Pistol Shooting

Pistol Shooting: The Art

by Edwin C. Hall

This series was originally written for and appeared in The Marksman, the monthly newsletter of the Twelfth Precinct Pistol Club, Inc., located in Harwood, Maryland.

Índice Comfort, Consistency And Establishing Hold .................................................................3 Studying The Trigger......................................................................................................5 Notes, Averages And The Bigger Picture .......................................................................7 Some Work With "Dummy" Rounds, Plus A Bit On Competition ....................................9 Moving Things to The Subconscious............................................................................11 Forming Good Habits That Work At Home And Away..................................................13 More Trigger Work .......................................................................................................15 Trigger Again And Being Positive With Your Target.....................................................17 The Value Of Routines .................................................................................................19 What To Do Away From The Range ............................................................................21 Use of Red Dot Sights..................................................................................................23 A Detailed Study of Cant Effects ..................................................................................25

2

Comfort, Consistency And Establishing Hold by Edwin C. Hall This series was originally written for and appeared in The Marksman, the monthly newsletter of the Twelfth Precinct Pistol Club, Inc., located in Harwood, Maryland.

This will be an experiment to see if enough interest is generated to make this into a series. Please provide feedback (negative or positive) to help me tailor this to an interesting text. First, let's discuss the old saying, "The masters know the secrets. They just won't tell us." If you listen close you will find that they are telling us the secrets. We're just not listening with the same background. As we travel along our paths, we pick up little bits from here and there. We add those little bits together at our own pace and suddenly, "Oh! That's what they meant!" The really interesting part is that a short time later we see it again, in yet a different light. Each is correct. Each is the answer. But each is perceived differently. The same thing happens when we try to help another new shooter. We try as hard as we can to explain something, but can see that it isn't understood the same way we meant it. The trouble with printed media, is that there is no visible immediate feedback, as there is with a conversation. Whether this series is useful or totally off-track let me know. OK, I'll get on with it. It's been said that shooting is 95% mental by some, 97% by others, etc. Let's just say that it is all connected to a mental aspect in one way or another. You must learn (mental process) the physical aspects as you grasp the fundamentals just as you will learn the attitudinal effects. I hope over the next many months to touch on a large variety of those "fundamentals" and a few "advanced" areas as well, all in a mental vein. Fundamentals are great to revisit all along the way. As mentioned earlier, we view the same item differently, the further we go. Sometimes we'll pick up a little extra from that discarded "beginner's" information. Even when we explain that concept to another, we are listening for content. After all, we don't want to tell them the wrong thing. So we evaluate as we explain, and it takes on a new meaning even for us. If we take the fundamentals as explained in so many areas by so many teachers, we have grip, stance, natural aim, mental pictures, etc., etc., etc. I propose two words to keep in mind through all of this: comfort and consistency. If you want to have fun and do well, do it in comfort so you can obtain consistency. I hope to hit on some finer points, but these are the overall items of importance. Bring everything back to these two ideas, and you will progress at a rapid cadence. Remember earlier when I mentioned the mental part? In order for any idea to work, you must at least accept that it might work, even if that acceptance is displayed as a little doubt in the belief that it won't work. If you fully know that something won't work, you're right. Put that energy into accepting that it might, and it might. Better yet; if you know it will work, it will. If this seems a little too "deep" good. Let's talk comfort. The more comfortable you are with something, the more you'll be able to repeat it. Hmmm, sounds like consistency. OK, let's swap over to consistency then. In order to have a projectile travel through the same hole in the same fashion, it must be propelled in the same manner. Technically, that would mean to have the exact same pressures in the exact

3

same place on the machinery which caused the projectile's propulsion, and the pressure exerted by the expanding gases, the friction caused by the barrel and even to some minute degree, the way the air was encountered, and on to an infinite set of other factors. Having all those factors identical would be supreme consistency. Fortunately, the target makers have provided us with a little larger area to work with. We don't have to shoot them in the same hole in pistol competition, so we can let those infinitesimal areas alone for now. We'll visit them later when we're trying to give our scorekeeper a difficult time figuring out all those multiple hits that had to have travelled through that one hole in the X ring. Have I mentioned how to stand yet, or how to hold the gun? I have too. Sorry, I thought you got it; Comfortably. Oh! You mean in reference to the target. Forget the target! It just messes us up. Go somewhere with a blank wall (take your gun), preferably of a light color. No, not a light color gun, a light color wall. Stand comfortably. There's that word again. Grip the pistol. Close your eyes. Now lift the pistol up to a comfortable place even with your line of sight. Do not move the pistol. Open your eyes. Look at the front sight or dot without moving your wrist in any way. Is the rear sight in line with the front, or is the dot in the center of the scope? If not, can you correct it by moving your head slightly or your entire arm at the shoulder only? If this cannot comfortably be done, I suggest changing your grip slightly and trying again. The optimum to work for, is the ability to bring the pistol up with your eyes closed and then open them to find the perfect sight alignment. Notice that sight alignment does not include a target. Notice also that the sight picture is not static. That jiggle is part of the proper picture. So is that slow swaying. They will decrease as you practice your hold. OK, enough for now. I rambled for awhile and then gave some thoughts on comfort and consistency. Then I finished with some ideas for establishing the optimum hold with the best sight picture. I have to go shoot in the league now. Hope to see you there. I'll try to have more in the following newsletters if there is interest. Have fun.

4

Studying The Trigger by Edwin C. Hall This series was originally written for and appeared in The Marksman, the monthly newsletter of the Twelfth Precinct Pistol Club, Inc., located in Harwood, Maryland.

Well, it looks like they printed another one. Yes, I'm back again with more ramblings. Well let's see, last time I was promoting comfort and consistency. Have you worked on those areas? I think I left you specifically staring at a blank wall as well, yes? No, no, no, you were supposed to be looking at the sights. That's why you were in front of the blank wall. Did you work on your hold against the wall? Have you got it down so that you can close your eyes and lift the pistol up to eye level? When you open your eyes are the sights lined up or is the dot exactly in the middle? If so, good. We're still going to work with an empty gun. I haven't turned you loose with any ammo yet. Now comes the most critical part of shooting. Read close; this is one of those secrets that you will understand in many new ways as time progresses. Remember that jiggle mentioned last time, when you have the sights aligned? That jiggle, the sway, and the alignment of the sights are now of prime importance. The task at hand, a great task indeed, is to bring the trigger straight to the rear without disturbing that jiggle and sway, and without moving the sights out of alignment. This includes keeping the dot in the exact center of the scope. Let's take the trigger action totally apart. What actually happens when the trigger is manipulated? In some fashion, either a sear is moved so that a hammer can fall and strike a firing pin or the pin is released to travel forward, or some such event. In any case there is a time delay between the trigger releasing and the bullet exiting the barrel. Yes, it is a short delay, but a delay anyway. Anything that happens to the gun during that period will still have an affect on the bullet's path. If the trigger pressure is not straight back, it will affect the pressures on the gun causing a misalignment. If you are trying hard to keep the sights aligned, you will probably compensate for the sights moving out of alignment by using your wrist. You are now pressing one way with the trigger, and the other with your wrist. They are equal, opposite and balanced. However, when the trigger releases, there is an instant where its pressure decreases drastically until it reaches the stop. During this time, your wrist wins the pressure battle. This is where the pistol moves off course. This can very easily be hidden during live fire by the recoil. Then again I haven't suggested any live fire yet, have I? No, I'm still talking blank wall, empty gun and dry fire. This is where the bulk of your training should be. Not even a target, just a blank wall. So how do you ensure the trigger action is straight back? There are lots of things to look for, but you must be able to recognize them. Again, the best place is in front of your blank wall. Start by practicing that perfect hold you've obtained. Can you hold your sights aligned while you close and open your eyes? If not, you need to work on this. Once you can, the next step is to close your eyes and apply a slight pressure to the trigger. While holding your pressure, open your eyes and see if everything is still aligned. Now release the pressure while watching and see if there is movement. If anything was out of alignment, try this again being very conscious of your effort to bring the trigger straight back. If several attempts are made without success, try repositioning your trigger finger. Once you have this exercise down, practice dry firing watching the alignment and then try to consciously see the gun from another angle, perhaps with your other eye. Try to detect whether the natural movement is disturbed as the hammer

