The

Hitchhikers
of
Shooting
Índice
The Importance of a Match Plan ........................................................................................................................ 4
Preparation..................................................................................................................................................... 4
What’s the Plan, Stan? .................................................................................................................................. 4
Forewarned is forearmed............................................................................................................................... 5

Training for International 10 Meter Air Pistol...................................................................................................... 6

General Fitness.............................................................................................................................................. 6
Special Exercises........................................................................................................................................... 6
Training Techniques ...................................................................................................................................... 6
Developing a Sequence................................................................................................................................. 6
Dry Firing........................................................................................................................................................ 6
Shooting Diary ............................................................................................................................................... 7
Just a Few Tips .............................................................................................................................................. 7

Dry Fire Training................................................................................................................................................. 8

The Basic Necessities.................................................................................................................................... 8
What Do We Hope To Achieve? .................................................................................................................... 8
Now For The Tricky Bit .................................................................................................................................. 8
Rapid Fire....................................................................................................................................................... 9
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 9

Sight Watching ................................................................................................................................................. 10

Don't Bee A Cheeken! ...................................................................................................................................... 12

The Power of Positive Thinking........................................................................................................................ 15

Step One – A Positive Outlook on Life ........................................................................................................ 15
Step Two - A Positive Outlook on Shooting................................................................................................. 15
Step Three – Creating a Calm ..................................................................................................................... 15
Step 4 – Protecting the Calm ....................................................................................................................... 16

It Ain't Over....................................................................................................................................................... 18

Making the Most of Electronic Trainers - Part 1 ............................................................................................... 20

Why Use an Electronic Trainer? .................................................................................................................. 20
How to Approach an ET Session ................................................................................................................. 20
Maximizing Your ET Settings....................................................................................................................... 21

Making the Most of Electronic Trainers - Part 2 ............................................................................................... 22

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics..................................................................................................................... 22
Repetition Mode ........................................................................................................................................... 22
Average Placement and Holding for Series................................................................................................. 22
Single Shot Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 23
Possible Score by Time Transference......................................................................................................... 23
Time Charts.................................................................................................................................................. 23
Cant.............................................................................................................................................................. 23
Series Overview........................................................................................................................................... 23
Percentage Calculations .............................................................................................................................. 24
Score/Hold Time .......................................................................................................................................... 24
Suffering For Your Art .................................................................................................................................. 24

How To Make Your New Pistol User-Friendly.................................................................................................. 25

The Grip ....................................................................................................................................................... 25
Trigger Position and Adjustment.................................................................................................................. 25
Sights ........................................................................................................................................................... 26
Balance ........................................................................................................................................................ 26
Velocity......................................................................................................................................................... 26

2
Rapid Fire Overview......................................................................................................................................... 27
Hardware...................................................................................................................................................... 27
Major brands are as follows, roughly in order of popularity: ........................................................................ 27
Fodder.......................................................................................................................................................... 27
Maintenance................................................................................................................................................. 28
Shooting the Match ...................................................................................................................................... 28

Stand and Deliver............................................................................................................................................. 31

Physical Stance ........................................................................................................................................... 31
The Feet....................................................................................................................................................... 31
The Platform................................................................................................................................................. 31
Inner Stance - Using the Mind ..................................................................................................................... 31
Just a Word on Balance............................................................................................................................... 32
Being Flexible............................................................................................................................................... 32
How Well Can We Hold? ............................................................................................................................. 32

The Hitchhikers Guide to ISSF 25m Standard Pistol ....................................................................................... 33

Tactics.......................................................................................................................................................... 33
Training ........................................................................................................................................................ 34
NPA.............................................................................................................................................................. 34
Trigger Release ........................................................................................................................................... 34
Things to Remember ................................................................................................................................... 35

Do You Need a Coach? ................................................................................................................................... 36

What Do You Need? .................................................................................................................................... 36
Motivation..................................................................................................................................................... 37
Finding a Coach ........................................................................................................................................... 37
What If You Don't Find One? ....................................................................................................................... 37
What Do You Not Need? ............................................................................................................................. 38
Back to the Real World ................................................................................................................................ 38

A Do-It-Yourself Guide to your First Air Pistol Session................................................................................... 39

Safety ........................................................................................................................................................... 39
What do you need?...................................................................................................................................... 39
How to hold the pistol................................................................................................................................... 39
How to Stand................................................................................................................................................ 40
How to breathe............................................................................................................................................. 40
What to look at. ............................................................................................................................................ 40
How to correct your sights. .......................................................................................................................... 41
How to score your targets. ........................................................................................................................... 41
Why is this so hard?..................................................................................................................................... 41

A Site For Sore Eyes........................................................................................................................................ 42

The Far Sighted ........................................................................................................................................... 42
Magoos ........................................................................................................................................................ 42
Other Sufferers ............................................................................................................................................ 42
What Can Corrective Lenses Offer?............................................................................................................ 42
What Do Shooting Glasses Offer?............................................................................................................... 43
Colored Lenses and Filters .......................................................................................................................... 43
The Adjustable Iris ....................................................................................................................................... 43
A Few Final Thoughts .................................................................................................................................. 44

The Subconscious Shot - Hit or Myth?............................................................................................................. 45

Linking Physical Tasks................................................................................................................................. 45
The Slippery Slope....................................................................................................................................... 45

Free Pistol ........................................................................................................................................................ 47

Beginner Pistols ........................................................................................................................................... 47
Competitive Pistols ...................................................................................................................................... 47
Tactics for Shooting Free Pistol ................................................................................................................... 49

3
The Importance of a Match Plan
In match shooting failing to have a plan is like planning to fail. There is no way to set a plan to suit
every shooter, but below are a few guidelines for being prepared for the unpredictable rigors of
competition.

Preparation
Carry a check list with you at all times. Keep it in your gun box, or somewhere where it cannot be mislaid, such
as in your wallet or purse. On the morning of the match BEFORE you leave your hotel or lodgings, ensure that
everything you will need to compete is in your gun box or your range bag. Even go to the extent of physically
checking each item is where you remember leaving it. Many a shooter has opened his shooting box on the line
at the start of Preparation Time to discover his glasses are still on the bedside table at his hotel where he had
been dry firing the night before.

Bring more ammunition than you are likely to need for the match. In the event of a range breakdown or other
natural disaster (not under your control) there may be a requirement to reshoot a portion of the match. You
don’t need the distraction of trying to beg, borrow or steal a few rounds from your neighbors, and they will
probably not appreciate the interruption either.

Take a bottle of water to the line, even if the weather is not extremely hot. This way, if the shooter next to you
annoys you in any way, you can squirt a quart of rust enhancer into his shooting bag when he’s not looking.
Okay, so I’m kidding on that part. But keep your fluids up and you are less likely to have vision problems. If you
feel thirsty you are probably already dehydrated, so make a habit of taking a sip regularly.

What’s the Plan, Stan?

The overwhelming bulk of shooters I have met seem to suffer the same tactics for shooting a match. If and
when the wheels fall off their little wagon and performance lags, they vary their technique throughout the rest of
the match in the hope that fortune will smile on them and they will discover a great new way to shoot tens. If this
sounds like you, at least you’re being honest about it. Those who maintain they don’t experiment either have a
match plan, are outright liars or are in the fortunate minority of people with good self discipline. It’s human
nature to improvise when things get rough, but in these circumstances you’re making life even tougher on
yourself.

The fact is, even if you don’t get nervous on the line you can’t expect to shoot as if you were at home. There are
too many distractions. A strange range, strange faces, a shooting bench that’s a different height to what you’re
used to, targets in shade, targets in direct sunlight, poor lighting for your sights, smelly armpits to the left, a
chatterbox to the right - good grief, before you’ve fired a shot you’re mentally cataloging a woeful bunch of
excuses to draw from!

Below is a list of common excuses used at big matches, followed by the translation into English:

“I couldn’t see my sights.” “I wasn’t watching my sights.”

“There was too much light on the target.” “I wasn’t watching my sights.”
“Did you see that mirage?” “I wasn’t watching my sights.”
“I haven’t shot in six months.” “I wasn’t watching my sights.”
“I’ve been too busy at work to practice.” “I wasn’t watching my sights.”
“I must’ve moved eighteen clicks.” “I wasn’t watching my sights.”
“Did you see that brunette down on 26?” “I wasn’t watching my sights.”
“I must have a dud batch of ammo.” “I didn’t squeeze the trigger OR watch the sights.”

Fact is, any number of potentially damaging factors are present every time we go to the range to shoot. Why is
it they only come into play when we’re anxious to shoot well? Do circumstances conspire to make us look bad?
Is God really that cruel? Not likely.

4
But here’s the good news. Shooting is a laughably simple sport. Sure, we love to complicate it, but if you think
about it the technique needed to fire a good shot is not difficult. So where’s the problem? We allow ourselves to
become distracted. We cease to think logically. We need a simple set of instructions to follow, and for the first
time in our lives we need to consult them BEFORE we make an utter hash of things. In this way we can make a
pre-emptive strike by having our minds on the job at hand rather than be confounded by strange surroundings.
Create a feeling of familiarity by reacquainting ourselves with the important facets of our technique, and in this
way leave no room for extraneous distractions.

So the secret to it all? It’s simply to make up a written plan of action that covers every possible scenario within a
match. It should be drawn from your shooting diary (gasp!*) including all of the little things you do to complete a
successful shot. By all means it should have a detailed description of your shot process, and also a description
of how your shooting position should feel, how you maintain balance, how you find the sweet spot for your
trigger finger on the trigger shoe, any little thing that is an integral part of your technique. Read and digest this
before going to the line and you’ll be ready to perform like you never have before.

The second part of the plan should include contingencies should things not be running as smoothly as they
might. This includes poor performance. If the wheels start to fall off, it should be stressed that the best way to
get back on track is to simply focus on good technique. Shots falling outside an acceptable area are 99% of the
time a dead giveaway that your mind is not where it should be. Be honest with yourself and trust your notes and
you will recover. This is where the unprepared shooter will panic, abandon the old technique because “it isn’t
working” and fish around for the rest of the match trying to hit on a new way to find the ten ring. Or merely hold,
and hold, and hold, in the hope that the shot will break all by itself and miraculously go through the center of the
target.

Other contingency plans should be included for circumstances beyond your personal control. Should there be
an enforced delay, say a range is shut down by a target malfunction, you should have instructions to reinforce
the importance of being prepared to restart the match whenever you are sent back to the line. Be prepared and
you will not feel inconvenienced. It will bother other shooters, but it will not bother you. When they come to you
after the match and say, “Man, I was going just great until we had that stoppage!” you can smile to yourself and
translate what he really said: ”I wasn’t watching my sights.”

Try to foresee any possible disaster. You might crossfire. Somebody else might crossfire on your target. Not
only would you know how to handle it within your head, you’ll be able to quote the relevant rule and page
number from your match plan if the range staff are clueless (it does sometimes happen).

Forewarned is forearmed.
If all of this seems like too much work, I guess you could take the option of not bothering with a match plan.
After all, with experience all of these things will become second nature. Your mistakes will make you wiser. I
can tell you it will take roughly twenty years. Maybe a little less for those not as dense as myself. But having
spent so many years repeating history I can tell you I wish somebody had beaten me about the ears when I was
much younger and made me do it.

It’s all a part of working smarter, not harder.

And doggone it, I just wasn’t watching my sights...

*You do keep a shooting diary, don’t you???

5
Training for International 10 Meter Air Pistol
The following is a basic but practical guide for anybody who wants to improve his or her air pistol
scores. Air pistol is the best match for learning the basic skills of shooting accurately. Lack of recoil
means you get to see exactly what effect your trigger release has on sight alignment (since we are
watching the sights, aren't we?), and lack of noise and concussion builds confidence in novice
shooters who are not yet accustomed to "real" guns.

General Fitness
Good general fitness and a healthy lifestyle are a big advantage to the competitive shooter. This is not to say a
physique like Arnie's would help. But in high pressure situations such as major competitions a healthy and fit
body will handle stress more effectively.

When in training I swim about 5km per week and try to do some light gym work as well. Smoking is not a good
option. The occasional beer won't hurt you, but too much alcohol is also not ideal.

Special Exercises
Warming up before a match can be a great idea. Nothing too exotic, just a five minute routine to get the
muscles loose, drain some tension and get the circulation going.

I have seen all sorts of special "shooters'" exercises for strengthening the muscles critical for good shooting
performance. Many may well work, but the only routine I managed to stick with involves a pair of 5 lb dumbells.
One circuit involves the following:

1. Stand upright with hands at your sides (holding dumbells). Raise both arms to 90 degrees, hold for the
count of two, then return to sides. Repeat ten times.
2. With right arm raise dumbell to 90 degrees, similar to your shooting stance. Slowly trace a vertical
figure-eight ten times. Then slowly trace a horizontal figure-eight another ten times. Return to side.
3. Hold both dumbells out at 90 degrees. Rotate both arms together in a forward rotary motion ten times.
Then rotate 10 times in opposite direction. Return to sides.

Keep the dumbells near the television and try to complete half a dozen circuits per day. Suddenly your pistol will
seem lighter and more stable, and your arm won't be tired after a match. Exercising both arms means you won't
end up looking like a genetic experiment.

Training Techniques
It is a common misconception that merely shooting a lot will result in becoming a master grade shooter. Practice
makes permanent, and unless you constantly monitor and assess your training you may well be reinforcing bad
habits. It is not necessary to be constantly coached as such, but it is very important to bounce ideas off a fellow
shooter, discussing the pros and cons of various techniques and then recording the result of any changes. I'll
get to the importance of a diary later.

Developing a Sequence
A successful shot is no accident. It should be planned, step by step, each action following logically into the next,
until the shot breaks and follow through completed. Take a notebook to the range and record your steps. I found
it a great help to number them; my sequence goes to eleven, which I mentally count off as I shoot.

One of the greatest killers of a good shot is the uninvited idiot thought. The "I wonder what's for dinner tonight"
or "Gosh that young lady has a nice figure" - then BANG - the shot has gone and you have no idea where it
went. Mentally checking off the steps of a sequence for every shot means your mind is on the job at the critical
time. If the system breaks down, cancel the shot. Simple.

