10m update Match #3

I finished my 3rd Monday evening match at Pioneer.  Starts about 6:00 every evening.  I hope I can keep the attendance going.   Here are the details.

I started this blog years ago to fight winter gloom.  I am going to have another run at it.  Since this is a blog and not a "website" I am just going to comment on my learnings and then update the original airgun post with my progress or if nothing else, journey.

Last week I had practiced, trained, prepared and it did worse than when I showed up cold turkey.  That was an emotional blow.  So much so, I did not even post about match #2.  Now, a week later, I reflect back on things and my general conclusion is, I tried too hard.  Vs. just letting the shot happen I was trying to make the shot perfect.  As a result it ate my lunch.

Week 3:  I took the week off from practice and just went cold turkey after last weeks results.  I got there a bit stressed due to some family issues at home.  I had low expectations.  I was there to stick with my plan to shoot air each Monday.

To my surprise things went better than week 1 or 2.  I just shot.  I took my time.  I avoided as much as possible taking the shots that were forced and instead took shots feeling natural. 

So, I learned or noted the following issues:

• Don't get too aggressive on the trigger.  Squeeze is still king even with a light trigger.  Aggressive or confident breaks resulted in poor follow through.  Wait for the trigger to break.
• Don't fight for the perfect look to the point you get tired.  Rest the gun if your not getting a natural good look.  Work on NPA.
• Don't rush even when the pistol guys walk out.  Fight the urge to rush.
• Work on "re-entry" after changing the targets after 20 shots.
• Validate accuracy of current pellet.  I had three shots that were perfect IMO and the printed 2 rings away from break.  Whoa!
• Bring stapler to get the target at max height.  I fight the low bulls.

Original 10m air post with updated results.

My 1/5th gun history, Part I

So often the people I socialize with in the game of Silhouette ask me about my equipment.  It's always about equipment, equipment, equipment.  Sadly I fall into the same trap.  Good equipment just puts more of the burden on the shooter.  But, entry level equipment does not "remove" the burden from the shooter. Good shooters will still shoot high counts with average equipment.

A story first.  Winnsoboro, LA.  Friday before the match there must be 30 shooters practicing, confirming zeros.  And why not, they put up 400 1/5th animals, yes, 10 banks!  I have my NS522/Weaver KT-15 shooting Wolf MT.  I was on turkeys with a young girl from Florida.  I knew her a little as we were squadded together at the Sunshine Classic a few months earlier.  She had a beautiful factory Anschutz 1712 in a Miestergrade wood stock.  Leupold scope and shooting Eley EPS.  After a year of shooting she was already a master shooter and boy could she shoot! 

Anyway, I turned a turkey and I invited her to show me her stuff and knock it down.  She replied shyly that her Dad sent her with just one brick so she had to conserve ammo.  I acknowledged her response, but to make things fun, I offered her my gun and ammo.  Her eyes lit up and happily took me up on my offer.  One shot later the turned turkey was on the ground.  After I picked my jaw off the ground, I smiled and offered her to continue shooting.  She politely and said "thank you, one was enough."  Obviously it was not the gun, ammo or sight settings.  It was the jerk behind the trigger which limited my performance.

Lesson learned.  It ain't the equipment dummy!  Or is it?

Struggling with new Anschutz

Another story.  Pe Ell, WA.  1710/MacMillan/Leupold 6-20x/Wolf MT.  2005 as seen to right.  In short, I was having one of those crappy days.  Managed a horrible 23.  Fighting something.  One of those times when I should have stayed home but home was 2,800 miles away.  I was shooting with the TX gang, Motl, Kuney, Pharr, Clark.  Mark Pharr, in an effort to cheer me up, offered to let me shoot his gun.  Seeing as how Mark Pharr is one of the top Silhouette gunsmiths and competitors, he never shows up with the same gun twice.  Needless to say, he had a new very nice rig.  A custom Ultra Light Action (ULA), repeater, Lija barrel, Timney trigger and his prototype stock in wood.  I knew nothing about Ultra Light Arms at the time or that his stock would become the basis of a popular fiberglass mould.

I declined, knowing I had to grow up and figure out my own gun.  But, after another horrible Saturday afternoon match, I asked him Sunday morning if the offer still stood?  He said sure but there would not be enough ammo for any practice.  No worries on my part, the weekend was now just a learning trip as I was out of the running for any sort of prize.

ULA in prototype Pharr stock, click to enlarge

To make a long story short, I went from a 23 Sat morning to a 33 on Sunday morning.  Although the ULA, pictured to the right, had feeding issues, which is why Mark does not use them anymore, it shot lights out.  It was like a laser beam.  I broke on the animal, the animal fell.  Stock was awesome, it just stayed put.  After that, I knew it was time to upgrade my gun.  But, a $2,000 custom gun???  If I had the money it would have flown home with me!

