View Poll Results: Who shoots a full practice card before a competition card ?

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Thread: Who shoots a practice card first ?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Wirral
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    Who shoots a practice card first ?

    Just curious.

    I've been shooting 25yrd prone small bore in the local league.

    I can shoot 95-97 on the practice card (98 is unusual, but occasionally, it happens !), but find that if I then shoot a competition (local league) card, it's usually a 90-94! Roughly. It's bloody depressing. My scores on this competition just finished would have been a whole lot higher if I'd used the practice cards instead.

    I'm wondering if it's just eye strain from shooting another card so quick, or is it just because as soon as I see the little white sticker on that card down there, I get a pounding heart and shaky arms ?!

    So I'm wondering - who shoots a full practice card (not a 2 diagram sighter), before they do a competition card ?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Birmingham
    Posts
    3,635
    I prefer to shoot a practice card. Like you, I find the practice card is usually better than the match card. It's that white sticker, isn't it? It stares at me like the Evil Eye saying "Miss you silly beggar!"

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    South Dorset, Bournemouth
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    63

    $ 16,000000 question

    I just get on with it, maybe 5 or 6 in the sighter and then shoot, nerves are something to get used to and with confidence and alot of shooting it can even help a bit, after all if you can shoot 7 or 8 ten's why not 10!!!!!!! Think of each shot as a single bite, think your self through position,loading, breathing, aiming, trigger, follow through, check the shot in the scope. I make myself very busy and when your really in the zone there is no real time for nerves! Untill the big comp!!! grrr

    r

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Clare, Suffolk
    Posts
    145

    Practice cards

    Hi Ive just got back from the club tonight [ 25yard smallbore prone ] , and I can tell you it happens to me every time! In practice, if I score my cards and average them then its about 95.5 to 96. , but my competition average is 94.44. I think it`s all in the mind [ stickers etc.] , and this has an effect on physical stuff , pulse rate, blood pressure , breathing , muscle tension and all that. However when I steel myself to shoot a county card first , without a practice card , I always seem to cock it up. So I retreat to having a practice card first to `warm up' then the important stuff. The result 97 in practice , and 94 on the competition card!! It`s all in the mind!!!!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Gone West Young Man
    Posts
    20,266
    I shoot 20 yard LSR and my non stickered average is 91. Unstickered is 94.

    Best ever was a 99, still long for that elusive ton.

    I always shoot a practice card before starting on the stickers and its nearly always the best card of the night.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Stafford
    Posts
    4,835
    Used to, but the scores weren't much different. Sometimes the practice card was better, sometimes worse. Gave it up last season because I had too many cards and not enough time to shoot practice cards as well.

    Came out with a 97.57 average across 5 leagues (54 cards). Well up from my previous season's 96.2 avg. Even managed to knock out 4 tons amongst them. Well chuffed.

    There's definitely a psych element. I find if I do a practice card, then it focuses (read: distracts) my mind over the fact that my next card has a sticker on it. Having given up practice cards (except in dedicated training sessions obviously), one card becomes much the same as another. They're just cards and I forget about the stickers.

    I would advocate just getting on with it. Yeah, you might be a bit nervous first couple of times round, but as long as you concentrate on decent sighters, then after a few times, the stickers vanish from your mind, and your shooting should improve.
    "A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." Sigmund Freud
    Shooting is my meditation

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Caterham, UK
    Posts
    6
    I used to shoot a practise card first but now just warm up the rifle on the sighter and go straight into the comp card.

    It's more important for me to get down on the point in the right frame of mind in the first place, rather than with my head spinning in a whirlwind of secretarial issues (I'm our club's secretary.)

    I had a friend who would shoot half a practise card before his comp card, but that seemed like a lot of to-ing and fro-ing to me.

    Cheers,

    Guy

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Amesbury
    Posts
    172
    Def those stickers their magnetic or something. sometimes I just shoot a couple of sighters and get the same results.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Ripley, Derbyshire
    Posts
    181
    I used to shoot practice cards, but dont bother anymore. I now class all cards as match cards. I am usually shooting 3 or 4 postal comps at a time. These include county cards, pairs postal, East Midlands postal and any other competition that is available.

    I tend to put five shots in the sighter and then move on to the card and dont look down the spotting scope after the sighter. It stops my heart from racing when I get five 10's on the trot only to pull a flyer on the sixth target.

    I shot three cards lastnight, 96, 94 and a 99.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Wirral
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    1,116
    Ah well I'm pleased to see it's not just me.

    The next competition, I'm just going to steam in there with no practice cards, a few on the sighter and take it from there.

    It'll be cheaper, too !!

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Stafford
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    4,835
    Quote Originally Posted by markp1169 View Post
    I tend to put five shots in the sighter and then move on to the card and dont look down the spotting scope after the sighter. It stops my heart from racing when I get five 10's on the trot only to pull a flyer on the sixth target.
    Risky...! A mate scoped the first two counting shots. Were both central 10s. Worked his way round the card, found he had put out eight 9s. Each 9 was in exactly the same place on every diagram. Evidently something had changed in his position after the second shot and he was putting them out very consistently.

    I shoot quite a few competitions on the electronics at Bisley, so I have had to learn not to get excited by a string of good shots, since they are flashing at you from the screen and are difficult to ignore.
    "A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." Sigmund Freud
    Shooting is my meditation

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Ripley, Derbyshire
    Posts
    181
    Quote Originally Posted by Hemmers View Post
    Risky...! A mate scoped the first two counting shots. Were both central 10s. Worked his way round the card, found he had put out eight 9s. Each 9 was in exactly the same place on every diagram. Evidently something had changed in his position after the second shot and he was putting them out very consistently.

    I shoot quite a few competitions on the electronics at Bisley, so I have had to learn not to get excited by a string of good shots, since they are flashing at you from the screen and are difficult to ignore.
    Yes it could be risky and agree with what you are saying. Usually I get down to shoot from one week or detail to the next and I will only have to adjust my sights by one or two clicks at most. The other thing is that by not scoping after the first shot on the card my position doesnt get disturbed as much because I am not constantly looking down my spotting scope. I shoot right handed, with a lazy left eye so have to scope with my long sighted right eye. Things would be alot easier for me to spot if I had a scoring screen infront of me.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    bolton
    Posts
    295
    Quote Originally Posted by c18rch View Post
    Def those stickers their magnetic or something. sometimes I just shoot a couple of sighters and get the same results.
    are those stickers magnetic? would explain a lot! or are you just pulling my leg?
    steyr lp5,steyr lp10,hw77k,bsa buccaneer .177,bsa scorpion .177,original 6g
    happy with my lot!

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Wirral
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    1,116
    Quote Originally Posted by jonyb View Post
    are those stickers magnetic? would explain a lot! or are you just pulling my leg?
    No it's true. But the .22 lead air pellets are affected a lot more than the .22 rimfire - you know, because they're slower. They're in range of the sticker for more of the time, see.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Bedfordshire
    Posts
    395
    Slightly off subject but still relevent i think.
    Do you find you shoot better if you get a nice rythem going.

    When i shoot a skirmisher i obviosly have to shoot very fast and to date my record is 18 shots away and 18 hits on a 25 yard skirmisher, with a single shot anschutz 1913.

    The only trouble was i went so fast 1 of the diagrams had only 1 shot at it so officcially it was only scored as a 15.

    I have found that when i shoot my match cards if i go fairly quick i do much better than laying there analysing the shot before i even take it.
    I used to be indicisive BUT now i`m not so sure
    Every two sides of the triangle is together greater than the third
    Death before dishonour

    Air arms tx200 .22


    Blessed be

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