Tips on Pistol Shooting

[major]

congratulations bodhi bhai on your prized possession!!! may your AP take you to newer heights.

regards

[jitu sati]

yo bodhi i still remember the day i got my first AP. i was getting up in the middle of the night just to make the feeling sink in that i really had the AP as my own. it really feels great. but sir now will come the hard work. but with the great gurujan around i am sure you shall succeed. well begun in half done. so get on with it

[airgun_novice]

Dear Jitu,
Any chances of you making it to Mumbai/ Pune around Jan 13th ? Join us at Japaloupe then.

Dear hvj1 Guruji,
Sincerely hope you can grace us with your presence at Japaloupe on Jan 13th.

BTW just received news today that Parle Mahotsav has started from today.

[airgun_novice]

bodhi literally and figuratively speaking 'Ab Delhi Door Nahi". get the AP and join the large gang of learners

+ 1 bodhijobs - good luck all the way.

[bodhijobs]

Yes, I also had the same kind of a feeling. Pulled out the box a few times, touched the AP, felt the cold of the metal...a different feeling altogether≥

Now the work starts, have pulled out the lessons by Guruji..Step by step, the journey begins...

[jitu sati]

great bodhi hope to see you in all comps from now on and with the teachings of the gurujan you shall surely succeed. learning itself is such a fun. a few yrs ago ap shooting was just a dream and now i am competing. it feels great at each step. must thank the gurujan for everything

[bodhijobs]

Wrist is paining. Only 20 holds, but loving it. Right now the SA is shaking a bit, trying to follow the procedures.

Making up a make-shift range, will post the groups as soon as it is done.

Regards

[tirpassion]

Dear Guruji, dear all,

I shot In the regionals yesterday and I scored 549/600; 92, 88, 94, 92, 91 & 92. This will definitely not take me further. The quota for the nationals stopped at 559/600 last year.

The SOA % was at 78%. The time taken was 1h30m for 69 shots (9 sighters + 60 shots).
I have very recently started working on the trigger control as one should; starting the second trigger pull already before descending in the sub-six aim zone. I had never dared to do that earlier. I have noticed that this fear of trigger control work is not taking me up. So I have dared to do the same trigger control work yesterday, for the first time in a match. I had many errors, a lot of fear, frozen finger, a lot of shot cancellations etc but I forced myself to do it and I had a lot of 10s also . So, I am pretty happy about my first outing.

best regards
tirpassion

[jitu sati]

great tir
you have been always the pathfinder on this thread. we will dare when you do. so this will give us courage to try this tech. i tried it once but abandoned it when i ended up shooting 7s above the black, four times in a row. but your try will give me courage to try it once more.

[brihacharan]

[quote="tirpassion"]
Dear Guruji, dear all,
I shot In the regionals yesterday and I scored 549/600; 92, 88, 94, 92, 91 & 92. This will definitely not take me further. The quota for the nationals stopped at 559/600 last year.

The SOA % was at 78%. The time taken was 1h30m for 69 shots (9 sighters + 60 shots).
I have very recently started working on the trigger control and I have dared to do the same trigger control work yesterday, best regards

Hello there,

> After going through tirpassion's experience related above, I came across a write up on the same subject - Excerpts from it are given below - Hope it helps

Importance of Triger Pull

Your trigger pull should be a smoothly applied, constantly increasing force, like you are depressing a spring. It’s a mind game that will help overcome drawbacks when practiced with perseverance.

Pretend that the front sight is attached to the trigger. When pressure is applied to the trigger, the front sight appears to move rearward towards the rear sight. The goal of pulling the trigger is to pull the front sight post straight though the center of the rear sight notch. With enough practice, you will feel like you are steering the gun with the trigger, mainly because you are.

SIGHT ALIGNMENT
It is extremely important that the sights stay aligned with each other while you are pulling the trigger. The alignment of the sights is more important than the location of the sight picture on the target. With practice, the sight alignment will become fairly steady, but the location of that sight picture on the target will move around quite a bit. Don't worry about the location of the sights on the target so much; as long as your wobble is centered on the point of aim, you are in good shape.

FIRST DRILL
Aim at a blank wall with no target. The goal is to have a perfect sight picture for 10 seconds or so. Don't pull the trigger. Just aim at the blank wall. Repeat this until it gets boring. If you are focused on the sights you should be able to see the front sight shake around in the rear sight. If you can't see the shake, you aren't looking at the sights!! Don't worry about the shake or wobble there isn't much you can do about it. It is caused by the way your muscles work.

