Air Rifle Training, DURC

Nope, yesterday was not enough for me, I had to come back for some more today. I decided to act on a few of the problems from yesterday, mostly my holding and balance issues.

To get better contact with the cheekpiece I dropped the buttplate another little bit, to the bottom of the carrier. I need to check that it's still within the rules, but I think it is. This lowered the rifle a little more to the target, which is another good thing, and also artificially raised the sightline.

I've all but given up on getting my head level, it's just not comfortable with the drop I have to the sights. It's much easier to cant it a little and deal with balance by making sure I sort that out with the the centre of gravity of the total system (me plus rifle) over the middle of my feat. Good practice on that one if nothing else. Or that's what I'm going with anyway :P

The end result of this is a more stable position that isn't quite killing my neck. Drilling out the 10 ring (more or less, there's always a 9) with a lovely steady hold is always a plus :)

On another note, here are some pics of my new jacket in the standing position courtesy of Sparks which show possibly a little too much material in the sides and on the left hip. Out with the knife and a needle and thread methinks <:o

DURC Airgun Open, 29-11-2009

Yesterday was possibly the best air rifle shooting I have ever done in a match. Ever, like.

When it went right, it went very right, dropping perfectly down onto the target so all I had to do was pull the trigger. Beautiful stuff, which is all falling into place after I really started trying to not push my head, and hence the rifle, out to the side. Straight forward drop, 45 degree cant on the rifle. It's a little awkward and painful as I have quite a way to drop with only 4mm of raiser blocks and a long neck and high cheekbones, but it's getting there.

The score, may as well say it, was 545. Now, that came after two nasty final strings where I was tired, and my feet were falling off me with the cold. Before that, I had 370/400, which is pretty good going; good enough to put me third in the newly invented "Overall" class, which I'm happy with. Dropping in a 90 and 85 after that wasn't so good though.

But let's focus on the good things. While it took me 30 mins to get settled and sight, including dropping my buttplate for those lower targets, I started in well, the shots just falling in, apart from the 8s... I was comfortable and relaxed and things were going well. It wasn't until I passed the hour and fifteen minute mark that I started to tire out somewhat. And I mean really tire out. Things looked darker, I found it hard to focus on the foresight, my legs started to stress out a little... It's something I need to work on basically, which means match practice! From looking at a certain shooters notes from a certain training camp doing 70-80 shot matches seems to be a good way to go with that.

Pics will follow in another post, hopefully with some analysis, if they were taken of me in position. I haven't seen a photo of my standing position in years, so it should be interesting. Laters!

Various airgun shooting, this week..

Well. I have a small bit of a confession to make. When I say small, I mean large. This is the cardinal ***king sin of target shooting, and I've been making it for a while now. You know that whole zero point thing? You know how you were always told that you should be "a bit above the target"? Well maybe you should. Not as much as I have been though.

All the way through I've been pointing, shall we say, a bit on the high side. But sure what matter says you, it'll drop down anyway. Well it will, says I, but it'll take a while. And it won't stop on target either. Meaning that I've been misdiagnosing my over-dropping with not getting enough height. While leads to a cacophony of problems, let me tell you.

How did I make this wondrous discovery? While reading The Ways Of The Rifle it reminded me that the best support for the rifle with your left arm is when you can feel it running down through your leg and into the floor. So I tried this, and it made me place my elbow right on my pointy hip bone, at which point I could really feel it in my leg. As the rifle now had huge support and wasn't going anywhere it became immediately obvious that dropping from a foot above the target down wasn't going to work. Cue moving in right foot. Cue tiny wobble around 10 ring. Cue 10s. Balls.

So yes, I was zeroed waaaaay to high, for several years. It really should be made clearer that the target should always be inside the foresight. It makes things so much easier. More fool me for not sorting it earlier I guess though. I'm putting this down to a long experiment on my part, a costly one, maybe, but worth knowing. If I can stop one person from making the same mistake it'll be well worth it.

