Bullseye Target Shooting

Mindless Entertainment

2008-05-01T10:23:00.006-07:00

Shooters learn Bullseye much the same way they do any other sport. They study, they experiment, they practice, they talk to others, they get coaching directly and indirectly. They commit things first to memory and then to body actions and, if everything goes well, they become as proficient at the sport as their abilities permit.

But it is also true that Bullseye is significantly less physical than some sports. In Bullseye, for example, there is no running. On the contrary, Bullseye shooters stand for relatively long periods of time nearly motionless. And when they do move, it is what appears to be a leisurely stroll down to the targets and back. But this is not because Bullseye shooters are lazy or laid-back. On the contrary, that leisurely pace is very intentional. Bullseye shooters do not want to elevate their heart rates. The sport requires it. When firing a string, Bullseye shooters want as motionless a stance as possible to minimize their wobble and, in turn, improve their accuracy on the target. Walking fast raises the heart rate, increases the wobble, and worsens the shots. No, Bullseye shooters walk slow for a reason. They take it easy for their next shot.

But, Bullseye is very much like other sports in one key way.

Consider a world champion tennis player. They are certainly very physical running left, right, forward and back, stretching and stooping for each shot. But consider also that player's mental state while playing. Specifically, for a world-class player, how much self-talk are they doing once a volley begins?

Beginners do a lot of self-talk.

"Do this, do that, grip the gun tightly, focus on the front sight," are among the common self-talk statements that beginners use to train themselves in Bullseye.

And no doubt beginning tennis players do the same. "Spot the place where I want the ball to go, loft the ball high and stretch up for the serve, now execute a smoothly increasing swing," they might tell themselves.

But for the world-class tennis player, all of that is automatic. They've trained and practiced and everything they do has become completely unconscious. Indeed, it probably feels instinctive and the conscious mind simply watches as the ball is served and the volley played out.

In this, Bullseye is the same.

Indeed, many experts would probably agree that, as a given player's skill rises, all sports become mental games.

"Attitude is everything," some say.

"Visualize what you want," others recommend.

"Focus on the goal."

As the champion tennis player launches the ball up in the air to be served, his or her thinking has stopped. There is silence in the head. The body is on automatic. The eye sees; the body moves. It is a fully integrated machine.

The brain is only permitted to watch, not to act.

Think of sitting on the sofa and watching TV. The brain watches, it is entertained, but it does not participate.

Mindless entertainment, we call it.

At the upper skill levels, all sports have this in common.

Mindless entertainment.

In Bullseye, after the basics are learned, after shooters learn how to hold the gun, set their natural point of aim and move the trigger straight back to release the shot, an active, talkative, "do this, do that" brain is a hindrance. It messes up the shot.

The brain must be silenced.

Tell it.

"Please be quiet now. I'm going to shoot. Just watch. You're going to like this. This is going to be good."

It's OK for the brain to watch. In fact, it's good for the brain to watch. It likes to relax and be entertained. The brain enjoys the action and when the string ends, then it can become active and talk to the other shooters, score targets, notice that the body is thirsty and direct it to get a drink of water.

Bullseye must be intensely entertaining to the mind or we wouldn't keep shooting for all the years it takes to become expert at this sport.

Think of anything non-essential that you have, nonetheless, voluntarily done for years. Why do you do it? Because you enjoy it. It is amusing. It is entertaining. It has to be or you would have abandoned it long ago.

In Bullseye, the brain's recognition of improvement feels great. It likes it. And recognizing what caused some bad shots during a string can be amusing. I've had a lot of shots that made me laugh. I don't particularly like them, but I do enjoy them when they happen.

And the brain talking with the other shooters is a vital part of the sport. We are, after all, social creatures. We find it enjoyable to talk with the other shooters when we're not in the middle of a string, and I'm quite certain they do to.

But, when it comes time for the next string, the mind must again become quiet. It must not speak. It must not be active.

As with TV, the commercial is over and the program is starting again.

So, dim the lights and unmute the sound. Turn off the brain and watch the show.

Shooters to the line!

During a string, Bullseye must become mindless entertainment.

Maybe we should change the cadence:

Shooters to the line.

Brains, switch to silent mode. No talking inside or outside of the head.

Bodies, this will be your first string of Rapid Fire.

With five rounds, load.

Brains, be silent on the line.

Are the brains silent?

The brains are silent.

No thinking on the right.

No thinking on the left.

The line is not thinking.

[Targets face, the string is fired, targets edge.]

Make the line safe.

Make the line noisy.

Brains wake up, open mouths, start talking inside and outside of your heads.

Is the line noisy?

The line is noisy.

Go down, talk as you walk, score your targets, make noise, visit with your neighbors, cover up that mess and stroll back talking all the way. Enjoy!

Bullseye done well is mindless entertainment.

Silence on the line!

When Zins Speaks, ...

2008-04-22T15:44:00.005-07:00

Brian Zins has won the US national bullseye (Conventional Pistol) competition at Camp Perry Ohio more times than most of us have shot Xs in a single target. Understandably, when Brian speaks, bullseye shooters listen.

Not long ago, Brian wrote to the bullseye-l mailing list about his grip. He said,

From: Zins GySgt Brian H [mailto:brian.zins@usmc.mil] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 12:19 PM 
To: bullsey...@lists.lava.net 
Subject: [Bullseye-L] RE High and right 

Jack, 
        All shots that not on call are in some form or fashion anticipation. 
I would have to say that your problem is probably stemming from a grip 
issue. I will try to explain this the best that I can without actually 
having a visual for you to follow. 
Look at your hand 
The crease between the fatty portion below your thumb and pinky finger just 
above your wrist. 
The backstrap of the grip needs to go right between those fatty areas in 
that crease. 
Our hands are actually designed perfectly for shooting. As long as we use 
the shape of our hand to our advantage. If you put the mainspring housing of 
the gun on the either of the fatty parts, the gun will move in recoil. With 
a .45 anyhow, not so much with a .22. 
This will also help the gun align to your eye better without having to move 
your wrist to obtain sight alignment. 

Brian

Well, my 45 scores were dismal, repeatedly so. I had little to lose so I decided to try Brian's grip.

After a little futzing around with the 1911 in my hand, I found something that seemed like what Brian was describing. Being a methodical (my wife uses a different, and four-letter, word) guy, I wrote down the details:

Form the shooting hand as if you are about to shake hands with someone.
Using the non-shooting hand, grasp the gun by the barrel (never put your hand in front of the muzzle!) and then press the gun into the shooting hand such that it contacts the web between thumb and forefinger first, and as high on the backstrap of the gun as possible.
Still holding the gun with the non-shooting hand, wiggle the shooting hand to feel the "deepest" the bottom part of the backstrap can go in the grip -- the "life-line" across the palm forms a V-shaped valley and the backstrap of the gun should "nest" into the center of that valley. The goal is to place the backstrap in an area where there is a minimum of "meat" between backstrap and bone. Rigidity and the absence (or minimum) of padding are the desired characteristics.
Still pressing the gun in position, wrap the shooting hand around the gun and grasp it with the middle two fingers. In some hands, the middle two fingers grasp the gun very close to the second joint and, again, have a minimum of padding between bone and metal, and the fingers cross the front strap at about a 20 degree angle. The pads at the base of each finger (in the palm) are slightly in contact with the slab-side grip but exert little or no pressure.
As you raise the gun to shoot and move onto the target, move the trigger finger into the trigger area as far as possible. For some, the trigger will be touching that finger just outside of the farthest joint but right next to the joint. As before, the goal is to have as little pad between trigger and bone as possible.

When I do this, it feels very odd especially at first. But the sights line up more naturally than before and, when they don't, I know I didn't screw the gun into my hand correctly and I stop and do it all over. Eventually, the alignment is correct, the feel is right (odd!), and my whole hand feels "clamped" -- Brian's word in other postings -- around the gun.

It ain't goin' nowhere!

Dry-firing, the results are promising but in my inexperienced hand, not perfect.

On one hammer fall, the front sight will bob down. (That would've been a six o'clock 6).

On the next, the front sight jumps right and up. (Two o'clock something -- did I anticipate?)

Then, down and left. (Jerk!)

My hand hurts from the pressure I've been exerting on the slab-sided grip but cannot maintain. That's not what jerked the trigger -- I did that by trying to make the hammer fall when I "willed it" to get the shot over (and release the painful pressure!) -- but the lessened pressure made the front sight jump way down and left, not a 9, an 8 or a 7. No, that one probably was a weak 5 or, worse than that, a "Maggie's Drawers", a miss.

Take the gun out of your hand, I say to myself. Let the blood circulate for a few seconds.

Okay, screw it into your grip and try again.

Click! There -- it didn't move! (Or maybe I just wasn't paying close enough attention?)

Again ... Ah, a small jump that time, not a lot but it was there.

Come on, now, straight back. (I have to arch my trigger finger just a little to make that happen.)

Click. Yes, nothing moved.

By golly, this can work!

But again, my hand is aching.

After a few more dry-fire shots, that's all I can do that day. It's a strain gripping that hard.

"GTSOOI", I wrote on a Post-It and stuck it inside my gun box. "Grip The S%!* Out Of It."

As you may know, I travel a lot and occasionally shoot at different bullseye ranges when a local competition and my business assighments match up. But that's the exception, not the rule. As a result, training and practice for me, much less formal competitions, are catch as catch can.

So it was barely a week after changing my grip that I had my first opportunity to try it on anything other than dry fire and, as ill-luck would have it, it was a formal competition.