5

falls. Try it with increasingly rapid trigger pulls. Continue practicing until you can literally perform it with your eyes closed. Remember that trigger manipulation is the most important aspect of pistol shooting. If your hold is a little shaky it will give you wide groups. If your sights are misaligned you will have wide hits. If your trigger is misused it can take you off the backer. The trigger can be considered 95% of the importance. Good trigger control will give you 95% of your score. All those other parts of the sport will give you the other 5%. Well, let's see, I still promoted using a blank wall with no target. I also highlighted finding a way to manipulate the trigger so that the hammer can fall without disturbing all that natural movement. Then I mentioned how important the trigger is. That should leave you with enough to work on till next time. So long for now. I'm heading back out to the league.

6

Notes, Averages And The Bigger Picture by Edwin C. Hall This series was originally written for and appeared in The Marksman, the monthly newsletter of the Twelfth Precinct Pistol Club, Inc., located in Harwood, Maryland. Will you look at this? The editor printed another one of my works. I hope that means you're finding them useful, or at least entertaining. Let's recap a little. Why? Because I want to and I'm writing this. I mentioned a few things like attitude and varying understanding in the first part. I also brought up comfort, consistency and working with the sight picture. Then in part 2 I got real detailed about the trigger and working to keep a good active sight picture. Remember all that? I didn't. I had to look back to see what I had written. Anyway, these are a few things that I try to work on regularly. Which brings me to the first point for this month's edition. All through my shooting years, about 11 for pistol, I rediscovered many details that I shouldn't have had to. Every single time, I said to myself, "I should have written that down." When you find a particular grip for a certain gun that works, write down the details about it. When you find that bringing your focus to the rear sight first and then back to the front works better, write it down. When you find out there are 5 clicks of difference between 50 and 25 yards, write it down. Better yet in this instance; mark your adjustment legibly for 50 and 25. When you discover that raising your arm is better than adjusting your wrist, to bring the front sight up or the dot from the bottom of the scope, write it down. I could go on and on, but I'll tell a brief story instead. When I was in Germany, I shot my Ruger .22 quite a bit and did OK. Then one day I took my S&W .22 out to the range and found it shot even better. So I took it to the next match and did terrible with it. I immediately put it away and went back to my Ruger. For two weeks, including an important match, I couldn't hit anything until I discovered that I had been trying the grip I had used with the S&W. As soon as I regripped in the "old" way, I was back in the center, but it was still too late for that year of competition. If I had written down the particulars of how I held it, my finger placement, etc. I think I could have swapped back with much better results. Well let's move on because I know everybody's already taking lots of notes. I'm going to bounce to some areas this time that you may find a little different from other articles. I like to hit on the purely mental side quite a bit. If you're disappointed, sorry, I'll get back to hands on next time. I know you've heard at least some of this from the "masters" all ready, but if I can say it in a way that makes sense and helps, then I'm glad you saw it again here. This first item has to do with those flyers in among those good strings. For many of us, we start out flinging lead down at that huge piece of cardboard with gigantic circles on it and get really frustrated when very few touch the black, let alone the X. Then after we get a little better, we start getting mad because we had 8 good hits in the black, but 2 were out in the 6. Then there are those other guys who are so upset because they shot a 98. During your shooting "career" your scores will vary, sometimes greatly, from match to match. It is much more important to step back away from the individual matches and look at the overall trends. Here's why: Let's say your average for Timed Fire is 80. (For those who are not there yet, please put your average into this.) That average got to be 80 by shooting a lot of targets below as well as above. When you shot those targets above 80, you knew that you had figured

7

out what to do right. When you shot the ones below 80 you tended to doubt your ability and searched for the reasons you "couldn't shoot." What most likely happened here was just odds and averages. Sometimes you will have good strings and sometimes bad, but they average out. If you can ride through a downswing, without getting emotionally involved in it, you will most likely find that you end up near your average in the long run. What happens more frequently is that we get mad, try to drastically change things to "see if that might work," or just keep trying to figure out what's wrong. Sometimes there is something wrong, but if you spend your time searching for it, you're wasting effort you could be putting into figuring out what you do when it's right. Let's pick at this in even more detail. You just shot three beautiful 9s. Then one went into the six. Why? Don't try to figure it out! Never try to figure out flyers! Try to figure out how you got those others to make it into the 9. Ask yourself, "How can I shoot an X?" and see what happens. Then see how your target measures up against your average. Better yet, look at the bigger picture. Check on your overall average, but remember, to keep your average, you will shoot below as well as above it. Let's digress a moment to those flyers. You should never try to figure them out, bad or good. Mentally throw them away. They have no interest for you. What is of interest is any grouping. If you have a group in the 8 and 9 ring at 7:00 and a perfect X that you tried real hard to get, that X was probably a flyer. Even if it wasn't, that group is still much more important. If you have a group, you're demonstrating consistency. Throw the flyers away! It looks like I'm about out of space for this month so let me summarize a bit. I started out with the importance of writing down bits of information. Remember that some of that information will contradict earlier entries. That's OK; it shows growth. Next I touched on odds and averages and the need to ride through the downswings. Then I tried to establish the importance of groups to the total exclusion of flyers. I know I mentioned a lot about actual shooting, but I want you back in front of that wall when you're not at the range. OK? See you at the league.