On the topic of ariguns, I shot my first pistol match yesterday, courtesy of UCDRC. It was an entry to the DURC open, the main body of which will be run this weekend. It's a bit of a laugh. I didn't change the sights and so was aiming around the bottom of the metal target plate (those of you who have shot on MegaLinks will know what I'm talking about) which does not lead to good shooting. A final score of 303, which, I don't think is that bad! Changing the sights to something more comfortable might work though :D Maybe next time.

I hope to get a bit of training in today maybe, and hopefully Sunday shall be a good day. Well, it'll be a good day anyway, but a well scoring one :)

Match, DURC open, Rathdrum, 22-11-09

I take back what I said - this was not going to be a good day. I woke up sneezing all morning and very cold. Getting set up was awful, the place was freezing, as usual. Having to get up at 7 to gready and into the range didn't help, but it could have been worse.

What annoys me most about my 576 overall, aside from the fact that my score is dropping, is that it was good shooting. It felt alright, everything was centered, recoil was nice, but it kept throwing 9s. And 9.9s in particular... Three in one string at one stage!

But anyway, enough of the ranting, it's not my style ;) Aisling was kind enough to take several pics of me in position later in the match, when things were getting very hairy so I can compare my position to the one I had in Fermoy. Looking below you can see that my left leg is very straight, compared to the kicked out one from Fermoy on it's right.

I did some experimentation when I got home last night on comparing the two leg positions and found some interesting results; kicking my leg out gives me a nice higher upper body position, which my set up is tweaked for, and throws the weight more evenly across my body, including onto my right arm, thereby leaving my left less painful. Also, while it lowers my left hand a little, it rotates my left elbow onto the comfy part, and drops my right shoulder so that the target height can be reached. Who knew!?

So, terrible score, but something valuable learned. Which is what it's all about, right? Journey being the goal and all that. There's still the Turkey shoot to go (not really shooting at turkeys, though there are a good few as prizes!), so I can still pull out a good performance. Oh, and remind me to eat a lot more in the days coming up to a match so I have some fuel to keep me warm/get through it. 45 mins of the shivers afterwards is like, soo not cool. Not when you're wearing thermals, certainly.

More training...

OK, so I said I wasn't going to train until next week. I didn't lie as such, just fell through on it.

Running this morning was the first time I've gone in a week. I'm very poorly disciplined at the moment for physical training, but I'm mostly blaming that on not having anything warm to run or cycle in and my bike does need a new bottom bracket...

Going for a run was not fun. At all. Wind is horrendous. I was in bits after the first 500m, never mind the other 3.5km that I scraped though. It was one of the toughest things I've done so far. Now, it might also be due to not getting enough exercise at the moment, but it was still pretty rough. Stupid wind...

Then, Dave said he'd open the range if I wanted to train with him, and I was covering for Aisling later on... So I went and did a bit. Not as nice as the day before, but I think if I hadn't played with my sight when switching from practice to shooting a 10 group then it would have been a hell of a lot nicer and without those nasty 9.9s slightly out. Again, roll on Sunday :)

Training, UCD/DURC

Well, despite the training last week the weekend didn't go so well so it's clearly time to ramp it up a little. Went to UCD on Tuesday evening for an hour or two there, followed up by a 40 shot match yesterday in DURC with Iain. Both left a bit to be desired, though when I felt right in DURC it went well. Also, I think that what I was doing when it felt right was pretty decent. Also, remembering what I did is a big step up...

Followed that up with some prone then yesterday afternoon. Shot two ten shot groups and one ten bull card. The first group was almost certainly 100/100, but a bit hairy at points, which won't do. The 10 bull followed and was a very disappointing 97/98 with a terrible 9 in there. The final group was shot over two targets with a gap in the middle and came to probably a 99 with some nice tight shots. Hopefully the higher targets in Rathdrum will leave me a little less pained at the end...

I'll crack into some more for today and call it a week at that, what with my trip down South for Friday and Saturday. Back late that night for the DURC open on Sunday morning. Fun times :)

UCD Air Open, 15-11-09

The UCD open i generally the first match that DURC sends novices to, and today was no exception. Also, it tends to be a match that sees most of the senior air rifles squad back in action. Though it wasn't my first of the season it was the first I had put some training into so I was looking forward to it.