Dry Firing
This is a great means of reinforcing a sequence, strengthening the shooting arm and improving trigger control.
There are a few golden rules to keep it enjoyable (and viable).

6
 1. Don't overdo it. There's no future in putting in hour-long sessions that bore you senseless. I dry fire for
15-20 minutes, a couple of times a day if I'm keen.
2. Do exactly the same things you would do to live fire. Same clothing, footwear, glasses and tempo.
3. Use an aiming mark. Anything will do, I use a black patch on the wall. Not so much to aim at, but it's
great practice for teaching the body to retain a constant line to the target. Try not looking for the target
until you lower the pistol into your aiming mark. With a little practice you will find you are instinctively
going back to the same point every time.

Shooting Diary
I hate paperwork and as a result resisted keeping a diary for more than 20 years. Largely because of this I
continually made the same mistakes, often realising halfway through a match that I had solved this particular
problem before but forgotten. We are all human. We make mistakes. But if we can refresh our memories we
may not feel such gumbies after an unsuccessful match.

It is also handy for assessing changes in technique. If you change something, write it down. When something
works well, highlight it. If you shot a PB after dry firing for ten minutes half an hour before your match, make a
note of it. You can learn a lot from what you would normally forget.

On the other hand, try not to get bogged down in recording endless patterns of shots and figures. By all means
comment on a tendency (such as flinging shots high right). You can then plan to work on this particular problem
at your next training session. But page after page of numbers and dots on targets will not encourage future
reading. Keep it relevant and interesting.

Just a Few Tips

If you're having trouble holding focus or attention on your sights, try not looking at them until you settle in the
aiming area and are ready to shoot. Focus on the hairs on the end of your arm, the woodwork on the grip,
anything close. We have only a limited attention span - like it or not - and you must coincide the breaking of the
shot with your undivided attention.

Use your ten minutes preparation time to dry fire. You'll settle yourself down, establish a rhythm, and should
only need three to six sighters before you're ready to start the match.

Be very aware of your trigger finger position on the trigger shoe. Not only laterally, but vertically. Many shoes
have a slot machined halfway down for trigger testing; this makes for an easily felt familiar landmark.

Learn to call your shots. Your scope is a useful tool, but can make you score-crazy if all you do is quickly check
to see if you have shot a ten. Take some thought about the shot, mark it on a card if you can, then check
through the scope - to confirm your call.

Set goals. Whether it be achieving a score, holding the black, sticking to a training programme, it doesn't matter.
Make them realistic and set new goals as soon as you achieve them.

7
Dry Fire Training
Dry firing is the shooters equivalent to health food. We know it's good for us but the very thought of it
leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Plus we're afraid our friends will consider us pussies, in the same way
nerds were despised in the school yard for swatting for exams. Lose the baggage, guys, if you spend a
little time building your skills before your next match, chances are your scores will improve. Extra effort
does pay off, and the best part is you need never admit to your friends that you're a closet clicker.

The Basic Necessities

1. A quiet room. Preferably with good lighting. Ideally with a wall at least three metres away (ten feet).
2. 15-30 minutes when you know you won't be interrupted. Best not immediately after you've woken up in the
morning, nor when you're over-tired.
3. A pistol. Many modern air pistols have dry fire mechanisms built in, which are obviously the ideal. If you are
using a rimfire or centrefire be sure to use some form of snap cap that protects the firing pin and breech
area.
4. An aiming mark. This is a contentious issue, as many coaches recommend dry firing on a blank backdrop.
We will discuss the means of setting up aiming marks and the reasons for doing so later.

What Do We Hope To Achieve?

Dry fire is an excellent means of reinforcing the good technical execution of a shot without fear of getting
distracted. By concentrating on all of the technical aspects we can more fully appreciate subtle differences we
would not necessarily notice on the range. Above all else, we are not distracted by bullet holes in scoring rings
that lead us to an unhealthy preoccupation with scores. When dry firing is performed correctly it takes on an
extremely satisfying quality, almost spiritual. It can feel like a solid achievement, which may sound very Zen,
Grasshopper, but you will be amazed at how much more you will perceive after just a few sessions. When you
do it right, so right you just know that shot would have gone dead centre through the x-ring, the timing was right,
the sight picture was crisp, the shot broke as if by magic just after settling in the aiming area - I've been tempted
to go whooping about the house it felt that good. This is the time to let the feeling of the technique, the vibe of
the whole performance sink in, because this is what you want to reproduce time and time again.

Think back to the last time you asked somebody how they had just shot. What was their response? I bet they
shook their head and mentioned a six or seven that murdered their score. Just what exactly are they focused
on? What are their lingering thoughts going to be from a whole day's shooting? Just a handful of bad shots.
They'll berate themselves, gnash their teeth, beat their breasts and when the time comes to front the line again
they'll make the same mistakes because they've reinforced or relived those bad shots so many times, you'd
think they just can't wait to do it again.

Dry fire is part of a process where you mentally reinforce good technique. If your technique sucks when you first
start, work on it until it improves. Focus on the positives. Cancel out the bad shots, revel in the good shots.
There is no pressure to perform, no cruel bullet holes, just a clean slate to chalk up pluses and erase the
minuses. Whew. And you thought it was just point and click!

Now For The Tricky Bit

Here is where you will need the help of a friend to set your dry fire range so that it will maximise the benefits. I
must thank the input from Herman Sailor for this section. Herman was a top Rapid Fire shooter for Austria a few
years ago, and until recently ran the Military Shooting Academy at Innsbruck. I'd give his son Rudi's training CD
a plug about now, only being in German it is of little use to most of us. Word on the street is he's working on an
English version (due out late 2000).

Your home dry fire range must reproduce the layout of the live fire range where you do most of your shooting. In
fact, everything must be the same. You must wear the same shoes, clothing and glasses. I draw the line at ear
muffs, mainly for comfort's sake, but they may be a good idea if they help you concentrate.

The floor where you stand should be hard, like the range. Dry firing on carpet, especially thick pile, will make it
especially difficult to attain the same balance. Mark a point where you shoot from on the floor. Next, you must
measure the relative position of your aiming mark or marks, and here you will need a friend to take the
measurements.

8
First, have your friend measure the distance from the floor to your arm when you are aiming at a target on the
range. When in your dry fire room, set your arm at the same distance from the floor, and then place your aiming
mark at the relative height on the wall. Obviously distance from the pistol does not matter much.

The next step is to make the aiming mark (black target center) a relative size. To do this, take a piece of
cardboard and cut the lower part to fit snugly over your pistol roughly where the front sight is situated. Then,
holding the pistol in the shooting position, get your friend to mark with a pen both sides of the apparent size of
the black. You can then reproduce the corresponding size disc on your wall with the help of the template.

Rapid Fire shooters should note that this is how you reproduce exactly the spacing for your five targets. A wider
piece of card is needed, and a little patience, but if you are going to practise motor skills it is pointless doing so
unless you do it right.

The point of going to all of this trouble? If you do a lot of dry fire, and it can be addictive, you will build up motor
memory in your muscles. The difference is critical in speed matches such as Rapid Fire, or even the Rapid
section of Centre Fire. Perhaps it is not so important in slow fire matches, but just a few degrees difference can
change your whole body position to the stage where it will feel unfamiliar. This would be a pity, when a few
minutes' work could have made it right.

Rapid Fire
In order to train for the timed fire matches you should make a recording of the specific range commands for
each series and insert beeps for the turning target sequences. This is where Herr Sailor's CD would have been
ideal, as many CD players being programmable to repeat tracks it is possible to run a long series of Rapid runs
without playing with stop/go buttons.

Conclusion
Dry firing does not have to be a chore. It doesn't have to go on for ages, a successful session can be as short
as 10 minutes. My best sessions are short, I generally only stay longer when I'm having difficulty getting it right.
Try to have a specific goal in mind when you start a session. If your follow through is abysmal, try to
concentrate on that. And try to never finish on a negative. Remember, we're trying to reinforce the positives, so
stick with it until something feels good, even on a bad day.

But most of all, have fun!

9
Sight Watching
In which our intrepid seeker of the easy ten explores the most basic of shooting basics. Or is it?

What exactly do they mean when they tell you to “watch your sights”? This has always been one of the two
golden rules for pistol shooting, the other being to “squeeze the trigger”. Maybe I’m a little slow, but for several
years I did just like I was told. I focused on those sights and watched them bounce all over the target. I was a
junior at the time, very young for the sport, but my scores just never seemed to progress. But one day I must
have got tired of peppering the entire target and I tried what seemed to me to be a unique concept. What if I
tried to hold those little black blighters together by force of will, instead of praying that the shot would break as
the front sight wobbled somewhere near the middle of the notch of the rear sight?

Thus I discovered the difference between being a spectator and a participant.

“Duh!”, I hear you saying. Well maybe I am slow on the uptake, but I wonder how many others who are trying to
learn the fundamentals of pistol marksmanship take the advice too literally. I also wonder just how many
shooters out there have strings of shots that widen from time to time because they “forget” the importance of
controlling rather than watching their sights.

Before we get any further into this let me clarify what I mean by “control”. I hasten to stress that I don’t mean
you should try to pin your sights to a point on the target. My sights remain moving about the area of aim under
the black, and that movement is quite normal and acceptable. What is NOT acceptable is movement of the front
sight within the rear. When the pistol moves around the area of aim the sights must move as a matched set.
Together. As if they were one. This requires most of my attention and a rigidly locked wrist. It then only requires
the release of the trigger within a reasonable time frame without upsetting that sight formation. Sounds simple?
It is.... but with our human failings such as limited attention span and a tendency to think of other things we
sometimes overlook the easy way. If not we’d all be shooting Master scores.

So these days when I feel my tenuous grip on self control slipping I try to tell myself to stop being a spectator. I
might as well be sitting in the stands watching a tennis match if all I’m going to do is watch my sights wave
about in the breeze. Take control of your life! Don’t be a chicken!

The second part of controlling the shot comes with trigger control. Some days I hold those sights so tightly I just
can’t help but admire them. Take the shot? No way! Look at that sight picture, ain’t it purty? Partly from fear of
upsetting the sights and partly from a physical difficulty in operating the trigger finger with the wrist locked solid I
find I have to play mind games to smoothly release the shot.

The first important thing to remember is not to let your hand get cast into the grip. Let the blood circulate by
releasing the grip every four or five shots - shake it a little if you have to. If you don’t do this you will find it
increasingly difficult to independently operate your trigger finger.

Of course you must release the trigger with a positive gradual movement of your trigger finger, but this positive
movement must NOT cause a conscious release. In other words, if the shot does not take you by surprise it
probably won’t be a good shot. Some shooters assure me that they can make the shot by holding near the point
of release and tweak the final few grams when the sights look good. All well and good when you’re shooting on
your home turf. This is not so easy under big match pressure when your fine motor skills desert you and the
trigger suddenly feels like it’s ten pounds.

You must find a repeatable method of controlling your shot release that suits you. It may be that you will not
know whether it will work until you find yourself shooting a Final for the first time. If your heart rate is up (and
distinctly audible inside your ear muffs), if your hands are trembling, if your breathing is short and shallow, if you
can’t think clearly - in short, if you’re as nervous as a skinny dipper in a piranha pond - then, and only then will
you know if your technique will give you adequate control of your shooting.

The secret is to combine the focus on a tight sight formation with a positive finger movement pulling straight
back on the trigger so that the shot breaks within a reasonable time frame. I find it helpful to have a mental
image of using the trigger shoe as a means of steering the front sight, and guiding it as I pull it straight back
through the “goal posts” of the rear sight. I know other shooters use similar mind games. Whatever works. The

10
point being they make a positive decision to produce the shot. They become part of the action, they participate,
instead of sitting back in the bleachers hoping the home team will do well.

So don’t ever tell yourself to “watch” the sights. Watching is for passive poodles. Limp wristed wimps. Grab
those sights by the scruff of the neck and make them look like a fixture. Enforce your will on them. Be the
master of your own destiny and you’ll swear off spectating forever.

11
Don't Bee A Cheeken!
Trigger control is the most difficult part of shooting to execute in a truly detached manner. It’s such an
emotive subject. I expect a good deal of mail on this one…

Imagine this. A bright blue sky. Just a hint of a breeze to keep the summer heat somewhere between “pleasant”
and “delightful”. A spotless row of new targets set up on the 50 meter line. You raise your pistol, breathe in,
settle onto the target as you slowly exhale and sit the crystal clear sights below the wonderfully fuzzy black. The
sights sit in perfect alignment. They still sit there. Nothing’s moving. What an awesome hold! Sometime soon it’s
going to break just nicely. Sometime soon. It’s going. To break. Some. Time. Soon… Dang!

The dreaded chicken finger has struck again.

Later, in that same match. You’re a little tired now. Much of it because you wasted so much energy while
admiring your sights early on. Your hold has deteriorated somewhat. Now, on arriving in the area of aim, you
wait for a favorable picture before applying that last pressure on the trigger to make it break. Yes, yes, no, no.
Yes, no, yes, no, YES! Oh, NO!

Does this sound awfully familiar? The good news is, you’re not Robinson Crusoe, my old sputnik. Repent now
and you may yet be saved. Like all good reformed drinkers will tell you, the first important step is admitting you
have a problem. Those who have no idea of what I’m talking about, you might was well stop reading this right
now and go back to polishing the bulging contents of your trophy cabinet. Leave us jerkaholics anonymous to
our own devices.

Now I have your attention as fellow sufferers of, shall we say, trigger control that has room for improvement,
let’s see if we can understand the cause instead of wailing over the symptoms.

We’re too darn fussy. We want to shoot a ten with EVERY shot we put down range. There’s something about
Western civilization that fosters control freaks. This encourages us to do two things. First, we take far too much
notice of the position of the sights on the target. This makes our shooting eye tend not to want to stay so rigidly
with the sights, sneaking more and more to the target. After all, our subconscious WANTS to see a shot in the
center of the target and hasn’t ever been really convinced that it can magically happen by IGNORING it!
(Remember how much we inwardly scoffed when Obie Wan told Skywalker to turn off his ballistic computer and
“Trust in the Force, Luke!”)