In summary:

So there you have it.  Conflicting stories.  There is no right answer.  It is a journey.  But, a journey where you must proactively seek out information.  Experiment, take notes, filter emotions from fact.  The best advice is to shoot what you own and travel to as many matches as possible and talk with EVERYONE. This hobby is more about information collection, socialization and discovery than it is about winning.  You will find the silhouette gang quite helpful and will often let you try out if not use their equipment.  The 1/5th game is not easy.  After a year of practice on the 1/2 scale animals my first 1/5th score was a 12.  Today, I am a solid AAA shooter but not a master.  There are many shooters who never shoot less than a 35.  I have never been there and not sure I ever will.  But I keep trying.

Trigger Control

I've been asked to comment on trigger control.  The question is, do you hold and wait for an unexpected trigger release or do you hold, and when you like the sight picture, do you deliberately squeeze the trigger?  The shooter had been advised or was of the opinion that a surprise or "unexpected" break was better than a "deliberate" break.  But, recent results at the range was disproving his belief that "unexpected" was better than "deliberate".  And, the concern was, "deliberate" trigger technique would create bad habits.

Because silhouette is shot outdoors, we have wind to contend with.  The likelihood of success by holding on the animal and waiting for the trigger to break while the wind is calm is low.  I support a concept put forth by Lanny Bassham, the subconscious yet deliberate release.  This is far more sophisticated than what I would call "snatching" at the trigger while the sights are on the animal.  I think this is the bad habit the shooter is worried about by adopting a deliberate break.

When I started out with my NS522, which had more creep than my Anschutz, I developed what I called the "boa constrictor" trigger release.  With a solid 2lb trigger I would gently squeeze the trigger just a little more each time I had a good sight picture.  Eventually, the trigger would go off while on the animal with trigger SQUEEZE, not pull or "snatch".  This worked very well for me and broke the tendency to "snatch" at the trigger.

When I moved to the Anschutz two stage trigger, I found this technique unnecessary.  Either it broke cleaner or I improved my technique.  But, my technique comes from a great deal of practice in order to develop what Lanny calls the "subconscious" shot.  You really need to read the book discussed here or an article that can be found here.  Navigate to [Document Library], scroll down to [Training] and click on 1.  Truly, buy the book used from Half.com. 

The general concept i'll compare to driving a standard car.  When you need to shift you don't think about the timing of the clutch.  You subconsciously depress the clutch, shift, release the clutch.  It should be the same with shooting.  You have to practice so that when the sight picture is right, you subconsciously squeeze the trigger without thinking.  If you have to think about squeezing the trigger then unwanted results will occur.

The next major issue is the isolation of the trigger finger from ones hold.  This is my biggest challenge.  Clean breaks where there is no movement after you break the shot.   You should watch the bullet in the scope go down range, see the animal fall and hopefully the paint fly.  This is where we all want to be.  Yes Virginia, you should always see the animal fall in your scope!  And, now you know why white animals are preferred.  You can see your hits as they happen.  Much harder to pick up the point of impact on fast moving black animals.

The only way to work on this is by using various drills.  Here are a few that I have picked up but I am sure there are others.

• The Troy Lawton circle drill as found here.  This was covered in post found here.
• The modified Troy Lawton drill.  I met with Troy when I was first starting off and he watched me shoot.  His counsel, at home, take the bolt out of the gun and hold on a dot and simply work the trigger back and forth and discover the hold, the whatever, to ensure the gun does not move while your trigger finger is moving.  Whether technique or muscle memory, work through it to reduce any movement of the rifle when the trigger finger breaks the shot.
• Dry fire, dry fire dry fire at home.  And, at the range.  Chris Winstead also coached me and he gave me two big nuggets.  First, never take your finger off the trigger after releasing the shot.  Stay with the trigger.  Any muscle movement that close to follow through is a bad thing.  Second, when practicing with live ammo, always shoot once and then dry fire on the shell three times noting any issues and taking corrective action.  Then shoot another live and repeat and repeat and repeat.....
• Practice practice practice to build up the subconscious.  It works!
• See this POST and watch the trigger finger.  Bill dry fires 100 shells every lunch break.  At home, he has 33 feet and dry fires whenever he can.

So, in short, in my opinion, you have to break deliberately on the animal using your subconscious trigger finger. And, to do that, you have to develop a serious at home drill regimen.

2012 New Hampshire Metallic Silhouette Schedule

After some this and that with our respective clubs, your fearless match directors, John, Dave and Jud have hammered out the schedule for this year.