During the week I spent a lot of time relearning how to shoot, which ended up going quite well, getting in some mid 90s strings, which was nice. I still haven't quite gotten back to my former comfort and consistency, but I feel more comfortable and stable than ever at the moment. Which, as usual, still isn't translating into a better match performance for me :(

My performance in DURC is going well, but, as I have discovered in the past, the targets in DURC are on the, shall we say, higher end of the requirements, not to mention the lighting... Anyway, UCDs targets are lower, which has zero problems that I wouldn't really notice as I tend to fall quite high in general. I'm heading out there on Tuesday to go for a training session then so we'll see how it goes then with a slightly lower position.

For a gratuitous photo of me on the line we have the one below;

If nothing else, the new jacket looks damn amazing :D We'll have a quick review of everything on Tuesday out in UCD and go from there.

Oh, and on the score side of things, I shot 540, which is getting better, but more importantly it was one of the best 540s I've ever shot. It did contain an 87 to start and an 84 to finish (crazy 5 out to the side...) but we shall ignore that for the moment. Yeah. I'm actually really happy with today, the groups were good, just in the wrong place. Until later!

Leinster Indoor Open 2009, Rathdrum.

I was feeling good about this match. So good in fact that something was bound to go wrong. Aside from having to turn up several hours too early to bring another shooter down it seemed like a good day. Oh, and forgetting about my cold which was killing me and leaving me incredibly dehydrated.

Whatever happened, it wan't good. Lying down in position was grand, it felt OK, no pain, nothing awkward. The result was different though. I couldn't keep the group tight enough. I don't know how many points I lost to 9.9s and 9.8s all throughout the match. I wasn't the only one either, both Kealan and Conor also dropped a lot of 9.9s, three in a row each at one point!

Keeping with my current tempo I rattled through sighters and the first 20 match shots in about 15 minutes. Rested and trying to get my head settled and back on the game I got back down again and started with 3 9s! With the inevitability that this was not going to be a good day settling in I just went for it and put in the rest of that block of 20 before getting up again.

The fifth card was a bit of a disaster, though I don't remember it being much different from the other ones. Finishing that one on a 94 was particularly poor, I had thought I was well beyond that. The last card being a 98 was decent enough however. It may signal that I need to take a little more time on each shot as I did rattle through them quite quickly overall, only slowing down a little on the last string.

Owing to two absences I also made it into the final where I was given a chance to redeem myself. I had done it before and with only 3 points between me and Conor with Mark and Kealan in between I knew there was some serious ground I could make up. So the pressure was on a little to prove myself and show what I could really do. Keeping my cool as much as possible I took my time a little more, checking my focus on the foresight for each shot, gently applying pressure to the trigger. It paid off, finally I was grouping well in the 10 ring, most of the shots being 10.5 or 10.5 and all right on the same spot. If I had a more accurate rearsight one or two clicks would have seen me putting in consistent 10.9s, which would have been very sweet. The end result was putting in a total of 103.6 and jumping from 7th to 4th in the final, almost overcoming a 5 point gap to take third but falling short by 0.9.

To make sure I got my €15 euro worth of shooting there was also a tie announced for 4th place with another DURC shooter, Mark who had a great final. I'd never seen, let alone taken part in a shoot off before so this was quite exciting, but a lot of a pain and very nerve wracking. Fortunately I had stayed in position for this exact reason, knowing it was always a possibility. A the order to load came my heart was thumping. I didn't think there was any way I could get this shot in with my heart rate about the same as it is climbing up a mountain. I heard Mark's shot go off and all the crap that I've ever heard about how much pressure there is when the other person has taken the shot and how difficult it is to overcome that hurdle flashed through my mind until I decided to Hell with it all and took the shot; 10.7, exact same spot as the last few shots :) Mark put in a great 10.3, just to make it more exciting for everybody else.

As it turned out, there was no need for the shoot off as the system had just not added up the decimal scores, meaning that I actually had 1.6 points over Mark anyway, but it was still a great experience. Learning that I can put in a 10.7 under pressure was well worth it.

Next time I shall try paying more attention to the lighting conditions on the day. I think it was a bit dark where I shot the match compared to the final, and the difference between the two could not be more marked. Good end to a bad day though :)