The purpose of this exercise is to teach your brain what a good sight picture looks like. As you practice, the shake and wobble will minimize, but will never completely go away.

SECOND DRILL
The second drill is the same as the first drill, but we will now be pulling the trigger. This one takes a little practice to get the hang of.

While maintaining a perfect sight picture on the wall, apply a little bit of pressure to the trigger. Not so much the pistol fires, but just enough to register on the tip of your finger. Release the pressure. Did the pistol move, or the wobble increase? Try again. Once you have applied the pressure without moving the sights, release the trigger, and apply a little more pressure. Eventually your pistol will fire.

Keep doing this until you can pull the trigger, without moving the sights. It won't be long before you know every hitch, every easy spot, and every gritty spot on your pistols trigger mechanism. The purpose of this drill is to learn how to activate the trigger mechanism without screwing up the sight alignment.

DRILL 3
Now put a target on the wall. Its recommend standing far enough away from the wall that you can't focus on both the front sight and the target at the same time, as this will be the case when you are at the range. Also place the target so that it is at a comfortable height - Chin height is about right.

Prepare for dry-firing. Aim at the target on the wall. Keep squeezing the trigger till the pistol fires. Did the sights wobble relative to each other? Did the sights move relative to the target? The purpose of the previous exercise was to learn how to pull the trigger without moving the sights relative to each other. The purpose of this drill is to learn how to pull the trigger without moving the whole gun relative to the target.

Finally, when you are aiming at the target, be quick about it. The steadiest part of your hold is within the first 2-3 seconds. In a precision game, like air pistol, if you don't break the shot within 3-4 seconds - abort the shot and try again.

Best regards
Briha

[tirpassion]

Dear friends,

After having built a pillar of success , we all vouch to go back to the drawing board/the basics etc...Have we really been doing this????? I have put only five notes of interrogation but they might be numerous... and the 1st person I will put to question is 'Myself'.

Here is Lesson N°5 written on 13th January 2010 on page 4 of TOPS. Please note the point N°7.

Lesson No.5 Breathing,Lifting the Pistol, First & Second Pull
The combined process of breathing, lifting the pistol and co-ordinating first pull and second pull is done with one objective in mind. To execute smooth continuous trigger operation within the LIMITED SPAN OF TIME the shooter gets (after stopping his breath), once the sights are settled within the aiming area.
1. Every shooter knows, that there is a limit on his ability to hold the sights aligned and reasonably steady within the aiming area. If he takes too much time to
complete trigger operation, then after a few seconds, the sights waver, the arms strain, causing the sights to increase their arc of movement and it also
causes the shooter to momentarily leave his aiming area.
2. When this happens, (delaying second pull) the novice goes on straining, the more you strain, the signal from the mind to the trigger finger breaks, leading
to further delay. Finally the shooter gets fed up and jerks his trigger. Well the results are well documented in every shooters mind after such an instance.
3. The more experienced and mature shooter, on realizing that his shot is delayed, cancels his shot, relaxes then begins all over again.
4. Now cancelling the shot or jerking the shot, both have a negative effect on the shooter. Cancelling too many shots leads to time pressure on the shooter, I
dont think it necessary to elaborate on the effects of jerking a trigger, since they are quite obvious.
5. Therefore, ideally, the shooter must execute his trigger operation and follow through, within his aiming area and within the time frame of a few seconds
in which he is the MOST COMFORTABLE PHYSICALLY.
6. Hence, your shot must be released within 3 to 5 seconds after settling neatly within the aiming area. That is why, the shooter must co-ordinate, breathing,
completion of first pull and second pull, so that he can execute the shot and follow through within this window of time.
7. In light of the above, the breathing must therefore stop, when the sights are aligned in the aiming area. The first pull should be completed on the way UP to the target and the second pull must begin even before you enter the aiming area, so that within three to five seconds, the residual second pull trigger pressure is completed.

Here, I have modified the Point 7 to adapt to myself (Old habit of descending to the aiming area).
The eyes are fixed on the white part of the target just above the bull (black circle). The Pistol is lifted to that level to perceive the sharp sight picture and the 1st pull is completed simultaneously. The 2nd pull begins along with the descent of the perfect sight picture to the aiming area/zone, the follow through operation starts. ------ The trigger operation ends. The follow through operation ends.
------ = The shot breaks.

