Thread: Smallbore shooting

I found when I started smallbore there was not a lot of coaching available. I shot in auckland so there were some very good shooters around to ask a few questions of. If I did some reading I would ask one or two of them if thats how they shot and usually get some good advise.

Early on I bought a copy of 'ways of the rifle'. It was good for starting out in smallbore and one I would recommend if you are the type to learn through reading.

I went in to mastergrade in my first year and if I was to put it down to one thing it was concentrating on getting my natural point of aim for every shot. So when I come up on a target and I am fully relaxed and exhale, the sight picture is good. If I have to slightly push, pull, drop or lift a shoulder etc to get that sight picture then I was not at my natural point of aim and the chances of a 10.1 were a lot less.

It does take practice and patience and early on you might feel like you are really running against the clock to make it but I think to get to a _consistent_ high level you have to do it. Once you are used to it it's not hard and often it's a tiny tweak in position like you are low on the target and your right foot toes goes back a tiny bit, just enough that when you relax, exhale you are dead on the target without any muscle input trying to correct your sight picture.

If your area has something like a SCATT device you might be able to book it for a week later on to check if you have any other issues like trigger pull, holding too long etc.. I bought one at some time and it was a great tool to tell you how you are going but I was never one to put in long stints of dry firing...

Good luck!

PS, as mentioned by others, often the last shots, especially on a 20 card become difficult. They are right, it can be mental and the pressure can come on if you have shot 17+ 10's up to that point but it is also where you can really start to fall out of position. The body has had to move a lot to get to the far left to the far right. This is where if you dont use the natural point of aim you start to hold and force the rifle in to position because your body as fallen down and/or NPA is still to the left where you originally started. Practice acquiring the NPA and the right hand targets will be as good as the left. Of course, all just in my experience