8

Some Work With "Dummy" Rounds, Plus A Bit On Competition by Edwin C. Hall This series was originally written for and appeared in The Marksman, the monthly newsletter of the Twelfth Precinct Pistol Club, Inc., located in Harwood, Maryland. Yes, I'm back again. How many parts, you ask? I'm not really sure. I'll probably keep going until the editor tells me, "Enough already!" You can have an input on that. Let the editor or myself know how you feel about these. OK, in the last article I told you that this time I'd get back to hands on, so... How has the wall been working? Come on, have you really spent enough time in front of it? (Say, "No! One can never spend enough time in front of it!") Good answer. The wall is one of your best teachers, but there are others. I'll introduce one here. I know you've really been wanting to get out to the range and make some noise. Well, here's where I say, "Let's go!" But, wait! I'm going to throw in a wrench. On the way to the range I want you to pick up some "dummy" rounds for whatever gun you plan to practice with. What do you mean, "What's a `dummy' round?" OK, OK, you're right, there are some folks who haven't heard that term yet. I'll explain it. A "dummy" round is a cartridge without primer or powder. It has the casing with a bullet in it only. They are used for training. THEY ARE FOR USE AT THE RANGE ONLY! I say this because they look like real rounds, which means real rounds will look like those "dummies." If you play with them at home and mix them up, you are going to shoot something and give our sport yet another bad review. OK, back to the rounds. You can make some yourself if you reload by not adding the primer and powder. Just push a bullet into the case and it's ready. Once you have some "dummy" rounds, and of course some live ones, head for the range. Put up a blank piece of paper. That's right! A blank piece of paper, such as the back of a target. Now, take two "dummy" rounds and three live rounds, mix them up and without looking, place them in the magazine or cylinder. Now without determining which round is which, load the gun and come up onto the paper just the same as you've been doing with the wall. Bring back the trigger as you did at the wall. One of two things will happen: If you have a live round under the hammer, it will make a hole in the paper; If you have a "dummy" it will not make a hole in the paper. Very important here. Please visualize what I'm going to describe. The purpose of this exercise is to reinforce proper trigger action. When the live round goes off, it will hide the trigger action. When the "dummy" round doesn't go off, it will display the trigger action. When the sights stay aligned, you had good trigger action. This is why we're using a blank piece of paper. Better concentration on the sights. Black spots just confuse the whole issue anyway. Let's work on some mental stuff here. Notice how I worded the last paragraph. I spoke about the sights staying aligned as being good trigger control. This is what's important. By thinking of what we do right and duplicating it, we will improve faster. If the sights do misadjust, stop and if possible, refire the "dummy" round again, making sure the sights stay aligned. If for some reason you can't get the sights to stay aligned, clear the weapon and do some dry firing until you can. Now remember the way that it worked when correct. When they stay aligned, stop and mentally go over everything you did and especially visualize how the sights stayed aligned.

9

By now you should be noticing a group of shots on your paper. If there get to be too many, change the paper so you're not tempted to look there while shooting. Remember you must concentrate on sight alignment, especially focusing on the front sight or dot, while bringing the trigger straight to the rear. What's the single most important task at hand? That's right, trigger control. Let's review a bit. How about some questions: What will give us hits in the same hole time after time? You're right, consistency in everything we do to execute a shoot. OK, what can help you to obtain consistency? Right again, comfort. If you sand down goose bumps, do you have dimples when they go away? Get you on that one? I know, I haven't covered it yet. How much of this shooting sport is mental? Good answer. All right, enough for a moment. The "dummy" round exercise is great any time you just can't get a handle on those flyers or wide groups. Don't forget to work with your blank wall just as much, though. Remember to keep your focus on the front sight or dot, not looking for defects in the wall surface. Time to change the subject again. I've been promoting practice pretty heavily so far, but now I'm going to cover competition a bit. If you plan on being competitive, you will need to go to as many competitions as you can. This may sound as though it need not be said, but competition is totally different from practice. Many shooters go to a match to compete. To do well, you must go there to shoot. If you focus on the result too hard, you won't be able to focus on the task at hand - shooting. Visualize winning and good scores before the match. While you're shooting, don't worry about scores. You'll get one when it's finished. Concentrate instead on making every trigger press the same. Concentrate on keeping the sight alignment proper. Focus on the front sight, or the dot. These are the things to be concerned about while you're shooting. Now, the reason to go to as many matches as possible is to make them into practice sessions. When you can let go of the need to compete, your scores will make you competitive. I've rambled along pretty well again. Let me summarize a bit and head for the league. Remember to keep practicing with a blank wall. Work on a clean fast trigger that doesn't disturb the active sight picture. Work at the range with some "dummy" rounds. Start getting into as many competitions as you can. Make those matches into practice sessions. Till next time.

10

Moving Things to The Subconscious by Edwin C. Hall This series was originally written for and appeared in The Marksman, the monthly newsletter of the Twelfth Precinct Pistol Club, Inc., located in Harwood, Maryland. Wow, have there been this many? I guess so. I just looked and they're sequential. At least the way I provided them was. Did you have fun at the range, shooting all those poor targets in the back? How about bluffing them with those "dummy" rounds? Well, I'm glad you got some good range time in, because this one's going to be mental stuff with just references to the physical. There are many stages to go through in any endeavor in life. Shooting is a parallel to all the other sports and life itself. If you look for them, you will find many correlations. Even some of the seeming contrasts between certain sports, if studied in the overall context, will still relate. What, examples to support my claim? Oh, all right. Let me see... How about we take something unrelated such as reading. Whenever we learn something new, we start with necessary beginning steps that will have to be set aside at some point to move forward. What is meant by set aside? Relegating it to the subconscious. This will allow our conscious efforts to not be overwhelmed. When we learn to read, we start by first learning to recognize letters. In fact, we pronounce them out loud, over and over. Then we learn syllables, words, phrases and sentences, again pronouncing and reading aloud. When we moved up the chain to reading sentences we left behind the individual letters. It wasn't that we didn't need or use them. It was that we saw the bigger picture because our subconscious took care of the smaller details. How does this relate to shooting? In shooting we have hundreds of details to learn about in the beginning. We have to watch our sight picture, bring the trigger straight back, grip a certain way, stand a certain way, breathe or not breathe a certain way, etc. We are only able to concentrate on one single item at a time. So what we need to do is work on each item separately, and then turn it over to our subconscious. The way we do this is through practice. Now read close. Joe White, a great shooter known to many of us, said something very important to remember, "Perfect practice makes perfect." If we practice something enough, it will eventually be a habit that we can initiate and let our subconscious finish. The catch is to practice that something correctly. This is where the dry firing really comes in. You can practice the trigger action so that it is habit to do it right. You can also practice all those other good habits until you can do them without conscious thought. Once we get our shooting details into our subconscious, we can move into higher realms by applying more focus on whatever we need. Just like leaving the letters behind for the words. Some of us will stop along the way at a comfortable place. Some will never accept anything but perfection. These attitudes are what drive, frustrate and empower us. If we have the patience to accept failure and yet the drive to overcome it, we will progress. If we accept too much, we stay put. Now for some deeper thoughts. There are many stages to our acceptance of where we are. When we first start out, we have high expectations and usually get slapped down by the reality of a beginner's capability. If we're open to suggestions, there will be all kinds of information to help us progress. These are the secrets I mentioned in the first part of this series. But, we aren't seeing them the way they