2012 NH Silhouette Schedule.

Please print one out for yourself and a friend.  Of note would be the following:

• The first match will be CLA at Pemi, April 29th
• Pioneer is going to have a clinic for new and aspiring shooters May 19th
• There are some rule changes for Cowboy as noted HERE.
• PSI program for NRA Approved monthly matches HERE. 
• Granite State Regional program is work in process.
• NRA rule book Pistol HERE, Rifle HERE.

Have questions, suggestions, ideas, offers?  Send me an email durantjud [at] yahoo.com

See all blog posts, go HERE.

What is Silhouette you ask? 

The short version is this.  Silhouette shooters shoot from the standing position without any support.  We shoot at profiles of four steel animals; Chicken, Pig, Turkey and Ram. Each at a set distance as per the NRA rule book as per the links above..  There are typically 10 of each animal making a total of 40 possible "hits" or points.  If the anmal falls off the stand you get a point.  The shooter with the highest points wins.  The shots are taken in string of 5, each string is allowed up to 2 minutes and 30 seconds.  A line officer calls the line giving range commands.  After your two strings on the first animal is completed, you move to the next animal, adjust your sight settings and have another go at it after you return from setting up your fallen critters.

The challenge:  Shooting off hand makes this a shooters sport, not an equipment sport.  Learning your rifle, ammo and your ability is fun.  I like to call it organized plinking.  Plenty of folks say it also helps their hunting season.

Here are a few links.

Pioneer Sportsman webpage with details of how the game is played in NH.
An excellent website put together by a shooter.
An older website which I used when I was trying to figure out what I just saw.

Inspiration Video on 1/5th turkeys

I watched this video and at first I was confused.  Usually shoot offs are sudden death here in NH.  But, I gather at Nationals, it is best of five.  If by some chance you tie in the bank of 5, you start a second bank of 5 and so on and so on until the winner is determined.  If you can believe it (read the details under the video), they were tied hit for hit up until the 15th shot.  Yes, they needed three banks of 5 to settle a tie which in itself was 35 animals.  It can be done!

Fun video once you tune out the background noise.  It took me a second viewing to wrap my noodle around what was going on.  It starts at the beginning of the 2nd bank of 5.  Notice the gender of the top silhouette shooters in the country!

10 Meter Air Rifle, first time out in 2012

Target #5, two of five 10's.  And almost a pinwheel.

New Hampshire has had an odd winter. No snow.  Can't say I miss the pre sunrise frolic with the snowblower, but lack of snow comes lack of revenue for the State.  Today is the NH Primary, so what better time to blow the dust of the old Silhouette blog and see if anyone is out there.

Pioneer Sportsmen in Dunbarton, NH is trying to revitalize the air program.  We can hang 8 steel backstops from the ceiling in the indoor 50ft range. They also act as target holders at 10 meters from the 50 ft firing line.  It works quite well every Monday night.  I decided to go last night and see just how rusty I am.  My benchmark was from a 2008 shoulder to shoulder team match against Reading Highpower's Team October 8th.  We fought and clawed to get 4 shooters to represent Pioneer.  Glenn G., John M., Mark M. and Jud D.  It was a timed event shooting side by side.  I managed a 539 (93 90 90 85 87 94). Better than my usual.

Last night, Match #1, ouch.  515 (87 83 87 88 90 80).  I lost my zen at the end allowing an AD leaving me with a 5.  That is a good way to throw away points.  I had three ADs for the night.  5, and a 6.  The other was on target when it broke and was an 8.  I managed eleven 10s, five of them on my 5th target!  The key to that moment, catch yourself doing something right and repeat it.  Obviously I failed to follow my own advice.  Those pistol shooters shoot fast.  I need to block that out of my head.

Goal?  To shoot a 540 before the air season is out.  If I shot a 90 once, I can shoot it 6 times in a row if I work at it.  I figure this is good practice for Silhouette although the triggers are vastly different.  I struggled with my trigger last night.  It seemed to behave differently.  Rough in a word.  Sometimes it was clean to the 2nd stage which you could feel.  Other times it was rough to the second stage and as a result I could not feel it.  I made sure I felt for it when I was close to center.  I few times that saved me.  Twice it cost me.

Match #1  515 (87 83 87 88 90 80)
Match #2  510  (85 89 85 86 82 83)
Match #3  532  (94 87 83 91 89 88)  (season high, 94/100 tied best ever 10 shots)
Match #4  530  (87 90 90 93 89 81)
Match #5  524  (86 84 88 91 85 90)  
Match #6  517  (88 85 88 87 90 79)
Match #7  524  (82 91 88 91 84 88)