Lateral tilting - problem, or not?

[kumimajava]

I've been shooting air pistol for 3 weeks now, and hadn't had much improvement - until the last session. since the club coach has been unavailable during this period, all my advice/coaching has come from more established club members.

A bit of background (apologies if this is a bit rambling):

i was initially told to line-up the thop of the fore-sight with the rear sight, keep all this horizontal & aim roughly at the 'bottom' of the target. this went with moderate success.

what i noticed in the last session was that if i lift my arm to aim, the line of the rear-sight slants around 10-15 degrees downwards (i.e. left edge is lower than right one). I've previously tried to 'correct' this slanting & get the sight horizontal, which felt quite uncomfortable & induced wobbling.

When i stopped correcting for the slant, I found that my shooting improved quite a bit - i could almost hold the black in 10 and 15 shot series at 10m (a few shots would stray out).

So, the question(s):

1. is it 'ok' to shoot with such a slanting sight? Will it generate long-term problems?

2. should i try to correct the slant either by just 'doing more exercise' on the shoulder, so that shooting with 'horizontal alignment' becomes more comfortable.

3. ... or is there a way of adjusting the grip in a way that compensates for the slant (i.e. that my hand still 'slants', but the sights are horizontal)? The guns we shoot at the club are Steyr LP5's.


Any guidance would be much appreciated, as always (and thanks to all of you who have already helped me on my previous posts

[hwtyger]

It ís possible to shoot with cant, as yr shooting at a fixed distance; 10m. Its hard however, to always have the same amount of cant. Its kinda logic that correcting that causes more problems, cause corecting means muscle strain which means flyers.
Dont think the cant is caused my muscles, unless it ónly occurs after prolonged shooting.
Yr cant is probably caused by a fault in yr stance. Might be yr zeroposition.
Might be the way you grip the pistol, might be yr left eye dominant but shooting r/h. If you hold the pistol in front of you, just like when shooting, and you close yr eyes a sec, than reopen, the front and rear sight should still be aligned. Both horizontally and vertically. If its nót, than yr grip is wrong; that is, either the wáy you grip it, or the grip itself doesnt suit you.
I'd say, try getting back to basics, and try fixing yr grip and stance fírst.
Dont think the old Steyr have sideways grip cant adjustment by the way.

[kumimajava]

thanks for the response - very helpful.

i've had my grip checked a few times, and every time i've been told that the grip is correct - both in terms of grip sizing, and the way i grip the gun.

i've done the 'test' you suggested with closing/opening the eyes while aiming (last week), and that was also ok.

I think the problem is probably with the stance, then, which is probably true. I still don't know excatly which position or angle towards the target (side on, or 20/30 degrees off) is most comfortable. So definitely need to work more on this.

[magicniner]

I'm sure I'm "preaching to the choir" here but I'm sure others with an interest will also be reading so here goes -

Have you done the bit where you position your feet, torso & free arm then close your eyes, bring the pistol up, wave it around a bit & then allow your body to reach a comfortable aiming equilibrium. Open your eyes and that's where the target should be relative to your stance, move your feet to rotate your stance onto target?
ATB,
Nick

[hwtyger]

Forget the degrees part of yr stance, thats just approx. Check yr zero position as follows:
Start with begin position 20 degrees. Make sure that yr ON the line straight to the target and not sideways!(that can cause cant!) This is good position to start with. Now pull arm yr arm straight up, like you would with a pistol. But dont look at it look in front of you. The point is, to pull up yr arm the most natural way, without muscle strain. (Thats usually not straight inline with the body but slightly inwards). Now look at yr pistol, where is it pointing at? If yr wáy off target, you're gonna have to move yr WHOLE position forward/backwards. Thats óff the center target line, but you have no choice allthough its not ideal.
If you only need minor adjustments, just TURN yr whole stance. (pivot around yr front foot, if r/h thats the right foot).
Check again and again, till its correct.
Even thán you'll need to do this every time, until it comes naturally.
If yr zero is correct, yr arm will come in line with the target naturally, without strain.

[sol1821]

if you reach 90 degrees and before pulling the trigger you say, 'im guna bust a cap in yo ass', then you might have a problem