I am getting aware of this drawback of myself since some time now and I even discussed it with Guruji. I realized that I have been complacent with the 550+ scores and that I was not daring to go further, deep in my mind (comfort zone/age factor lethargy/aaraam ) you know... I did not ever practice the 2nd pull of point N°7 because i never dared to use the same during the match out of fear of scoring bad points. 'Someday, I will have to do it' I was telling myself since long but when??? Well, I am maturing....
Fear??? Fear of what? Fear of who? Fear of scoring a bad point??? Fear of presenting my pitiful face in front of my friends and family after the bad score??? So is it the fear of getting a blow on the self image? Now, where is that bloody self image if I have not bloody dared to create it?
I am afraid of nothing and none and I take immense pleasure to build my image with the gun.
I started practising it (the 2nd pull of modified Point 7) 9 days back and I decided to do it right during the BIG Match (the only one which could take me to the Nationals 2013) . I went with the mindset of building a pillar of success. The first 18/20 shots were hellish because I was struggling with myself, my doubts if I was doing right, the accumulation of all that fear... I had only 3 Tens and already 5 eights by then. Then I took a break and unfettered myself; 5 tens in a row. It was the revelation that fearless work paid. From then on, I did not hesitate much. The result; I am still around my 550 with more 10s and more errors. I have more 10s which means that I have the technical aspects in order and the errors (due to fear) will be jolly well minimised with growing confidence.

Do not be afraid of that trigger which has just a force of 500+ grammes. Phew!!!

best regards
tirpassion

[tirpassion]

Dear Brihaji,

Pretend that the front sight is attached to the trigger. When pressure is applied to the trigger, the front sight appears to move rearward towards the rear sight. The goal of pulling the trigger is to pull the front sight post straight though the center of the rear sight notch. With enough practice, you will feel like you are steering the gun with the trigger, mainly because you are.

It is an interesting point. A different approach to trigger control work. A National level coach in France once told me a similar thing. He said that he teaches his students to look at the bull while descending to the aiming area. Then he emphasizes on the idea of associating the trigger pull with the visual perception of travelling in a straight line from the bull to the front sight and through the rear sight notch; the same idea of your steering the shot with the trigger.
This very same gentleman has produced a jewel; a junior shooter who scored an amazing 584 during the district level comp in November and 580 in the Regionals in the weekend of 7/8/9 decemberin AP.
Cut & Paste or click on the link and see the name of ADAMUS Antoine in the JG section (JG= Junior Garçon). 584 is the score of district for qualification and the see the series of 96,97,97,97,96 & 97 = 580 in the regionals.
http://ligue-de-tir-languedoc-roussillo ... 202012.pdf

best regards
tirpassion

[brihacharan]

Dear friends,
Do not be afraid of that trigger which has just a force of 500+ grammes. Phew!!!
best regards
tirpassion

Next in importance to having a good aim is to recognize when to pull the trigger.
David Letterman

Briha

[tirpassion]

great tir
you have been always the pathfinder on this thread. we will dare when you do. so this will give us courage to try this tech. i tried it once but abandoned it when i ended up shooting 7s above the black, four times in a row. but your try will give me courage to try it once more.

Dear jitu,

To have a better control over the trigger pull, you will need to adjust it accordingly. For us, beginners, the 2nd pull weight should be over 200g. As Gurji says, perceptibly higher than the 1st pull weight. Remember that the 2nd trigger pull will always be higher than the 1st because 2nd Pull weight = 1st pull weight + the additional weight to reach 500+g. Hence, the notion of perceptibly higher. 250g + 250g or 280 + 250 (to have a margin of safety) just for example. You can go for 230 + 300 also which should be very good to install courage. Now how to do it???

Take a plastic small bag and fill it up with approx 200g weight of anything. Pointing the AP towards the ceiling and drycocking it hang the bag on the trigger blade. Add on weight in steps of 10g till you adjust the 1st pull comfortably at 240g or so. Now, add up another 250g in the bag and lift the AP. Adjust the let off at 300g. This way your trigger weight will be around 540g, safe enough to pass any weapon check and you will have a safe 300g 2nd pull weight where you will really have to work you trigger control skills during the 2nd pull to let the shot break.

best regards
tirpassion

[bodhijobs]

Arnab da,

A quick question for you, do you have any idea what will be the pre set trigger stage weights in a Morini or a Steyr? Why I am asking this is coz of the fact that I am feeling very comfortable with the trigger, do I need to adjust or will there be a change during weapon control when it happens?

Regards
BD