TargetTalk

Okay … This old time over the course (OTC) shooter needs some help from the Olympic crowd...

For many years I’ve shot a Walther LG210 SSP air rifle as a trainer for the standing phase of highpower service rifle shooting. That’s fired at 200 yards on a target with a 3-inch X-ring, a 7-inch 10-ring and completing the black a 13-inch 9-ring. The course of fire is two sighting and twenty record shots in twenty-two minutes.

Since this is shot out of doors in wind, the Olympic style passive hold does not work well. The OTC hold needs to have more tension to react and counteract the effects of the wind on the body and rifle. The firing points are never really completely level, and the target heights relative to the firing line differ from range to range as well. So refining a perfect body position that correlates with a perfect NPA/Sight Picture is never going to happen.

I was trained, and have always shot the standing phase by ensuring my position centers my NPA on the bull. Then the rifle is loaded and mounted. As the final stage of the mount is accomplished (coming down to the target I have always approached the bull from 9 o’clock stopping when the post is at the correct height. Then I allow the post to move over to the bull as my position settles toward and into NPA. This way I can see the number boards just before they are blocked by the front sight, and more importantly nail my elevation down prior to the final settling into my NPA hold. This way I only need to deal with right to left movement as elevation has already been obtained.

When it goes well, the post is where I want it as I settle into my NPA and the shot is fired. The only exception to this is if there is a very strong left to right wind, then I would approach from 3 o’clock so that I’m settling “into the wind” as this helps from moving past the bull and having to come back in from the other side (which is what I do most times rather than break down and remount for another pass).

Sorry for the long background … I assume many here already know all of this but just in case I put it up, I hope it’s helpful.

Now to my dilemma.

I’ve been working for the last three months or so learning the ISSF game, focusing on it in its own right. I’ve been training by approaching the bull from 12 o’clock, which is what all the literature that I read states to do. I’m having a very difficult time controlling the “drop” of the gun as I settle into my NPA position. Invariably I overshoot (undershoot?) the bull and now have to stop the gun and move the sight back up to acquire the proper sight picture. I then find myself bobbing up and down over the bull, never really getting the “bounce” under control before my hold deteriorates.

I also am all over the place right and left. Since you have no visual clues to your alignment right to left until the barrel has been lowered to almost the shooting position I’m finding I need to correct side to side displacement at the same time I’m trying to control the bobbing up and down.

So at last … here is the question.

Why approach from the top?

It seems to me that an approach from the side allows one to eliminate one alignment variable at a time rather than dealing with two at once. I can’t imagine someone’s position being so solid that they don’t need to worry about right / left alignment. Am I wrong here … do I need to work my hold that much more?

Obviously I’m missing something, I’m sure the top shooters in the ISSF type of game have figured this all out and have a solid reason … I just haven’t found it. So if someone could point me in the right direction I’m happy to do the research.

By the way, if it’s helpful. I was a Master level service rifle shooter, so I could clean the standing stage with high X-count most days. I’m currently shooting my air rifle indoors on 6m targets printed with Ian Pellant’s software and by my math the reduction of bull size is proper for the range. I can for the most part hold an 8 on the 6m target coming in from the top. I do better approaching from the side but have forced myself to NOT do this very much, as I really want to train in the “proper” way and get this new approach figured out.

So … long-winded, sorry. Any ideas or help would be appreciated.

My daughter has been shooting almost a couple of years now, and I had no prior experience at this. So, with that disclaimer.... Here is what we were taught.

Center your NPA on the bull with your breath let all the way out. Not pushed out, but just exhale all the way. When you take your next medium breath the sights will rise because the air inflating your chest will push your arm up. When you exhale, the sights will lower as the breath goes out and stop at the center of the bull. If the sights go lower than the center, you either forced more breath out or did not properly establish NPA in the first place.

Why? Breathing all the way out is a "relaxed" state. The gun should be supported by your bones at this point with as little muscle as possible. You breath out... relax and the gun sinks and settles at its NPA, the bull.

If you come in from 9:00 you must use muscles in the process. You either have to twist around to bring the gun off your NPA then relax to let it swing back to it or vise / versa.

Yes, many shooters today have enough control to bring the approach line straight down the center line of the bull. Training on scatt, my daughter is seldom more than 1 ring from the center of the bull coming down..... most of the time much less than that.

Hope all that made sense!

I agree with Mr Marsh, the ISSF game is all about consistency of technique. So you must be able to build a consistent repeatable position that will put your NPA exactly where you want it every time. If your NPA is not exactly correct then you must reject the shot, and move a number of stages back through your shot process to correct it. The number of steps necessary will vary from shot to shot, but often the best bet is to just drop it back on the rest. The process my daughter uses starts by finding the center of the target (not always the center of the FP) and laying a ruler (the sort you see workmen using that folds up so you can lay it like a set square) this allows you to then be able to place your feet in exactly the same place for each shot, even if you have to break position (handy if you use a SSP) without contravinig ISSF rules (6.10 or 6.11 IIRC). With the position starting from the same place for every shot you should be able to shoot groups on a blank black card that are at least as small as if you were using an aiming mark. Actually if you have a good repeatable position the groups should really be a bit smaller as you will not be trying to push the rifle to center the sights. The black card excersise will also tell you if you have set up with your NPA actually pointing at the right place (ie is coincident with where the center of the aiming mark is or not. Left right error is easy enough to fix, you simply move the whole position over by the same amount to compensate, moving the ruler to ensure consistency. The biggest problem is that of elevation, the ISSF regs allow a significant variation in height of the target. It can be useful to do some training excersices with targets set at both extreams. Two options here, move feet further/closer apart or move the supporting hand back/forwards on the stock. Choose one method and stick with it though remember everything should be consistent. Once you have the ablity to reliably move the NPA around the blank card setting up at a match becomes much simpler. Shooting under ISSF rules once shooters have been called to the line (normally 15 min before the Sighting and Preparation time begins) you may do aiming and dry fire, but must NOT dischrage air. This is when you will be placing your ruler on the floor, you will also want to do your aiming excersises at this point. As you will not normally have a target presented to you at this point, you will set the position up and as you allow the rifle to settle onto position you will be looking up the side of the sights, not through them. Once you are at the point where you would be at the point of shot release then look through the sight picture. What you need to look for is the initial sight picture, not where it ends up. Use that initial picture to make your positional adjustments to bring the NPA completely onto the target. Then make a mental or even actual note of the changes needed to get your NPA pointing in the right place, so you can repeate it for each shot. The ISSF timings of 75min for 60 shots is plenty, especially if shooting on Electronic Scoring, although even using paper and electric powered target changers is ample if you use the right firing point procedures. Reload while the target is returining, and start building the position while it is running back out.

Finally the eyes averted position check is a procedure you should follow for EVERY shot, it will quickly show you errors of position. Even the simple act of breathing while looking up the side of the sights will often give you a warning if the position is bad, it will just look different, and the brain is good at spotting differences, if you just listen to it. Although specifically for ISSF shooting lots of these sorts of positioal checks become semi autonomus and will help even with other disiplines. We do not shoot HP over here in the UK but I have found that many of the skills from ISSF style shooting did actually help when I shot Service Rifle (many years ago now) and TR and even F Class.

Alan