25yd smallbore prone...

[Sakerman]

Can anyone recommend any good webistes/books on 25yd prone smallbore target?

many thanks in advance

[another_dom]

Assuming you are after an instructional text 'Prone to Win' is highly regarded. The MEC book covers a broader spectrum including 3 positional shooting, but is expensive. The best UK forum is probably on stirton.com
Have you joined a local club? Their instructors/coaches will be the best source of advice initially.

Dom.

[Bing!]

Check out the club coaches first, they may have books for you to read, they could very well be excellent coaches and books may not be needed. If you do want the books though, and why not, Prone to win is a good book but is only available in disk form now, I'm not even sure if you can get that. The author, Chris Fordham, has retired from the shooting scene and may have none left. I personally would recomend the MEC "Ways of the rifle", yes £40 ish but superb pictures and very instructional. The bible as far as some coaches are concerned, including national level coaching staff. It does also cover Kneeling and standing, you may not think you are headed that way but you never know.

Bing!

[markp1169]

You can still get "Prone to Win" from Bedford target supplies

[Old Fart]

"Competitive Shooting" by A.A. YUR' YEV.

It covers everything related to target shooting.

[DJP1]

I have the other books mentioned and a number of others and yes I have read them but we tell all our club members that, if they are going to buy anything, it should be Ways of the Rifle. It knocks spots off the others. Its also more up to date.

It contains a mass of really useful photos and diagrams and is a really practical book to which you will come back over and over as you improve.

You can usually get it via the NSRA shop or Inters...t has it for around £36 plus post I think, but its worth every penny.

[DJP1]

"Competitive Shooting" by A.A. YUR' YEV.

It covers everything related to target shooting.

Undeniably brilliant book but getting long in the tooth. Also nearly impossible to find at a sensible price. Its been out of print for many years.

Certainly not a beginners book. One post on a US forum said that it was really a book for coaches, not shooters and I have to agree.

[Rutty]

Undeniably brilliant book but getting long in the tooth. Also nearly impossible to find at a sensible price. Its been out of print for many years.

Certainly not a beginners book. One post on a US forum said that it was really a book for coaches, not shooters and I have to agree.

I would go a little further than DJP1 and say that there are a few parts of Yur'Yev that are now judged to be wrong and a good deal more that might be described as "no longer best evidence". Whilst there is still much that is useful the difficulty is separating it from the other categories. I do agree that from a coach's point of view it probably has more to recommend it than to the shooter.

"Ways of the Rifle" is certainly the best available text at present and "Air Rifle Shooting" is on a par with it. For the shooter who requires a slightly less technical approach then "Olympic Target Rifle Shooting" by Ralf Horneber is worth looking out for, but is not on the same level as the preceding two titles.

Rutty

[RobF]

yep, i'd go with the above.

Although it looks very technical, if you dont try and eat the whole cow in one spoonful it's very informative in every paragraph from novice to expert.

forum.stirton.com is a very good resource.

[Old Fart]

I have had the book for a long time now and I bought it when I shot pistol comps, I found it very helpful

[Rutty]

Referring to A.A Yur'Yev's book "Competitive Shooting, DJP1 wrote:

Undeniably brilliant book but getting long in the tooth. Also nearly impossible to find at a sensible price. Its been out of print for many years.

Certainly not a beginners book. One post on a US forum said that it was really a book for coaches, not shooters and I have to agree.

For anyone interested in acquiring a copy of Yur'Yev there is one currently on "a well known auction website" as Item Number 140448394600.

I have no connection with the seller and this is posted for information of interested parties.

Rutty

[barrow_matt]

I've been looking for the same having decided to give prone a go a few weeks back but there isn't really anyone at the club who is a coach and it's hard to get advice.

This is what i've found:

http://www.puuloa.com/proneplan.html
http://www.harrogateshooting.co.uk/d...neShooting.pdf
http://www.odcmp.org/0208/default.asp?page=USAMU_PRONE1
http://www.bearsdenrifles.org/home/i...ifle&Itemid=78

[barrow_matt]

To add to the above I had been reading an old shooting book from the club and trying to get my position right practising at home. I watched the 50m prone Commonwealth final though and noticed a lot of the shooters use a fairly straight right leg and don't cock it at the angle shown in many of the books, looking on youtube at 50m prone finals such as world championships and olympic finals shows similar techniques too.

I tried it on Wednesday and shot a 95, my highest score yet and it was on a competition card.

It reminds me of when I used to do archery, there was one guy who was one of the top shooters in the country and regularly practised with a fellow Cumbrian shooter who has been in the GB squad at the Bejing Olympics and the Commonwealths just gone. He had a bit of a falling out with the guy who runs the local club when he got told he couldn't teach the technique, the one used by most the worlds top archers. So now he doesn't help with any coaching and new members get taught the 'textbook' method by people who have never come close to reaching national championship standards.

So I would say read the books but also watch what the top guys are doing, when the majority of them do something different from the textbook it's worth considering that the book may be out of date compared to modern coaching.

[Rutty]

So I would say read the books but also watch what the top guys are doing, when the majority of them do something different from the textbook it's worth considering that the book may be out of date compared to modern coaching.

But be careful what you pick out. A long time ago there was a TV interview with Malcolm Cooper, just before it started he was asked to put on his shooting jacket. He did as requested and quickly buttoned it. The interview was broadcast and showed Malcolm with his jacket buttoned asymmetrically; top hole to second button; as a result of his haste in donning it. You've probably guessed the rest, all of a sudden you saw people with their jackets buttoned in a similar manner, as "It improves the fit"!

Position is a highly individual thing, and whilst there are some guidelines that you have to have good reason for going outside, remember that each individual has only one perfect position. At least that's what Heinz Reinkemeier says.

I hope that this helps and/or amuses but does not serve to further confuse!

Rutty

[Hemmers]

To add to the above I had been reading an old shooting book from the club and trying to get my position right practising at home. I watched the 50m prone Commonwealth final though and noticed a lot of the shooters use a fairly straight right leg and don't cock it at the angle shown in many of the books, looking on youtube at 50m prone finals such as world championships and olympic finals shows similar techniques too.

Which book and how old!?
Thinking on position and performance changes with the wind. The chaps who write Ways of the Rifle have it about right. They set out to write a book titled "Way of the Rifle" before realising they coudn't be that specific and basically had to lay a framework for building a position that suited individual shooters, hence the Plural in the name.
Subsequent revisions have tried to follow this theme by laying a default or "textbook" position but then discussing why you might need to change each element and why that process will be different fior each shooter. Also, there is a danger watching people on TV because although you cna clearly see their outer position, you can't see what's going on with their inner position, under their clothes, etc. You also don't know if they're doing something for a specific and personal reason - like an old injury or something.

Rutty's anecdote reminds me of another, this time regarding Pistol. There was a rather good shooter turned up to a competition and ranked highly, having shot (controversially) with his pistol canted slightly, semi-gangsta stylie.
Sure enough at the next competition, many others were trying to emulate his position without much success. When asked what advantage it held, he answered with some amusement "None whatsoever. I'd love to have a conventional vertical hold, but I shattered my wrist in an accident and this is as close as I can get it!"