But our mortal sin is that we really don’t want the pistol to go off without having a perfect sight picture. So we
teeter on the brink of firing as we jockey our bucking colts for better position, never really happy unless we’ve
attained the happy coincidence of aligned sights on THAT spot as the shot broke. While we’re being honest
here, does it ever occur to you (like it often does to me) that there was a certain element of LUCK in that shot?
Sure, we still feel smug that we’ve just shot a ten, but are you listening to that other voice in your head who
butts at your ego by chiming in “Tin arse!” My inner voice has an annoying nasal quality about it, kind of like an
off key kazoo. For this reason I tended never to listen too much. But that was a mistake. He was right.

Tennis commentators on television never tire of berating players for making a “low percentage shot”. Instead of
keeping a rally going, a player might lose patience or lack confidence in his ability to win a long point, resulting
in him trying a backhand looping passing shot that has little chance of coming off.

In the same way we, as shooters, lose our patience and hold for a little longer in the hope of a miraculous or
lucky shot, when we should cancel out and start again. When was the last time you ran out of time in a match?
We also lose confidence in the basics when we feel things aren’t going our way. We convince ourselves that we
can over-control the shot and force a ten by sheer willpower.

Because shooting in a match is worlds away from shooting on our home turf. When no sheep stations are at
stake trigger control is not such a big issue. Nervousness and heightened tension rob us of our fine motor skills
and all of a sudden what was so easy in the basement of our house becomes so difficult that we believe there is
something wrong with our equipment. I’m here to tell you something you may already suspect. Do you know
what the variable is that's most responsible for your poor performance? Take a look in the mirror. You’re looking
at him.

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The point to my story so far is I believe we approach the act of breaking the shot in a negative manner that’s
doomed to provide us with low percentage shots – especially in the heat of a big match.

Typically the first thing we seem to do when raising our pistol to the target is take up the first stage of the
trigger. By doing so we are seemingly convinced that if we take away the first stage we will end up having less
trigger weight to complete the shot. Lighter trigger equals better shooting, right?

How does that explain that High Master Bullseye pistol shooters shoot equally high scores with their three and a
half pound triggered forty fives as their twenty twos with two pound triggers? And shouldn’t Free Pistol scores
be at least comparable with Air Pistol since there is no trigger weight restriction?

What I believe we achieve is a defensive approach to taking the shot. We only half commit, always leaving the
door open to abort when the hold wanders a little, then coming back as it drifts to the center again. This is how
we convince ourselves that we are working hard to fire a good shot. From a practical sense it’s amazing we get
the scores we do sometimes, since there is a much easier method that East Europeans have been using for
many years with great success. Easier in a physical sense; but mentally so much harder for us control freaks
since it involves taking an immense leap of faith with each and every shot.

Imagine if you were not to take any trigger pressure at all until two to four seconds before the shot breaks.
Imagine if you could then be fully focused on your sight formation before your poor human mind had a chance
to become distracted by some irrelevant stray thought. Imagine if you could be firing within the window when
your actual focus was at its height, before the sharp edges of the front sight had started to blur. Imagine if all of
this happens when you have a good supply of oxygen to your bloodstream and your hold is tight within the
aiming area. You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one…

Thirty years ago the Russians used an electronic training device that gave a beeping sound in a set of
headphones whenever the pistol was aimed at the ten ring PLUS the diameter of the bullet. It was purely a dry
fire device, but it taught shooters that the sight picture need not look perfect to still score a ten. In this manner a
whole generation of Eastern Bloc shooters had sufficient confidence in their hold to produce a shot in a positive
manner soon after coming into the aiming area.

Obviously every shot will not be a ten. But just as obviously the technique is far more sound than the low
percentage efforts detailed above.

It was not until I was being taught (by a coach from Belarus) how to cycle the trigger in Standard Pistol that I
understood their whole philosophy of trigger control. He was most annoyed at my habit of flicking my trigger
finger to take the first stage for the next shot while I was still under recoil from the previous shot. He made me
maintain trigger pressure while under recoil (and therefore in follow through), and I was not to release the
trigger and start on the next shot until I had regained the aiming area. This was HARD as it broke habits of
fifteen years or more. But what I started to achieve was a POSITIVE release for each shot as it was so much
easier not to freeze on the trigger. Far from causing me to panic about wasting time it provided the basis for a
smooth rhythm and deliberate shot-by-shot control.

In the same way precision shooting should be a positive and rhythmic action. In my first major Air Pistol Final I
psyched myself up to follow this method. I was so nervous I wanted to crawl out of the building and hide. My
heart was racing and I was shaking so badly I had serious doubts I’d hold the black. Contrary to what many
people say, it did not go away after two or three shots. To be honest I was in seventh place, so I was in no
potential winning position. But having a noisy gallery of perhaps two hundred people crammed behind us only
added to my already acute anxiety.

My plan was to start my trigger squeeze with the Range Officer’s count of “one”, just before “Start.” Under no
circumstances would I stop squeezing until the shot broke. In every case I was first to fire, and on the sixth shot
I was in danger of taking an early shot, as I fired before the echo of “Start” had died out. That was a ten, by the
way. I ended with a 100.6 for the Final, the highest on the day. It took courage that was akin to desperation to
have the faith in my hold and simply produce a good technical release. Since that day I have often tried but
never succeeded in regaining that magic for more than a few shots at a time.

But I remain convinced that here lies the path to success.

13
There really is nothing difficult about shooting a ten. Our own fear of failure is our greatest enemy. It makes us
freeze on the trigger and overhold. If we can overcome our own human frailty and have faith in what we know to
be true, there is no limit to what we can achieve.

Do you know what the best piece of advice was from my friend the coach from Belarus? I cherish it to this day
and repeat it to myself at critical times on the firing line: “Don’t bee a cheeken!”

I dedicate this column to my former coach Vladimir Galiabovitch, who suffered the incomparable culture shock
of leaving conformist Eastern Europe for apathetic Australia. I don’t know to this day if he understood the “she’ll
be right” attitude that drove him to despair of ever teaching our shooters how to behave (and perform) like world
class athletes. He knew what he was talking about; the tragedy was few of them wanted to accept that they
were indeed big fish in a tiny pond and they had a lot to learn. He no longer coaches professionally, leaving
many shooters in the care of more comforting minders who tell them what they really want to hear.

14
The Power of Positive Thinking
Don’t worry, we’re not about to tell you how you too can change your life simply by reading OUR book
or selling OUR product, which really sells itself, as you’ll be doing all your friends a favor… But if you
think a little about what goes on in your head you might be able to do a little attitude adjustment to give
your scores a bit of a nudge along.

Make no mistake; performance in shooting is more than 90% mental. We all know how to work our bodies until
we are physically fit. But what can we do to improve our mental disposition so that when the time comes to
perform we have a focused and uncluttered frame of mind? I honestly don’t know all the answers to this. I’ve
been searching for many years and have found but a few pieces to the greater puzzle.

Step One – A Positive Outlook on Life

Every person we come into contact, whether we consciously realize it or not, has an effect on our state of mind.
This may be profound, or it may be negligible, depending on our susceptibility and the strength of character of
those who influence us. It is also possible to catagorize these people as having either a positive or a negative
effect on us.

Just as an interesting exercise, think about your daily acquaintances and put a mental plus or minus beside
each name. And I’m not talking a plus for physical attractions either, guys. Do they leave you feeling better for
talking to them, or is it an inevitable downer? In most cases the swing probably isn’t too far one way or the
other. But on the other hand, if you have a day full of interaction with people who have a negative outlook even
the most cheerful disposition takes a beating. I’m not saying you should sever all ties with the minus crowd, but
take the cumulative effect into consideration. You may certainly wish to avoid certain influences for a couple of
days leading up to an important match.

Step Two - A Positive Outlook on Shooting

I know that I have made this point before, but it is a ripper.

After a match, what are the particular shots that stick in your mind? When asked how did you shoot, do you
mention a magic ten in your third series or do you bemoan the seven and four eights? Sure, the bad shots are
real and should not be ignored, but to dwell on them means you’re reinforcing them. I’ve seen shooters who
make such a production out of shooting a six, berating themselves with much wailing and beating of breast, that
it’s only a matter of time before they send another snow bunny out there to keep it company. To agonize on a
bad shot is to expend too much mental energy in a negative way.

Every match has at least one memorable shot that makes you feel great. It’s ideal to pause after shooting a
good technical shot (not necessarily a ten). Use this time to remember how everything felt. Replay as much of it
as you can remember in your mind. In this way you are reinforcing something good, and it will help you to
repeat it, time and again.

It is also important to adopt a “poker” face for your match. This will help you adopt a calm demeanor that
ultimately will become second nature. Showing anger either with facial contortions, muttering or outright curses
serve no positive purpose. You may be embarrassed by making a disturbance, you will certainly be unpopular
on the firing line, and if anything you are encouraging your competitors with your obvious lack of self control.

I have watched some of the world’s best shooters put an eight down range, but to their credit you would never
know. They understand what is required to recover. They might switch to dry fire or they might take a break
from their shooting. Either way, they accept the outcome, get over it immediately and look to making the next
shot a technically correct one. This composure and maturity is what makes the difference between good
shooters and great shooters.

Step Three – Creating a Calm

Life these days can be both hectic and chaotic. Pressures of work, family commitments and even the sheer
volume of external distractions leave our poor little brains dazed and confused.

15
There are a number of cures for this ailment. Various forms of meditation can help. I recommend avoiding at all
cost the intelligence-killing influence of television, but as in all things moderation is the real secret here. But the
best remedy for uncluttering my ravaged gray matter has been floatation.

This is not a common form of therapy in the United States, but it does exist in larger areas. It comprises a
floatation tank (it looks like an oversized bath with a cover), with just a few inches of body temperature water of
extremely high salinity. The idea is to turn the lights out and float for a period of usually an hour. All sensory
perception is removed. The water fully supports the body, which will take anything up to half an hour to fully
relax on the first visit. There is no light or sound. The sensation is one of “self” simply floating in nothingness.
For some reason this period of total sensory deprivation leaves a feeling of wellbeing and order. One hour in a
floatation tank is equivalent to seven hours’ sleep, but it refreshes the mind to an amazing degree. The whole
world looks different.

Step 4 – Protecting the Calm

Once again I have harped on this before, but the act of being prepared for any calamity will prevent confusion,
anger and despair. Simply by writing out a list of contingency plans should ANYTHING go wrong and having it
on hand to reinforce your state of mind you will be prepared for the unexpected. This should be an integral part
of your Match Plan.

At a major match some years ago the 32 semi auto I was using threw its rear sight under recoil. I could not find
it on the ground or in the grass nearby. I had fired all but one shot, and I was in my final series of Center Fire
Precision. I called the range officer over. I pointed to my gun. I said, “ I’ve fired four shots. I’ve lost my rear sight.
I want to claim a break and cease to function.”

He looked at my gun. He looked at me. He said, “You still have a minute and a half.”

I looked at him. I looked at the gun. I looked back at him. I said, “I want to claim a break and cease to function.”

He looked at my gun. He looked at me. He said, “Can’t you fix it?”

I said, “I can’t find the rear sight. I’d need a hammer and a drift to drive in a pin that’s probably sheared off
anyway. I want to claim a break and cease to function.”

“But you’ve still got time to get your shot away.” He was clutching at straws. He’d never dealt with a break and
cease to function and it clearly scared him witless.

This was beginning to sound like a Monty Python sketch. “I want to claim a break and cease to function!” This
time loud enough to disturb the referee’s pleasant reverie. Finally he came over to sort out the trouble.

In the end I was allowed extra time for a shot with my brother’s gun to finish my series.

My point to this story is, due to my experience I knew the rules well enough to know my rights as a shooter. I
was in an unusual situation, which was compounded by a green range officer who had no idea of the rules. Had
I been less experienced I would have either lost a shot or been convinced that I had to take a blind shot and
hope it hit the paper somewhere. But worse than that, so much worse, would have been the state of mind I
would have been in by the time I reached the Rapid Fire section of the match.

The other piece of invaluable advice is to mind your own business on the line. Your neighbor might be having a
bad day and might want to share his misfortune with anybody who will listen. Don’t. You can always
commiserate with him after the match has ended.

I once saw a lady shooter who threw such a tantrum when scorers could not find a fifth shot on her target that
they gave her another shot out of sheer embarrassment. Everybody who witnessed it was deeply annoyed. By
allowing themselves to become emotionally involved they let their own performance suffer.

Your target might break down. Don’t take it as a personal affront. It happens. They’ll move you to another target
that’s just as good. It will even in all probability be the same distance from the firing line.

16
The match referee is looking closely at your arm angle between shots in Center Fire Duel. To the extent that
you notice him each series. He is NOT out to get you. He’s probably just trying to feel like he’s doing his job.
Maybe he’s trying to impress a good looking spectator.

You notice the shooter in the next bay put a shot in the dirt and still have ten shots on his Free Pistol card. For
starters you should not have counted as you need to have YOUR wits about YOU. For another thing, what will
you achieve? If you say nothing you will fume internally. If you accuse him of cheating you will probably start an
argument. Either way, you lose.

It’s easy to see in all of these cases how distractions cause a lack of concentration. The secondary effect is on
our mood. I guess the more objective we can be in “shooting mode”, the more we are able to perform our act of
producing good technical shots in a positive manner.

Believe in this and you will use reason to avoid a destructive frame of mind.

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It Ain't Over...
Follow through in shooting has long been considered a physical part of the game. I’d like to contend
that there is no other part of the shot process that is more important to attaining a positive mental
attitude towards shooting performance.

Throughout our lives we are slaves to numerical tyranny. More is better. To earn more money is to succeed, to
have a home and car costing more dollars is part of the capitalist dream. All throughout our schooling our
intelligence is measured by percentages. We strive to achieve these higher numbers. It becomes instinctive. It
is hardly surprising that every time we line our sights up on the target we are satisfied with nothing less than the
highest number up for grabs – a ten.