And the results were dismal.

In a moment of less than stellar judgement, I shared my frustration with the list.

... I also found that when I didn't do everything right, things got really, really bad in a hurry. the least little jerk seemed to take the round much farther away from "home" and, in more than one case, completely outside the scoring rings!

So now I'm "on the fence".

Should I keep at the new grip which, when it works is very nice, or should I fall back to the old grip which is more forgiving?

I received a couple of mildly encouraging replies and then, to my surprise, a personal reply from Brian himself.

(Can I say we're "buddies" now? Is one personal email sufficient?)

Brian wrote,

I would say stay with the new grip. The key is consistency and the grip may take a little getting used [to] but [in] the long run you will [be] much better off and more consistent. The reason things may seem to be more "out" when you make a mistake is probably because your hand is trying to do what it has done for so long and the combination of the two do not work. Give it time it will work for you.

All right, I thought. How long?

I decided to give myself three months, April, May and all of June.

Toward the end of April, I had shot a few times with the new grip technique, dry-fired a lot (50% of the days?), and more recently had noticed my hand feeling a bit less strained in the evenings.

I was quite sure that, accuracy aside, I was gaining a lot of grip strength. And one of the constants I had seen in other Bullseye shooters was that Master and High Master ratings often seem to go with upper-body strength.

Brian Zins is one tough-looking Marine. Woe be to he who doubts a Marine's strength.

John Zurek swings hammer, pushes a saw and hauls lumber as a carpenter five days a week and sometimes on weekends building his own place.

Steve Reiter grew up on a farm. He's no mouse-pusher.

They are all High Masters and they all have very good arm and shoulder strength.

Top bullseye shooters may be alike in other ways but, of this, I am convinced. If you want to shoot the 45 well, you need better than average, and possibly much better than average upper body strength.

In this day when mouse and keyboard dominate the skills used by many for 8+ hours a day, the 45 needs more, a lot more.

And I've also discovered that the Zins grip is utterly, maybe even "wildly", intolerant of fat-fisted, limp-wristed, bendy-elbowed shooters.

Steel demands steel.

Power demands power.

If you want to shoot a powerful steel gun, you have to back it up with power and steel. If you don't, the gun will run right over you and the shot will go the hell where it wants to go. You show the least little weakness and it's gonna get ya.

But if you show strength and resilience, it'll do exactly what you want.

Rule the gun!

When I GTSOOI, focus on the front sight, pressure the trigger straight back and get a (nearly) surprise break, it's going in the X ring or damn close to it.

And when the shot goes anywhere else -- and when it goes bad, it sometimes goes really bad -- I blew one of the basics:

Crush the oil out of the grips and make my arm rigid, hand, wrist and elbow;
Pour all my attention into the front sight for alignment and forget the wobble no matter how interesting it might be;
Add straight-back pressure to drive the trigger directly into the top of my nose; and
... bang!

When it works, it is magnificent!

And when it fails, oh brother, is it bad!

Sometimes I know which one of the basics I messed up. But other times the shot is almost completely off the target and I won't have a clue what I did wrong.

Imagine a target with 4 Xs, 3 tens, a 9, an 8 and a top right-hand corner of the target, way way way outside the 5 ring.

"Hey," I want to shout, "who's shooting on my target?"

But I know better. I am. It's me.

I'm coming up to the end of the first month of my three month trial. The good news is it's working. I can see the improvement, I can feel it working, and I have seen enough really good shots to know that I can shoot a "tenex" (10 Xs in one 10 round target) with this grip. It will happen. I will shoot it, and it will unquestionably be with this grip.

I shot the center-fire and 45 stages of a 2700 this weekend. I told the other shooters I skipped the 22 portion because my grandaughter was competing in the state finals in soccer which was true. (They won in triple overtime!) But it is also true that I am completely focused right now on the 45. I don't want any scores going to the NRA from any other gun.

I want my Outdoor Expert rating to be based on that gun, the hard gun, the real gun.

And its coming, its coming.

Patience and perfect practice. Dry-fire, dry-fire and dry-fire.

I'm writing this flying to Huntsville Alabama and my 1911 is in checked baggage, cleaned and lubed after the competition, it is ready for dry-fire every evening at the Comfort Inn.

GTSOOI, front sight, straight-back, ... click.

ADDENDUM:

Today, Bruce Martindale summed up grip pressure very nicely. He wrote:

... my personal concept on grip pressure is that group size, as a function of grip pressure, is a U shaped curve and maybe it has a third axis for trigger sear weight.

Too loose grip gives bigger groups (trigger motion and recoil induced). Too tight also gives bigger groups (lack of trigger control). You can not grip tight and retain fine motor control of your finger. So what to do? "Just Right" tension that gives you trigger AND recoil control).

How much is that? Well you have to figure that out by training with "too much" and "too little" then "just right". Call it the "3 bears" exercise.

Thanks, Bruce, that's perfect!

Oh yeah, my wife knows me, all right. (See reference to "wife" herein.)

Watchin' the Front Sight

2008-04-06T08:07:00.003-07:00

It's working.

Six weeks ago I removed the red dots from all my guns because, with the dot, I found the urge to snatch a shot as the dot approached the "X" to be irresistable. Invariably, I would jerk the shot elsewhere on the target. No amount of self-talk was able to sway me into an ignore-the-target smooth trigger pull.

So I removed the dot and starting shooting iron sights. And ever since then, I've been shooting -- not as often as I'd like because of work and travel -- no worse and sometimes better than before.

Shooting iron sights not only renders the bull a fuzzy, indistinct ball, it also focuses attention on the hand and what's happening there.

And for my purposes, that's exactly what I want. I want my attention back here at the end of my hand where all the important stuff happens. That's where the work is going on, that's where I am re-training, that's where the fix has to happen.

And in spite of appearances, the "X" is not out there on the target. Instead, the "X" might as well be right here at the end of my hand because that's where I do or don't shoot it. When the gun goes bang and the bullet leaves the end of the barrel, it's all over. Later, the bullet will get to the target but where it lands is predetermined. When the hammer fell -- and that happened back here in my hand -- I either shot an "X" or I didn't.

Target, schmarget. It doesn't matter.

Got your guitar handy? All together now, "He's got the whole world, in His hands..."

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

The simple fact is that when I'm shooting iron sights, it's easier to keep my attention focused on what I'm doing and ignore how the target wobbles around. My hand is shooting the shot, not the target. Forget the target.

"Talk to the hand, because the ear's not listening."

Yup, that's right.

"Talk to the hand," because that's what needs fixin'.

"Hear that, hand? It's your job. Hold the gun tight but keep that index finger loose. Bring it straight back -- you can feel a little arch in the finger as it comes back -- push it straight back into my nose, feel it pressing up near the bridge of the nose, right where the boney skull ends and the cartiladge of the nose begins. Here, let me tap that spot so you can feel exactly where you need to be pushing toward. There, feel it? Now, come straight back toward there."

Tapping the bridge of my nose before a shot looks pretty weird, you're absolutely right. But, let's walk down to the targets and see what they say.

(Good job, hand!)

No More Dots!

2008-02-21T09:47:00.008-07:00

It's gonna be the hard way, now: Iron sights and nothing but.

For weeks now I've had the growing suspicion that I'm snatching my shots when using a red dot. I will raise the gun, settle into position, think I'm starting the trigger and focus on the dot.

If that was really happening, I wouldn't complain, but it's not.

Instead, I'm convinced that I'm putting a little pressure on the trigger, initially focusing on the dot, but then I'm monitoring where the dot is sitting on the target and I've somehow trained myself to know when that dot is headed for a good position on the target and to then pull-off the shot at the right moment.

Sometimes, this works. In Timed Fire, for example, I have enough time for each shot that the recovery from the previous shot gets me back into right area and I can see when the dot will cross the X ring.

Bang!

But in Slow and especially in Rapid Fire, the results are dismal. A large proportion of those shots are jerked, down and left. Yeah, there are some good ones too, my "jerk" is sometimes timed well and close enough to straight back that I hit the center of the target, but there are other targets where everything just plain goes to hell in a handbasket. Every shot will land low and left. Boy, is that embarassing!

I want to say, "Please, don't anyone look at that target! And please, don't score it. Just give me a zero. Here, let me cover it up. Please!"

It's hard to say what exactly is trained to this, the conscious or the subconscious mind but, regardless, something in me knows, sends the order, and the trigger finger yanks way, way, way too fast.

On the other hand with iron sights, I simply cannot see the target as anything other than a foggy blob. I can show you about where my hold is in the sub-six area -- about one ring below the bottom of the black -- but when I'm holding, I really don't know when I'm there or a bit high, left, right or low.

With the dot, I know. But with iron sights, I don't.

With the dot, I yank the trigger. But with iron sights, the only choice is to either yank it at random [duh, why now?], or to simply build pressure and keep the sights in alignment until it goes bang.

I got my proof of the problem last Sunday. It came as I shot the 45 portion of the Desert Midwinter competition partly with a red dot and partly without. (See http://www.desertmidwinter.com/.) [I had been travelling on business the week before and that was the only portion of the competition that fit my "Gee, honey, I'm going to be out of town on Valentine's Day" in-the-doghouse schedule.]