11

are being presented. We're seeing them from our own perspective. We also tend to doubt much of what we hear because it doesn't make sense to us yet. The mind is very powerful. We can prove anything we really believe in, especially that something doesn't or can't work. Once we can accept that it might work, we can start allowing it to. As we find an idea we can allow to work, something interesting happens. The more it works, the more we believe in it. The more we believe, the more it works... At some point we move from believing to knowing. This is where "success breeds success." In the beginning, doubt keeps us from achieving. Belief moves us forward, but still allows doubt to creep in. Once we know something, doubt is eliminated. When we know we can do something, we can. This doesn't mean we won't have troubles. Remember, the troubles are there to give us the drive to overcome, which propels us even higher. All along we must let our subconscious know what we want. If we give it mixed signals, we get mixed results. How many times have you thought, "I hope I don't shoot a 7." just to shoot a 7 the very next shot? Your subconscious said, "7? You want a 7? OK!" Try something different, like, "How can I shoot an X?" Then pay real close attention, so you can remember how you were answered. Another way to let our subconscious know what we want is called visualization. This is mentally picturing what we want to achieve. For instance forming the idea of all of our shots going through the X. Very important: The mental imagery should not be limited to "pictures" in your mind. You should involve everything you can. Rehearse the event coming up. "Hear" the commands. "Feel" the gun coming up. "See" the sights aligned. "Feel" the trigger coming back. "Know" you hit an X. "See" the sights realign. "Feel" the trigger... This type of mental rehearsal is being used by sports stars throughout the world to achieve great feats. Oh, oh! I "feel" the league calling. Remember to keep mentally rehearsing. It's something you can do anywhere. Have Fun.

12

Forming Good Habits That Work At Home And Away by Edwin C. Hall This series was originally written for and appeared in The Marksman, the monthly newsletter of the Twelfth Precinct Pistol Club, Inc., located in Harwood, Maryland. Somebody must be reading these. I've gotten lots of good feedback. Thanks. This one should mark half a year. One interesting dilemma is that I'm writing these so far ahead of when they will probably get printed, that I can't really mention current happenings. This particular part I wrote when I got back from the Interservice Matches in Arkansas (June). I observed some things I though I'd bring up, as well as some little things that can help your match flow more smoothly. The Interservice Matches are one of the most by-the-book run matches that exist. Attention is paid to each detail, no matter how minor. Some of these minor details can become major and ruin your day, though. Let's use scoring as an example. The official scoring routine is to place an individual shot value in each block provided on the score sheet. The accepted entries are X, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, and M which represents a miss. It is quite common to see X X 10 - - - - - - 100-2x or something similar written on score sheets at local matches with no trouble. At the Interservice matches, a proud clean-target shooter was awarded a 30-2x when it was posted by the stat office. Another time, closer to home, a beautiful 100-8x target was shot by one of my teammates. The scorer from the adjacent team scored it as 100-8x which I, as the verifier for our team, agreed with. However, he wrote on our sheet X X X X X X X X 9 9 100-8X. When we verified the totals, we agreed and the sheet was sent in. The stat office recalculated the score and gave us 98-8x. Although true, the above examples are of course horror stories in a way, and I'm sure you've heard more. The point is to be aware of habits and to cultivate good ones and discontinue bad ones. It is better to show and follow the "proper" procedures even at the local leagues and matches. But, don't treat beginners too harshly if they err. Just explain the correct way. If they mess up in the leagues, help them to do it right next time. The matches, however, must be run under match rules or there will be complaints and challenges. Let's cover some older stuff and then go over some good habits to start working on. Do you remember way back when I said that consistency was very important? Consistency is habit; over and over doing the same thing. We want consistent shots, which will form groups. An important factor in consistency is comfort. Remember? Good. One of the most discomforting things that can happen is to not be ready when asked, "Is the line ready?" Look around at the top shooters and you will most likely see people who methodically perform certain steps, in certain ways, consistently. These are routines they develop for everything from getting a grip to loading magazines, etc. These routines are what keep your heart rate down and allow you to think about what you're on the line to do. In the same vein, if you're not ready, say so. Don't rush to put a string of bad shots down range. Here are some suggestions to make things easier:

13

Have enough magazines that you can shoot all 10 rounds without reloading them. Better yet, have an extra in case of a malfunction. Uniquely mark each magazine so you can identify one which causes a malfunction. Also, if possible, set aside any magazine that allows a malfunction until you can work with it after the match. Additionally, always reload your magazines before scoring. When shooting slow fire using multiple magazines, swap them before you shoot the last round from the previous magazine. For consistency in your grip, replace your magazine between strings without releasing the firearm. Do not hurry down to the targets or back, or anywhere else for that matter. Even if you put the wrong facer up and everyone is crying because you're taking so long to go change it, take your time; let them cry. It may give you an edge. After all, it is YOUR time. And don't fret about it on the way. Relax, take a stroll, and think about the group of Xs you'll shoot next string. Establish routines and stick to them. You can make up checklists to aid in these. They should include everything from stance to breathing to grip to loading to shots to recovery, etc. Even during firing I have used mental lists, or chants, from time to time. One I used was - firm grip center the dot - straight back trigger, firm grip - center the dot - straight back trigger, etc. This can help ward off those stray thoughts while you're concentrating on shooting. Evaluate and then ignore distractions. I say evaluate because you're going to anyway. Quickly establish that it doesn't affect you and then put it out of mind. If a round goes off prematurely, yours or someone else's, check for screaming. If none, then accept it and continue with the string. If the person next to you is having trouble, check to see if they're hazardous and if not, continue with your string. When scoring, it is easier and quicker to first count total hits, and then write them down from lowest to highest value. This will allow "consistency" for alibies as well as for normal targets. Additionally, it is normally easier to use the subtraction method to score targets. This is done by counting the points lost instead of the points gained for each shot, and then subtracting the total from 100. Do not do this for your slow fire targets while shooting them. Use your scope only to verify shot placement, not score, for your targets. Check scores down range. Last for now is keep track of where you are in the match. Don't shoot a perfect timed fire string on a rapid fire target. Well, time to get back out to the league. Come on out and join us. We can chat about those good habits. Have fun consistently.