This is not a bad thing in itself.

But there is a danger that this overpowering urge to shoot a “possible” with every bullet may in fact interfere with
the proper execution of the shot.

How often have you seen a shooter take a shot and immediately bend down to scope it before the pistol has
even reached the bench? How often have you been guilty of this yourself?

Our natural inclination is to want to shoot a ten. Therefore the one thing we want to see, the one thing we can
barely wait to confirm, is that beautiful sight of a bullet hole through the x-ring.

Small wonder that we have barely let the bullet get out the end of the barrel before we check out to see what
score we have just shot. It’s what is bred into us from an early age.

But shooting is known as a discipline for many reasons. Not the least that we have to overcome our natural
inclinations in order to become good at it. We have to fight our desire to watch the target, since it’s only natural
that we want to see what we’re hitting. We have to fight our desire to MAKE the shot break when it looks good.
But we also have to fight our impatience for instant gratification towards the end of the shot sequence, or all of
our hard work will have been for naught.

Without an honest follow through our mind has already left the station before the shot has broken. We’re looking
forward to the “good bit”, where we reap the reward of seeing a shot hole in the paper. What could be more
boring or pointless than holding up the pistol for another second or two? In fact I’ve known quite a number of
shooters who did this just to keep their coach off their backs. They would hold for a good few seconds after the
shot had broken, but their minds had switched off. Sad fact is they might as well have banged it down and taken
a quick peep.

Follow through without full concentration is like cheating in solitaire. You’re not being honest to yourself so you
probably won’t even keep up the pretense for very long. But once you know WHY follow through is so important
I guarantee you’ll want to rethink the whole concept.

Okay, the first plus is a physical benefit. You will ensure that you don’t end the shot too early and pull it way out
of the aiming area. Duh. I guess I shouldn’t have to even mention that one.

The second is a matter of concentration. If you make yourself believe that the shot is not complete until AFTER
a period of follow through (it may be half a second, it may be three seconds, it really doesn’t matter), you will be
THERE on the sights and trigger all the way to, through and beyond the breaking of the shot. There will be no
chance of waning attention leading to a stray shot that you didn’t call.

This will build more of that magic ingredient, discipline.

Use the time after the completion of the shot (ie AFTER your follow through) to analyze your performance. Use
a counter on a disk to call your shot physically. Turn it into a game, see if you can become good at predicting
where the shot fell on the card. By doing this you will take away the temptation to check the target so quickly. If

18
you know you have to make a prediction ON PAPER you will be taking more notice of your sight picture as you
shoot. Oddly enough this has been known to help increase scores!

But the overwhelming benefit of a good physical and mental follow through is that it will have a positive effect on
your attitude. When you succeed in performing a complete and controlled follow though you will have changed
the entire focus of your shooting mindset.

Instead of having a 10% focus on technique and 90% focus on score, you will have turned it around completely.
No longer is the prime objective to shoot a ten and confirm it in the scope. Now the objective is to shoot as good
a technical shot as possible, call the shot, and THEN check the accuracy of your prediction.

Fact is, a good shot may not always be a ten. And a ten that had no right to be there is nothing to be proud of.
Your heightened awareness of your shooting technique will allow you to more honest with yourself and help
reinforce those factors which go into making a good shot.

By holding your attention with the sights and trigger through and beyond the shot you will ensure your mental
presence HERE rather than THERE (at the target) at the most crucial time.

19
Making the Most of Electronic Trainers - Part 1
There are plenty of these newfangled whizbang devices on the market these days; the Noptel, RIKA
Home Trainer, SCATT, Kurt, etc, but very little written on their practical use. Firstly we will discuss why
you should use one. Then we will go into how to set it up to gain the most benefit from them.

I guess I should first qualify my own experience with these units. Obviously I know the RIKA system best, but
for some months I used a SCATT system in Australia a couple of years ago. Most software in this field has
similar settings and features.

Perhaps it is because none of these units were developed in a country where English is the first language that
there are no helpful instructions for analyzing the information they provide. This is a guide to hopefully help you
better understand how to get the most from your trainer.

For the purposes of brevity (that’s from the Latin word “brevis” meaning “lazy typist”) I’ll be referring to Electronic
Trainers as ETs. This is in no way an attempt to appear more scientific or scholarly. I’d just like to make this
clear from the outset. Neither would I appreciate any smart alec emails titled “Phone Home”.

Why Use an Electronic Trainer?

In too many instances I have seen ETs used simply as a convenient means of shooting a match. It won’t do any
harm, but it’s like using a semi trailer to go to the corner shop for a bottle of milk. You have, after all, the
ultimate tool for working smarter rather than harder to improve your shooting technique.

Although these trainers have the ability to simulate “real” shooting – scaled down targets and scoring rings in
direct proportion to an actual match – it would be a mistake to compare scores shot on an ET to scores shot
live, both competition and practice. This was never the intention of their design.

It is better to think of an ET as being a diagnostic tool. The most important information to be taken from an ET
session has little to do with a final score. For a shooter who is taking his training seriously, there are many parts
of shooting performance that can be broken down into specific components. Size of average hold, time taken
for completion of shot, hold stability during actual shot release (trigger control), consistency in follow through
and variations between hold area and hit area are just a few of the important ones.

From a specific ET session it should be possible to identify a particular trait or problem within your shooting
technique. This will indicate that you need work on this problem for perhaps a week or two. The next session on
the ET will give an indication of whether the exercises you have done have improved this aspect of your
shooting.

How to Approach an ET Session

I’m assuming you are setting up your ET at home. If you have a RIKA you will have the flexibility of not needing
a set distance, since you can print targets to any specified range up to 10 meters. Otherwise you will have a 5
or 10 meter range, possibly near your PC. Ideally range-like surroundings (garage or basement) give a more
realistic backdrop than a lounge complete with competing television set.

Always shoot in the same clothing you would be wearing at the range. For this reason a plushly carpeted
lounge also detracts from simulating “real” shooting conditions. Obviously you should also set the target at a
relative height and have good lighting both on the target and your sights.

Try to locate the receiver unit’s cord in such a way that it does not swing below the barrel when you come on to
the target. This can be done by either anchoring an end directly below the barrel or draping the cord up your
arm and around your shoulder. Try to remember you have done this before rushing off to feed the cat halfway
through the match, as none of these units bounce well off the floor.

It is also a good idea to have some means of protecting the sensor where it is clamped to the end of the barrel.
With a rifle you can use a bipod. Using a pistol you just have to be careful never to bump the end of it, otherwise
you will find your zero could have moved. I used to use a higher than normal bench and rest the pistol on the
flat of the grip, thereby keeping the sensor well clear of the bench.

20
Otherwise you should do everything as you would while shooting. The same breathing, shot sequence, follow
through and ideally timing. If you have an older computer you might find you’ll have to wait a little while between
shots for it to catch its breath.

Maximizing Your ET Settings

Just because your ET has come with default settings, don’t be afraid to change them to suit yourself. Otherwise
much of the information you receive will not be of much use.

The first thing I do is expand the maximum run time of the trace to at least 20 seconds. Many of them come set
at 5 seconds with dire warnings of taking up unnecessary space in the computer’s memory if you go over that.
What it will do is give all of your shots a maximum recorded time of 5 seconds, whether you take 6 or 16
seconds to complete the shot. You will never know just how long you are taking, and this could be something in
your technique that needs to be addressed.

If you are given a choice of scoring ring for holding this should be selected depending on the level you have
attained. A 560 shooter should be trying to hold 9 ring or better. A 530 shooter should be trying to hold 8 ring,
and I’d recommend anybody else to select the 7 ring, or the size of the black. What this will provide is a
percentage of time (that you can specify) before the shot is broken that is held within this area. Most ETs will
already give the ten ring as a separate percentage, but this secondary hold area is up to you. I generally set the
time value at 2 seconds, as my optimum hold time after I have settled into the aiming area is 3-5 seconds, and it
will give a good indication of how I am holding. Shooters who prefer to hold for a shorter time may wish to
shorten this accordingly.

It is also possible to extend your trace further than one second after the shot. This is handy for checking that
your follow through does in fact exist. Many junior or inexperienced shooters will assure you that they do in fact
have a follow through, but the straight line that zips off the target immediately out of the shot hole is a dead
giveaway.

If your ET has the capability of offsetting the shot on a time basis, it is an interesting experiment to set it at plus
0.5 to 1.0 seconds and see what the possible result would have been. A good follow through should net a
higher score as trigger release no longer plays a part in the hold.

This function also gives a good indication if trigger control is not as finely tuned as it should be. By setting to
minus 0.2 to 0.3 of a second, if the projected score is noticeably higher than your actual result, it probably
indicates poor trigger release. We typically have a reaction time of approximately two to three tenths of a
second between recognizing a good sight picture and sending the message through our nervous system to set
off the shot. If we consistently pull the shot from the center of the target to a less central point of impact we have
certainly fired consciously and have to work on a means of setting off the trigger in a more subtle manner.

In my next article I will expand further the finer points of making the most of the information available from an
ET.

21
Making the Most of Electronic Trainers - Part 2
In Part One we discussed the best way to set up your ET to derive maximum benefit. In this article we
look at the various results available to the shooter apart from a basic score.

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

Now we come to the interesting part of the proceedings. I begin with an apology for the extent to which this will
be incomplete. As I mentioned in Part One, there is little or no literature available on data analysis from these
devices. I hope this basic outline will evolve into a far more extensive guide in future.

As I am most familiar with the Rika system I will be Rika specific in this section.

Repetition Mode
This is better than television. Not only can you watch the colored lines squiggle across the target, you can
replay those golden moments of glory when you punch right through the x-ring.

When you start looking closely at patterns within the trace some trends may become apparent. A low left to high
right diagonal oscillation (for a right handed pistol shooter) shows some weakness in wrist lock or poor contact
between the hand and the grip. Try to recognize any patterns of wobble that may be caused by body sway,
incorrect body alignment (a tendency to drift to one side) or up and down movement (which may be caused by
trying to swivel at the hip to hold the correct height on the target).

I have a personal favorite shot I like to call “the rubber band”. It starts with a nice central hold. At about a tenth
of a second before release the trace straightlines out to the 8 or 7 ring, drops the yellow dot way out there and
straightlines back to the center of the target in follow through. Quite often this happens so fast the shooter never
sees it happen. Mostly they are pulled shots to seven or eight o’clock, or heeled shots to one or two o’clock
(again I’m speaking for right handers). But it’s a dead giveaway that it was a “now!” or consciously fired shot.

Sometimes if you watch carefully during the breaking of the shot you will see a noticeable kick of the trace as
the shot is released. This is due to excessive after travel, especially on pistols with 500 grams or more in trigger
weight. If the trigger finger does not squeeze rearwards in a perfectly straight line it will kick the muzzle as the
trigger pulls through the sear release and hits against the stop.

That purple line of follow through is most instructive. We all are certain that our follow through is exemplary. But
the trace does not lie. Many of us take a little nervous jump just after the shot breaks. Seeing this helps us
realize that we must maintain control of our hold through and after the shot.

In the case of the Rika, the final static image showing the various stages of trace and fall of shot also includes
small green crosses showing the impact points of the other shots in the series.

In general after studying the trace for a while it is easy to recognize what a good tight hold looks like. This
translates to a good sight formation hold from a shooter’s perspective. This kind of reinforcement will help the
shooter recognize the importance of this. It can also prove that not all tens are good shots. If the trace wavered
all over the black and just happened to break as it raced past the center of the target there is reason for some
rueful reflection and honest appraisal.

Average Placement and Holding for Series

This function gives a center of group for the hold and actual hits. For those with a statistical bent it will give
standard deviation and maximum distance between shots in millimeters for the hits, and similar figures for the
area of hold.

Ideally the figures for the hits should not be a great deal higher than those for the hold. The greater the
difference, the greater the effect of trigger release on the overall group size.

Centers of hit and hold are also displayed. This can be very interesting as it often shows a tendency for the shot
to be pushed or pulled away from the center of the hold as it breaks.

22
Single Shot Analysis
This function takes each shot on its own and gives the average hold (shown as a rectangular frame) in relation
to the center of hits and hold in the series, as above. The rectangular frame will be in proportion to the size and
shape of hold before the shot broke.

Possible Score by Time Transference

This really is the most telling set of figures to my way of thinking. It consists of a bar graph giving potential
scores for every tenth of a second starting one second before shot release and ending one second after. These
figures are calculated either by ten shot series or the entire match. The highest potential score is shown as a
green bar.

A shooter with good trigger control will display a flat or almost level pattern in the center of the graph. Poor
trigger control will inevitably show a definite dip, probably starting two or three tenths before the shot broke,
before raising again for a tenth or two into follow through.

If the graph rapidly declines from a tenth of a second after shot release it’s apparent there IS no follow through.

There is no point in here debating whether the shooter should be firing consciously, unconsciously or trusting in
some higher being. The function of this program is to demonstrate just how effective the shot release procedure
really is. If the results are not satisfactory it is time to rethink your approach.

Time Charts
These graphs show individual shots on a time line from go to whoa. The main graph uses the same color
scheme for the trace as the first graphic section above. The difference is, the y-value shown on the graph is
distance from the center of the target. It is therefore easy to see at which points during the taking of the shot the
hold is within an acceptable area.

I have found from studying my graphs that between three and six seconds from settling in the aiming area my
hold is at its most stable. The longer I hold after this the more it becomes a lottery. Again it provides
reinforcement for the “d’oh” factor, that which we really know but need to be reminded.

The secondary graph in this section separates movement from center of the target to a red trace for side to side
movement, and a blue trace for vertical movement. This will highlight a particular problem of excessive
movement in either direction.

There is a third graph that is generated only when a trigger sensor is hooked up. This shows the gradual (or
not-so-gradual, as the case may be) loading of the trigger weight on a parallel time line to these other two
graphs. This can be very instructive in showing up the “now” syndrome – where a shooter makes a definite
decision to take the shot and pulls the trigger rapidly to complete it – thereby pulling the gun from the center of
the target. In this case a rapid curve on the trigger graph will correspond with a sharp downward curve on the
“distance from target center” graph.

