As Lanny says, figure out what you are doing right and REPEAT!

After today's match I am not able to put my finger on what happened that led to a personal best of 34/40. (8 8 9 9)  I was very excited to shoot my 44 Marlin lever gun that I picked up last fall.  Read, my mind was focused on the "dark side" of silhouette.  All things that are not either Air Rifle or Small Bore silhouette are tossed in the category "The Dark Side" of silhouette.  With good humor of course but IMO Cowboy dilutes your efforts with the 1/5th animals.

Even with that strategy I seem to cross back and forth now and again because 1/5th has been a lonely game in NH.  Today I decided to shoot SB first fearing the 44 might contribute to any flinch I am trying to suppress.  For whatever reason my hold was solid after not touching a SB gun for two weeks if not longer.  I quickly invoked coaching rule 101.6, paragraph iv, section 2.  Always figure out what you are doing right and repeat.  Avoid focusing on what you are doing wrong and correcting it, instead figure out what you are doing right and repeat.  NPA, use timer, read notes and sight picture comments from prior match, learn from each shot and adjust if necessary, feet position, squeeze don't snatch.  All basic stuff, there was nothing earth shatteringly different other than a borrowed vest, having a spotter and white animals.  I can't imagine white vs. black animals would make that kind of difference.  The vest was not much different than mine which I left at home.  What was different?  Could it be I was not fully focused on 1/5th and I just got up and shot without any "arousal" as the 10m guys call it?

I cannot figure out what was different.  The first two hits on Turkeys were sloppy breaks but seemed to catch an edge.  I knuckled down and cleaned the bottom 5.  Missed #7 and then got the rest.  Rams went about the same way.  First shot arced in and nicked the back edge so the animal fell forward.  It was a good break but it with the help of my spotter I knew I had to hold low which worked.  I guess that means I was using real time data to adjust my game.  Often I react to what is happening too late and it costs me a bunch of animals.  It could be having a spotter for the whole match.  Hummm.

After that I shot my 44 and I had technical problems which aggravated me.  I should just put it up and focus on smallbore after today.  Pistol cartridge is just one big distraction.  But maybe it was a positive distraction given my smallbore results.  The worst part of it is I now have 2 legs into Master class.  No more shooting Blaze in Hunter until PA!  If I can shoot a 32 in PA, so be it! 

From a participation perspective, today was pretty exciting.  We had more 1/5th shooters than "other" disciplines and there was actually a wait to shoot the small animals.  Must have been because they heard we were going to shoot at white animals!

Cheers!