TargetTalk

I shoot bad shots.
See that 2 over there? I did that. My rifle has no problem holding a 10.9, so i know its mine.

I actually laughed out loud when i shot it during a match last month.

Which leads me to my questions...
What triggers shot rejection for you?

Do you return the rifle to the stand and start completely over?

Do you shift focus out of the sights, but remain in position, take a couple breaths and go back to it?

Lift your head back to a pre-aiming position?

We find this problem with shooters whose trigger is set too short for the length of their fingers. Quite often they are able to compensate for the incorrect trigger placement/pull the majority of the time. However, any lapse in concentration leads to errant shots, as seen here. Increasing trigger pull length to exactly place the pad of the trigger finger on the center of the trigger generally reduces this error to a minimum.

Cheers!
m1963

You should have a key word that moves your focus from pre-shot routine to the actual shot (attention on either the trigger OR the sights). When you find yourself thinking about ANYTHING other than the item you are giving the attention to, the shot is over.

Put the gun down, restart your pre-shot routine.

Remember rejecting a shot (even though it sounds negative) is actually rejecting what would be a poor shot. (very positive).

My current setup...
Walther LG300XT alutec, TEC-HRO touch trigger. First pic is trigger forward, subsequent pics have trigger pulled through first stage, and stopped at second sbout to break. Trigger face is perpendicular to barrel when second stage is reached.

 

 

 


 

 

Pat McCoy wrote:You should have a key word that moves your focus from pre-shot routine to the actual shot (attention on either the trigger OR the sights). When you find yourself thinking about ANYTHING other than the item you are giving the attention to, the shot is over.

Put the gun down, restart your pre-shot routine.

Remember rejecting a shot (even though it sounds negative) is actually rejecting what would be a poor shot. (very positive).

Thanks Pat!
Can you think of an instance where you might start from one of the other 2 positions ive described, or would you always go back to the stand?

No, the shot is over when you reject it.

Now start a new shot. Always do it the same way, or you introduce three different ways of approaching a shot. Not what you want for consistency. It isn't a race. Lots of time to start a new shot.

Also, REAL hard to tell from pics on the net, but it looks like you hand is rotated forward in firing position. The grip should fit in the web of the hand (looks like you have it a little on the base of the thumb), but like I said REAL hard to tell. Have your coach look at it.

Thanks for your thoughts Pat.
I was coached throught my youth, but am returning to the sport after a 10 year absence. The Mec books "ways of the rifle" and "air Rifle" are the extent of my coaching these days.

Shot rejection is triggered whenever you notice something off about a shot, even if the only thing is your concentration. Five seconds into a hold, even if it is a perfect hold, if I notice that I wasn't paying any attention to what I was doing, I will reject. Or, if I come down on the target and notice that my approach is not coming from straight above the target straight down to the middle, I reject. Or if I come straight down onto the ten ring but then accidentally keep going down into the 9 or 8 ring, I will reject because if I choose to muscle it back up and try to take the shot, I will more than likely lose points. Think of shot rejection as the easiest way to improve your score. Every time you reject a shot, you are only helping yourself, never hurting yourself. In fact, developing that discipline to reject shots that are almost right but just not quite is something that often sets apart great shooters from not-so-great shooters.

Shooting is a sport of consistency, and you need to try to do anything in your power to do everything the exact same way every time. If the thought of, "should I reject this shot?" comes into your mind, reject it immediately without giving it a second thought, and then view that shot rejection as a success because you just saved yourself the points you would have lost by continuing with the shot process.

As for what I do physically: In smallbore I load from the shoulder anyway in standing, so I just pick my head up, get my balance again and refocus, then put my head back on the cheekpiece and take a second hold. I do the same thing in air rifle assuming my NPA is still correct, although sometimes a full reset is necessary in instances where the position is incorrect or has settled, or to help reset the mind by resetting the entire position physically.

Hope this helps,

Ryan

I appreciate you chiming in Ryan.
My emotional response or resetting instead of taking a shot has always been negative. It was the realization of my flawed judgment that lead me to starting this thread.

Instead of setting up my training time to hit X number of shots in some vaguely defined period of time, I have taken to establishing a set period of time, and take only good shots. If it takes 3 mounts to get a good shot, and I only crank out 5 good shots in 15 minutes so be it.

Ryan Anderson wrote:Shot rejection is triggered whenever you notice something off about a shot, even if the only thing is your concentration. Five seconds into a hold, even if it is a perfect hold, if I notice that I wasn't paying any attention to what I was doing, I will reject. Or, if I come down on the target and notice that my approach is not coming from straight above the target straight down to the middle, I reject. Or if I come straight down onto the ten ring but then accidentally keep going down into the 9 or 8 ring, I will reject because if I choose to muscle it back up and try to take the shot, I will more than likely lose points. Think of shot rejection as the easiest way to improve your score. Every time you reject a shot, you are only helping yourself, never hurting yourself. In fact, developing that discipline to reject shots that are almost right but just not quite is something that often sets apart great shooters from not-so-great shooters.

Shooting is a sport of consistency, and you need to try to do anything in your power to do everything the exact same way every time. If the thought of, "should I reject this shot?" comes into your mind, reject it immediately without giving it a second thought, and then view that shot rejection as a success because you just saved yourself the points you would have lost by continuing with the shot process.

As for what I do physically: In smallbore I load from the shoulder anyway in standing, so I just pick my head up, get my balance again and refocus, then put my head back on the cheekpiece and take a second hold. I do the same thing in air rifle assuming my NPA is still correct, although sometimes a full reset is necessary in instances where the position is incorrect or has settled, or to help reset the mind by resetting the entire position physically.

Hope this helps,

Ryan

Damn well said Ryan

That really is the best way to practice! Set a time limit rather than a shot limit. Otherwise you're paying more attention to getting through your shots then you are on focusing on the actual performance aspects of shooting that you need to shoot your best!