Here are my scores:

Slow Fire #1:	89-1x
Slow Fire #2:	84-2x
NMC, Slow Fire:	82-2x
NMC, Timed Fire:	97-5x
NMC, Rapid Fire:	92-2x
Timed Fire #1:	85-1x
Timed Fire #2:	77-0x
Rapid Fire #1:	85-1x
Rapid Fire #2:	92-1x
Aggregate:	783-15x

The aggregate score is 87% [783/900] of the maximum and roughly in the middle of the Sharpshooter range of scores, my current outdoor classification.

You can see a very clear decline in scores over the three Slow Fire targets. I started well (89-1x) but then bad habits crept in (84-2x) and got worse (82-2x). Suddenly, the first Timed Fire looks great (97-5x) but the decline comes back in Rapid Fire and the first Timed Fire thereafter.

Then, something happened in the second target of the Timed Fire match. That 77-0x signals the sudden change and, thereafter, things got better, not worse.

Specifically, at the end of the first string on that target, the red dot on my wad gun had separated into front and rear components, both still in the mounting rings. The body of the dot was attached to the front tube but there was a quarter-inch gap between it and the rear tube. One of the rings was apparently a little bit less than tight and the impact of firing had literally pulled the scope apart. (It goes back to Larry's Guns today for repair.)

When it happened, I signalled a disabled gun and was allowed to switch to my backup, my ball gun with iron sights. But in the stress of broken gun and the line waiting on me, I forgot to put on the lense that lets me focus on the front sight. Without it, my eye will not focus on the front sight. So my sight picture was blurry and in that second string on that target, I dropped 10-20 points in what might have been my best target of the match. (See the TF target just above, and also the TF target higher up in the NMC for comparison. Timed Fire is MY target!)

But from there on with lense in place, I shot as well or better with the ball gun (shooting the wad ammo) than I had with the wad gun.

Pondering that, wondering why I had shot as well with iron sights as with the dot, was when I realized what I was doing different.

With iron sights, I have no choice except to pressure the trigger until the gun fires. My eye simply cannot bring the target into focus through that added lense and there's no way to know when to shoot or when to wait. Instead, once I'm in position the only thing I can do is keep the sights in alignment, add more and more pressure to the trigger, and wait for the gun to fire.

I confirmed the negative effects of the dot last night shooting the last two NMCs for Inland Empire with my 22. Although my scores were consistent and just about where they usually are with that gun at 275-5x and 275-7x out of 300 (91%), and in-line with my (indoor Expert) classification, I clearly noticed the relationship between when the shot was going and my semi-conscious expectation that the dot was about to move through the center of the bull.

That's bad, really bad for Bullseye. I can fix all sorts of other things but as long as I keep yanking the trigger, I'm just not gonna go very far in Bullseye.

Trigger control is really tough for me. No amount of self-talk has succeeded in a smooth accumulation of pressure when I can see, when I can predict, when the shot needs to go so it will land in the middle of the target.

I need to re-train my finger while keeping my brain out of the act.

Iron sights and the lense I use to focus on the front sight -- which blurs the target into a fuzzy ball -- are the perfect combination: If the brain can't see where the sights are on the target, it can't know when to fire.

So, for the next several weeks and months (years?), I'm off the dot. It's gonna be nothing but iron sights for a while.

I'll shoot matches with iron sights.

I'll dry fire with iron sights.

So, I took the dot off my 22 this morning revealing the patridge iron sights still usable thereon.

And the wad gun is gonna sit in the safe for a while. I'll shoot the ball gun with its patridge sights and use the wad ammo in it which seems to be both reliable and accurate "as is".

Patridge, whoever you are, I'm with you and your sights from here on!

Teach me.

"Level and smooooth," Coach Pat would croon.

I'm with you, Coach. Forget the friggin' target. The only thing that matters is what happens up here on the shooting line and no farther away than the end of my arm.

From here on its ...

Level and smooooth...

... and to hell with the target!

Practice: Moving the Trigger Straight Back

2008-01-26T08:24:00.000-07:00

Don't have an unloaded handgun to practice with? No problem. Here's how to practice moving the trigger finger straight back. You can do this standing or sitting, any time day or night. All it needs is your attention and a credit card.

Hold your arm, wrist and fingers the same as when you are holding the handgun.
Hold a credit card vertically in your hand between the point on your trigger finger where you place the trigger and the web between thumb and finger where the back of the gun normally sits. Only the trigger finger and the web should touch the credit card.
Check the alignment: You should be seeing the credit card "edge on". Eye, "front sight" and "rear sight", the vertical edges of the credit card, should all be lined up.
Focus on the near edge of the credit card and then slowly pressure the trigger finger straight back.
The credit card should stay perfectly aligned with the eye.

Do you also have a GripMaster exerciser?

Hold it upside down and low in the hand with the middle two gripping fingers on what are now the "top" two finger spring pads. Note that, as when holding a handgun, the middle joint of the gripping fingers, not the finger tips, will hold the GripMaster.
Then, add the credit card between trigger-finger-position and web similar to before.
Compress the springs of the gripmaster with the middle two fingers and, thereby, grip the "gun" (GripMaster).
Focus on the credit card as before and pressure the trigger finger straight back. You should continue to see the credit card "edge on" at all times.

Alternatively:

Hold the GripMaster normally.
Fully compress the middle two springs with the middle two fingers.
Practice pressing the trigger finger spring slowly but fully.
Note that the middle two springs must be fully compressed throughout this exercise. If they aren't, when the trigger finger spring is pressed, it will change the tension on the middle two springs and everything will move as you pull the trigger. Instead, you want everything to remain locked and still as you move the trigger. This is called "trigger finger independence".

FYI: If you are shooting 45 ACP 1911 or other large caliber handgun, you will probably want the "heavy" (9 lb. spring) model GripMaster (http://www.gripmaster.net). (Their webpage lists this model as appropriate for those needing to do "weapon retention".)

Negligent (Accidental) Discharge

2008-01-26T08:06:00.000-07:00

No, it wasn't me, thank the Lord, the NRA, most of the Bulleye shooters I know, and pure dumb luck when at a public range with ignorant novices and testosterone-pumped young studs all around.
Warning:

The linked web blog (below) is graphic.

There's blood, pictures of the wound, descriptions of the pain, etc..

And the guy is not out of the woods yet: Just because he survived the gun shot doesn't mean he's going to survive the wound.

The link: http://dishhead.home.insightbb.com/leg.html

Jeff Cooper's Four Rules:

All guns are *always* loaded.
Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.
Be sure of your target.

Someone Is Watching You!

2008-01-03T14:54:00.000-07:00

Inspiration is a great motivator.

I've shot Bullseye at a lot of clubs around the US and, in every case, there were better shooters than myself on the line. I've been whipped, and I've been whipped a lot.

For beginners, Bullseye can be a humbling experience. But if you swallow your pride and pay attention, it's a great way to improve your game.

And it may be surprising to find out that you learn not only by watching them, but rather by pulling yourself up because they are there and will be looking.

Pressure is a good thing. Accept it, forget it, and then shoot.

For example, when I'm standing between two great Bullseye shooters, I know that one of them is going to be scoring my target. When in that situation, you can bet your bottom dollar I will try my very best. I will focus every bit of knowledge, training and practice on shooting that shot. And when that shot is gone, I'll do my best to forget it and start working on the next shot.

Oh, it's also true that, from time to time I let my head get to me. I might think a negative thought such as, "What's he going to think when he sees how bad I am?" And I doubt if you'll be surprised to learn that when I start thinking that way, my shooting gets bad, then worse, then absolutely awful. Negative thoughts mess me up faster than bad ammo. With bad ammo I might get the occasional lucky shot where two errors offset each other and the hole ends up in the X ring. It happens. Sometimes you get lucky.

But when your head goes, when you start talking down to yourself, the shots are gonna get wider and wilder. If you can't get your mind under control, it's hopeless.

Bullseye is a head game: To shoot right, you've got to think right.

And Bullseye is a control game: If you don't control your thoughts, they'll mess you up.

I recently had the awesome privilege of shooting with only two shooters on the line, me and another shooter at an indoor range and he was one of, if not the very best Bullseye shooter in the world.

We fired two NMCs for the NRA Indoor postal, 22 and CF. He stood right next to me and fired a 599, one point short of perfection.

When the shooting was done and targets collected, we swapped. He scored my targets and I scored his and, yes, I really looked hard at that nine, hoping there was some way it would turn out to be a ten. But no, it was a nine. No question about it.

When I handed him the targets I said, "Sorry, but I have to score this target with one shot in the nine ring." He looked and agreed. No hard feelings. It was a nine.

On my way home from the range, though, I realized I was looking at this wrong. It wasn't important that he'd fired a nine. What he had accomplished instead was fifty-nine tens and Xs. Out of 60 shots fired in a half hour, he'd put 59 of them in the ten or the X ring. 59 tens!

Holy Cow!!

And you know what else? He puts his pants on the same way I do.

He's got brown hair and so do I.

He stands at the firing line and pours everything he has into each shot. I've done that, albeit with less consistency, but I know I can do it too.

And he's also a really nice guy, married, likes a good joke, sometimes shoots with a couple of day's growth on his face. I do all of that, too.

Role models are good.

Remember: somebody will be looking.

Focus, do your best, punch a hole in the X.

The Attraction of Bullseye

2008-01-02T15:22:00.000-07:00

Seven-eighths of the way through the first day of work after the Christmas and New Years holidays and it suddenly hit me why we like Bullseye.

It's quite simple: it's because it's simple.

