How do YOU challenge YOU?

[r1lover]

Challenge:
1. Stop procrastinating
2. Start practicing

I am going to try placing a piece of paper on the wall across the room with a 1 inch diameter circle inside a 2 inch diameter circle and practice my off-hand hold for 10 minutes a day.

Raise my rifle and try to keep the cross hair inside the two inch circle for a count of five, then rest the rifle on a tripod for a count of ten.

Repeat.

Goal is to eventually be able to keep cross hair inside 1 inch circle.

Do similar for kneeling except with 1/2 inch circle inside 1 inch circle.

Still working on No.1 above so haven't tried No. 2 yet but plan to......tomorrow.

 

[airgunutty]

Challenge:
1. Stop procrastinating
2. Start practicing

I am going to try placing a piece of paper on the wall across the room with a 1 inch diameter circle inside a 2 inch diameter circle and practice my off-hand hold for 10 minutes a day.

Raise my rifle and try to keep the cross hair inside the two inch circle for a count of five, then rest the rifle on a tripod for a count of ten.

Repeat.

Goal is to eventually be able to keep cross hair inside 1 inch circle.

Do similar for kneeling except with 1/2 inch circle inside 1 inch circle.

Still working on No.1 above so haven't tried No. 2 yet but plan to......tomorrow.

Thank you for that advice. I'm new to shooting and I do it alone so I don't know what I don't know yet. I have an hatsan at44 long qe and with scope comes in at just under 11lbs. Plus its kinda front heavy. But to say it's difficult to hold crosshairs steady with it is an understatement. But I would definitely like to be able to and your suggested exercise will definitely help me to get there.

Thanks again

 

[beerthief]

Challenge:
1. Stop procrastinating
2. Start practicing

I am going to try placing a piece of paper on the wall across the room with a 1 inch diameter circle inside a 2 inch diameter circle and practice my off-hand hold for 10 minutes a day.

Raise my rifle and try to keep the cross hair inside the two inch circle for a count of five, then rest the rifle on a tripod for a count of ten.

Repeat.

Goal is to eventually be able to keep cross hair inside 1 inch circle.

Do similar for kneeling except with 1/2 inch circle inside 1 inch circle.

Still working on No.1 above so haven't tried No. 2 yet but plan to......tomorrow.

" Its too hot .cold, rainy , windy , " no excuse with this practice not even "i do not have the distance "

 

[Avator]

Challenge:
1. Stop procrastinating
2. Start practicing

I am going to try placing a piece of paper on the wall across the room with a 1 inch diameter circle inside a 2 inch diameter circle and practice my off-hand hold for 10 minutes a day.

Raise my rifle and try to keep the cross hair inside the two inch circle for a count of five, then rest the rifle on a tripod for a count of ten.

Repeat.

Goal is to eventually be able to keep cross hair inside 1 inch circle.

Do similar for kneeling except with 1/2 inch circle inside 1 inch circle.

Still working on No.1 above so haven't tried No. 2 yet but plan to......tomorrow.

Wait.... I thought airgunning was supposed to be fun.

 

[DeanB]

Shoot blades of grass of in front of my backstop at 32yds. Shoot dandelion closed tops off, also any bug that lands on my backstop. Shoot acorns off my oak trees around house offhand or pick a small dead limb and cut the tip off etc, etc.

 

[Motorhead]

Off hand and Kneeling prowess is IMO, more a technique issue than stamina in holding the position/s.
For if technique is not utilizing the best of ones dexterity and optimal allowed body contact .... The more muscle you start using and that can lead to quick onset jitters if forcing the position for too long.

But then YES both muscle & support with control is necessary to excel in either ... If one struggles then indeed practice what you feel best helps your improving either.

 

[Bedrock Bob]

Challenge:
1. Stop procrastinating
2. Start practicing

I am going to try placing a piece of paper on the wall across the room with a 1 inch diameter circle inside a 2 inch diameter circle and practice my off-hand hold for 10 minutes a day.

Raise my rifle and try to keep the cross hair inside the two inch circle for a count of five, then rest the rifle on a tripod for a count of ten.

Repeat.

Goal is to eventually be able to keep cross hair inside 1 inch circle.

Do similar for kneeling except with 1/2 inch circle inside 1 inch circle.

Still working on No.1 above so haven't tried No. 2 yet but plan to......tomorrow.

Building muscles and developing muscle memory is a big part of offhand proficiency. No doubt being able to hold the gun steady is a plus.

When shooting unsupported, trigger timing makes more difference than a steady hold. You are going to wobble. Knowing when a pass is coming across the dot and timing the trigger is 99% of accuracy. A "steady hold" notsomuch.