This sensor really only works well with triggers of air pistol weight or heavier.

Cant
Shown on a shot-by-shot basis, this graph will show the physical cant of the gun for the duration of the shot.
When initial fine calibration is completed by the shooter the unit takes the cant during those sighting shots and
sets it as “zero”. All angles shown from that point on are in relation to that setting.

Where it becomes instructive is when the angle changes as the match progresses. It may be because of
physical fatigue, it may be caused by mental fatigue, or it could be good old fashioned complacency. Should the
angle grow more than a degree or two there will certainly be a change in the point of impact in relation to
apparent sight picture.

Series Overview
This function merely shows each series as a ten shot target. Handy for seeing if the groups change as the
match progresses, or if the groups expand as fatigue sets in. It’s a neat graphic but really does no more than
having paper targets to study.

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Percentage Calculations
This set of figures will give some indication as to how tight your hold is just prior to the shot release. Parameters
for these results are set by the shooter depending on his holding expectations. The length of time before the
shot is normally set at around one second. The amount of time the hold remained during this specified period in
the 10 ring will be defined as a percentage. The second parameter is also set by the shooter – he will choose a
scoring ring (say the 8 ring) – and a second percentage will be given for the time the hold remained within that
ring.

This data is then split into three possibilities. The first is related to the actual target. The second is calculated as
if the shot itself were the center of the target. The third calculation is assuming the center of the hold was the
center of the target.

Realistically I don’t believe any but the first is relevant.

Score/Hold Time
This graph shows actual score of each shot of a series or the whole match on the y axis, while the x axis shows
the elapsed hold time for each shot. Typically there will be a “sweet spot” where shots breaking within a certain
time will show a cluster of higher scores. Another common trend is to see the shots that linger out to the right
side of the graph, those where the shooter has held too long, to string out and become far less consistent. More
solid evidence to convince unbelievers of the obvious.

A time study graph at the bottom of this page is also of more than passing interest. It shows the overall time of
the match and how shot strings were broken down within that time (again shots are shown against the y axis for
value). Did the shooter wait to fire an 8 before taking a break? How did he manage his overall time?

This concludes my basic tour through the statistic functions of the Rika program. As I have never had
experience with the heart rate monitor I have not included this feature.

There really are many possibilities with a device such as this. I’m certain others have conceived of this, but I
have never seen it discussed before:

Suffering For Your Art

For those with a masochistic but practical bent, it is possible to turn up the difficulty level to condition the
shooter to having to perform at a higher level of technical excellence to achieve an “acceptable” score on the
Rika. With a keystroke you can have your target scored as if it were at 11, 12, 13 or however many meters
away you like, depending on how much pain you wish to self-inflict.

It could also be used for deflating overblown egos, but I’m not here to put evil thoughts in scheming minds.

To change the distance within the Rika program you enter Administration and select Shooter and Target
Database. The Targets folder will then allow you to select the target (eg 10m Air Pistol) and Edit. At the bottom
of the specifications it is possible to specify any distance, and to make the degree of difficulty hard enough to
punish undisciplined shooting I set it at 12 meters.

This is akin to the hill training approach that runners use. Of course the score will no longer have direct
relevance to “real” air pistol, but this is a positive rather than a negative. No longer will your practice matches be
always better than your competition scores. Nothing changes in sight picture (as it would if you were to
physically set a 10 meter target at 12 meters).

Conversely for new shooters it’s possible to reduce the distance to help build a little confidence in the first few
shooting sessions. There really are many possibilities with this feature.

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How To Make Your New Pistol User-Friendly
New generation target pistols come with a startling array of adjustments. Tuning to taste can be
bewildering, especially for newer shooters. Here are a few hints to make life easier.

The Grip
There are several aspects of the grip that are interrelated and may take a while to sort out completely. Many
pistols now have adjustable rake angle, some even have a small amount of cant and rotation available. This is
not something that you should leap into as soon as you unpack the box. It will take a little while to learn the feel
of the pistol, and from there it will be easier to judge your most natural wrist position.

As in many cases a middle of the road approach is sensible at first. An upright grip is more difficult to maintain a
locked wrist. An acute angle of rake will sorely stretch the tendons that require free movement to work your
trigger finger. So somewhere in between lies an excellent starting point.

Make the gun comfortable in your hand. Take your normal shooting stance. Raise the gun while looking straight
out in front of you, or close your eyes if you don’t trust yourself not to cheat. When the pistol is pointed roughly
at target height, take a look at how it is pointing. Ideally you should be looking straight down the sights. If not, it
may be time to start adjusting the rake until it does. But as I said before, I’d get familiar with it by shooting a few
targets before leaping in to make adjustments.

Don’t make the mistake of clamping the palm shelf too tightly against the base of your hand. If you make your
hand too snug it is very difficult to judge how tightly you are holding the grip. In a worst case scenario the
tension felt in a tight grip will give the impression of a firm grip while the gripping fingers are actually quite limp.
This can be disastrous, as a firm grip is needed to maintain a good hold on the target.

Remember that on hot days your hand will swell up. Don’t be afraid to adjust the palm shelf accordingly. That’s
why it’s adjustable.

Trigger Position and Adjustment

Here is a critical adjustment that can easily be misjudged.

Most triggers these days are two stage. At the very least they have a certain amount of takeup. When I see
shooters adjusting the trigger shoe position most make the fatal mistake of leaving it too far to the rear. They set
it so that the trigger finger is comfortable and in a position to pull straight back – but without taking the trigger
back to the point of release. That, after all, is where it’s most important to have that ideal relationship between
finger and trigger. So by the time they have taken up the trigger slack their finger is beyond its ideal angle and
starting to push to the left on release.

Try to avoid angling the blade of the trigger shoe. It was a fashion a few years ago, especially in Free Pistol, but
applying pressure anyhow but in a direct line rearwards is not likely to be successful. Shooters with shorter
fingers should make every effort to modify the grip or perhaps have another shoe manufactured rather than
attempt this.

Target triggers these days have a great deal of adjustments. The best rule of thumb is, until you have had
considerable experience with the gun, don’t be tempted to mess with them.

Most triggers will have a relatively light first stage, and more than 50% of total trigger weight on the second
stage. Contrary to popular belief, a lighter trigger does not make for easier shooting. If that were the case Free
Pistol scores would be at least as high as Air Pistol. So by loading up the first stage to make the second stage
relatively lighter it may seem to be an advantage. It may also cause you to consciously fire, waiting on the brink
of release for a good sight picture and tweaking it at the last. Best of luck if you do.

If you try somebody else’s trigger and swear it is better, bear in mind that while shooting another gun that you
are NOT used to, you will concentrate on the basics and possibly shoot better. Once or twice.

25
Try not to wear out your trigger adjustments by constantly striving for “the perfect trigger”. Like an honest
lawyer, it’s a myth that doesn’t exist. Try instead to create the perfect trigger release technique.

I know I may be in the minority here, but I like to set the trigger stop so there is little or no movement of the
trigger shoe after the shot breaks. I find that if I don’t do this, and my trigger pull is anything but perfectly straight
back, I will kick shots to the side without seeing it happen.

Sights
A lot of discussion has gone into what the ideal front sight width is, how much gap there should be on either
side, and whether to aim at six o’clock, sub six or center. There is no correct answer. If you manage to
concentrate on the sights while they are holding nice and tightly in your aiming area and have the gun go off
without upsetting anything, it will be a ten.

Should you feel you MUST have a front sight the same width as the black, most factories offer a 5mm blade,
which will come close. Don’t close in the rear sight too much at first, as a tight gap will have a similar effect to a
long sight radius.

New shooters should consider shortening their sight radius. Most pistols have several positions on the barrel
shroud for attaching the front sight, and some models offer a sliding rear sight. By shortening the radius
(distance between front and rear sight) the apparent movement is lessened. This makes for more confidence in
the hold. Consequently this makes it much easier to have the confidence in squeezing the trigger and having a
smooth release of the shot. As the new shooter builds strength and attains a better hold, the sights can be
slowly moved apart again.

I do notice that Steyr airguns have a very shallow rear sight notch as they come from the factory. It is well worth
considering loosening the lock screws and dropping the plate at the rear so you have a deeper sight picture.
This is especially important on ranges with low light.

Balance
The attachment of weights to a pistol is very personal. I like some weight forward of the trigger guard as it gives
me a little more stability in my hold. Others like to have more weight toward the rear of the gun. The only way to
find out what will work is through experimenting.

Now whether it be with weights, grip angle, sight widths or whatever, it is important that any of these changes
be done in a methodical manner. Take notes of what you have changed and try it for a reasonable amount of
time. Make one change at a time. By recording the results you will know if it has been a success. If you rely on
memory you will probably have to make the same experiments several times to reach the same conclusion. Our
time on this planet is limited. Save yourself the frustration.

Velocity
The factory has spent hundreds, probably thousands of hours to discover the most accurate velocity for your
pistol. Not your particular pistol admittedly, but that model of pistol. You might conceivably hit on a speed that
will give an nth of a millimeter better group. You might also have been better spending your time learning how to
shoot.

If your pistol is a pre charged or CO2 late generation model and you notice that even in Edelmann targets the
holes are not clean, it might be a good idea to check the velocity. Otherwise, leave it alone.

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Rapid Fire Overview
Not for the faint hearted, Rapid Fire demands a high level of concentration for very short periods of
time. Sixty shots fired in a total of seventy-two seconds leaves little time for contemplating cosmic
mysteries while shooting, and maybe too much time to contemplate whilst waiting for scoring and a
second half the next day...

For those unacquainted with this event I invite you to take a crash course on the match format.

Now that we’re all up to speed on the task at hand, let’s take a look at the equipment needed to successfully
partake.

Hardware
You’ll need one of these. Any 22 caliber semi auto that fits ISSF dimensional specifications is legal, but a pistol
chambered in 22 Short is a big plus. Purpose-built guns are also ported to virtually eliminate recoil. A Sport
Pistol in 22 LR is fine for shooting the event for fun, but in serious competition is a waste of ammunition.

Major brands are as follows, roughly in order of popularity:

Walther OSP: Variants of this pistol have been around since the mid 1960s, culminating in the OSP 2000. While
top shooters have widely used Walthers they have often been highly modified. A popular early conversion was
to shorten the barrel in order to get extra length for the grip, which was given extra rake. The modular trigger
unit is a big advantage, as a five shot practice trigger is available for dry fire. It is difficult, however, to reproduce
the feel of the normal trigger in the practice unit.

Pardini: There are two variants of Pardini Rapid Fire Pistols, the GP and GPS (Schumann) models. Of course,
Ralf Schumann uses a Pardini and has dominated world competition for many years. Don’t think you’ll have
something as competitive as Schumann’s gun, as his has a custom fitted electronic trigger unit. This is not so
much an advantage in live firing as for dry training. Rumor has it Pardini will make the electronic trigger
commercially available sometime in 2001 – at a price! Both Pardini and Walther use a magazine system located
in front of the trigger. This system seems to be the most reliable with most brands of ammunition.

FAS 601: Featuring a top load system the FAS offers a less nose-heavy design that is quite popular at high
level. It is known to be quite ammunition sensitive. A FAS shooter should be prepared to put aside some time to
understand his gun and all its foibles.

Unique: There are three models of Unique Rapid guns to my knowledge. The latest is the 2000U, and like the
FAS it is a top loader. More reliable than the FAS but not as widely used in competition. It has a dry fire
mechanism within the gun but must be recocked after each shot.

Hammerli: It is a few years since Hammerli produced either the 230 or the 232. These are probably the most
unreliable of the European specialist Rapid Fire guns. This shows there is no justice, as they are probably the
best made. The fine tolerances do not work with low velocity 22 Short ammunition. I have seen some of these
pistols that work flawlessly, but these seem to be the exception rather than the rule. They balance and perform
very well while they work.

Baikal IZH34: Neither an attractive or particularly well made pistol, but it works well and shoots very well. It is
the brother of the IZH35 Sport Pistol. Factory grips are a little basic but it is excellent value for a starter gun.

Margolin: These are getting hard to find nowadays. Another Russian budget priced gun, this is the base model.
Well known to be ultra reliable. Sights are basic and overall weight is on the light side.

Fodder
The cost of good match ammunition is the main reason this match has been in a slow decline for the past ten
years. Ironically the lack of sales has forced some manufacturers to reduce lines of target shorts, if not
discontinue them entirely.

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When choosing ammunition the primary concern will be reliability in your particular pistol. Accuracy is important,
but it’s more important to know that you will complete the match. If you discover your gun is reliable with several
batches and brands of match ammo, it’s time to go and buy a lottery ticket (before your luck runs out), then test
for best accuracy.

Generally speaking RWS, Fiocchi and Eley make the accepted Match ammo, while there are grades of CCI,
Remington, Winchester (Australia) and RWS that are useful for training ammunition. Bear in mind that accurate
low velocity Shorts are very difficult to make. That is why the top brands are expensive. So training ammo might
be higher velocity, meaning you might have to open up some ports on the barrel to cope with the extra
pressure. Don’t be tempted to use high velocity shorts, they are neither accurate nor are they good for match
pistols.

Good RF ammo should group under 40mm at 25m.

Maintenance
Since Rapid Fire pistols are like high performance race cars it’s logical that you need to clean them more often
than a Sport Pistol. However there are no hard and fast rules. I have seen a Hammerli 232 that would ONLY
work when it had been fouled with about 100 rounds. The original owner kept it spotlessly clean and sold it in
disgust. The next owner was a slob who cleaned it every 2-3000 rounds and had very few stoppages. Get to
know your gun. A Rapid gun is an individual, two guns of successive serial numbers will act completely
differently.

Should reliability be a problem, try this. Put one drop of oil on the top round of each loaded magazine, just
before inserting in the gun. The drop should go somewhere on the top of the case, about halfway down the
cartridge. Do not under any circumstances try to understand why this should work. It will drive you crazy, as it
goes against all that is logical or accepted in firearms practice. If it works (it’s amazing how often it does), simply
incorporate it into your loading sequence on the line.