To shoot an X, get good quality equipment and ammunition, stand in a stable position, line up the sights, forget the wobble, focus your attention on the front sight while maintaining the alignment and all the while moving the trigger straight back, and "Bang!", you'll shoot an X.

Now I know that sounds like a lot and, trust me, saying is a lot easier than doing but, nonetheless, if you do what it says in the previous paragraph, you'll shoot an X. And if you can do it again and again, you'll shoot X after X. It really is that simple!

But when I look at "real life", things are not so simple. Shooting an X in your day to day life is a whole lot more difficult.

First of all, there are an enormous number of rules to follow. I got a bunch from my Mom and Dad (which sometimes conflict), of course, and my wife has her own set, too. The state of Arizona has its rules some of which are dramatically different as of the first of the year (so don't be drinking and driving here, to mention just one change). Then there are the US laws to know and follow not to mention those I read or hear about on Sundays.

The boss seems to have his own ideas, too. Not always knowing what he has in mind, it gets a little confusing sometimes. ("Faith" is a useful concept in many places, not just church.)

And we all know that the customer is always right, don't we? Don't we??

Second, the rules in real life keep changing.

Everybody is up to date on all the US income tax changes for the year just ended, right?

New state and federal laws?

But thank goodness I've got a good strong moral foundation. That never changes, right? (Well, I vote Republican or Libertarian now but, yes, there was a time when I thought the Democrats really knew what they were doing. Oh but don't get me started.) Suffice it to say that, yeah, my ideas of right and wrong have been tested by the winds of time and there are a few bent reeds from all that.

Oh, life would be so much easier if we just had a rulebook, wouldn't it?

And I guess that's why I like Bullseye. There *is* a rulebook, and there *is* an easy to remember way of shooting absolute perfection.

A little memorizing, a little practice -- well, maybe a *lot* of practice -- and, voila, X after X after X.

Bullseye really is simple. Just do what it says and, "Bang!", there's your X.

So here I am now with a half-hour to go in the workday. I'm hunkered down in my hole in the ground and, you can bet your bottom dollar that after what's been flying back and forth already today, I'm not stickin' *my* head out. Nope, no way. I'm staying down here in my hole and I ain't comin' out no matter what.

Instead, I'm dreaming of something simple.

I'm mentally lining up the sights, keeping my attention focused on the front sight and moving that trigger straight back.

Bang!

An X!

Yeah, I could spend a lot more time shootin' Xs, a *lot* more time.

Why can't life be this simple?

Bang!

Another X!

Oh yeah. A fella' could get used to this.

I *like* simple.

Your Bullseye Gun as an Investment

2007-11-22T10:10:00.000-07:00

I've heard it said that the value of firearms increase over time, especially if they are cared for. But I also know that, over time, inflation causes prices to increase and things for which I paid a little years ago are now much more expensive. So I wondered, are my guns really holding their value?

A posting at the Smith and Wesson forum displayed a model 41 and its purchase receipt from 1958. The new gun cost $110.00 (before sales tax). See http://smith-wessonforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/520103904/m/6351058262.

Consulting the "Inflation Calculator" at the US Department of Labor (http://stats.bls.gov/), that's the same as $795.26 in 2007 dollars.

You'll almost certainly pay more than that for a new model 41 now and, even with a normal amount of wear and tear, my 41 has probably increased in value since I bought it new a couple of years ago. I am, therefore, confident I could sell it for more than I paid.

And while it is true that my 41 may not be accruing the best annual return when compared to other investments, it is also true that my 401(k) won't hold the X ring at 25 yards but my 41 will.

Shooting Strange Guns

2007-05-25T15:38:00.000-07:00

I travel for a living. My job often sends me out on a Monday and home again on Friday but sometimes there's a Sunday "out" or a Saturday "back" day. As such, it's difficult for me to shoot the Tuesday evening Nighthawks here in Phoenix. Worse, I often miss the once-a-month 2700s on Sundays when an outbound leg starts with a mid-afternoon flight.

So, I try to find weeknight leagues in which to shoot at my destination. In so doing, I shoot at a lot of different ranges, experience the occasional "unique to this range" rules, and most enjoyably, I get to meet a lot of really nice people.

On occasion, however, I travel to places that aren't particularly "gun friendly." That is, the local laws either prohibit or otherwise discourage me from bringing my own guns. And some airlines are even more un-friendly in this regard.

But even when gun-less on my travels, I still like go to local events. The people are still friendly and it's still a sport I enjoy even if I don't shoot. I look at the guns and talk with the owners, watch how the shooter's shoot (and note the consequent results) and enjoy my "night out" from work.

And as you might imagine, shooters offer their backup guns (and ammo!) to let me shoot on an almost unfailing basis. I'm more than a little embarassed to count up how often I've shot someone else's gun and ammo only to leave them a dirty gun and empty brass. (I do try to sneak a couple of bucks to the owner to make up for what I've consumed but, having cleaned my own 1911s many times, I know there's nothing I can do to compensate them for their time. I am truly grateful.)

But it does give me a chance to shoot a lot of different guns and, over that experience, I've started to form some opinions about how to adapt to different grips and triggers and, much to my surprise, I find that what's important aren't competition versus slab grips, dots versus iron sights or flat versus arched mainspring housing. But before I tell you "the secret", let me tell you the routine I've developed for shooting a strange gun in Bullseye competition.

First, with a borrowed gun, one of my cardinal rules is to leave the gun with the same adjustments as when I started. If I need six clicks up, I'm always careful to crank six clicks down before returning the gun. And the same for the dot size: I've started shooting with a big orange dot but I try to note what the owner prefers and put it back that way when I'm done.

But for a competition grip, that pretty much means I can't move the palm shelf up or down. There are no marks and it would be difficult to get it back to the original position. This means that "grip" is often less than ideal. Indeed, there is almost always some awkwardness and, in many cases, it's just downright close to painful. I've shot some competition grips where my (big) hand could only be jammed in as far as my knuckles while leaving most of my hand hanging out the back. Other times, holding the grips felt like hanging on to a 3" diameter piece of pipe with no contact above or below my hand. (If I can't hang on to the gun safely, I don't shoot. This has only come up once.)

Ideal finger placement on the trigger is often impossible. Indeed, sometimes even a "reasonable placement" can be beyond my ability to control. If I can't get my hand into the grip, odds are I'm just barely going to be able to reach the trigger with the tip of the finger. Or if the grip is like that of a broom handle, my finger will be all the way through the trigger guard and in danger of going well beyond the first knuckle.

All of that is noticed and dealt with before ever raising the gun to see how the sights line up with my eye. And in most cases, the gun is pointed off at some scarey angle or, at a minimum, at a target three or four positions away from mine. So I have to stop, try and adjust how and where the gun fits in my hand, and in some cases, horror of horror, I even have to bend my wrist to make eye, rear sight and front sight all line up.

Once that's accomplished (and I shuffle my feet so I'm then lined up on my target), it's time to learn the trigger.

"Learn the trigger." Now there's an understatement!

I have been utterly astonished at the variety of triggers I've experienced. Some guns have a lot of take-up, some have virtually none. Some have a long springy feel followed by a larger amount of resistance, others have virtually none. Some slide smooth as glass from there until the shot breaks, some feel like I'm pushing a red brick across a slab of concrete (fortunately there aren't too many of those), and some have virtually no movement whatsoever before the break. There are the "gee, was that even two pounds?" triggers, the "is the safety still on or something?" triggers, and the "ooh, that was nice!" triggers.

I carry half a dozen 22LR dummy rounds so I can dry fire the target guns of that caliber since you aren't supposed to dry fire many of them. And with the center fire guns, I always ask the owner, "May I dry fire it?"

But during a weeknight league, everyone isn't standing around waiting on me to learn the gun. Instead, I get a quick "here's how this gun operates" lesson from the owner and then it's time for the first Slow Fire target. I will use up several of that first target's ten minutes working out these details.

One of the hardest things to figure out during this time is how to move the trigger straight back. With different guns, my trigger finger lands on the trigger in different ways. Sometimes it is flat and at a right angle but, when the grip fits me poorly, sometimes all I can manage is a finger tip at a steep angle. Consequently, each gun requires a different way of moving the trigger finger in order to get that straight back direction.

Heavy triggers with big fat grips are particularly challenging because it's hard to get the trigger finger "around there" and flat on the trigger. Instead, if all that can be managed is a finger tip at an angle, mustering enough strength to pressure it straight back can require an inordinate amount of effort. And that has to be done over and over throughout the evening.

At the Sunnyvale (California) Gun Club on a recent Wednesday evening, I had the privilege of shooting a Hammerli 280 with iron sights (thanks, Liz) and then a Masaki 1911 set up for wad ammo with a red dot (thank you, Norman).

For those who don't know, the very, very, very best handguns are referred to not by their manufacturers but, rather, by the name of the gunsmith who worked on them. Well, Ed Masaki had brought this particular 1911 to utter perfection. His work is legend in the sport. Shooters wait years -- I'm not exaggerating -- for one of his guns.

The slide on this 1911 was bank vault tight and moved just as smoothly. Shooting the wad loads, the action was so silky I hardly noticed the recoil. If it hadn't been for the loud bang when the round fired, I would have removed my hearing protection just to hear the gun cycle.

Both the Hammerli and the Masaki shot magnificently that evening. I shot a (respectable for me) 531-7 out of 600 with the Hammerli. That's 88.5% with iron sights, well into my current SharpShooter ranking. I was happy with that.