14

More Trigger Work by Edwin C. Hall This series was originally written for and appeared in The Marksman, the monthly newsletter of the Twelfth Precinct Pistol Club, Inc., located in Harwood, Maryland. As I mentioned last time, these articles are a bit behind due to the lag between getting them out, the breaking into separate parts, and the printing time. This particular one is being written a little after I came back from Camp Perry. I successfully got points for every shot downrange, and as much as they wanted to, I kept them from naming me the National Champion. With that out of the way, let's get into the meat for this month. The single most important thing you need to do is develop proper trigger control. Everybody gives different numbers, but here I'm going to say 95% of the physical part of shooting well is in the proper use of the trigger. The other 5% are all those hundreds of little extras. (Those used to help set up the proper trigger.) The text book description is something like, "Bring the trigger straight to the rear in a manner that doesn't disturb the sight alignment." This leaves a lot of room for misinterpretation, or at least ambiguity. It doesn't really say how, it merely gives one part of a huge endeavor. Yes, the trigger must come straight back, but how do we get it there? Shall we just yank it back? I do that a lot. It doesn't quite give me the results I'm looking for when I do. No, I guess we'll have to delve a little further into this trigger trouble. How many adverbs can we come up with to describe the movement of the trigger? Straight? Smooth? Constant? Increasing? What about constantly increasing? I'm sure there is a continuous supply of terms. How about a visual representation. Let's play. Get a pitcher of water, a small glass, a butter knife and two forks. Place the knife across the forks so that it has one of its flat sides level. Balance the glass centered on the flat side of the knife. Pour the water into the glass at a steady rate. Notice how the water rises in the glass and think of the rising level as the rising pressure on the trigger. It shouldn't be too difficult to fill the glass without it falling over. As the water overflows the top of the glass it represents the hammer falling. Now look back at how the water increased in level. If you poured at a constant rate, the level rose at a smooth and constant rate respectively. Next, fill the glass down with air. (You can't empty it. Air gets in when you remove the water.) Now just dump some water back in with short but plentiful torrents. Notice how it can knock the glass over and the water gets away before it is supposed to? Notice that it doesn't always. (Sometimes we get a good shot from a jerk.) This splashing is like improper trigger manipulation. This is what we don't want. In fact, you can fill the glass rather Quickly with a smooth rapid flow. What we want is a steady increase in pressure until the hammer falls. How do we accomplish this great feat? By bringing the trigger back with no hesitation. Expect the round to fire. Know that it will fire. Once this is established, align the sights and do not allow them to misalign, no matter where they travel on the target. If you hesitate for any reason, if the trigger finger stops its momentum, if it doesn't feel right, let off the pressure and then put the gun down. Never start to put the gun down without first releasing the trigger.

15

There is a very subtle difference between a good trigger pull with a surprise break and an almost good trigger pull with what we think is a surprise break. You know those shots that just would not break until that exact instant you moved out of the black? You helped it at that last instant. I've done that a lot. I've finally realized that I was hesitating and then helping it to fire. You probably don't believe that you're doing it, but take a close look. Actually, take a close feel, and you can notice the difference between a good straight clean pull from slack take-up to firing, with no hesitation, and one which starts and stops several times before it is finally helped to fire. How do you get to that correct trigger? Remember when you dry fire how you can put the gun up and pull the trigger right back? With no hesitation or flinch or whatever. That's what you need to do with rounds at the range. Put the gun up and bring back the trigger. Know that it will fire. Align the sights. If you hesitate, stop everything and restart. Constantly visualize bringing the trigger back in that way, even while you're shooting. Know that it is going to go, "Bang!" Accept that it is going to go, "Bang!" Keep the sights aligned until it does. Franklin C. Green was, I believe, the only Air Force shooter to win the national championship title. He has also made some audio tapes on shooting. In one of them I heard recently, he described aligning the sights and then manipulating the trigger as being backwards. He claims you must initiate the trigger and then put attention on aligning the sights. He says that otherwise you'll go back and forth between the two. He further says, the trigger has to be a continuous motion and can be initiated and then allowed to continue without having to divert your attention to it again. If you can get the trigger to come back without hesitation, you will find that not only do the shots break well, but they will quicken; a great help in rapid fire. If you can develop a trigger pull as described by Frank Green, you can spend your time keeping the sights aligned until the shots are downrange. If you think trigger, then sights, then trigger, then sights, you are probably hesitating every time you switch back to the sights. Start the trigger, keep it moving and put your attention on the sights. Come on out to the league and give it a try with us. Hope to see you there.

16

Trigger Again And Being Positive With Your Target by Edwin C. Hall This series was originally written for and appeared in The Marksman, the monthly newsletter of the Twelfth Precinct Pistol Club, Inc., located in Harwood, Maryland. Yep, I'm still submitting these inputs to the editor and he is still using them. Thank you to those who have given me feedback. If you were a little confused back with parts 4 and 5, that's all right, so was I when I saw them printed. Just go back and relabel the dates on your two newsletters and it will work out fine. I'm going to hit on two areas in particular this time. The first will again be the trigger. Did I mention how important the trigger is? The second will be in the mental arena. Specifically on being more positive. This is an area I'm trying to work more diligently with, myself. On to the first item at hand. A good trigger action can be given credit for all the good shots. I'm not including all the shots that hit the center. Some of these land there because of odds and averages. If you point the gun downrange and spray several shots, some will occasionally score. The ones that look good, feel good, and hit correctly are the ones I am referring to. These are the result of proper trigger action. Most of us will agree that we can pick a gun up, align the sights and then hold them in that alignment pretty still. But, what happens at the instant we initiate trigger action? For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Remember that from school? If you have a totally steady, perfectly aligned sight picture, it will move slightly. The further the trigger action diverges from straight back, the further the off-center move. The tendency when this occurs is to stop the trigger because the sight picture isn't perfect anymore. Let's follow this improper activity through the breaking of a shot. For this description let's say that our trigger breaks at 4 pounds and each pull will add .5 pounds with no lessening. We start with perfect sights and initiate the trigger. (trigger increased to .5 lbs) The picture changed so we stopped. (trigger still at .5 lbs) We corrected the picture and started again. (trigger increased to 1.0 lbs) The alignment shifted so again we stopped. (trigger now at 1.0 lbs) Continue in the same way to 3.5 lbs... (trigger is at 3.5 lbs) The picture moved, etc. We have everything aligned again and initiate the trigger one more time. (trigger increases to 4.0 lbs) "Darn! The shot went off just at the instant it moved out of the black. It was a surprise shot! I didn't know which of those little extra pulls was going to make it go off!" Now let's try to describe a good shot. The sight picture is nearly correct as we settle so we initiate the trigger action. The sight picture is disturbed, but we correct it without stopping the trigger momentum. As the pressure increases we work at keeping the sights aligned. "Wow! That went off before I expected it to." If you take note of the difference in lengths of the above two paragraphs, you can correlate it to the difference in time required for each type of shot. You really do have an easier time with good shots. Now that I've covered the trigger for about half of this month's entry, let's move on to the second subject.