I also found it helpful to learn some words of encouragement in the native language of your pistol. And give it a
name, preferably a girl’s name. Those who don’t believe guns have a soul have not spent any time with a Rapid
Fire pistol.

Shooting the Match

Direction
There is nothing in the rules to dictate which targets are shot in what order. The accepted technique is for right
hand shooters to move from right to left, and left handers to go left to right. This way you don’t have to look over
your arm to see the next target.

Alignment
This is a big issue. Which target to line the body up on? Ultimately the decision is yours, you must decide on the
basis of your flexibility and what you feel comfortable with.

The accepted thinking is the first shot is the most important. Without an accurate, controlled and fast first shot in
the 4 second series the whole string becomes a lottery. And the 4 second series is where the match is won or
lost, so you might as well come to terms with that concept from the start.

So the ideal means of alignment is to line the body up on the first target (the target on the right for a right
handed shooter). This means with both eyes closed when you raise the pistol it will naturally come up in line
with this target. Provided the grip is correctly fitted it should also be pointing like an extension of your arm – ie
when you open your eyes the sights are in alignment and in the center of your first target.

This will make it easier to produce a successful first shot, especially in the 4 second series. It also makes the
rest of the string a little harder. The further you swing your body, as you get to the fourth and fifth targets, you
will be further out of your natural alignment. If you are not flexible enough to swivel on your hips and retain the
ability to track the pistol in a level line (remember that you swing the upper torso, NOT your arm) you may be
naturally awkward like I am. I find that by target four my arm is dropping, and the last two shots invariably fall
low and left. In this case the body is resisting the swing the further it gets from a “natural” point, and the arm
finds itself having to swing to make the last targets.

28
The second method is to line the body up on the middle target. By doing so the torso has to be wound to the
right in preparation for the countdown and the first shot. This makes the first shot more difficult to perform but
the string gets easier through the middle and should not cause any extreme resistance on any target.

I have seen shooters who line themselves up on the final target and wind themselves backwards like a spring
for the first target. Admittedly they just have to “let themselves go” to swing through the targets, but getting the
first shot right is extremely hard.

While deciding which of these approaches to adopt, never lose sight of the fact that the first shot is critical. If
you can get an accurate and well controlled shot in 1.2 to 1.5 seconds the rest of a 4 second series is not
rushed.

Preparation Time
Remember that you only have three minutes to set up your gear, get comfortable on the line and prepare
yourself for the match. Take plenty of ammunition, take a backup box (maybe another brand) in case your gun
should become hateful, and have all the tools you might need for a rapid repair (no pun intended).

With the range officer’s permission you may set your gear up, including pistol, and dry fire for as long as you
like before prep time (subject to the range timetable). Not many range officers appreciate that, but it is in rule
6.6.8:
6.6.8 Shooters should report at their Range Section, but wait to be called forward to the firing points. Time
permitting, before the commencement of the preparation time, the shooters will be called to the firing points
where they may set up their equipment providing any preceding relay has finished. During this time equipment
control checks will be carried out by the Range Officials. Then, they will be given the command
"PREPARATION BEGINS NOW". During the Preparation Period the targets will be visible, facing the shooters.
Before and during the Preparation Period the shooters may handle their pistols, dry fire and carry out holding
and aiming exercises on the firing line, with the Chief Range Officers' permission. After the Preparation Period
has expired, the Chief Range Officer will give the command or signal to "LOAD" or "START".

When the Command to Load is Given

The rules state that up to a minute will be given before the countdown is started. This is at the discretion of the
range officer, and can vary dramatically. So when you devise a sequence to get yourself set up, be flexible.
Don’t rely on a full minute as you may not get it in regional or interclub matches. Also, the rules state that your
arm must be back at the 45 degree position by the time the countdown reaches “1”. An officious referee will give
a warning if he detects some movement at or after this point, so don’t leave it until the last possible moment to
drop into position. It just isn’t worth the aggravation.

Just another point on the ‘minute rule...

6.7.7.1 When one minute has expired, the Range Officer will give the commands Attention...etc.
It is always good to ‘practice your preparation’ so you know when a minute is due. A good shooter would have it
to within 2 or 3 seconds without a stop watch, just by his routine.

Training
The ideal way to learn how to shoot Rapid Fire is not to shoot a lot of matches. Start by learning to shoot a ten.
In other words, learn how to make a successful first shot. Take as long as necessary, day, weeks, months, it
doesn’t matter. As soon as you can raise up to the target and fire a clean and controlled first shot every time,
you should start to learn to fire two shots. This is the most difficult stage, because it involves a change in
direction.

From two shots you can accelerate the program to full strings. Then, and only then, should you start strings of
timed series.

Try not to take too long for the first shot in the slower series. You can get too particular and throw out the whole
series. Plenty of shooters can shoot 8 seconds well. If your technique is designed to shoot well in 4 seconds,
you might slow down to 6 seconds to be a little more careful, but taking the full 8 seconds will encourage you to
try too hard for central tens. Errors will creep in for sure.

29
Try to make the trigger release a smooth but deliberate “stroking”. You must also remember to stop the pistol
for each shot. As stated before, provided the first shot breaks sweetly there is plenty of time even in the 4
second series.

Follow through for Rapid Fire could involve swinging to an imaginary sixth target. Whether you dry fire on it or
not is up to you. It depends whether your pistol is designed to dry fire without damage.

Other shooters make a point of following through on each target, and finally on the fifth target. This might be a
bit hard in four seconds on the first four cards, but not on the fifth.

I mentioned before the importance of turning the upper body when moving across the targets. There is an
excellent reason for this. Imagine if all that you moved was your arm. Because of the change in angle between
the pistol and your eye, for each shot you would have to reposition your wrist to realign the sights. By swiveling
the hips it is possible to maintain the same line between head and arm, so the wrist and elbow remain locked
throughout the series.

It is simple to set up a useful dry fire range at home. You will find full instructions on how to do so on the Dry
Fire page. Again, if your pistol is not dry fire friendly be sure to use a plug to avoid damage.

Dedicated to Richard Jameson, who knows full well just how qualified I am to write on this subject. I’d also like
to thank Bruce Favell for his invaluable input.

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Stand and Deliver
While transcribing the latest of our interviews I was struck with how apt Franck Dumoulin’s idea of
stability is. He imagines himself to be strong, stable and rigid when in his shooting position, and linking
that mental image with the Eiffel Tower, a national monument that any Frenchman is proud of, is a
clever means of reinforcing in his mind a very important aspect of his shooting technique.

Stance can be broken down into two parts. The physical placing of the body is what is generally considered to
be stance. But equally important is a more abstract feeling of being balanced, steady and “right”. More a state of
mind, this is what is described in coaching manuals as the “inner stance”. I’m not about to lecture on such a
well-known principle, but I hope to give a shooter’s insight into how it should feel and why it is so important.

Physical Stance
If you ever have the misconception that there is a “perfect” stance for all, I suggest you take a walk down the
firing line of a World Cup. You will see square on to side on body positions and everything in between. Maybe if
we were all built the same it might be possible. But when you consider the many shapes and heights, damaged
bone structures from past accidents, use of different eyes for sighting and even just plain bad habits – it’s not so
surprising to see such a variance.

The ideal stance should give you several things. The first, obviously, is stability – meaning a solid platform with
a minimum of sway for confident release of a shot. It should also be in such a position to allow the arm to be
raised naturally in line with the target. It should not induce any great amount of stress on the body. And it should
be repeatable.

The Feet
There is no one correct answer to feet placement. There are some generalities that will affect your overall
stance, and they should be taken into account.

Spacing. The “norm”, if there be such a thing, is placing your feet at about shoulder width. However, the big
thing is to be comfortable. I once had a coach who insisted my feet were too far apart. He may well have been
right, but I was comfortable with my stance, and it had all of the necessary qualifications as above. So the result
of this was I lost confidence when I brought my feet closer together as it didn’t “feel” as stable. Some months
later I had gradually widened my stance to where it was originally.

Splayed feet or pigeon toed. As far as stability goes, having the feet parallel is technically best. BUT. It places a
lot of stress on calf and thigh muscles, even joints, especially if you aren’t as supple as you used to be. So bear
this in mind for your long term comfort.

Weight distribution. I like to find the point where I have maximum contact area on the floor. This means having
equal weight distribution on both the heels and the balls of the feet. This also means wearing flat shoes with
sturdy soles. If you can’t afford the purpose-built “clown shoes” I’d recommend skateboard shoes. Most gym or
running shoes have way too much arch support and rubbery padding to allow a good solid foundation.

The Platform
Meaning the rest of the body excluding the arms and head. When you are in position to start the lift, no part of
your body should move except the arm. It’s a common fault to rock the hips to bring the arm to the correct
height on the target. But if you make a conscious effort to have everything rock solid except the shoulder that
does the lifting, you will have a far more stable hold.

There is an ideal relationship for any shooter between himself and his gun. An ideal way to create a living,
breathing and efficient bipod that rivals a shooting rest when it works as it should. The trick is to first discover
every aspect of that position. How tense each muscle is, which joints are locked, how the head has to be
positioned, all are important facets of the whole.

Inner Stance - Using the Mind

The real key is to discover and remember what your stance feels like so it can be duplicated time after time.
This is where some attention to detail is needed. Can you “feel” perfect balance? Can you use your muscle
memory to duplicate the same pressure in your legs, the same pressure on the grip? Can you remember how

31
each locked joint feels? Certainly top shooters make a good attempt, and reap the rewards of a consistent hold
that builds their confidence and their scores.

Take the time as you take up your stance to go through a mental checklist of how every part of your body feels,
and how it should feel. Many top shooters spend hours at a time familiarizing themselves with these finer details
until they know their position so well it has become second nature.

Just a Word on Balance

Most shooters will sway a little. If you have a bad tendency to do so, take a look at your shooting glasses and/or
hat. If you have blinders or are blocking a lot of your peripheral vision, this can badly affect your balance.

Being Flexible
But of course there is one difference between a mechanical and an organic bipod. As the match progresses
some muscles will tire more quickly than others. So the position of the feet may change in order for the natural
point of aim to remain the same. Meaning, don’t be afraid to adjust the position of your stance in relation to the
target – it’s only natural that you will tire over the course of a match.

How Well Can We Hold?

There are limits of course. I believe a world class Air Pistol shooter is holding (for the few seconds of his most
steady hold) something very close to ten ring. Provided the shot breaks within an acceptable time and the
trigger release has not upset the sight picture the shot will be a ten.

There really is no reason why most shooters cannot attain a hold that stays within the nine ring for the vast
majority of the time. With training that hold will reduce in size. Many sessions with different shooters on the Rika
electronic trainer have confirmed this. But even though it’s an important part of shooting consistent tens, never
lose sight of the fact that in pecking order, hold is a very distant third behind sights and trigger control.

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The Hitchhikers Guide to ISSF 25m Standard Pistol
Standard Pistol was one of the “new” matches introduced by the ISU (now ISSF) in the early 1970s,
along with Air Pistol. It has never been an Olympic sport but has been very popular in many countries
as it gave an excellent excuse for owning a 22LR semi auto pistol. This may not have been be so
relevant in the United States, but in places where pistol ownership was and is tightly regulated it made
it possible for the guys to own a whole range of new toys (since the gals could already shoot them in
Sport Pistol).

Of course on the International shooting circuit it has no real importance, relegated to the “side show” status of
Center Fire and only shot at selected competitions and the World Championships once every four years. For
all that it is an excellent match, combining precision with aspects of rapid fire – and leaving the fast series until
the end makes a real pressure cooker, especially if the slower series went well.

No introduction to Standard Pistol would be complete without a Rough Guide to the Game. We also would like
to give some assessment of the Standard and Sport Pistols you might consider.

Tactics
150 Seconds Two and a half minutes may seem a long time to fire five shots, but it’s really neither one thing
nor the other. It’s too short a time to be comfortable to take a slow fire (Free or Air) mentality. With a couple of
cancelled shots there can be pressure to make the time limit.

Consequently most shooters will take five individual shots without wasting any time between them. This is the
most popular technique, it would allow for maybe three or four cancelled shot attempts. But in the event of a
malfunction this could cause a time problem, leading to the shooter opting for a reshoot. And taking the five
lowest scoring shots out of eight or nine shots may be better than losing ten points, or even risking a rushed
final shot or two, but really this is a no-win situation.

This was the first of the reasons I adopted different tactics for this series. The second reason being the
common practice of shooting higher scores in 20 seconds than in the slow fire series. It led me to wonder why
this should happen. Could it be that in the 20 second series we have enough time to comfortably release five
shots smoothly but not enough time to get TOO fussy about trying to fire five perfect shots (ie trying to pin the
sights to a point on the target)?

My third reason was to keep it as simple as possible. Instead of having to adapt from single firing precision
shots to a medium tempo five shot string and again to a fast five shot string – two fairly major changes of
technique – what if I used the same tempo for the first forty shots? With the added luxury of being able to halt
the string anytime during the first four series if everything wasn’t going just right?

So to sum up, I recommend taking multiple shots during the 150 second series, anything from one to five
shots at a time, but most importantly using the same tempo as for 20 seconds. It means that should there be a
malfunction you would have ample time to clear it and finish the series with no stress. It also encourages a
smooth and efficient trigger release throughout the entire match, leaving little opportunity for the stop-start
slow fire habits that destroy slow fire scores in this match.

20 Seconds There is a lot of time in this series, so much that it’s possible to lose the plot. Ideally you need to
make sure of a good clean release on the first shot, then follow up with four smooth and unhurried shots. The
danger of having “too much” time stems from trying to get too perfect a first shot thereby rushing the next four,
to trying to hold sight alignment for almost 20 seconds and thereby losing focus or looking through the sights
at the target.

