Looking for help with air rifle

[laurtd]

Hello air rifle coaches and enthusiasts,

I am new to this sport (less than one year) and I need some help with my shooting / maybe some basics.
I have a LG400 and a SCATT BASIC.

Please contact me if you can give me a hand or you have some hints.

Thank you for your help,
Laurentiu

 

[rlporter507]

get this book and read it, make notes, then read it again.

Book - Air Rifle. Training & Competition

The pictures shown are for reference only, the actual product may differ.

shop.mec-shot.com

 

[laurtd]

Hi rlporter507

Thank you for the tip. I have the book and I am doing this already....
Good book and instructive with lots of info. Sometimes, maybe too much for my level...

 

[rlporter507]

Don't worry about it being above your level. You can't learn anything until your ready to learn it. One day at the range, you will remember something you read, and go OH! that's what they meant! and then you will understand. Break down the process of firing a shot into as many pieces as possible, and train on that piece. Then put them all together. you will find that you can continue to break down the steps even further as you get better.

 

[laurtd]

Hi again rlporter507,

I fully agree with the OH moment, it happened to me already a couple of times with some topics from the book. I believe, it is coming faster if you are getting "live" tips, not only by reading.
Also, very interesting approach to practice only smaller steps. I have to check how I can do it...
Thank you Sir!

 

[rlporter507]

here's one you can try. with all your gear on, lift the rife off the stand, and approach target, and settle on the bull do not fire. Focus on your balance, and lift the rifle with square corners. meaning straight up, straight left, straight down to bull. coming down you will be controlling it with your breathing and relaxing to the bull. focus on getting this done with a consistent rhythm. square corners will help your waist twist to be more consistent. do this for a good while and get you muscle memory so you do it every time. slow and deliberate movement. Checking your NPA until you get it all right. Then if you have a ws1 scatt and not the new camera model, turn the target around so you see no bull. repeat this drill, only this time fire the shot. your eye will center on the paper, and the scatt will record you group. this will show how consistent you rifle mount and approach is. with no bull, it should also show how good your trigger control can be, without the bull you will not have the tendency to hit it to hard or to fast. we used to do this drill live fire with our juniors before we had a scatt, just had them shoot at a blank paper.

 

[laurtd]

Thank you for the proposed drill. I think I've seen something similar somewhere in the book. I'll look for it.
2 fast questions came to my mind:
- how many times to you recommend to repeat this drill in a series? Or by time-how long do you suggest to be a series?
- I am not familiar with this term NPA. What does it mean?

 

[rlporter507]

Natural Point of Aim = NPA
as far as how many times to repeat in a series, depends on how much time you have. if you have a problem, you should work on that problem until you get it right. you may work on it the entire training session, taking a break and going back to it. as long as how long a series is, i would stop when negative results come into play, like getting tired, or your mind starts to wonder and your not focusing.
I would think that even one session working on a problem could not be enough, but taking several sessions.
I have went to the range, and spent several hours, and never fired a shot. just worked on one specific thing, and went home.

 

[CharlesD]

Natural Point of Aim = NPA

Natural Point of Aim is where your rifle/pistol wants to point when you are completely relaxed in your shooting position. Test it by closing your eyes and 'feeling' your aim, then opening your eyes and seeing where the rifle/pistol is pointing. Adjust your position until, when you open your eyes, you are aiming at the middle of the target (align your NPA with the aiming mark).

 

[laurtd]

Thank you rlporter507 and CharlesD for your hints and explanations.
I will try this approach in the next trainings.

 

[rlporter507]

You can break down your dry firing into several pieces. just do a holding drill on the target, do not fire. then you can do a dry fire drill releasing the trigger, without a target. then put the 2 together dry fire. then do it with live fire.
So now you've broken it down to approach, hold, trigger release, and finally a actual shot..

