Tips on Pistol Shooting

[tirpassion]

Dear friends,
I will leave for Lezignan Corbières in the afternoon, a small town in the south of France where the French National Championships of the Muzzle loaders is taking place since today morning till Sunday. For my part, I have qualified in 2 events only; the flintlock and the matchlock pistols in replica category.
There are 2 great inspirations for this tour. Firstly, the region is renowned for it's culinary art /gastronomy + the famous Corbières red wine.
Secondly and most importantly, you have a feast for the eyes... the biggest gathering of ML shooters in France (over 300 French and a few International shooters from the neighbouring countries) with all their treasures specially the originals. What I love the most is the weapon check part. Everybody stands in a queue with their guns in hand for check by the judges and you see the magnificent pieces as if doing a catwalk on the ramp during a fashion show. Extraordinary!!!!! 2 years back, I saw two original Japanese matchlock pistols in excellent condition dating back to the 17th century. Their owners (an English couple) shot with them during the match. The old weapons which can not be traced in history are certified by experts. For example, these Japanese pistols were examined and certified by Japanese experts. A curious one amongst us asked about the price of the same. The gentleman replied with a smile and the lady laughed seeing her husband smiling . But they did us a favour of letting us take the pistols in hand.

Let me see what i can fish out this year .

best regards
tirpassion

[brihacharan]

Bonjour Monsieur tirpasion,
Com e' ca va?
> That's it - my French begins & ends there
> Really envy your participating in the ML regalia!
> The antique Japanese pistols you mentioned seem a feast for the eyes & I could imagine the smile on the owner's face when its price was asked
> The wine & victuals has set my mouth watering - lucky you!
> Have a great time & all the best for your shooting the MLs.
> Lastly - with all the vintage MLs being blasted - It will remind one of the storming of the Bastille Sound / Fire / Smoke!!!
> Bon apetit / Bon shooting / Bon everything
Au revior
Briha

[brihacharan]

thx all. i was totally shaken by the drop in performance and was pretty disturbed. but i guess i will have to take the positives and move on.
i am presently hunting for some expert to set my grip right. i will restart my effort as soon as i set the grip right.

Hi jitu sati,
> I understand the importance of a good & proper grip, because its a major factor in AP shooting.
> In my considered opinion an incident of which I was a witness comes to my mind....
> Many years ago when shopping for my weekly groceries in London, I saw 'Hoover' the wellknown manufacturer of domestic appliances conduct a survey for designing a proper grip of their range of irons (pressing clothes)
> When ladies were exiting the store's cash counter the Hoover Stall attendants would offer them a cup of Maxwell Coffee and request them to pick up a 'Putty Clay rod from the table and go through the motions of ironing a shirt / shirt / blouse etc.
> The attendant thanked the lady and took back the Putty Clay rod which incidentally had the grip impression on it.
> Now based on the type of grip of an average women (by screening the Putty Clay Rods) Hoover could design the "IDEAL GRIP" for a domestic iron. I was simply amazed at the ingenuity of the company for this initiative!!!
> Likewise you could perhaps do the same & recreate your grip on to your AP - Just a Stray Thought!!!!
> You may not believe it - This what I did to my IHP35 0.22cal AR - you can notice it if you care to look at the picture I had posted under "My DIY Cheek Pad" last week. In fact one of the IFGians noticed it and called me on phone to check out!
Cheers
Briha

[jitu sati]

hey tir
best of luck keep the ifg flag flying high
brihacharan ji
i am putting in an effort to get the grip adjusted for my hand. infact one international shooter has yesterday had a look at the grip and indicated that he will help me to get the same modified to suit my hand. so hopefully i will be back in action soon. need to use the time available to prepare for the states in sep. cant afford to have an action replay of jodhpur then

[brihacharan]

hey tir
best of luck keep the ifg flag flying high
brihacharan ji
i am putting in an effort to get the grip adjusted for my hand. infact one international shooter has yesterday had a look at the grip and indicated that he will help me to get the same modified to suit my hand. so hopefully i will be back in action soon. need to use the time available to prepare for the states in sep. cant afford to have an action replay of jodhpur then

Hi Jitu,
> The moment you get a new grip - Jodhpur will be history
> No more 'action replays' - It will be 'Fast Forward'
Cheers
Briha

[jitu sati]

thanks briha
the international shooter has helped me to remodel the grip considerably. i can now hold the grip in a much more comfortable fashion. he is going to work on it more and ensure that the grip is totally suited for me. hoping for the best.
regards
jitu

[hvj1]

Hello Tirpassion,
First my sob story then we will get around to you (not necessarily sob story). I am camped out in Satara since the last three months, trying to get my Bungalow completed. its now the 19th month and it looks as if it will take another month or so. What started of with a budget of Rs 25.0 L, I have overshot due to an incompetent contractor and allied agencies, to hover in the range of 65-70 L. AND the F******** meter is still running.
Nevertheless, I am VERY HAPPY to see your FP cards. WHY? Because I can see that your gripping is on the right lines. I am convinced of the fact that you can shoot 530 or so. All you need to do is work, work, work at FP. Need to practice a lot, develop Mental stamina FIRST and then we can develop Mental Intensity.
1. Keep working with the gripping, continue with the V.
2. Achieved 100 % on SA. Your SA has to be sharp and defined for a minimum 10 seconds.
3. A minimum of 90 box drills/ 90 SA shots in dry.
Once you have achieved this then move to the following;
3. Practice 20 shot matches in FP. Fire 5 shot cards X 4 cards X 15 minutes each.
4. Completely focus on Shot cycle. Especially focus a lot on Visualisation stage of shot cycle.