10 Seconds Contrary to popular belief, there is enough time to shoot five well controlled shots in each series.
There is not a lot of time to mess about, but there is certainly enough to hold a good sight formation and
release the trigger without upsetting it five times. A high scoring series may not look great from the shooter’s
perspective, but if the fundamentals have been followed, the sights have been held in good alignment and

33
focus and the trigger pushed through cleanly, there will be a remarkably small group in the center of the
target.

I'd like to clarify a couple of parts of that final statement, as this is where I think too many people try for the
unattainable. In saying sights are being held in "good alignment and focus" it can't be stressed enough that
the formation of the sights, not the placing of the sights on the target, is of importance here. If you try to nail
the sights to "the" perfect point in the center of the aiming area you will fail miserably, as there is not the time
to do so, and even in slow fire this technique leads to looking through the sights at the target and conscious
firing when the sights "look" right. So a tight sight formation anywhere in the aiming area is what you should
try to accomplish. No more, no less.

Also, the term I used for firing the pistol was having the "trigger pushed through cleanly". Having a clear idea
of a smooth release is necessary for successful timed fire shooting. You may have a mental image of pulling
the front sight with a piece of string tied around your trigger finger, so it pulls the front sight directly back
through the gap of the rear sight. However it happens, it should be a positive prompt that encourages positive
and smooth movement of the trigger until a clean shot breaks.

Training
There is little to be gained by taking a new shooter and setting him the task of shooting 10 second series in
the hope that he can “get the hang of it”. Making use of a set of turning targets with ISSF match timer, or even
a stopwatch and whistle, can be far more productive.

Provided the shooter is competent enough to successfully perform the fundamentals in slow fire and
recognize a good shot he may be ready to be introduced some time constraints.

Start by giving a six second facing for one shot. This gives an ideal start to a 20 second series, and gives the
opportunity to train the lift from 45 degrees, sight acquisition and trigger release. Once the shooter can
confidently hold the 9 ring in each timing sequence it will be time to move on with the next timed series:

• Ten second series for two shots, the third breaking somewhere around the edging of the target.
• Rapid Fire stage of Sport Pistol timing with the Precision target, training for the first shot in 10
seconds. This is particularly good as it’s very convenient in having five 3 second facings in one series.
• Six seconds for two (almost three) shots in 10 second timing.
• Eight seconds for four shots in 10 second timing.

By making sure the shooter is competent at each stage of difficulty is far more helpful than throwing him
straight into a series that might be daunting and might even create a bunch of bad habits that are difficult to
break in the long term.

NPA
I like to throw in an acronym every once in a while just to appear more professional. It's imperative to get the
Natural Point of Aim correct. If your inclination is to raise the pistol slightly to the right or left of the target you
have a problem - not only will you be pushing or pulling the gun towards the target, you have wasted tenths of
seconds where wasted tenths of seconds seem to take ages and cause a flurry of panic to get the shots away
in time. So try not to make this a self-handicap event.

Trigger Release
To roll or not to roll - that is the question. There are basically two types of trigger, with a crisp or roll letoff. You
must decide which suits your shooting style best.

Most semi autos have something of a rolling release, meaning there is movement in the second stage as the
sear releases. With this type of trigger it's easier to keep increasing the pull because of the movement. Freeze
and there is no movement, it's a dead giveaway. This is my personal favorite because it's easier for me to
cope with a trigger that I KNOW I must keep moving (until it goes off as if by magic).

Some pistols give a crisp second stage, meaning when the second stage is reached there is no further
movement until the pressure has reached letoff weight. This is typically a great slow fire setup but requires
more discipline to shoot well in the fast series, especially when under pressure.

34
There is one critical factor, especially with the rolling release, and that is the trigger shoe is positioned
correctly at the point of release. If the trigger finger cannot place force exactly rearward at the point of release,
the shot will kick out to the left or right, depending on the extent of the sideways force of the trigger finger. The
trigger stop can minimize this error if adjusted properly, although I have seen many good shooters who have
no trigger stop - purely because they have such a good "feel" for squeezing in a straight rearward line.

Things to Remember
The key to successful Standard Pistol shooting is the ability to keep your focus (attention as well as sight) on
the sight formation throughout the entire series. Three or four shots out of five is not good enough. These
guns have a relatively short sight radius, and any inattention will punish you. For this reason follow through is
doubly important, for EVERY shot.

The good news is the target is pretty friendly. Keep a good sight formation and let the shot surprise you and
chances are it will be a ten.

I won't bore you by repeating the trigger technique for Standard Pistol used by East European shooters, but I
will make the reminder that it's described in my Hitchhikers Guide article on trigger control.

Which Standard Pistol to buy? I'd hate to enter into that discussion, there are plenty of excellent choices out
there. But your choice of gun and ammunition should be 100% reliable, or as close as possible to that.
Accuracy of good target ammo at 25 meters would fit comfortably within about a quarter of the x-ring (that's
right, not the ten ring).

Reliability is far, far more important than trying to gain a few hundredths of a second by using the slowest
ammo you can find. Hold the pistol correctly, lock your wrist and squeeze straight back and recoil is far more
predictable than with a loose grip and poor trigger release. You will feel the difference when everything is
done correctly, the recoil seems to transmit straight up your arm and the sights will bounce straight up and
settle immediately back in the aiming area.

It's important to be able to turn your concentration level up at critical times and rest between. Most matches
involve shooting a 5-shot series and then waiting five to ten minutes for scoring. If you sit down while this
happens, remember to stand up at least a minute before you intend to shoot again, just to get blood circulation
going properly again.

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Do You Need a Coach?
(And if so, what would you do with one?)
In professional sports such as football and basketball the role of the coach seems to be crucial to the
performance of the team. But in an individual sport such as shooting, where there is nothing
complicated about turning in a world class performance, do we put too much emphasis on whether we
have a coach or not?

I'd like to make it clear from the outset that the last thing I want to do is belittle the often thankless task of
coaching shooters. There are lots of tireless workers out there who give freely of their time to help others. I
hope to discuss firstly what a coach's role should be in our sport, and how we can make use of him when we
are lucky enough to find one.

I've often heard it said, “…and I've never had any coaching!” Sometimes as an excuse for a below-par
performance. Other times after a good performance, but the emphasis being how well he would have shot IF he
had been coached. In many cases it seems to have become something of a fixation. That pasture on the other
side of the fence, surely clover couldn't get that green without a little helping hand? Well, many things will make
grass green, and not all of them are helpful to your own shooting performance.

What Do You Need?

Beginner: For the first stage of our shooting career some guidance on stance, shot production and technique
are very necessary. Most of us find it by reading books, by asking fellow shooters or even by trial and error. At
this stage a coach is worth his weight in gold, since instilling good habits in the beginning will mean no bad
habits will have to be unlearned in the future.

At this point I can't stress enough how much patience is needed by a coach instructing absolute beginners.
Young males, almost without exception, are convinced that shooting a gun is a skill they were born with. It
becomes apparent the moment you start giving the basic instructions, the eyes glaze over and the guy is
thinking to himself, "I don't need to listen to this bull, I know what I'm doing!" The problem is compounded if he
has brought his wife or girlfriend, as she will have no such preconceived notions and immediately start to
outshoot him. When this happens his bruised ego will make doubly sure it's the last time they go to a shooting
range. Avoiding this familiar pattern takes a great deal of tact and people skill.

Intermediate: If we are to progress as shooters we need a certain amount of encouragement and a fresh
perspective, if only to stop us from stagnating. In a practical sense, the skills needed to shoot a ten are well
known. But sometimes we get so tied up in the details we forget the big picture, or we lose sight of the basics
because we're too concerned about the outcome. These "prompts" can be supplied by anything or anybody, in
fact sometimes the shooter can wake up to his mistakes simply by talking about his performance to another
shooter.

The vast majority of us are in this group. A competent coach can be invaluable at this stage, even if only to
discourage over-complication of the game. This is the stage where shooters can become obsessed with
adjusting triggers, changing pistols, endlessly testing ammunition or searching for that mythical "secret" to
shooting. Eventually the light goes on inside the head and everything becomes clear. So that's what they mean
by holding the sight formation and squeezing the trigger until it goes off - all by itself!!!

Advanced: This is the stage where the shooter has the physical skills needed to shoot to high performance
levels. The mental game becomes extremely important. Depending on the personality of the individual shooter
will dictate how much moral and technical support he needs. Most shooters are highly self reliant and
independent - not surprising as shooting is such an individual sport - and these people can resent even well-
meaning offers of help. Any coach who wishes to work with elite shooters must have exceptional
communication skills and be able to judge the correct approach in order to get a message across.

In fact the best communicators are those who know a lot more than they are willing to reveal. A great coach is
able to sit and talk quietly with his shooter and simply ask him questions. These questions are really prompts.
By asking the right questions the coach will draw out the solution that is already forming in the shooter's head,
and because it seems to be his own idea he will have no problem in wholeheartedly implementing it.

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Motivation
Before deciding if you need a coach you should first assess how far you want to go with this sport. What are
your medium and long term goals? Will you be pleased enough to become a skilled precision shooter? Will you
never rest until you hear your National Anthem being played as you're presented with the gold medal? Or will
that merely be the start?

Obviously it's impossible to know when you start out, but as time goes on you will formulate your own vision of
where you want your shooting career to go. Do not for a moment think that you could not achieve the highest
levels. Anybody of reasonable fitness can achieve amazing things in shooting - the more determination and
application, the better the results will be. Unlike other sports where natural ability precludes the majority of the
population (I don't believe any amount of work would have ever made me a sub 10 second 100 meter sprinter
or a world champion swimmer), shooting provides a far more level playing field where mental discipline, not
mere beef and brawn, make champions.

Having well defined goals is very important as it gives an idea of the commitment you will be willing to make.
Should you decide to go all the way, it will be quite considerable. And this commitment will also affect your
friends and family, so it's not something to be taken lightly. It will also affect your attitude towards whoever you
would accept as coach or mentor.

Being such an individual sport we often don't play well with others when criticized, so remember that you won't
always hear what you want to hear. Neither should you, as a good coach can provide a welcome reality check
every once in a while. Whether the message gets across depends a lot on the next stage.

Finding a Coach
There are two extremely important facets to any coach-shooter relationship. Mutual respect and complete
honesty. Everything else is of secondary importance. If you have both of these there is no problem you won't
overcome.

Oho, I hear you say! What about technical knowledge? What about practical experience? Both are apparently
important, but think for just a minute. If you have a brilliant technician who can tell what is wrong with your
stance or position simply by watching you shoot (and I have seen such people) he will waste no time before
telling you how you should alter your shooting technique. A platform that you have trusted for almost your entire
shooting career, that may have taken you to State and maybe even National titles, and he insists you are doing
it all wrong! He may well be right, but unless he can communicate the concept with some tact (which is where
the respect is so important) the shooter will have no intention of taking his suggestions seriously.

You may find a retired world class shooter who is willing to lend a hand. Never turn down such an offer, but
don't become too involved if the two key elements aren't there. Some shooters are able to give fantastic insight
into what it's really like to compete at the top level, and it's a comfort to know that your coach understands just
how much pressure you're under in a major Final. Other shooters are not so adept at communication, and if
their temperament is completely different to your own you may as well be speaking different languages.

Even an inexperienced coach can have the respect required to listen to your problems, and in turn will
encourage your respect by keeping to the same wavelength and make some attempt to solve them. Honesty
means he will have no problem in admitting he doesn't know the answer. BUT he will make every attempt to find
not one, but several solutions. You then become a partnership in problem solving, which boosts your own self
confidence because you are part of a successful team making tangible progress.

What If You Don't Find One?

Don't panic. You will be, after all, in the majority. And plenty of world class shooters won gaggles of gongs
without one-on-one tutorage. The worst thing you can ever do is believe you're at a disadvantage when you just
might be better off alone.

So make the most of what you do have. Any shooting companion might become a training partner. A sounding
board for kicking around ideas about how your technique might be improved. Frank discussions on the range
will doubtless help as voicing your thoughts encourages you to think more deeply about what you are doing.
Your fellow shooter might be more or less experienced than yourself, it really doesn't matter. What is critical is
sharing these thoughts with somebody who understands your particular problems - and let's face it, we don't

37
bother talking about these things with non-shooters as it would be like describing colors to a blind person. There
is comfort in seeking counsel from a kindred spirit.

Remember, this is a simple sport. Get the basics right and the scores will look after themselves. We know what
we have to do to shoot a ten. Most every problem we face in competition can be said to be (a) self induced and
(b) well within our capability to correct before it becomes a major catastrophe. A good coach knows this and will
be aware of the buttons to push (or the questions to ask) to make the necessary adjustment. But a competent
shooter should be able to self-analyze and come to the same conclusion.

What Do You Not Need?

You really don't need a pep talk every ten minutes, in fact being reliant on somebody to give prompts is
a sure road to disaster. You're on your own on the line. Letting somebody else do all of the thinking
while training could leave you high and dry when the real test begins.

Inflexibility. This is a bad habit in a shooter, and can be a terrible trait in a coach. If he refuses to
concede the possibility that his knowledge or teachings might be incomplete or (gasp!) wrong, you're in
for a rough time. Most of the challenges in our sport have several possible solutions. Limiting yourself to
one that has been selected by your coach, without even giving the others due consideration, will erode
your confidence in time. Not to mention limiting your chances of long-term success!

A gabfest. When discussing shooting technique many coaches develop an affection for the sound of
their own voice. So they will talk, and talk, and talk. Problem with this is that somewhere in there will be
something very important that you will miss because you have mentally switched off sometime during
the second Act. With tact you may cure him of this by saying you have an attention span problem, and
to keep it simple, short and to the point for your sake.

Inflated ego. If you discover your potential coach has lots of bad things to say about other coaches, he
repeatedly tells of former students who have gone on to greater things because he coached them as
juniors twenty years ago, and doesn't cope well when you question any of his techniques, you've
probably got to ask whether he's interested in your shooting career or his self-image.

Back to the Real World

After painting the worst pictures, I must say you are unlikely to come across any such thing. Heck, coaches
don't grow on trees, and most likely you won't ever have the chance to pick and choose. The vast majority of
coaches are well worth consulting. Bear in mind that they are only human, they can't work miracles. If you want
to make it to the top of the tree you might find a coach with some handy hints on climbing, but don't expect him
to supply a step ladder. You are the one who will have to work for it.