 

[Davidf92]

Hi laurtd,

Here is my personal selection of advices picked up from high-level shooters and coaches around me, which can be useful whatever your level as they don't address specific technics but the way you conduct shooting:

- Don't focus on your results but on your feelings and pleasure of shooting. Don't jump to your Scatt computer screen after each shot but instead take the time to replay it in your head and understand what happened, good or bad. Then only look at the result and see how it fits.
- Begin every session without the Scatt, focusing on finding again feelings of the previous training: feelings from your body, what happen with your hand and index, whether you felt unwanted contractions, what you saw in you're sights, etc. Shooting is a matter of mind, feeling and automatisms, body memorized action.
- Work one thing at a time. After each shooting session choose what you are most disappointed with and want to improve next time and stick to that. Resist starting a session without a specific goal. Of course also work on technical points that always go well.
- Matches and points don't matter for you now. Good targets and good sessions are those with consistent results, less "stupid mistakes", those when you felt good and are proud of. Nothing else. Results come with practice. When they don't, ask for advice. Be patient.
- Once in a while, say every 4 or 5 sessions, take time for a very long session, until muscle or eye exhaustion, when everything goes awry. That can be as many as 200 shots even for a beginner. It will help you feel sore muscles, which will be useful signals of unwanted contractions, bad body position, muscle or joints relaxing you must develop (which you can do any time along the day)
- Have fun of course, it will be easier to keep working consistently and get satisfaction if you equally split your sessions between work and "free shooting for the fun of it".

Good luck and welcome to a great family

 

[CharlesD]

Hi laurtd,

Here is my personal selection of advices picked up from high-level shooters and coaches around me, which can be useful whatever your level as they don't address specific technics but the way you conduct shooting:

- Don't focus on your results but on your feelings and pleasure of shooting. Don't jump to your Scatt computer screen after each shot but instead take the time to replay it in your head and understand what happened, good or bad. Then only look at the result and see how it fits.
- Begin every session without the Scatt, focusing on finding again feelings of the previous training: feelings from your body, what happen with your hand and index, whether you felt unwanted contractions, what you saw in you're sights, etc. Shooting is a matter of mind, feeling and automatisms, body memorized action.
- Work one thing at a time. After each shooting session choose what you are most disappointed with and want to improve next time and stick to that. Resist starting a session without a specific goal. Of course also work on technical points that always go well.
- Matches and points don't matter for you now. Good targets and good sessions are those with consistent results, less "stupid mistakes", those when you felt good and are proud of. Nothing else. Results come with practice. When they don't, ask for advice. Be patient.
- Once in a while, say every 4 or 5 sessions, take time for a very long session, until muscle or eye exhaustion, when everything goes awry. That can be as many as 200 shots even for a beginner. It will help you feel sore muscles, which will be useful signals of unwanted contractions, bad body position, muscle or joints relaxing you must develop (which you can do any time along the day)
- Have fun of course, it will be easier to keep working consistently and get satisfaction if you equally split your sessions between work and "free shooting for the fun of it".

Good luck and welcome to a great family

Some very good points and recommendations in this.

 

[laurtd]

Thank you Davidf92 for your tips and recommendations!

 

[Davidf92]

your tips and recommendations!

All learned from others and happily transmitted

 

[laurtd]

Hello,

Regarding my air rifle shooting, I am facing a new and annoying issue in the last weeks.

When I shoot on a target I usually start from above the target and go slowly down with my aiming. Then, I try to slow my down movement and focus on the middle rings..... And, in many cases my aiming is going under the target and I can not bring it back to the target area....

I've changed the balance of my rifle and reduced the weight on the front/barrel side. Also, I've tried to push more towards the target my left hip in order to lift a bit my support hand. Both approaches helped somehow, but I am still many times ending with aiming below the target....

Do you have any other suggestions? Thank you!

 

[rlporter507]

move your butt plate up. check your NPA, and if your holding to the same spot all the time, adjust the rifle.
when making adjustments to the rifle, dont think of the part your moving, but how the rifle is moving.

 

[laurtd]

Thank you rlporter507 for your advice. I can not say that is going to the same spot, but for sure it is in the lower side of the 5,6,7,8 rings.

 

[rlporter507]

i should have said your area of hold, whatever size it is. use the center of this to make your adjustment. What ever the size of your area of hold adjust your npa to center this area on the black.

 

[laurtd]

Thank you rlporter507 . All clear now.