The first three steps are for developing mental stamina. Remember we are setting a foundation for good performance. No other pistol event is as demanding as the FP, leave AP aside for the moment, the stamina you develop will spill over into AP eventually.
Keep working on it buddy, I'll be damned if i dont get you shooting 530 in a reasonably short span of time. This is my promise to you.
Keep up the good work.

[jitu sati]

hey hvj
hope you have an underground 10mtr rng at your satara bunglow.
hey tir
after a bit of modification to the grip took a live shoot. purposely scored to reassure myself. 536/600. much better than jodhpur. so now will renew my effort with the 8ring drill to improve . the tgt is sep states. got to reach a respectable score there. so no more scoring and concentration on the tech drills taught by the gurujan

[hvj1]

Hi Jitu,
My house wouldnt be complete without a shooting range. Yes I have a two lanes (international spacing) shooting range attached to my bungalow. Presently it is serving as a makeshift working place for the carpenters. Eventually i will get around to completing it. Then off course you are invited. In fact all are invited.
BR

[airgun_novice]

Dear Guruji, Good luck with your dream project. We all shall surely pay it a visit once completed.

[tirpassion]

Dear friends,
I am back from Lezignan. Worst ever performance in the nationals. Found out simply that one can not and must not expect to do good without good work and practice behind. This year, i had left the muzzleloaders a bit aside and reaped what i sowed . The match lock is very special. one needs to be in regular touch to surmount the fear of it's ignition from a lighted wick and a load of 30 grains (2g) of 4Fg black powder in a single hand held pistol. That fear took on me evidently during the match. Moreover, it is very difficult to abort a shot. A tiny hot post combustion ash particle from the lighted wick can ignite the primer and let the shot break. So if one waits more, more is the probability of this ash particle falling on the primer pan. So if one decides to abort, the primer pan has to be covered first. Before doing so the shot can go off and score a 0. All these fears resulted in a bad shooting and bad score, at the bottom of the list of shooters 54th out of 61 shooters.
I was better equipped mentally for the flint lock and started the match well. From the 6th shot onwards the trigger mechanism started functioning erratically. Once the shot breaks, the next one does not break. The trigger clicks but the hammer does not strike. then it goes off suddenly. This time it was bad luck . I have heard about and seen a number of technical malfunctioning during shooting match but never experienced one seriously. It is very very stressful. To shoot the last 8 shots (the match is of 13 shots in 30 minutes), I had to lift the gun 28 times and pull the trigger 28 times. One of the match referees was behind me with the whistle. The last shot broke and he blew it (perhaps with a consideration out of sympathy for me he waited a few more seconds). May be I should have abandoned the match rather than forcing the shots to finish. But my instincts guided me to finish because I hate to abandon. I am still 49th out of 58 shooters.
The ML adventure ends today for me for this year. Otherwise, it was as usual a great outing. Get together of all friends from different parts of France once a year.

best regards
tirpassion

[tirpassion]

Dear Guruji,
I thank you for your encouraging words. Somehow, I felt also that it should not be extremely difficult to shoot 520.
To be very frank, I sacrificed the ML guns and concentrated more on the FP in the last 3 months. Somewhere, I felt the pinch of qualifying in only 2 events this year out of 5 ML events I shoot. 3 medals in the regional level in 2010, 3 in 2011 and 0 in 2012... Well, I am happy to know that this sacrifice will, in all probability, not go in vain.
I will start the work on FP this week itself, why not from tomorrow onwards till my departure for India on 28th July.
I will keep you updated.

Best regards
tirpassion

[jitu sati]

hey hvj
great to know about your in-house range. will certainy take up the invitation when i visit pune during leave.
hey tirpassion
let us all rededicate ourselves to hard work and take it from there. so heres to more hard work and better results
jitu

[tirpassion]

Thanks for your kind words Jitu!

It is nice to know that your grip is being modified by a knowledgeable person. Your confidence will grow manifold. BTW, it is very necessary to shoot a confidence building match as you did rightly. Me too, I shot a similar practice match today to see what I do with my 2nd pistol. I am in my standard; 557/600. The time taken was excellent; 58 minutes.
I have bought another AP 2nd hand (same make and model as the 1st; Hämmerli AP40) last week to bring in India and keep there permanently.
Now, let us all go back to work!

best regards
tirpassion

[jitu sati]

hey tir
the grip is still under modification. but it is much better than before. thinking in posterity, i should myself have realised that the grip modification carried out by the previous owner was absolutely not suiting me. but i continued to change my holding to suit the grip and not the correct way round. but any way, now that it has started becoming ok, i need to again make a habit of holding correctly by unlearning the incorrect things i had prac. will take some doing, but i am game . i will put in the hard work till sep and then lets see what happens. i am sure i will do well