bit of will power.
Slo Cat's list is spot on, could be any one or a combination of them, and as David says abort in time and whilst still on aim, the trick is to learn to act, I call it listening to the voice, the one in the back of your head saying "put the gun down now!"
You also need to learn to accept a rejected shot as a good thing and not get stessed by it, it was a bad shot saved, be glad, it's not a cause for concern, do it as often and as many times as you wish, learn to not be pressured into making a shot.
if you reject a lot perhaps some training analysis of why will help to reduce the cause, personally if I follow a rejected shot with a ten I'm glad I listened to the voices.
Good shooting and Best regards.
Robin

Practice aborting.

I was at a clinic where the instructor had us purposely abort a shot and then take the next one, if everything was right.

When you have to learn on your own about competitive gun shooting it seems you end up correcting more bad techniques you picked up along the way than shooting, at least to me because I believe all shots deserve to be a ten.
I have found some consistency in my errors, and I plan to learn from them, so I ask many questions here, and I am grateful to all for the help and sharing of experience.
First thing I noticed is that I have never practiced dry fire, maybe now is a good time to start to learn that not all shots need to make a hole on the target.
Slo Cat and others have certainly helped me realize that aborting a shoot is a very common thing, because most of those described red flags and clues for stopping a shot happen very frequently to me, but I shoot anyway.
My griping is developing the best of all, I think, but the spaghetti twirling moment on my wrist has evaded me, is there a way to control it or aborting a shoot is the only solution?

My griping is developing the best of all, I think, but the spaghetti twirling moment on my wrist has evaded me, is there a way to control it or aborting a shoot is the only solution?[/quote]

next time you have spaghetti try twirling your fork clock wise first to wrap it then try doing the same anti clock wise not as easy as you think may not help your shooting but it is fun
Will

I feel that while in movement the wrist wobble is almost non existent, so if your concentration can make time slow, and you slow your movement as the distance to the ten becomes half, and then a quarter, followed by an eigth..., at some point even if you are almost stopped you are moving inside the ten ring towards the X area at ever slower speed, practice can help specially making ever so slight continuous movement towards the landing on the ten, I tried this approach today with free pistol and I like the results.
All pointers mentioned by Slo Cat have been very helpful.

Ahhh..... the little voice

"Put the gun down.."
..."no, it will be ok"
"Put the gun down.."
..."NO, I said it will be OK"
"PUT THE GUN DOWN NOW"
...BANG
...oop's
"I told you to put it down!!!"
..." SHUT UP ###"

How many have had this argument...lots ?

That's it David, you got it spot on!!

It was what I intended to put but got carried away and got too technical.

Just listen to the voices!!!!

Best regards and Good Shooting
Robin

David M wrote:Ahhh..... the little voice

"Put the gun down.."
..."no, it will be ok"
"Put the gun down.."
..."NO, I said it will be OK"
"PUT THE GUN DOWN NOW"
...BANG
...oop's
"I told you to put it down!!!"
..." SHUT UP ###"

How many have had this argument...lots ?

Lol -- too true.

As another -- the moment you start to think at all about the next shot ('cause this one is 'gonna stink up the joint) it's time to abort.

Although I will agree that all the preceding are reasons to abort, I will add that IMNSHO, you should not look for reasons to abort. You should also not judge the result as a quality value. You should learn to call the shot before it happens and then only fire those that will be tens.

As a final thought: The best shot is one that finishes as you enter your best settle.

Take Care,
Ed Hall
Air Force Shooting Homepage
Bullseye (and International) Competition Things

I just learned from this dialogue that having a shooting sequence is the only approach to shooting competition.
How well you execute all the steps that make you get a ten, and how they become second nature, to focusing on front sights is the key.
I am working on it, anyone around Philadelphia care to discuss notes at the range?!

paulo wrote:I just learned from this dialogue that having a shooting sequence is the only approach to shooting competition.
How well you execute all the steps that make you get a ten, and how they become second nature, to focusing on front sights is the key.
I am working on it, anyone around Philadelphia care to discuss notes at the range?!

So happens I am near there. PM me and let me know where you usually shoot.

sbtzc wrote:Practice aborting.

I was at a clinic where the instructor had us purposely abort a shot and then take the next one, if everything was right.

So essentially you're saying you went to an abortion clinic? :-)

Sorry, couldn't resist.

If you are a shooter that believes in the concept of " No Stinking Thinking " I dont believe I can help. But if you shoot with your mental process suporting your shot process maybe this tip can help. Remember the tip about the thought that is not part of your shooting technique ? Asd long as you use the same thought process on every shot you can recognise a deviation from correct progression to something that is foriegn when it occurs and that is the signal to abort yhe shot. This is harder to explain than it is to execute. Just remember that whenever you deviate from the shot process that you use you mest abort and terminate the shot process. Good Shooting Bill Horton