Learning to control your movement into "drving passes" and "coasting passes" that come across the dot every time will serve you better than trying to hold steady on the dot.... it's like shooting a basketball...you see the opening coming and make the shot in motion with TIMING.

Rather than fighting the "wobble" just tame it and time it.

It's much easier to time a shot than to try and hold the rifle steady. Work with movement rather than try and stifle it. Your offhand shooting will improve immediately when you learn to drive (or coast) the gun across the dot and time the shot with your movement.

 

[Windmill01]

When we had our big property I used to lay on my back in the shade and shoot the small green pine cones before they opened. (Not the ones directly above me) It was good practice for judging hold under to eradicate pest birds that landed high in the trees.
Gary

 

[Airgun-hobbyist]

Challenge:
1. Stop procrastinating
2. Start practicing

I am going to try placing a piece of paper on the wall across the room with a 1 inch diameter circle inside a 2 inch diameter circle and practice my off-hand hold for 10 minutes a day.

Raise my rifle and try to keep the cross hair inside the two inch circle for a count of five, then rest the rifle on a tripod for a count of ten.

Repeat.

Goal is to eventually be able to keep cross hair inside 1 inch circle.

Do similar for kneeling except with 1/2 inch circle inside 1 inch circle.

Still working on No.1 above so haven't tried No. 2 yet but plan to......tomorrow.

Thank you for that advice. I'm new to shooting and I do it alone so I don't know what I don't know yet. I have an hatsan at44 long qe and with scope comes in at just under 11lbs. Plus its kinda front heavy. But to say it's difficult to hold crosshairs steady with it is an understatement. But I would definitely like to be able to and your suggested exercise will definitely help me to get there.

Thanks again

This is similar to what we'd do on an archery target as well. "Float" the sight on the target dot concentrating on making smaller and smaller sight float within the target's dot until at the smallest float and also releasing the trigger in anticipation of the movement as it's coming back onto the center of the target circle. After much practice and brain/muscle memory take hold, the float on target is miniscule compared to in the beginning.

 

[Airgun-hobbyist]

Building muscles and developing muscle memory is a big part of offhand proficiency. No doubt being able to hold the gun steady is a plus.

When shooting unsupported, trigger timing makes more difference than a steady hold. You are going to wobble. Knowing when a pass is coming across the dot and timing the trigger is 99% of accuracy. A "steady hold" notsomuch.

Learning to control your movement into "drving passes" and "coasting passes" that come across the dot every time will serve you better than trying to hold steady on the dot.... it's like shooting a basketball...you see the opening coming and make the shot in motion with TIMING.

Rather than fighting the "wobble" just tame it and time it.

It's much easier to time a shot than to try and hold the rifle steady. Work with movement rather than try and stifle it. Your offhand shooting will improve immediately when you learn to drive (or coast) the gun across the dot and time the shot with your movement.

(Bob, apparently I type really slow and was formulating reference to my archery training as an example while you were posting the same concepts.) You're spot on with building muscle memory. I recently read that it takes four to five dozen repeated repetitions to build that muscle memory.

 

[r1lover]

Rather than fighting the "wobble" just tame it and time it.

Rather than fighting the "wobble" just tame it and time it.

"Steady"....."taming"..... same difference to me. The goal is to create a reasonably small, slow CONCENTRIC wobble about the center of the target. If my wobble (mine changes direction at will) is both unpredictable and wide I end up yanking the trigger if/when my sights cross the target. I gotta get that wobble a lot smaller than it is, then I can work on timing. As a past competitive trap and skeet shooter and avid water fowler now, I appreciate timing. I think that will be the easiest part for me. Great advice, thanks.

 

[bigHUN]

All shooting sports are mental sports. This doesn't come overnight, months of training to put all together
"Wobbling on target"? Try to "float on target" in circular around a target. If you can float and control it CW or CCW you are on your right mind set.
You don't "try" centering. The brain will do centering.
Releasing a shot shall be subconscious and not controlled by you.
If you flinch the trigger you already over think or over control.

 

[daddypaddy]

i shoot at a golf ball or similar sized target out to 72 yards with a stock barreled notos.
i also challenge myself everyday by not smoking a cigarette. i keep a pack of newports in my company truck to temp me.. i haven’t had a cigarette in 11 years

 

[Peashooter]

Aim small / miss small.
Out new target we call " the needle " is a 6 mm hole in a steel plate you have to hit to take a bite of the chalk behind it that act like a indicator.
Not that hard at 50 M, quite a lot harder at 75 M, some here say they can do it at 100 M, and maybe but if they can do it on a even just fairly regular basis i will have to observe them and figure out what their secret sauce is.