Ah, but the Masaki was another story, I'm afraid. Perhaps I was over-confident. Perhaps I rushed through the preparations. Clearly, I didn't dry-fire enough to figure out that straight back motion because it seemed that after every shot, the gun would turn to me slightly and say, "You pushed me left on that shot." We (me and the gun) would hunker down for another shot but, again, the gun would sneer, "Nope, you flipped me a little bit left again."

And just as I was tempted to crank in 2-3" right on the sight, everything would feel perfect and we would shoot an X.

"There," the gun would seem to say, "you did me just right. See what we can do?"

But sadly, the repeatable fine control needed to shoot straight at 50 or even at 25 yards with that gun was beyond me that night. I knew it could be done, could do it every now and then, but doing it over and over again was more than I could manage that night.

So, what have I learned from all this, you might ask? Is it better to stick with one gun and learn to shoot it accurately before starting over with another gun? Or is there profit to be had in shooting many different guns and "dealing with" the issues and learning to shoot in spite of them?

What I've found is that in both approaches, the lessons to be learned are the same. Regardless of whether you want to shoot one gun or many guns, regardless of whether you prefer red dots or irons, slab or competition grips, roll or crisp or light or heavy triggers, the one (1) thing to be learned is the same.

The one (1) thing to be learned is to align the sights and move the trigger straight back.

Everything thing else can be adjusted, compensated, ignored, held funny, squished awkwardly, accompanied with long slow "effort noises" or whatever else might be needed.

Just align the sights and move the trigger straight back, that's all.

Everything else is minor. Everything else can be imperfect. Everything else is irrelevent.

Align the sights and move the trigger straight back.

Don't think, just do it.

That's it. Straight back now...

BANG!

There, see? You can do it!

Align the sights and move the trigger straight back.

Good.

Now, let's try it again.

(Thanks, coach!)

Consolidation

2007-05-07T07:47:00.000-07:00

The Learning Process takes place in a couple of radically different phases.

The first comes when we have some experience that ignites the quest for learning. When the interest is deep, that flame may flicker over time but it doesn't go out. Instead it may come and go like the phases of the moon.

For Bulleye, the spark that started me down this path happened a couple of years ago when a friend at work took me shooting. That spark manifested itself in a cowboy six shooter firing 357 magnum rounds. Boy, was that a bad choice for the beginner -- I was terrible and that huge explosion made it all the worse. Nonetheless, one of my best memories is a shot fired from that gun with my adult son behind me and the huge blast of incadescent gas. I heard him exclaim, "Woah!" and it had been a long time since Dad had impressed his Son like that. It brought back some forgotten father/son memories. And I cherished the moment for that.

The second phase of learning is when we actively take in new knowledge. This may come from books, from watching others, from advice read on the Bullseye-L list or from innumerable other sources. Studying takes place.

You name it and I've probably got it on my book shelf, or probably it's on loan to someone (and probably not coming back). Elmer Keith is there, so are Jerry Kuhnhausen and Robert A. Rinker. The Pistol Marksmanship Guide from the USAMU gets a re-read from time to time as does The Pistol Shooter's Treasury from Gil Hebard. And there are a dozen other books from shooters in related disciplines who all have something instructive to add. I've got the Bullseye DVD from the CMP and the more recent dry-fire practice DVD from Tillman Eddy. They're all good. They all have something to teach.

Training falls into this same phase. Whether you train with a coach who watches, suggests and corrects, or whether you train by watching yourself and, comparing your performance to others or what you've read, training is learning.

Every source of information, whether a book or an instructor, has a different way of teaching. I suppose there may be those who can read one book or take one session from a coach and then go and do it perfectly but that's not me. With all the distractions in my life including family and work, house and friends, taxes and television, Bullseye has been a long climb.

For me, I need those different ways of saying many of the same things, reading, watching and coaching, so I can get it.

Call me dense. Ok, I'm dense.

Call me stubborn. Ok, I'm stubborn.

But you can also call me persistent, dogged and determined.

Because I've always known that just getting it isn't enough. In Bullseye, you've also got to do it. And as I'm sure you all know, knowing and doing are two very different things.

Bullseye isn't a written test where you get a written score. Bullseye is about doing, about performing when it matters.

Moving from knowing to doing is where most of us spend a lot of time and ammo. And that transition involves an intermediate phase, the third in the learning process. This third phase has two activities, practice and consolidation. Practice what you've learned and consolidate it with what you are already doing.

Sometimes the consolidation is easy. The new skill just fits right in. Other times, a new skill wrecks what used to work and you have to go back and reassemble the picture with new answers.

Well, for the past several months, my progress shooting Bullseye has been difficult to see from the score card. Indeed, it looks like I've slid backward; my scores with the 1911s (both wad and ball, red dot and irons) have declined or only made, at best, no more than nominal improvement. And my 22 scores have not progressed to any substantial degree.

To the outsider and perhaps to those who stood at the line at yesterday's practice 2700 in Phoenix, my performance now is perplexing. It certainly was to me. My scores were down and some of what I used to do fairly well didn't happen. I was disappointed as my scores plummeted from CF to 45 even though I was shooting the same gun and, to no small degree, I was perplexed at my performance.

But, with a night's sleep to put things in perspective, I think I'm right about something I've been suspecting about my shooting. That is, for several weeks I've started to feel that I don't really understand "trigger control". I can tell you the definition but, to borrow a word from science fiction author Robert Heinlein, I don't "Grok" trigger control.

Suddenly, I know what it is that I don't know: I don't know how to control the trigger.

I have consolidated a lot of lessons and that's good.

All of the things I've been reading, trying, practicing, rejecting and trying something else before ultimately accepting what works for me, and then occasionally discovering that what worked at one level of ability becomes counter-productive later and that I've got to sometimes go back to the basics and re-learn old teaching for new lessons, ... all of that has been consolidated into a bundle I will now call "the basics."

I know how to stand. I know my NPA. I know how to grip all my guns, and each of my guns. I know where my trigger finger needs to be on each of their triggers and where I need to feel the pressure.

All of that knowledge is consolidated. When I go to the line and get ready to shoot, it all just happens. I know what to do.

And with all of those basics nicely packaged and in place, I now discover that I really don't know how to shoot.

Intellectually, I know how the muscles in my hand need to feel to move the trigger straight back, but I don't know. The "I" in this is the whole creature that is me: brain, bones, muscles, fibers, nerves and fluids. The brain knows but the rest of the creature doesn't.

The bottom line is that "I" don't know how to move that trigger straight back without disturbing the sights.

I can hit the "X" but when I do it, it's not through trigger control. It's luck, it's snatching the trigger at the right time and in the right way, but only rarely is it moving the trigger straight back without disturbing the sights.

I need to learn that.

And Bullseye isn't about doing it just once.

I've raised the gun, done everything right and shot an "X" on the very first shot of several matches. But to do that again, and again, and again for 269 more shots (or 299 if there's a leg match) is quite something else.

Some will say that the most important lessons to learn in Bullseye are sight alignment and trigger control. Having the basics somewhat in place, I am beginning to understand not only how vital those two are, but also just how difficult they are to master.

Knowing and doing are two different things. But I would add that doing and doing on demand are, again, two different things.

In this period of consolidation for the past several months, I've begun to suspect that "mastering" the basics is a good, valuable and essential first step, but no more than that. It's a good start.

What remains is to master sight alignment and trigger control, and to not do it just once or twice per target or match but truly master them and do them again, and again, and again, round after round, target after target, match after match.

My admiration of shooters in the High Master category has skyrocketed in the past few months. I now have a very small inkling of understanding of what they do and it is truly awesome.

Now when I watch someone who hits that 10 ring over and over -- Steve Reiter cleaned two slow fire targets yesterday -- I am at a loss for words.

I'm not being trite when I say, "Nice shot!" Instead, I am dumbfounded.

I know that everyone single one of those shots truly was a "Nice shot!"

The tasks before me are to consolidate the learned skills but then to focus on the front sight and move the trigger straight back.

Trigger control.

It's time for me to learn some trigger control.

So simple.

So hard.

2007 New Year's Resolution

2007-01-01T12:39:00.000-07:00

I've made some good progress this year.

In last year's 2006 New Year's Resolution I said that "it will be nice to climb out of the Marksman ranks this year" and, effective 05/23/2006, I formally started competing in the Sharpshooter classification as per the NRA.
My 22 scores are up about 5 points over the year, from the upper 80s to the low-to-middle 90s range, from Sharpshooter to comfortably in the Expert range.
Shooting of the wad gun (CF and 45) is improved almost 5%, from just barely Sharpshooter to the high side of that classification.
My aggregate scores in 2700s are up a full 10%, partly owing to the oddities of statistical averaging and partly to the scarcity of 2700s as opposed to our weekly league.
And most significant, my efforts on the ball gun are paying off: scores are up a full 10% (from 65-75% to 75-85%).

For the coming year, I plan to continue my primary focus on the ball gun because last year's intention of "choosing to earn the new classification primarily on that more difficult gun" (the wad gun at that time, now the ball gun) has shown that focused and regimented practice with the hardest gun helps in all my shooting.

Last year my resolution for 2006 was, "For each shot this year, I will release it cleanly with all the basics in concert together." And over the year, that has been my overarching consideration albeit not something I was always able to accomplish. But that focus on the execution of each shot rather than accomplishing any numerical or categorical goal, has been very helpful -- I owe most of this year's progress to the execution of each single shot I've made this year. The progress I've made has quite literally been accomplished one shot at a time.

