What I've learnt shooting HFT

[rogb]

I can give you an interesting perspective, I have never shot field target of any ilk or with any style of FT rifle, nor even seen an event, but I have shot the ISSF rifle disciplines to a reasonable standard, and have specifically coached 10 mt air rifle for many years.

A couple of years ago a shooter joined our club who had got into the top five in FT in the world, he said he always dropped points standing and wanted some coaching. We worked with him and he was nightmare, his answer to everything was, its not like 10 mt, its FT, its different, he argued and we could not teach him any thing. When he shot ten metre, when he was good, he was very good, when he was bad, he was atrocious, slowly and on one particular day the penny dropped when he was shooting with a 16 year old young lady one side and a "mature" lady the other, they were knocking the ten spot off consistently and shooting in the same timing as him but to a much higher standard, and he said, I give up, teach me that technique!
We refined his position, which improved his stability, took all of twenty minutes, he was taught the importance of getting a perfect natural zero position, i.e. the rifle pointing at the middle naturally, not muscled to the middle, he was put on a diet of shooting black cards, no aiming mark, and finding that natural balanced stable stance and letting the rifle be still not forced still. He was frustrated, he wanted to get back to shooting scores, we said no, not until you can shoot a key holed group on a black card. He was disciplined, he worked at it, and after a few weeks we put him onto aiming marks. The routine now was you will not shoot unless the aim is pointing naturally at the middle, no muscling, think like you did with the black cards, just let it sit, and be pointing at the middle, you will not shoot unless its stable and naturally pointed at the middle, (will not!), when my wife says no, you don't argue!
Those are the simple parts, when you are getting there the effort shifts to maintaining a degree of precision, precision in the set up of your position, precision of your aim, follow through, all aspect of your technique, and if its not perfect, reject the shot and start again. Add in the necessary dash of discipline and concentration, and now when he's good, he's very good, when he's not good, he stops restarts and becomes good. Slowly the message sank in. By the end of the Winter he was shooting a good national level in ten metre, but now the test was coming, having shot just a handful of local FT shoots he went off to compete in that years World championships.

The email I got, told that he had come second in the World, and had dropped one shot, and it was prone! And would we now work with him on prone! At the end of the season he said he had a 100% standing record.

Shooting is shooting regardless of what it is, technique is king, we teach, Precision, A stable base, A perfect Zero, Concentration, and Discipline.

Have fun and good shooting.
Robin

Fantastic post, and one that resonates! I find I do exactly what you say, I "muscle" the rifle into position on standers, not let it adopt a comfortable and stable natural position.

Any further tips on position and stance, along with achieving the natural zero, would be most welcome from someone who obviously knows their stuff, but don't tell the other HFTers

[zooma]

Fantastic post, and one that resonates! I find I do exactly what you say, I "muscle" the rifle into position on standers, not let it adopt a comfortable and stable natural position.

Any further tips on position and stance, along with achieving the natural zero, would be most welcome from someone who obviously knows their stuff, but don't tell the other HFTers

The best bet is to get yourself a copy of Robin's book - but don't let anyone else know that you have it

[PhatMan]

Hello to All,

+1 on Mr. Carter's book - it is superb, and worth its weight in gold

Have fun & a good weekend

Best regards

Russ

[RobinC]

Thanks for the compliments, the book is on the NSRA shop website.
Have Fun
Robin

[rogb]

Thanks for the compliments, the book is on the NSRA shop website.
Have Fun
Robin

OK book ordered, let's see if can apply myself and get some discipline into my positionals rather than the "poke and hope" I tend to use. When I get a kneeler or stander, it is more luck than judgement and so I think when one's approaching, "oh sh3t, donut coming up".
At the club there are black painted steel zero boards out to 45y, so ideal for practising on.
I'll let you know

[cooper_dan]

OK book ordered, let's see if can apply myself and get some discipline into my positionals rather than the "poke and hope" I tend to use. When I get a kneeler or stander, it is more luck than judgement and so I think when one's approaching, "oh sh3t, donut coming up".
At the club there are black painted steel zero boards out to 45y, so ideal for practising on.
I'll let you know

Embrace the positionals! Think of them as nice big kill zones that are just begging to be knocking down.
I got all of mine today except the unsupported stander where the ground was at a funny angle and slippery. I think a lot of people missed this one though....

[RobinC]

At the club there are black painted steel zero boards out to 45y, so ideal for practising on.
I'll let you know

Not so sure you would get the advantage doing that with an FT rifle, principle with a target sight on a black card is to NOT see the fall of shot or have an aiming mark, to just use a natural hold, settle and align, and if its the same and natural each time the shot will go through the same hole, its a training technique.
The temptation with a scope will be to aim at the first strike which defeats the object. I've also used plain or reversed cards, but had the same issue with young people with superb eyesight who can see a shot hole on a blank card and aim at it, which is why I use black cards. Perhaps borrow/buy a set of target sights, and just concentrate on the alignment of the front to back sight and concentrate on your position and hold.
I've had shooters who at ten metres can shoot five shot one hole groups like that on a black card, the technique is a development from the Zen monks who shot archery in the dark to develop accepting a perfect zero position.

Kneeling, Hmmmm, now that is a difficult position, a combination of prone and standing, a cross over of balance, and locked in like prone, a very technical position, which if done well is as locked as prone, and if badly is more difficult than standing!

Have Fun
Robin