17

The mental arena is really where the whole event takes place. This time I'm going to hit on being positive and focusing on the good shots. For some reason we tend to be proud of our bad shots. We want to highlight them: "Wow! Look at how that shot spread across the paper when it hit the frame." or "Darn! It could have been a good target, but I shot a six." These shots are interesting, but we need to put our focus on what we want, not what we don't want. What can we do to move toward the positive side? One suggestion is to approach the target in a positive way. First pick out a scoring ring to work with based on your shooting average. Pick the first ring with five or fewer shots within it. "Within it" of course meaning that ring or higher. Let's say it's the eight ring. Now that we have a ring established, shoot some strings. Do not check the hits for score between shots! Instead concentrate on initiating the trigger and aligning the sights. After we finish ten rounds we can look for values. Now, down to the targets. Score your neighbor and then verify your score, but don't really keep note of the total. Now, first thing, cover any holes not on the facer. Don't glorify them, even if they're a scientific miracle! Now count up how many are within the ring you chose to work with. Keep that number in mind; "I got 5 within the eight ring." Don't put any qualifiers on them. Don't say "...only 5..." or "...barely 5..." Just take note of how many were within and remember that to average five some will be less as well as more. Only concern yourself with how many are within. While you're firing, don't try to shoot within your ring. Try only to have a smooth continuous trigger, initiated only once per shot, just prior to concentrating on your sight alignment. Expect your shots to be good. Look for them to be in the center. Once you consistently get more than 5 within whatever ring you're working with, move up a ring. In becoming more positive, we need to throw out some of those favorite things we say. You know the ones, "That's just the way I shoot. I can't do any better. I just can't figure it out. I always have to have two bad shots." If we drill these into our subconscious, we're obliged to keep them true. Can you shoot a ten? Yes! Know this and hold that knowledge that you can shoot a ten. Know that you can do it over and over. Mentally you must stay ahead of where you are. To be better, you must believe you already are better. Don't let anybody, especially yourself, tell you that you're not. Looks like the league is about to begin again. Guess I'll go see if you've shown up. Maybe you can help me work on those positive thoughts. I can always use help. Hope to see you there.

18

The Value Of Routines by Edwin C. Hall This series was originally written for and appeared in The Marksman, the monthly newsletter of the Twelfth Precinct Pistol Club, Inc., located in Harwood, Maryland. Hello again! To give you an indication of the lag time, I'm writing this part across the New Year holiday. Hopefully everyone's holidays were pleasing, and perhaps you've gotten some new toys and are trying them out. I thought maybe I'd let you rest a small amount from my incessant preaching about the trigger. But mind you, only a small amount, since we all know how important it is. Anyway, this time I'm going to revisit lightly some areas from earlier parts and add some more to them. Hopefully this can help these be less monotonous. Besides, if I keep harping on just the trigger, I should rename this: "Trigger Activities: (Part..." To start with, I was recently shooting in an air pistol match which included a junior air rifle shooter firing his targets as we shot ours. The relays were set up such that the pistol shooters' time expired a few minutes earlier than the rifle shooter's. As we watched the young athlete, the official mentioned that we might want to set our scopes up and watch him shoot the rest of his targets since he was vying for the state championship. As I politely acknowledged, I thought to myself, "Why would I want to watch the target when all the important activity is happening back here. I don't want to miss any of this part." However, if you look up and down the line at a match or the league or such you will see people, who during slow fire, will slide their scope over to watch the "good shooter's" target as the last shots are fired, or some will watch the alibi shooter put five solid rounds in the X ring. These targets are interesting, but if you are trying to improve your own shooting, you just wasted an excellent opportunity with misdirected attention. These holes are the result of an enormous amount of activity at the line. The shooter is where all the action is. Paying attention to the targets will not show you how to duplicate them, watching the shooter can. In fact if you watch the shooter closely enough, you can pretty much tell how the target will look. Let's move back to the young man I spoke of earlier. He was standing there with all the standard equipment. He wore a shooting jacket and pants set. He had a pedestal to rest the "heavy" rifle on between shots. It was just to the right and in front of him. The support included a tray with pellets and other essentials, all within inches of his reach. He had a scope on a tripod with an angled lens placed slightly to his left. He could use it with very little movement of his head. There was a blinder on the rifle which blocked his left eye during firing, but being on the rifle, was not fatiguing his non-shooting eye between shots. Incidently, he used his right eye to shoot and left eye to scope. Overall as you observed him you could see how everything fit into place and lent to the ability of shooting the entire string with minimum need to shuffle around. What I've just described is the static picture of watching him shoot. Now let's see the action part. Unfortunately I was shooting my own relay during his preparation, so I started observing during his strings, but here's how they went. He would pick the rifle up and shoulder it. Next he would rock back and forth slightly to obtain his optimum stance. Now he would seem to be settling in and you could see the rifle's movement at the muzzle diminish. He would place his finger on the trigger and you could see him reposition it several times before he chose the one for the shot. All this time the gun would be settling even more into a motionless state. As everything seemed locked in space and time, there would be the sound of a shot, with NO visual

19

indication that anything had happened. His follow through was superb. After a brief pause, he would bring the gun down and lean slightly to the scope, and using his left eye, take a very brief look and then place the rifle on the pedestal and rest. After a pause he would pump the rifle and set it back on the pedestal, place a pellet from the tray beneath the rifle into the chamber, close the lever and adjust the blinder slightly if necessary. From here he would start over. Everything was meticulously performed in an identical manner each time. What I just described is a perfect example of what we refer to as a "routine." A set of steps so arranged that we can perform them the same way each time. Note also that in the above example, they were performed with a minimum of exertion. In the first part to this series, I mentioned that to have all the rounds impact the same spot on the target, everything having to do with the processing of the shots has to be the same. This is called consistency. The only way to get true consistency at the target is to perform true consistency at the line. How can we be more consistent? By developing and using a "routine." In this routine we must add all the things we do to perform a shot and leave out all the unnecessary things. Then we need to practice it to the point that it all "feels" perfectly natural. In fact the more natural, the more we'll "feel" comfortable using it. Let's look at an example for Bullseye Slow Fire. "Shooters to the line." should start us into our focusing and we should take up our stance and prepare to shoot. When told to load do so and continue through the next part of "your" routine. Pick up the rhythm of the commands and go through the same steps you'll use for the sustained fire strings. If everything settled correctly go ahead and take your first shot when the time begins. If not, put the gun down, rest, regroup and begin again. When you break the shot, follow through ready for another one. If everything feels right, continue through another shot. Once you stop, evaluate how you felt about the shot before you look in the scope and then compare the shot with what you "called." Try to find the rhythm correct for you. It should be something like: Grasp gun, settle stance, lift gun, settle hold, initiate trigger, focus on sight, shot breaks, follow through, bring gun down and relax (if you're not taking another shot), call shot, check scope and compare. Once you have a routine keep with it and it will help you to be consistent. Come on out to the league and show us your routine. See you there.