Of late, I've begun to see what those who are far more accomplished in this sport have been saying about the "mind game" in Bullseye, and I'm more and more inclined to agree: Bullseye is 10% physical and 90% mental. Mental preparation, visualizing the process and the desired result, and then learning to "let it happen" look like the road to follow.

An Expert classification is possible this year but, as with the past year's advancement to Sharpshooter, I want to earn any new classification on my worst gun.

But I know I have neither mastered nor even got the better part of "trigger control" working as yet. There are many shots where it works, but there are also far too many where it doesn't. "Trigger control" is a bear, no doubt about it. And the more I learn, the more I appreciate just how subtle, precise and fragile it is.

So, my resolution for 2007 is "focused" on just that, trigger control. And since that action is something the unconscious must do, my resolution for the new year is:

Get ready, focus my conscious attention (and eye) on the front sight or red dot, but then allow my unconscious mind to move the trigger straight back until the shot breaks.

My unconscious mind will need training to accomplish this. So, the conscious mind will have to do a little coaching. There will be lots of dry fire and shooting on blank targets as well as timed drills when "we" can't just wait for the unconscious to get around to it: sometimes the trigger just has to be kept moving, smoothly and straight back, but my unconscious doesn't know how to do that. I'll have to teach it.

So, for the next year, the operative words will be

training, and
patience, and
perseverance, and
practice,
and practice,
and practice.

And it will come.

See you on the line!

Feel the Wiggle

2006-10-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

For what it may be worth, I learned something unexpected in dry-fire. Whether or not I need to keep that lesson or if it was just a stepping stone along the way, I don't know.

Regardless, here it is.

In dry-fire, I noticed there is a small amount of lateral play in the triggers on my 1911s. And in trying 1911s that belong to others, I also noticed it in theirs as well. I presume it is present in all 1911s, to greater or lesser degree it is true, but it seems to always be there.

I'm only talking a fraction of a millimeter but to the sensitive finger-tip, it's very definately there. I can feel it.

Part of my trigger preparation now is to "feel" for that left-to-right movement and to position the trigger in the middle of it.

What I think is happening is that, inside the gun's frame, the harp of the trigger is "floating" -- it is not touching the frame or magazine on either side. Instead, the trigger is, if you will, "standing" on the sear. There is no other contact inside the frame.

The release I subsequently get is far more likely to be straighter back than if I just feel for where the trigger and finger come into contact. Don't misunderstand. I still have to get trigger and finger in the exact same contact but I then also do the lateral wobble to feel the movement and finally place the trigger right in the middle of that space. The trigger feels like it is balanced on a point deep inside the gun.

I mentioned this to John Zurek but he looked at me like I was nuts. (Well, maybe I am.) John might have said something like, "You're gettin' way too analytical, Ed."

Well, there is certainly some truth to that. It is an occupational hazard, and my wife would certainly say it annoys her to no end sometimes.

Yeah, I'm an analytical kind of guy. Guilty as charged.

But whether it is too analytical or not, I don't care because, frankly, it works!

I am suddenly (well, not so suddenly -- it's been a looong time coming) getting some really nice releases and a much improved "score" on calling those shots. The holes in the target are right where I saw them, dead on and my Slow Fire is up 10+ points.

Unfortunately, Timed and Rapid Fire, especially Rapid, start good but then I fall into old habits. The first shot or two are straight back and hit the target very nicely, but then the rhythm-monster takes over inside my head and my whole body spasms to yank the shots off "in tempo". I'm also a musician and, boy, can I keep a steady beat. But in Rapid Fire, I don't consistently follow through, don't get the sights back on the target, but the "beat" is there and the gun fires precisely on the beat, forget the target thank you very much.

And most noticeably, there's always this same circular motion that starts as the gun comes down out of recoil and enters the black. At that point, something takes over and the gun takes off to the right, moves out of the black, neatly circles down and completely around the black, and the shot goes when the aim point reaches jerk land sometimes with an extra jerk in there just to show me who's really in control here.

"Oh no, it's the jerk," I could almost scream.

The monster is in control and, oh yeah, the holes are gonna be down and left.

"Ragged Fire" is going to take time.

But getting that trigger under control in Slow Fire, in finding a mantra that enables me to move that trigger straight back, well, it's a major revelation!

Is this something good shooters have to think of? Almost certainly not. Most shooters, I'm just about convinced, learn by watching and doing. As infants, we learn how to learn by observation. Let a child see a step-stool in use and they'll soon be climbing the furniture and onto the counter. Most things in life we learn by watching and most of the things I've learned about shooting, I've learned by watching others.

Is this something good shooters have to do but aren't necessarily aware that they're doing it? Again, the answer is probably no. What is essential seems to be moving the trigger straight back. If you can do that with the harp pressed up against the inside of the frame, that's fine. What matters is the hole in the target.

But is this something I needed to discover so I could find a way (not necessarily the only way) of getting a clean release?

To that, my answer is an emphatic, "Yes!"

It was the step that moved me through a tough road block.

For the next several weeks (and years?) I'll be in the process of cementing that lesson into place in head and body. Repetition is the way that's done. I'll write it up for my Shot Plan and tape it into my gun box. I'll read it often and mentally say the steps to myself many, many times.

"Okay, raise the gun so the sights are just above the bull.
"Find the dot. See the dot. Focus on the dot.
"Now, place the finger carefully on the trigger right there on the pad of my finger, and right there on the trigger.
"Put on a slight pressure so you feel the contact with the trigger more on the lower part of the finger rather than the upper.
"Next, gently move the trigger left and right. Do you feel the free space? Move it again if you don't. You've got to find it. [Put the gun down and start over if you can't find the free space.]
"Okay, position the trigger right in the middle of the space and add a tiny bit of pressure to keep it there.
"Come down into the bull and into the aim point.
"Let the wobble happen -- it will diminish and when it does, my unconscious mind will move the trigger straight back through that free space and the shot will go straight to the target.
"Okay, stay on the dot, ... the dot ... the dot ... ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... Bang!"

With repetition, that straight back movement will eventually dominate what's happening in Timed and Rapid Fire. It will come.

Ultimately, the evil "jerk" will be banished.

His days are numbered.

Hooray!

Deactivating Primers?

2006-10-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

After loading several hundred rounds of ammunition not too long ago, I then discovered that two primers had been seated sideways and one upside down. I removed the bullets and recovered the powder but decided to discard the shells with their damaged primers.

But since the primers were still live, I wondered what should I do to deactivate them?

I was a bit surprised when several individuals I consulted basically said it can't be done: you can't deactivate primers.

"Surely this cannot be," I thought. "What do Winchester, CCI and Federal do if they mess up a batch? Surely they have a way to render the material harmless?"

Doubting Thomas that I am, I decided to do some research.

Web searches turned up authoritative and lay answers in three categories: oil, water and "it can't be done."

Both RCBS and Dillon who manufacture ammunition reloading equipment state, in their instruction and/or on-line help files, that damaged primers should be soaked in oil or, similarly, that contact with oil will deactivate primers.

For example, Dillon says (at http://www.dillonhelp.com/rl550benglish/safety.htm), "If a primer should become lodged in a primer magazine or pick-up tube, deactivate the primers that are in the tube. Do this by filling the tube with oil, WD-40 or CRC lubricating solution."

And RCBS, in describing how to lubricate one of their presses warns (at http://www.rcbs.com/downloads/instructions/ TurretPressInstructions.pdf), "Care should be taken not to apply oil where it could come in contact with primer pockets or primers. Oil will deactivate primers."

One lay shooter reported (at http://www.handloads.com/forum/showthread.asp?topic=2&thread=2491) that, after a short soak in various oil-based substances (incl. Hoppes #9 and WD-40), his primers would all still go "Bang!"

At a different web site (http://www.predatormastersforum.com/ killprimers.shtml), methodical experiments were conducted. The experimenter found that, even when soaked in water or oil, some brands of primers will re-activate once they've dried out.

"Ok," I said to myself, "let's go straight to the horse's mouth. Let's ask Winchester, CCI and Federal, all of whom make primers."

I visited their websites, found the place to submit a question and asked each one the same question, "How can I safely deactivate primers?"

Federal responded:

> RE: Ammo Inquiry from Federal Web Site
> Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 16:20:39 -0500
> From: "Prodserv" 
> To: "Ed Skinner" 
>
> Soak them in penetrating oil.

Winchester, after a couple of phone calls, responded by telephone:

"Soak them in oil for a couple of days."

And Linda at CCI responded by email:

> I suggest taking them to your local HAZMAT folks for
> disposal. The regulations for 'proper' disposal may
> vary, depending on where you live.

Good idea!

I Googled-up the state of Arizona web pages and, therein, found the government department in charge of hazardous material regulations. In two minutes I had them on the phone.

"Uhm, that's not on our list. Try the Police Department."

The Police connected me to the bomb squad -- am I now on their "Watch" list? -- who, after considerable discussion amongst themselves (several of whom were reloaders) said if the quantity was small, I should soak them in water and then put them in the trash. I could swear there were heads nodding in the background as they added, by the time the primers dry-out and re-activate, they should be safely buried at the city dump.

I relayed this somewhat surprising answer back to Linda at CCI. She responded, "They are correct that the primers will be active again once they dry out and I am a bit surprised they will eventually be buried at the dump but I am sure they know what is best."

After all this, I conclude that the only effective way to make a primer inert is to fire it.

