hunter to hft ?

[dead eye dick]

Im a long time hunter and shooting a rapid .22 Ive now bought a mk3 .177 daystate ft to have a go at hft.
any tips.
ps the mk3 is a good hunting rifle tried it fri eve very impressed and so quiet.

[wornspring]

Practise , Practise , and more Practise, as well as attending the competitions

[Gary C]

1/ Get on chairgunner and learn trajectories
2/ Practice distance estimation
3/ Practice prone

Then

work on kneeling

Then

work on standing

will get you decent scores quickly
Good is harder
Very good is very hard
Outstanding may never come

[dead eye dick]

thanks chaps .
any info welcomed.
and from the top cheers

[kev hughes]

Turn up at a few, just to understand some of the situations these evil course builders put you in


Kev

[NearoZero]

thanks chaps .
any info welcomed.
and from the top cheers

Yep, id go with Gary on this one.

He seems to have the "formula" pretty much ironed and straigh forward.

You MUST however get into the right frame of mind when practising.

and make sure any practise you do is done in the right way, there's practise and there's practise if ya know what i mean.

PM Gary and he'll set you on the right tracks.

My advice would be to be

1. be patient (skills take time to learn well)
2. be positive (dont dwell on the things you can do etc., DONT be negative basically)
3. be open minded (dont be afraid to try things that might seem a bit "odd" to start with e.g. wierd shooting angles or karma sutra style kneeling positions)
4. listen to the advice of the experts who have been in this area for years (Gary C is my fave expert, he's very helpful, i like him, he's nice)


My pesonal advice, adhorned to the above; would be to be positive and open minded, and to listen and act upon the hints from Gary Cooper, i register the fact i've mentioned *coughy* Gary's name many times and although i appear to be brown-nosing his a*s its only because through logic and knowledge/experience he seems like the one to trust.

[Mike H]

1/ Get on chairgunner and learn trajectories
2/ Practice distance estimation
3/ Practice prone

Then

work on kneeling

Then

work on standing

will get you decent scores quickly
Good is harder
Very good is very hard
Outstanding may never come

Gary, how come it's prone, kneeling then standing Any particular reason for this ? Just getting into HFT myself
Mike.

[kev hughes]

Prone being the most stable position. Followed by Kneeling then Standing being the least stable, for most of us mortals. No good loosing confidence trying to take standers first off. You need to build up to it

Just my humble opinion

Kev

[Mike H]

Ahh I see. I'll try that next week, providing it's not too muddy
Mike.

[jools27666]

you can practice it all and get plenty of help and advice if you come along to one of the shoots - this coming sunday you have the choice of either round 2 of the UKAHFT series at Plymouth or the AGS open Hunter FT shoot at Byley Field Target Club.

[Mike H]

Might try to get to the Byley event, although we've enough nutters in camo at Tawd these days Todays company excepted
Mike.

[dead eye dick]

mmm mmm mmm

[jayboy]

mmm mmm mmm

You understand about the scope though

[Gary C]

Thanks Nearo

To explain a little my views.

Shooting to me isn't a skill, it's a science. I have no talent for sports, I just work out the mechanics and work hard. This allows me to be better than average but never great.

My shooting is based on not missing technically easy shot. UKHFT will consist of 30 shots. 15 of them will be gimmes. 5 of them will be straighforward. 5 will make you think. 5 will be hard.
Give or take.

My advice is to take advantage of the gimmes and straightforwad shots. You can do this using chairgunner, walking to the shops and sitting on the benchrest on your range.

Do this well and you will score 54 without hitting a single kneeler or stander. get the kneelers cracked, which will take you as long as all the previous put to gether you then have 57. Standers are never cracked. You will always miss. Just work hard on technique and you will minimise the misses.

It is no coincidence that I've spent hours and hours discussing technique with Pete Sparkes. Pete taught me a huge amount, I hope I gave a little back.

For a long time I was afraid of kneelers - paul Wilson taught me how. I practiced his techniqe slavishly and hopefully passed it on a bit. Terry Doe taught me standers. Again - hour after hour at the range has improved them.

So - I have got to be a decent shooter by structured practice. Pete is the same, we both know each others weaknesses and try to help the other. I regard Mark Dyer, Dave Stancomb and Owen Rosser in a similar vein - a technique shooter.

Sooner or later we'll see people with our technique and dedication catch us up. Those with more talent will overtake us. James Huckle is one. Jon Budd, if he desired, would be another.

How far you go is an imponderable. I just think that to get as high as you can you have to build from a solid base.

[shrendi]

With any target sport there is an element of visualisation and mental skill. Put the pellet on the plate in your mind before you take the shot, of course you need all the basics in place first as others have already pointed out.