20

What To Do Away From The Range by Edwin C. Hall This series was originally written for and appeared in The Marksman, the monthly newsletter of the Twelfth Precinct Pistol Club, Inc., located in Harwood, Maryland. Will you look at this; a double digit part number. Part number, hmm... Sounds like what you use to order a new accessory for your gun. Oh well, enough of that. Let's see, what did I write about last time? Oh, I remember, routines. Have you been working on yours? Of course you have. I shouldn't have asked. This time I'll touch again on routines, add in some subliminal stuff, focus on time away from the range and mention a bit about attitude. What do you do with all the time spent away from the range? You could delve into all those interrupting items. You know, work, riding to/from work (or elsewhere), waiting around, etc. What if I told you that you should be spending your idle time working on your shooting program? That's right, next time you're sitting around waiting for something and thinking, "What a waste of time!" stop wasting that time. Develop and rehearse mental routines to make good use of those opportunities. You can even do some physical conditioning. I'll mention some starting blocks, but realize that all of this must be tailored to your own program. The best way to rehearse routines is to actually run through or "visualize" them. This can be done almost everywhere; while waiting for someone before a meeting, sitting around in a waiting room, or during a quiet break from daily activities. In fact, there are some things you can do while you are working. When you have a chance to just sit back with no immediate worldly attention needed, you can train for shooting by imagining you are shooting. A boring meeting where you might be called upon for input is probably not a good place, but a snack break or lunch time might be. If you have this type of relaxed time, put it to use. Start by thinking about being at the range. Mentally rehearse all the steps taken to perform a perfect shot, all the way through checking it and finding it to be that perfect shot. Never even joke that it might have been less than perfect. All mental practice should be done visualizing perfect results. Perform these exercises whenever time permits. Be sincere. Don't just try; do! Now that we have some ideas for our relaxed time, where we can afford to pay no direct attention to the "real" world, let's look at some things we can do when only a small amount of attention is needed in the "real" world. There are several physical exercises that can help: (1) Practice holding still while standing. This could be done while waiting in one of those long lines. Notice that to stand motionless, you need to be able to make only very minor corrections in maintaining your balance. (2) Practice your breathing. Mentally go through the range commands and work on your timing so that you exhale to a comfortable hold just before the target turns. (3) Work your fingers in a way that you can gain independent movement between your trigger finger and the rest. Exercise your grip to strengthen it, but isolate your trigger finger so you can gain totally independent control. On to something different... A vast part of shooting is based on letting our subconscious know what we want and allowing it to create the results. Here we go, that psychological stuff again. As time progresses you will find that we perform about equal to our beliefs in our capabilities. If we believe we can do better, we will. If we believe we're stuck, we are. If we believe we're having problems... How do

21

we use this to our advantage? By first letting our subconscious know what we're searching for, letting it guide us to that end, and then by knowing we can get those great results. Here are some things to do to help our inner self focus: (1) If you doodle at work, start doodling 100-10x or at least 100. (2) Draw a picture of a bullseye with 10 hits inside and set it in your desk drawer. (3) Make a screen saver that flashes 100-10x in different locations on your computer. (4) Cut out the center of a target with holes in the X ring and place it somewhere just within view while working. Ok, now that these things are around, what next? Nothing! Just leave them there and forget them. Let them become a natural part of the background. That sounds easy enough, doesn't it? Good, then let's move on. These were just a few suggestions to start you on your way. I'm sure you can find a limitless supply of creative ways to practice your shooting skills while away from the range. Some can be found by being observant and open-minded to the world around you. Look for common threads between shooting and other sports and then correlations with life in general. The XVIII Winter Olympics were recently held and in every event there could be seen things to put to use in our own sport. Watch for these bits of information in sports and add them to your shooting program. What were some of those Olympic items? OK, here're a few: (1) In the figure skating events, several of the top skaters fell on some of the opening jumps. They got back up and continued their ROUTINEs. They still scored rather well. The score would have been quite different had they stomped around and shown a lack of composure. In fact they probably would have fallen on some of the other jumps. (2) In one of the speed skating events, a skater who was in the lead for the final event, was knocked down by a competitor and just got up and skated off the ice. Had she merely finished the race, she would have been awarded the bronze medal. Since she didn't, she was disqualified. (3) One of the skiers had a spectacular fall in one event and then won gold in others. The successful events describe a level of mental conditioning important to all sports. The other describes how you can make it worse by giving up when something doesn't go right. Perhaps she didn't know the rules, but even so, she gave up on even being ambitious enough to finish what she started. You must be able to put the bad times out of your mind and continue with your attention on the present. I better head out to the league. See you there?

22

Use of Red Dot Sights by Edwin C. Hall This series was originally written for and appeared in The Marksman, the monthly newsletter of the Twelfth Precinct Pistol Club, Inc., located in Harwood, Maryland. Am I back? Maybe... No, not to the area, back in print! It was me, not the club. They didn't fire me. I've just been doing other things for awhile. I won't recap the last article since there is such a gap in time between them. I'll just move on into this one and see how it flows. As a start to what may eventually become another ten parts (time will tell), let's focus on red dot scopes. Although I love my hardball, full load, 45 caliber shooting, I do have scopes on my .22 and wad guns. For years I've been trying to figure out the "correct" way to use that red bit of light. I had been able to get some good scores, and sometimes it seemed as though whatever I was doing was working. The problem was that different things all seemed to work, but only for short periods. For instance, focusing on the relationship of the dot to the tube, while letting the target blur would work really well. However, after a short time, that wouldn't seem to be working well enough. Another time, paying close attention to the dot on the target would bring good results. Even still, focusing on the back glass, which left both the dot and the target quite fuzzy, worked sometimes. What was the answer? The answer, of course, was that they all work. They all work for specific areas of interest. Am I starting to sound ambiguous? OK, I'll try to clear it up a bit. First, what's the most important part of a shot? Your response, "Proper trigger manipulation." Good! What else is important? Those hundreds of things that allow proper trigger action. So let's start with the single most important part; a smooth, steady, straight back movement of the trigger. Where does the scope fit in? The scope will tell you when you have achieved the proper trigger. Here's how: In this instance, you want to focus on the dot and concentrate on its alignment inside the tube. It must stay centered through the shot. Parallax has no bearing here. We're not worried about whether a shot can be on target while the dot has moved to the edge of the tube. If the dot moves while the trigger is being pulled, the trigger is not proper. Let's digress a moment. The dot has a normal "jiggle" to it. This is not the movement I'm referring to. The movement I do mean is that area of jiggle moving toward another location in the tube. Once you can bring the trigger back correctly with the dot staying in the same location, you have attained proper trigger manipulation. In this case we used the scope to perfect the trigger, the most important portion of the shot. This is the way the beginning shooter should use the dot. This should also be revisited from time to time, especially if your scores seem to have slipped. Let's move on to the next piece of the puzzle. Once you've achieved good trigger control, you can work on other aspects of using the dot. Why does it seem that looking at the target and placing the dot on it gives good results? Does this really work? Some of the top shooters believe so. From time to time it has worked for me, but only for a short while. It's also difficult to explain exactly what is meant by, "Looking at the target." If I look at the target, but focus on the dot, I get much better results than when I focus on the target and place the dot on it. Some top shooters advocate looking at the center of the target, watching the hole grow larger, and therefore concentrating on where you want the bullet to go. This is good positive use of the dot. It has a bonus effect of letting you turn loose of the jiggling of the dot. It is the positive version of following a shot with another because you were thinking about it. It is for those shooters who