In all cases, of course, you should wear suitable eye and ear protection.

Then, if the primer is intact and already in an otherwise empty shell, fire it (in a safe direction).

If it is loose, one person said they hit them with a hammer (one at a time). But note that one primer is comparable to an M-80 firecracker which can do considerable damage: one primer is decidedly more powerful than hitting toy gun caps one at a time, or even a whole role of caps all at once. Fun maybe but safe?

I also found a report that primers can also be "cooked off" on a hot plate with a cover or as another person reported, in a pressure cooker with a loose lid on the kitchen stove. [Oh yeah, my wife would like that, all right.]

Burning them in a fire where they go "Bang" and scatter live sparks is another questionable but occasionally reported approach to "deactivating" primers.

Regardless, the bottom line is that primers can't be deactivated. One way or another, you gotta make them go "Bang!"

Anything short of that and they are still dangerous, now or in the future.

Bad Guns Lie!

2006-09-30T20:04:00.000-07:00

I tested my two 1911s, the ball gun and the wadder, on a Ransom Rest today. My primary goal was to confirm or deny my suspicions of one, and to have the other as a reference to give credibiliity to the overall results.

Shooting a variety of ammunition in the ball gun at 50 yards (with a cleaning and then fouling shots in each new brand), here is the ammo and group sizes (measured outside edge to outside edge and then subtracting the caliber), from best (or perhaps I should say "least bad") to worst:

6.0" group Federal Gold Medal Match, 185 gr SWC FMJ
6.5" group, Aguila, 230 gr RN FMJ
7.5" group, Federal Gold Metal Match, 230 gr RN FMJ
16.0" group, Intrac Arms, 230 gr RN FMJ +P

Also on that same gun, I fired some lead-headed handloads:

6.5" group, my wad ammo (3.8 gr. Clays, 200 gr. LSWCs)
11.0" group, my pseudo-hardball lead rounds (5.3 gr Universal, 230 gr LRN)

In summary, across all tested ammunition, the best the ball gun did was a 6" group. That's good enough for the 9-ring, but far, far worse than what I saw someone else's ball gun do at 50 yards about 2-3 weeks ago: this other ball gun printed a 2" group, maybe even 1.5" -- pretty much a "single hole" in the target at 50 yards!

Frustration comes when the called shot shows up somewhere else in the target. Although it is true I could probably shoot in the low 90s with my ball gun (assuming I do my part, of course), it's much more important (to me, to my learning) to be able to "know" where the shot went, to be able to accurately call it.

To a developing shooter, *that's* the reason to get good equipment. The beginner needs good equipment not for the scores he/she will get (because they won't), but instead because a "truth telling" gun will let them know when they've done everything right.

The accurate gun doesn't lie.

To confirm my test procedure and use of the machine today, I also tested my wad gun at both 50 yards and 25 yards:

3.25" group at 50 yards (3.8 gr. Clays, 200 gr. LSWCs) [That's all in the 10-ring when I do my part]
2.0" group at 25 yards (same ammo) [And that could be a 100-10X, when I do my part]

It has been said that the Ransom Rest really only confirms good performance. There are so many variables and nuances in procedure that confirmation of a negative is difficult.

But by testing several guns with the same procedure and the same ammunition, enough doubt now exists in my mind to put the ball gun down until it has a good "working over" by an expert gunsmith.

Only I can fix "me" but, at least with good equipment, that is possible. With bad, it won't happen.

Developing shooters need good equipment.

Learning By Seeing

2006-08-27T11:11:00.000-07:00

There are several videos on the net of Bullseye shooting. Since many learn by seeing, these may be very instructive. I'm one of those and so, in watching and analyzing, I've tried to make note of some key points.

I invite you to watch the video below and to read about what I and others noticed as significant. You will, of course, have to decide for yourself what is helpful to you.

http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/, see "USAMU Video of EIC Rapid Fire with M9"

My First Set of Observations

This video contains two, five-round Rapid Fire strings seen through the shooter's eye. This is from an EIC (Excellence In Competition) match and the shooter is using "Iron sights" which makes his score all the more impressive!

1) The shooter is using "center hold" (sights are centered on the bull both up and down as well as left and right) -- many prefer "6 o'clock" or "sub 6" but, obviously, "center hold" works fine for this shooter.
2) Watch carefully and you will barely notice that the sights are in the dead center for only a tiny fraction of a second before the shot goes -- the "coming into the right place" and the "release" are so close together that it seems (to me, at least) there can be no conscious thought of "now" -- the release must be 100% subconscious in what we see here.
3) Recoil is up and left, but not much. The grip, wrist and elbow must all be extremely tight. Notice in particular that the wrist never "breaks". I've let first timers fire my 1911 (with one round in the magazine for the first time) and have been astonished at the flexibility of the human "limp" wrist. This shooter's wrist, however, is like a solid piece of oak. (A firm wrist is, I'm now convinced, important to many aspects of the shot including its release, not just recoil recovery.)
4) The hand/arm is tilted slightly left -- the sights aren't perfectly horizontal. I've noticed my arm wants to do that too and I've been fighting it but, after watching this, apparently that's no big deal.
5) The time between coming into dead center and the shot being released decreases over the five shots in the first string. In the first three shots in that string I can see a very brief pause "in the zone", but for the last two shots, I don't see the motion stop. Instead, apparently the subconscious just sees the sights coming into the right place and it (the subconscious) releases the shot as the sights move into the aiming area.
6) The size of the shooter's wobble is immense at first. I think of these large sudden motions as "lurches". They always surprise, and annoy, me but after one or two, they usually calm down. (When they don't, I put the gun down and start over.) In the video, the wobble sort of zeroes-in on the aim point, not all at once but with smaller and smaller motions as it closes in.
7) After the gun recoils up and left (for this right-handed shooter), in the recovery that immediately follows, the alignment crosses down and right below the bull and then comes up and left back to the center. I've been coming "down" to my sub-6 aim point but, as I cross the black, the sudden appearance of the white always startles me a little. Perhaps if I were to come "up" to my aiming point as this shooter does, I'd be able to find it sooner and without the surprise I currently experience.
8) Many shooters will say that timing your shot to coincide with moving through the center of the bull is a bad idea in that it leads to jerking the trigger. But in this video, this is exactly what is happening: the shot is released with movement into the aim point particularly on the last two shots where there is little or no pause before the shot goes. The key word left out of my explanation is that the shot release is *subconscious* whereas beginning shooters try to conciously release the shot, and that's where the jerk enters. In this video, it seems clear that the shot release has to be subconscious because of the precision of both when the release occurs and also its smoothness. Because the release is subconscious, the (conscious) brain can't jerk the trigger.
9) After the shot, sight alignment (front to rear sights) is achieved well before complete alignment on the target. This shooter lines up the sights before coming into the aiming area as you'll see. This agrees with recommendations I've heard about getting your arm, wrist and hand muscles to "remember" where they need to go to get the sights back into proper alignment. The front and rear sight alignment is achieved (I think) through this shooter's muscle memory, not by eyesight. That is, the firm grip automatically brings the sights back into alignment after the shot.
10) Check the back of the shooter's hand, close to his thumb. You'll notice a small discolored patch on his skin. That's apparently where the slide "bit" the web of his hand. That's why some like to have beaver-tail safeties installed. (Lucky for me, it's not a problem.)

Followup Comments From Others at Bullseye-L (http://www.lava.net/~perrone/bullseye/)

Doug Huber observed:
One more thing I noticed is that just prior to the second string of fire the shooter is not aligned properly. You can see that he shifts his feet by the way camera moves. You may have to watch the video a couple of times to see it.
Greg Schindler added some comments:
1) I stopped using a 6 o'clock hold after some discussion with some very experienced shooters from the "Big Team" (USMC). It was causing me to not trust my wobble area and try to snatch the shot when it looked perfect at EXACTLY 6 o'clock. By moving to center mass, if the sights are anywhere in the black, I'm good to go.
2, 5, 6 & 9) Your sub-conscious WANTS to shoot a perfect shot, if we will just let it. I think that as we get into a string, particularly Rapid Fire, our focus tends to increase, and we "trust" ourselves. That is if we are having a good string. Not so when you get the "First shot won't break" string. I have always heard from the better shooters to get moving on the trigger BEFORE you have completely recovered, this also helps explain the shortness between shots. I'm still working on this one myself.
3) My mental image is of my arm as a long howitzer barrel, from shoulder to palm, nothing moves.
4) I know a retired USMC shooter who shot at an almost 45 degree cant. He shot like the blazes, but his windage adjustments were a thing of black magic and alchemy!
Ed Hall began his follow ups with:
... the complete uninterrupted trigger operation is started before coming back into the aiming area. It is completed in the aiming area, without a stop along the way. "Keep the trigger moving."
[Ed Hall has many, many excellent postings on related subjects. Please see his links at http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/.]
At one point, Ed Stevens asked:
The recoil to the left is a natural result of the barrel twist, is that correct? (Just curious.)
Chuck Holt answered:
"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." The recoil to the left is mostly a product of "following the path of least resistance." A right-handed shooter has their hand, arm shoulder, and everything else holding the gun on the right side of the gun. It has no where to go but to the left. Watch a lefty shoot sometime.
And Dave Salyer confirmed:
It is due to him being right handed. Recoil goes to the weakest direction of support.
Ed Masaki also confirmed this (in his usual all-caps):
BARREL TWIST HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE RECOILING TWIST LEFT OR RIGHT. A RIGHT-HANDED SHOOTER HAS A TWIST TO THE LEFT AND A LEFT-HANDED SHOOTER WILL HAVE A RECOIL TO THE RIGHT. A 2 HANDED SHOOTER WILL HAVE THE GUN JUMPING STRAIGHT UP. [The] GUN WILL TWIST TOWARD THE WEAK OPENING. A CANNON WILL JUMP UP AND TO THE REAR. WHY DIDN'T IT FALL ON ITS SIDE?

