Don’t Just Go Shooting On Good Days

In competition, we have a set schedule, when we know weeks or months in advance when the match is going to take place. At our monthly matches, we will cancel the match if it’s raining hard. The reason is not for the comfort of the shooters, but to protect the targets. Our club is member-owned and supported and all the work gets done by volunteers. The target frames are wood and glue and the target faces are 6” by 6” cardboard. If these get wet, they get ruined. Last weekend, I took part in a work party getting the targets ready for this year’s TSRA events. We reframed all 23 targets and it was epic. Thankfully we had lots of volunteers but I was splashed with glue several times.

At big matches, like the Nationals or the World’s, rain or shine, we shoot. It can get pretty miserable at times, but that’s life.

I remember the 2013 Nationals in Raton, NM. On the last day of the Individuals, I had shot a 199-something at 1000 yards, knocking out a lot of my competition and actually placing high for the match. I had done quite well since the beginning of the week and I was on my way to finish in the top 10. Then came the final match of the day and competition. Hail, wind, sandstorm, rain, snow, anything you can think of came at us on the final relay. The wind was wicked and along with the rain, it was miserable. I dropped 17 points in that relay and thought I had just screwed the deal. As it turns out, I had one of the higher scores for that relay, but it still knocked me back to 20th overall. A lot depends on the relay you’re on and even which target you get. For those of you who have been to Raton, I was on the low numbered targets on the left for that relay.

The thing of it is, you have to go practice when it’s not perfect for you. You have to shoot in the crap, when you don’t feel your best. You can’t just go practice when it’s a beautiful day and you feel great; set a schedule and observe it. There have been many a days when I just didn’t feel like getting up at 5AM to go shoot in blazing heat or cold damp mornings. But I do it because it’s part of the competition workout. When I go to the Nationals, I will be shooting for 7 days straight. It gets very old after a few days, but it’s part of it.

Let me close this post by giving you my 3 rules for doing well in competition:

Rule #1: Show up on time with all your equipment.
How many times have you reviewed the scores from a competition you did not attend and say “I can shoot better than that.” Or words to that effect. Doesn’t matter if you’re 10 times better than the winner, you didn’t show up for it, they did. I have also seen people show up without (pick any or as many as you want): rifle, ammo, scope, mat, bipod or rest, rear bag, earmuffs, etc. Beyond rifle or ammo, most other shooters will let you borrow their spare or even share what they have, but at that point, unless it’s something simple you are now worried about it and are being a drag on others.

Rule #2: Finish the competition.
Some people give up early in the game. One bad relay and they are in the dumps or even quit shooting. On the other hand, I have also witnessed amazing turnarounds in such things. I have seen on guy have a terrible relay early on and he just stuck with it and did brilliantly for the remainder of the completion and several days later he medaled for the aggregate. In multi-day competitions, anyone can mess up and the leaderboard can change rapidly. But if you give up early, you’ll never experience that great comeback.

Rule #3: Mess up less than the other shooters.
Do I really have to explain this one? You’ve trained, you have confidence in your equipment and yourself. Now prove it.

quote:

Originally posted by NikonUser:


Rule #2: Finish the competition.
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Sweet Mary, I am in love.

There is some really great information posted here. But, this is the gem.

Too many people furrow their brow, and grit their teeth when they have a bad stage, drop a shot in practice, or get shot with a SIMs pistol in training. It ain't over. Finish it. Push through.

Shooting is as much mental as physical. If you quit, or let the last shot bother you, it screws you far longer than the match.

Good stuff.

Thank you. I think. That's some reaction there. But yes, I agree; I've seen it too often and have experienced it myself. It's too easy to give up because of a bad shot or a bad string. Just need to shake it off and move on.

This past weekend, I competed in the TSRA LR matches and I had occasion to refine my position further and to standardize it.

The latest piece of gear I acquired was the tripod head for my spotting scope. I moved from a pan&tilt to a ball head w/ pistol grip. I found this setup to work very well for me and I now have the spotting scope/tripod thing well integrated in my position.

I also established a sequence that I can follow to setup the scope before I get down with the rifle and it's right next to me, ready for tweaking. This way, I don't have to worry about trying to figure out how to set it up every time. I have the legs splayed out with one parallel to me, pointing backwards, another pointing to the front right and the other pointing left. I place the front-right pointing leg right behind and one inch from the edge of my bipod mat and everything flows from there.

So now, the sequence is: put the shooting mat down with a little angle to the bottom left, with the straps lying on the ground ready to be covered by my bipod mat. Next comes the bipod mat with its right edge a continuation of the right edge of the mat. Then I place the rubber mat in the middle of the bipod mat. Finally, I place the Seb heavy sand-filled mat on the rubber mat and flatten out the outside pieces.

Next, I set up the spotting scope with the tripod legs set up as described above. The center column is pulled out with an inch on the other side of the holder and the column itself about 15 degrees inside the tor-right tripod leg. When I get down with the rifle bipod on the Seb mat and the stock on the rear rest, the spotting scope eyepiece will be very near my head when I'm alongside the rifle.

The tripod legs do not interfere with my left arm as I maneuver the joystick of the Joy Pod. I find that the rifle recoils extremely well, very straight and the riflescope is still on the 1000 yard target set at 45X, the reticle in the aiming black even.

During a match, I got confused with target numbers; I had been shooting 17 all day on Saturday and during the first match on Sunday, after my first sighter, I noticed my rifle was now pointing on target 15 so I muscled it over to 17 for my next shot, which was promptly recognized as a crossfire since I was now assigned to target 15. My 10 on target 17 did not count for me (I was still in sighters,) or the shooter on 17 who was also in sighter but had not come close to the 10 yet. After I showed him how to do that, he got better.

It was a fun match, lots of wind all weekend, and in those conditions, it's so important to have the fundamentals on automatic as I transitioned between the spotting scope and the riflescope for every shot and wanted to get the shot off as quickly as possible. Rushing your conscious fundamentals is a recipe for disaster; put them on automatic and concentrate on reading the wind.