TargetTalk

During a competition air pistol (or a serious trainning), how many times down the gun without firing ?

I just want to know an average, no exact number. Just for comparison.

As I'm shooting after a long time, I down the gun very few times, maximum 3 or 4 in a competition.


Thank You,


Nano

(Sorry about my english)

Air and Free maybe 20-30 %.

Close to 20% myself. It doesn't bother me a bit to do it. It is the anxiety that causes the screw-ups.

10 - 200%, with a large standard deviation.

No, that's not a typo.

Around the 40% mark (Air), pretty much all of which is a result of me focussing on my hold and trigger release.

As soon as I sense my thumb becoming involved (tightening on the grip) when I'm seeking to release the trigger solely with index finger movement, then I lower the pistol and restart the shot process.

My partner finds it frustrating when she's spectating (as pretty much everyone at the club shoots faster than me), but in my last competition round my persistence delivered me a 181/200 (equalling my PB).

As my hold improves, and becomes more second nature, then I'm anticipating a reduction in this figure, but I would always prefer to abort, rather than release a 'forced' shot and end up putting my score in the lap of the gods...

Nowhere near as often as I should.

"It'll go soon, it'll go soon, it'll go soon, DAMN"

From 20% to 30% more or less.
Some shots take a good 4 or 5 lifts to go (air pistol). Most of them go off at the first lift.

It doesn't matter how many times you do have to abort a shot.
You just have to be sure that you have time to do this, and when it does fire it's a properly executed shot.

Hope this helps

David Levene wrote:Nowhere near as often as I should.

"It'll go soon, it'll go soon, it'll go soon, DAMN"

"Come BACK!!"

My first coach always told me "watch your shots, there's always time to wreck a match".

I never repented of lowering the pistol, many times I was sorry I didn't!!!

There are only two downsides to aborting a shot:

1) Wearing your arm out. Solution: practice aborting. If you are just shooting when you "practice", you will tend to abort a lot less (if at all). You need to be as serious about shooting good shots when you train as you are in a match.

2) Running out of time. The faster you can abort when something isn't right, the better off you will be. This also helps with not wearing your arm out. if your best shots are breaking after 3 or 4 seconds of hold, don't wait until you've been struggling for 10 seconds to put the pistol down.

It's a age old argument......

" Put the gun down.."
" No, it will be OK.."
" Put the gun down.."
" No , I said it will be OK.."
" You have held too long,
put the gun down.."
" No....BANG...Darn"
" I told you to put it down.."
" SHUTUP...."

Moral.......Listen to the inner voice the first time.

Yup. I abort about one-quarter of the shots. But it's not consistent. The big point is that the instant you feel the focus going, put the gun down. I actually put it down and let go, step back, maybe sit down, and readdress the shot from scratch.

Mike M. wrote:Yup. I abort about one-quarter of the shots. But it's not consistent. The big point is that the instant you feel the focus going, put the gun down. I actually put it down and let go, step back, maybe sit down, and readdress the shot from scratch.

This may sound counter intuitive, but if you ever pick the gun up, and then start focusing on your shot process, you should put it back down again.

I have a pretty short hold, and if the gun doesn't go bang, within a second or two after settling in the black, it is too late.

If I wait until after I pick the gun up to start thinking about my triggering, it is too late.

Same goes for any distraction that disrupts your process, like the shooter next to you firing, or anything down range that draws your eye. If you see it, your focus is not where it needs to be.

David M wrote:It's a age old argument......

" Put the gun down.."
" No, it will be OK.."
" Put the gun down.."
" No , I said it will be OK.."
" You have held too long,
put the gun down.."
" No....BANG...Darn"
" I told you to put it down.."
" SHUTUP...."

Moral.......Listen to the inner voice the first time.

This is an excellent depiction of the sort of process I've been through far too many times. It's probably the single most significant obstacle to success in scoring significantly higher. Do what David has outlined, and it's all too easy to shoot an 8 or even a 7. Focus goes, stability falters, wishful thinking pervades, and before you know it you're shooting like a novice while imagining for a split second that you'll magically score at least a 9 and maybe even a 10 by some sort of fluke of lucky timing. Very unlikely. You'll have better luck with lottery tickets. While a match may not grant too much luxury in terms of time to step away from the pistol, doing so in training can make a world of difference in gradually building a better approach to the shot process.

David M wrote:It's a age old argument......

" Put the gun down.."
" No, it will be OK.."
" Put the gun down.."
" No , I said it will be OK.."
" You have held too long,
put the gun down.."
" No....BANG...Darn"
" I told you to put it down.."
" SHUTUP...."

Moral.......Listen to the inner voice the first time.

Think I need to print this out. Laminate it and take it with me on my next competion.

nick marshall wrote:...
Think I need to print this out. Laminate it and take it with me on my next competion.

Actually, I know you're "joking," but just to be sure, let's suggest that the laminated text in one's gunbox be a "shot plan" that outlines the positive steps that lead to a ten. Something like:

Achieve proper grip
Raise and settle into area of aim
Look for proper unfolding of settle
Allow shot to happen

Then, if something deviates, abort the shot.

Since you find what you seek, you should look for the positive in your process. IOW, look for things to unfold properly and expect to fire a good shot, rather than looking for reasons to abort.

Sorry, if I have veered too far off the thread's line of thought...

While responding to a question in another thread about an old Soviet book (Yur'yev), I stumbled on some hard data in it relevant to this discussion. Here is a table with data taken at some random competitions from '59-'72 for a few Soviet free pistol shooters of that time. It shows the number of attempts per each of the targets. The shooters are a rather competent bunch. Gustchin and Kosykh are Olympic champions, Umarov is double silver medalist and a world champion, Stolipin is a world champion, Egrishchin and Jasinsky are European champions, Udachin is a Junior European champion in free pistol and adult European record holder in Centerfire pistol.

shaky hands wrote:It shows the number of attempts per each of the targets.

Ten shots per target?

If so, 31 attempts for the first 10 shots by Egrishchin puts my beginning in some matches in a completely different light!!! ;)

shaky hands wrote:Here is a table with data taken at some random competitions from '59-'72 for a few Soviet free pistol shooters of that time. It shows the number of attempts per each of the targets.

That's neat, thanks for sharing.