23

have attained good trigger use. For me, none of this works if I haven't first set up a proper trigger. How do I set up a proper trigger? By watching the relationship of the dot to the circle of the tube. Digressing again... We've mostly all heard that when the hammer falls during dry fire, the dot shouldn't move. I, of course, interpreted that as, "shouldn't move (except for that little jump caused by the inertia of the hammer)." But then one day while I was dry firing, I fired one that didn't have that little jump, just a click. I realized that I had been mistaken about the hammer causing the jump. When it goes click and the dot doesn't move at all, you're there. But, how do we get there? By allowing the scope to let us, "see the light." First, if you can't do it dry firing, you won't do it with live ammo. Live ammo will cover up a variety of errors. Spend the time it takes dry firing to get it right first. Make sure you have no ammo and head for that blank wall you used way back when. Take your normal stance and grip and bring the gun up to align the dot within the scope tube. Start applying pressure to the trigger, but look for movement of the dot in relationship to the tube. If there is any, stop. Be very conscious here not to correct the movement with your wrist. This would cover up the misapplication of the trigger. If the dot stays still throughout, great! Practice it that way for awhile and head to the range. What if it doesn't stay still? Move your finger in relation to the trigger. If this doesn't correct the trouble, move your grip slightly. If it still doesn't work, take the gun out of your hand and place your empty fingers in the same position as though they were still gripping your gun. Now, move your trigger finger without moving the others or the thumb. Once you can do this, regrasp the pistol concentrating on placing pressure squarely against the front and back of the grip. Now try locating your finger squarely on the trigger. Next work again on straight back pressure. Watch the dot. Once you have it remaining centered and still, you have something to work with. Then you can move to other ways to "see" the dot. If you practice something over and over, but it is wrong, you will learn very well how to do it wrong. You must first learn to do it right, then practice it right. The dot is a fantastic tool in helping us learn to do it right. Learn to keep it centered in the scope by proper trigger control and then you can find out how to use it to improve your hold, concentration and a myriad of areas. Looks like I hit my article length marker again. I haven't been able to make it to any more leagues, but we'll see about matches. Remember to keep the dot centered in the tube.

24

A Detailed Study of Cant Effects by Edwin C. Hall This series was originally written for and appeared in The Marksman, the monthly newsletter of the Twelfth Precinct Pistol Club, Inc., located in Harwood, Maryland. A dozen, how about that? Well this time it wasn't as long in between, so let's mention the last article: I "focused" on red dot scopes, assuming of course that you are reading these in order. If so, I hope you were able to "see" the differences in how to use them, and how great they are for dry fire practice. On to this part... Lately I've been wrestling with a mathematical nightmare. It seems quite simple, but for some reason, I just have trouble with the answer. What happens if you tip the gun while shooting? Two things transpired to send me off on this track. First, I was visiting a local gunsmith, who showed me his black powder rifle. At the bottom of the front sight was a leveling bubble. Apparently in long range shooting this is important. Second, I had an opportunity to shoot a laser equipped gun at a computerized target which tracked my shots on a screen and displayed information about them. One individual watching told me that I had been canting the gun different amounts throughout the 15 shots. I thanked him, thought about it for a moment and went to lunch. I've been told the same at the range, and am quite aware that even during a string of fire I may start out vertical and by the time I finish the string, I have a 45 degree cant. Since I figured that the laser would be in coincidence with the sights at the target no matter how the gun was held, I didn't think it had mattered a great deal... But wait a minute! Bullets aren't lasers. They don't fly straight. They travel along a parabolic path due to gravity. What affect does canting have on live shooting? From my first note above, it must have an effect at long ranges. What about handgun distances? This started sticking in my head almost to the point of obsession. Way back in the first article I mentioned, "In order to have a projectile travel through the same hole in the same fashion, it must be propelled in the same manner." How much difference could tipping the gun more or less make? Well, in my frantic attempts to make my brain ache, I decided that it could be considerable. At 50 yards, if gross enough, it could take me out of the black. Additionally, the placement, analyzed at the target, could be misinterpreted as a trigger jerk. Do not misread what I'm describing. A cant that is always the same, is all right. In other words, if you always place the gun at a ten degree cant to the left, consistently, it is fine. In fact some of the best shooters have a cant toward the non-shooting side. Sometimes this makes up for cross-dominance in vision. It is used often in trying to keep the head position straight. If your cant is always the same, you have sighted in for it. A lot of shooters even counter their gun's cant by mounting their scope with an equal but opposite cant. The problem comes in when the cant is changed from say 10 degrees to 45 degrees, while shooting. Why does it matter? Because bullets don't fly straight. Gravity affects them. In fact, it affects them more than I had realized. At 50 yards, a bullet fired at 850 feet per second (fps), will drop around 6 inches. In other words, if you drew a straight line through the center of the barrel out to the target, it would intersect about six inches above the sighted in point. How did I get to this conclusion of a six inch drop? Well to start with, I left out minor issues, like whether the bore is level or not, the fact that the bullet slows during its trip, and any other of these types of "minor" factors. In other words, this is the "best case" scenario. This left me with

25

an object travelling at a fixed speed of 850 fps, for 50 yards. How long would it take to get there? Well 150 ft divided by 850 fps gives approximately .176 second. How much does gravity affect something during that short amount of time? The formula is "distance = (1/2) X (the rate of acceleration (32.17ft/s/s)) X (time in seconds) X (time in seconds)" or ".5 X 32.17 X t X t." Calculated with the above time we get (.5) X (32.17) X (.176) X (.176) equals .4982 feet. This gives us about 5.979 or roughly 6 inches when multiplied by 12. So, what's the problem? Sights adjust for the variance. Why all the math and interest? Because, the sights, whatever they may be, are adjusted for the drop to be along a definite path, at a particular angle relative to the sight/bore relationship. To illustrate, let's assume a gun is held with a red dot scope directly above the bore. Looking from the back, if we drew a line from the dot to the center of the bore, it would be along the same path as the bullet drop. If the same gun is now tipped to the left by 10 degrees, the drop is no longer in line. In fact, by calculation, if the gun is tipped 90 degrees from where it was sighted in, using the above numbers, the error on paper can be as much as 8.5 inches from the sighted in point at 50 yards. Let's show how: First we'll assume the tilt is counterclockwise from the shooter's perspective. There is no longer a six inch drop in line with the sight/bore. Now the drop is six inches in a direction 90 degrees from the sight/bore, or to its left (still toward the ground, of course). By moving the angle of the sight/bore to the drop, the hit should now be six inches left and six inches down, from the original point. By calculation, six inches over by six inches down gives about 8.5 inches diagonally from the original point. Granted, only movie characters shoot their guns sideways by 90 degrees, but any tipping from the normal hold will affect the placement of the shot. At shorter distances it is not as great; at 25 yards the same 850 fps calculates to only around one and one half inches for a 90 degree tip. Incidently, I chose 850 fps because this is what a ballistic chart showed for Federal's C45A ammunition (.45 Hard Ball). Additionally, that same chart showed the 850 fps had dropped to 810 fps by 50 yards. A bullet starting slower, as most wadcutter/handloads do, will fall even further. Looks like time to go. I've reached that length border I established in the beginning so I could try not to ramble too long. Remember to keep the same cant throughout your shooting.

26