I've spent the last several practice sessions with the turning targets programmed for a three (3) second face time following by twenty (20) seconds of edge. During the short face time, I release only one shot. But my releases were initially very, very quick, and jerked so I've been working to slow down the release, to concentrate much harder on the sights and only when they are in alignment, tell my body, "Okay, you can release the shot anytime now." Eventually, that conscious thought will have to go but, for the moment, I need to slow down my finger until the eye and brain get their act together lining up the sights and the aim point.

In other words, I'm temporarily using my brain to teach itself to "get on the sights" (lined up) and then to "allow the subconscious" to the "release the shot" but all of that commotion is temporary. Eventually, once everyone (!) knows what they are supposed to do, the conscious brain will have to get out of the way (Shut up!) and let the unconscious do everything.

My Second Set of Observations

I took a closer look in single-frame mode. (Note: Mpeg video presents 30 pictures per second and it's fun to see the hole appear in the target about 2 frames, 1/15 sec, after the "bang". With this 1/30th second sequence of pictures, you can get a pretty good idea of what's happening in recoil.)

11) Recoil in the frame immediately after the "bang" is consistently straight up and only very slightly left: and there is no apparent rotation around the axis of the barrel. This mostly up motion is due to the fact that the barrel is above the shooter's grip and the slightly left tilt is from the hold that is canted slightly to the left. (IMHO)
12) It is, however, interesting to note that in each case, the muzzle of the gun has moved to the left and out of alignment with the rear sight. That could be the effect of the rifling. It looks like a simple push to the left. It does not appear to be a rotating motion. The muzzle has moved left about half the width of the notch in the rear sight in this second frame. [Looking at the video later in single frames again, I'm not as convinced of the "push to the left" -- instead, I think the movement may simply be a product of the tilted hold and the gun moving "up" from that initially tilted position. Ed S.]
13) In the third frame after the "bang", the gun is moving strongly to the left (and still up) but, let me repeat, strongly to the left. The direction is dramatically different from that seen in the previous frame. And in successive frames, the motion continues this "more left than up" motion. IMHO, pure recoil due to the gun is seen in the second frame. It is an upward movement. No rotation is visible.
14) IMHO, the change in direction (of recoil) in the third and subsequent frames has to be because of the shooter's body.
15) Conversely, some of the videos from this year's Camp Perry competition show left-handed shooters and, in those, the recoil is up and right. I think this supports the opinion that the sideways motion in recoil is due to the shooter's body and "handedness". The slight muzzle-push seen in the frame-by-frame analysis is very small, about half the width of the notch in the rear sight. [And, as commented above, I later began to doubt if this was due to rifling but might be due instead to the gun's original tilt. Ed S.]
16) Possibly also of some note is the fact that, depending on when the video "snapped" each frame versus when the gun went "bang", the gun rotates upward as much as what appears to be 45 degrees (in the shooter's hand) even though the hand does not rotate hardly at all. Viewed at full speed, you may be able to see the top surface of the gun "flash" at the peak of this rotation -- the top surface is quite bright as it rotates up and then back down on each shot. [Later, after looking at the Camp Perry videos again, I *don't* see this same gun flip in any of them and, frankly, I'm not sure what to make of what I see in the EIC video in this regard. It suggests a lighter grip is in use and the gun's recoil is, therefore, more pronounced even though the grip is sufficient to return it to position in the very next frame. Some have said the 9 mm has a sharper recoil than the 45 so maybe that is a factor in the increased gun flip. Regardless, there's a mystery here.]
17) I'm now interested to watch shooters using a 90 degree stance. I'd like to see how their guns move in recoil. I'm expecting to see much less side motion as I'm thinking it is the 45 degree body stance and body-rotation / reaction to the backward push up the arm and off-center into the trunk that causes it.

FYI: The program I used to do the frame-by-frame analysis is Avidemux and it is free -- see http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux for the download, etc.

Camp Perry and Other Videos

Clark Hardesty has produced a number of Bullseye-related videos. Some are "meet the person" videos while others were made at the firing line. All are very well done and worth watching.

Clark's videos and his associated blog are available at http://clark2245.blogspot.com/.

If you learn by watching, all of these have something to teach.

Good shooting!

Bang! Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

2006-06-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

I've been concentrating on the 45 hardball gun for several weeks (seems like months) and other than two 900s per month on the 22 and 45 wad gun, I've been shooting almost nothing else. I probably shoot 4X as much hardball as anything else right now, all on the theory that shooting the more difficult gun will teach me more and, in turn, help the other guns.

I think this is basically true, but there seem to be at least two limiting or otherwise extenuating factors, both of which have become prominent, and real problems.

By way of explaining, let me say that at last night's league 900, my shooting was dismal with the hardball gun. I only succeeded in calling maybe one shot in ten. All the rest went somewhere wildly different than I thought. Or when I thought I'd heeled a shot up a little, it would hit the very top of the target "way up there" instead of just a little up that I thought I had done. My score for the 900 was a depressing 626-3 (70% but only because it rounds up that way).

I knew last night what was wrong: I have no trigger control with that gun. Instead, when the iron sights waggle into the right place on the target, I'm snatching the shot and, of course, yanking it all over the paper. Timed Fire is the only place I can establish any semblance of smoothness and that's only by ignoring where the gun is aimed and just focusing on a smooth trigger finger movement. But I can't even do that consistently so even in Timed Fire more than half my shots go down and left into jerk-land.

Dry fire will, I'm sure, fix this but, well, dry firing is just not much fun. There's no flash, no kick, no bang and no smoke. You tell me where's the fun in that?

So, that's the first issue, trigger control. The good part of that is it's a core issue: everyone struggles with it, occasionally even the High Masters. To be specific, I find it enormously reassuring when I'm standing at the line shooting slow fire and I hear one of the High Masters next to me release a shot and immediately mumble, "Damn!" (I love my amplified ear protectors!) I've heard Steve Reiter, several (three?) time Perry (US) champion, curse that he "jerked an eight" (I should be so good!). And I've heard John Zurek, US Olympic shooting team member, say almost the same thing.

Trigger control is the big one in this sport. Everything else is foundation and it all has to be there, but if you can't release a shot cleanly, the rest of it just doesn't matter.

The second issue, at least for me, goes by a couple of names including ego and confidence. Basically, when I get frustrated amd things aren't going well, I can sometimes pull myself together and recover, but there are also those times when it just goes completely to pot. Last night was one of the latter because things just got worse and worse as the evening went on.

One of the very accomplished shooters last night commented his progress was like a badly cut saw: overall his scores are getting better and better, but only if you look at them over the span of several *months*. Looking at individual match scores, he said it is hard to see the progress, and sometimes very discouraging if you limit your vision to just one or two matches. You have to take the long view not only of what this sport is going to take, but also of each individual's progress. For most of us, it is a long, slow and uneven road.

In a related vein, I've noticed that when new shooters come to the league, the others are encouraging and helpful to a degree but the really focused and patient help, the coaching that really matters, doesn't come out for a while. Some might say they are waiting while the newcomer "pays his dues" but I think it's something else. I think the experienced shooters intuitively know this sport is going to take time and present an awful lot of frustrations. I think they are unconsciously waiting to see if the newcomer has the determination to stick with it. The experienced Bullseye shooters know these lessons take a long time to learn, especially the one called "trigger control" and if someone is going to give up after as little as just a couple of years of trying then, hell, why bother showing them something that's going to take a decade and more to master?

But speaking only for myself, my ego took a real beating last night and, frankly, it needs some TLC. So I am going to put away the hardball gun for a while. I need some successes. I'm going to shoot some 22 for a couple of weeks to boost my ego, and thereby my confidence. With the 22, I will again see that I can shoot, and that I can shoot pretty darn well, sometimes in the low Expert range. Hell, I even cleaned a target with that gun in an authorized competition. I need some time with that gun to rebuild my confidence, to boost my ego, and maybe to get a little angry at myself so that, when I do pick up the hardball gun again, I'll have the determination to push through some more of that oh-so-valuable but oh-so-painful "learning experience."

For me, it's time for some fun and plain old self-gratification. I'm gonna forget the seriousness for a little bit and just enjoy making a big bang, a bright flash and a lot of smoke.

And, come to think of it, not worrying about where the gun is aimed (other than "in a safe direction") will give me the perfect opportunity to practice just moving the trigger smoothly and not worrying about where it's going to hit the target.

As Coach Pat would sometimes say, "Shoot, make noise, have fun!"

I love this sport almost as much as I love the people who shoot. (Ah, don't get wierd guys. "Love" is a relative word, okay?) Having the opportunity to stand next to and try to do the same thing as world class athletes is incredible, and when we're walking back and forth to the targets and they say something like, "You know, I noticed you're doing something when you shoot -- let me show you a different way of doing that -- it might be helpful" -- well, what are the odds of a poor duffer getting a personal tip from Tiger Woods who just watched you muff the tee shot? But in Bullseye, it happens, and not just once a lifetime.

Bang!

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

Oh yeah!