Mind you i did think late yesterday i hit a 6 mm hole with a 10 grain slug at 115 M distance, but alas i did not.

The fairground shooting tent chalks, also not exactly easy to hit when they are put up at 100 M distance, same go for paintballs, well at least not with the wind we had yesterday, which was not bad for Danish weather.

If i see a fly, i shoot at it, but only taken 1 at 115 M, shorter distances i have made a slaughter of them.

 

[Bedrock Bob]

(Bob, apparently I type really slow and was formulating reference to my archery training as an example while you were posting the same concepts.) You're spot on with building muscle memory. I recently read that it takes four to five dozen repeated repetitions to build that muscle memory.

A thousand reps is what the psychologist tells me. To engrain a movement/process and build neural pathways to make your routine automatic.

A checklist for loading, stance, mounting, sight picture, hold, relax and release will keep from developing bad habits in that thousand repetitions. Then adding elements to that checklist as needed.

It has little to do with "accuracy" and a lot to do with allowing your brain to focus on the shot. If your process is automatic your brain has more capacity to focus on timing your movements. That's a full time job shooting offhand. It takes every neuron you can spare to thread a needle standing there like a scarecrow. If you can commit the process to automatic movements the job gets much easier.

The archery analogy is perfect. It is taught with a checklist and refined until it becomes automatic through repetition.

Learning to draw a handgun is another one. Or shooting a basketball. Batting a baseball. Driving nails. Etc. Etc.

It's also why bad form/habits are so hard to break. Practice makes perfect only when you practice perfectly. It's best to constantly revisit basic skills before adding to the checklist. Getting lax about natural shooting position or mounting points can become habit easily unless every aspect of the shot is constantly analyzed.

Shooting well is a discipline. If it's not your just kicking up dirt downrange.

 

[airgunutty]

A thousand reps is what the psychologist tells me. To engrain a movement/process and build neural pathways to make your routine automatic.

A checklist for loading, stance, mounting, sight picture, hold, relax and release will keep from developing bad habits in that thousand repetitions. Then adding elements to that checklist as needed.

It has little to do with "accuracy" and a lot to do with allowing your brain to focus on the shot. If your process is automatic your brain has more capacity to focus on timing your movements. That's a full time job shooting offhand. It takes every neuron you can spare to thread a needle standing there like a scarecrow. If you can commit the process to automatic movements the job gets much easier.

The archery analogy is perfect. It is taught with a checklist and refined until it becomes automatic through repetition.

Learning to draw a handgun is another one. Or shooting a basketball. Batting a baseball. Driving nails. Etc. Etc.

It's also why bad form/habits are so hard to break. Practice makes perfect only when you practice perfectly. It's best to constantly revisit basic skills before adding to the checklist. Getting lax about natural shooting position or mounting points can become habit easily unless every aspect of the shot is constantly analyzed.

Shooting well is a discipline. If it's not your just kicking up dirt downrange.

Thank you for taking the time to share what techniques work for you.
I am always looking for ways to help me improve my shot.

Just got a chrono so I'm going down the rabbit hole of hammer spring adjustments and thoughts of setting my regulator to a lower psi. Good thing I'm not in a hurry. I don't plan to stop and eventually I will improve. I may never aquire Rick Rehm status but if I can keep the pest around the farm under control humanly then anything else is a bonus.

 

[Bedrock Bob]

LOL... I'm challenged at hitting paintballs and little green army men at 45 yds.

Little green army men taught me how to shoot when I was a kid. They are still teaching me!

The darn things are perfect targets for a pellet rifle.

I found some red outlaws a bit larger than army men. Perfect size to weight ratio and just the right hardness plastic.

50 yards plinking with the HW97

 

[Avator]

We play games shooting army men. We call it Putin shootin'

 

[L.Leon]

For me, as far as airgunning is concerned the challenge is to simply have fun and be a boy again. To forget for brief moments the challenges of daily living. I love the feeling of just enjoying hits and misses…

 

[Avator]

Today the challenge was pouring consistent NOE 217 24 RF pellets. I preheat the 2 cav aluminum mold to 125c in my PID controlled toaster oven and run the 20# LEE pot at 700f. I dip pour batches of 100 or so then reload the pot with the sprues and add an ingot if needed.
Next I tumble them for 20 or so minutes then weigh and cull.
The challenge is to get the most pellets out of the run between 22.30 and 22.50. This morning I ran 3 batches and my cull rate was about 10%.
Once culled I put all 3 batches back in the tumbler for 10 minutes or so and they come out bright and shiny.
Betty Lou says I'm the Todd Hoffman of casting... lol. I have to correct her... ummm no, I'm Parker Schnabel. But I look more like Tony Beets.