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A Do-It-Yourself Guide to your
First Air Pistol Session
If you’ve never shot target pistol before, you have no local club or experienced shooter to give basic
instruction and you want to give it a whirl – you’ve come to the right place. In this article I'd like to
outline all the basics from safety to sound shooting technique. Follow these steps and you can begin a
sporting career of distinction, or at least find out what Olympic style shooting is all about.

Safety
This is and will always be Number One on the list of priorities. Remember that there is NO SUCH THING as a
shooting accident. Follow these simple rules and live by them – you will see what I mean.

1. Always point your pistol in a safe direction. On a range (even a basement range at home) this means
down range towards the target. Always MEANS always – when taking your grip, cocking the action,
sighting, dry firing – ALWAYS. Even when casing your gun, there is no reason not to be aware of where
it is pointing. A short firearm like a pistol is so easy to swing into an unsafe position. Never forget it.
2. Always assume your pistol is loaded until you have proven otherwise – by opening the action (NOT by
pulling the trigger!). This includes when you first take it from its case; it doesn’t matter that you KNOW
you put it away unloaded, PROVE it to yourself. This is a good rule to adopt for any firearm you ever
pick up, even if you are handed one, NEVER assume it’s unloaded, ALWAYS assume it is loaded until
you prove otherwise.
3. Never attempt to use any firearm if you don’t understand how it works BEFORE you pick it up.
4. When your pistol is loaded you will retain complete control over it. Never lay it on the bench and walk
away unless you first open the action to make it safe. There is no possible use for a safety catch in
target pistol shooting. Your pistol is either loaded or it is not, there is no “safe” halfway point between.
5. When you walk forward of the line to change targets the pistol should always be on the bench,
untouched, pointed downrange and unloaded with the action open.

Responsible use of your pistol means it is used as a tool, not a toy or weapon. Pointing it at anything but your
designated target is a cardinal sin. Target shooting is one of the safest sports in the world because the rules are
always followed. Failure to do so results in immediate expulsion from the range. Feel free to check out our
safety record – accidents on ISSF ranges around the world are unheard of.

What do you need?

I’d recommend starting with an accurate air pistol with adjustable sights. Match pellets probably aren’t
necessary for a start, but at least use a good brand of flat-nosed wadcutter pellets. They are the most accurate
at target velocities, plus they cut much cleaner holes in the target than round nose. You will need a space about
36 feet long, with provision for a pellet trap. It also should be certain to have no human traffic crossing or
appearing anywhere in front of the firing line. A basement or garage is ideal. A hallway may be safe if you live
alone. The target trap should be designed to retain the pellet with no chance of having a ricochet come back
towards the firing line. If you have nothing made specifically for this purpose, take a deep wooden box and stuff
it solid with compacted newspaper. The immediate area around the target trap should also be rebound proof –
something like plywood is great for a safe backer.

Regardless of this you should have some eye protection, ideally something that is optically correct. A bench is
handy to rest your pistol on between shots. And of course regulation targets for 10 meter (33 feet) ISSF Air
Pistol would be nice, but for your first outing they aren’t really necessary. The black bull measures about 3
inches across (this is the 7 ring), anything that comes close would be fine. Hang the pellet catcher around 55
inches from the floor and you have something pretty close to what they shoot at the Olympics.

How to hold the pistol.

It’s important that you grip the pistol the same way every time you take aim with it. Slight changes in the position
of your hand, gripping tension, thumb pressure and even the positioning of your finger on the trigger will make a
big difference to where the shots end up on the target.

Hold the unloaded pistol in your left hand (assuming you’re a right handed shooter) somewhere around the
trigger guard. Push your right hand firmly so that the web of your hand between thumb and first finger fits

39
against the upper rear recess of the grip, centralizing as best you can so that the pistol will become an
extension of the line of your arm. An othopedic grip will make it easier to reproduce your hand position, but with
care and by paying attention to detail you can do okay with even a basic molded grip.

A lot is said about how tightly you should hold on to a target pistol. There is no need to try to squeeze the sap
out of the wood, neither will you be able to control the beast if you relax your hand. Firm enough to take control
is best. The second and third fingers should do all of the gripping, and this should be limited to straight rearward
pressure of the middle section of these fingers between the first and second joints. The thumb itself should have
no sideways pressure as such on the pistol, although it is necessary to press forward a little with the very base
of the thumb to give a contra pressure against the gripping fingers. Again, it must be stressed that the pressures
exerted are straight back and forward.

Of course this will feel quite awkward at first. With practice it will start to feel natural. When the pistol is gripped
in the shooting position, the wrist should also be locked. This means you make a conscious effort to make your
wrist rigid to prevent the wrist from swiveling in any direction. The reason for this is simple when you think about
it – imagine letting the wrist move freely – this will allow the line of the pistol’s barrel to deviate in an arc. The
area that you might hit will be the size of a dinner plate, or larger, at 10 meters. Lock the wrist and you will of
course still be moving about on the target, but by keeping the line of the barrel constant with your arm you will
greatly reduce the probable impact area.

How to Stand
There is no perfect stance for pistol shooting. Your own stance will evolve as you become experienced enough
to recognize your natural point of aim. So for a comfortable starting point, place your feet at about shoulder
width apart, not too splayed and not too pigeon toed, about 45 degrees from the line to the target. Body shape
may dictate a slight modification to this, a slender frame may start facing a little further from the target while a
more full figure will probably need to be a little squarer to the target.

Within a short period of time you should be able to find a natural point of aim by assuming your grip on the
pistol, straightening your arm, closing your eyes (or looking away) and raising your pistol as if to shoot. When
you then check the line of the pistol against the actual position of the target you can adjust the position of your
feet until a “blind lift” consistently brings your pistol in line with the target. If a slight adjustment is needed, try
moving the rear foot a little at a time.

Balance is quite important, as if you are swaying while aiming you have another handicap you really could do
without. Try to keep the balance equal between the balls and heels. If you allow the weight distribution to be too
far one way or the other you will be quite unstable. It's also a good idea to anchor your non-shooting hand in a
trouser pocket or hooked into your belt, this will be another aid to steadying the ship.

How to breathe.
Bet you never expected to be told how to breathe. After all, you’ve been doing it for years. But good breath
control will make holding the pistol much easier. A good supply of oxygen to your body will improve muscle
control, give clearer vision and keep the mind clear of minor distractions like having your face turn blue while
you wait for the shot to break.

Rest between shots. You don't gain any bonus points for being the fastest to throw ten shots down range, so
you might as well rest your arm and take a couple of deep leisurely breaths. As you raise your arm to shoot,
take a full breath. As you lower the pistol into the aiming area, expel about a third of the breath and hold it there.
You will receive the maximum benefit from your oxygen intake without the discomfort of holding full lungs. Take
advantage of the next five to seven seconds, this will be about as steady as you will ever get.

What to look at.

It's most illogical and hard to accept for a new shooter, that the last thing you want to focus on is your target.
After all, you want to see where you hit, and how can you hope to hit something unless you can see it clearly?

But you'll have to abandon your natural instincts and take a different tack. When playing golf, don't you look at
the ball instead of the pin as you take your shot? It's the same for all ball games, you must keep your eye (and
attention) on the ball, not the target area. You'll find out soon enough where the shot lands. With pistol it's so
much more important to watch the sight picture because if your attention wavers for just a second or two you
won't even see the misalignment that results in a shot missing the target.

40
So look at the sights. You'll know you're doing it right because the target will be fuzzy (it's physically impossible
to have both sights and target in focus). Then when you squeeze the trigger smoothly you'll be surprised when
the shot breaks, and pleasantly surprised when you see the results on the target.

How to correct your sights.

Sighting in your pistol may take a little time. It's best to shoot for a group when you first start, don't be tempted
to go whirring on the sight adjustments as a result of a shot or two. Fire a minimum of ten shots, then take an
average of the group and make your adjustments accordingly, to move the center of the group to the middle of
the target. Always consult the manual to learn which way to turn your adjusting knobs as some of them can be a
little tricky. Just about anything German will be backwards, you will turn the screw towards the R if your shots
are going right - this is the opposite to what most of us expect. If you have no manual try our TenP Files as we
have a database including most target pistols you're ever likely to come across.

How to score your targets.

A useful format to start with is a 40 shot match, shooting four targets of 10 shots. When you become used to the
weight of the pistol you might extend it to a 60 shot (although for women 40 shots is their regular course of fire).
You should comfortably fit 10 shots on a single bull, although if you're shooting paper (rather than card) targets
you might have to limit yourself to five shots per target.

Better quality targets will cut a clean hole and allow for easy scoring. If the arc of the pellet hole cuts or touches
the line of the next higher scoring ring, it scores as the higher value. It's a good practice to score down rather
than up if there is any doubt - that way you will likely gain points in matches when it's scored using gauges.
There's nothing so bad as feeling as though you've been cheated.

Why is this so hard?

For the same reason that it's such a satisfying sport. It is challenging, you're holding a weight in a completely
unnatural position, fighting your base instincts to concentrate on seemingly unrelated factors in order to hit the
same spot time and time again. It goes against our logic to shoot this way, and it goes against our nature to
concentrate on performing the same task over and over without allowing stray thoughts to distract us. If it were
easy, then possible scores would be commonplace, but a 100/100 in air pistol is extremely rare and I doubt a
600/600 will ever happen.

Your first concern will be how much your sights move on the target. It is very disconcerting to see them
wavering all over the place like a drunken sailor. As you get used to holding this weight in such an unnatural
position your hold will improve. But even the best of shooters have movement. It's really a good thing. The day
you stop shaking will be the day you die, so feel good about it!

So just how well should a rank novice perform? If you are an average beginner you might keep all ten shots in
the scoring rings of the target. If you have done some target shooting before and take careful note of what is
written above, you may get close to holding the black. Most beginners will take some time to get to this stage,
however.

The great thing about pistol shooting is the fact that almost anybody can become competitive at the highest
levels. If you are reasonably fit you will be able to learn to hold nine ring within a relatively short time. If you can
learn enough self discipline to perform well under pressure there is no limit to how far you can go.

41
A Site For Sore Eyes
There’s plenty of confusion out there about shooting glasses and what they can do for the budding
pistol shooter. Do you really need to spend big bucks to get the most elaborate and space age
specialist frames with every clip-on attachment conceived by man? Let’s look at some of the particular
problems suffered by shooters and see if we can work out what, if anything, can help keep a crystal
clear sight picture all match long.

The Far Sighted

Despite the widespread belief that a good shooter has to have a keen eye (or at least good distance vision), this
can be something of a handicap.

Typically the first twenty or even thirty shots are not too bad. It will depend on the age of the shooter; younger
eyes are able to focus on the sights a little easier so will last a little longer than this. But the inevitable will
happen, the sights take on a distinctly hairy aspect and the groups will open up.

Magoos
People like myself who are naturally near sighted obviously will have corrective lenses (spectacles or contacts)
and if these are worn while shooting we experience the same problems as our hawkeyed friends. Obviously this
is because our corrective lenses are made to optimize our sight to make us as far sighted as possible.

Depending on our level of near sightedness, trying to shoot without our glasses is possibly even more difficult.
Personally I have a natural focal range of maybe twelve inches in my shooting eye, but I’m sure there are
people out there who are only slightly near sighted who could do very well with no correction.

Other Sufferers
Some people are particularly light sensitive, and a well lit target against a dark background, or even shooting
outdoors on a bright day, can draw the eye away from the sights.

We don’t all perceive colors the same either. This can mean contrast is markedly different for some shooters.

Cross dominance can also be a problem. This is where a right handed shooter’s left eye is stronger than his
right, and it naturally wants to take control. The biggest problem is not physical, there are two equally successful
solutions. Unfortunately it’s one of shooting’s biggest old wives’ tales that you can never succeed if you’re cross
dominant and you have to swap hands to shoot with your strong arm and strong eye. It’s a cross that a lot of us
have had to bear. I wasn’t willing to admit to several of my coaches over the years that I’m cross dominant for
fear of the drastic solutions that would be suggested for a non-existent problem. You’d get fewer negative
responses from admitting to being a cross dresser!

And the two options for the cross dominant shooter? One is to simply cover the strong eye and make the most
of your "weak" eye with a corrective lens. Since shooting does not rely on better distance vision this is the best
option in my opinion. The other option is to shoot with the strong eye, that is a right handed shooter would use
the left eye. Some modification of stance is needed to make this work, normally the shooter stands a lot squarer
to the target. Olympic gold medalist Roberto di Donna and bronze medalist Annemarie Forder both shoot this
way with no apparent handicap.

What Can Corrective Lenses Offer?

With a plus correction a far sighted shooter can reduce his natural focal range to a point that is far closer to his
sights than the target. This will mean he can focus on the front sight with minimal effort to the eye. The trick is to
discover what power this should be. If too strong, the sights will be clear but the target will wash out completely.
If not strong enough the eye will still be doing too much work and fatigue will set in.

This is how it works. A +1.0 diopter correction will make the focal range 1 meter away from the eye (assuming
the shooter has good distance vision). This is too strong. I can tell you this with perfect confidence because one
of my early shooting lenses was made with my normal prescription plus 1.0 diopter after I took my pistol in
during my eye exam and we used the combination that gave me the best sight picture. Unfortunately we never
took into consideration what would happen to the target. Area aiming is one thing. Guessing which whitish

42
smudge might be your target and hoping you might be able to get a lucky hit on the paper is another. I truly
know what shooting blind is like.

The next step down is +.75 diopter. This is still too strong for many people, but can work well in conjunction with
an adjustable iris (we’ll discuss this little animal later). It can also work quite well when the target is not too
distant, such as in 10m Air Pistol.

Most popular is the +.50 diopter. It’s the mid range lens that seems to give enough help to stay focused on the
sights without making the shooter too insecure about losing too much target definition.

The least correction available is +.25 diopter. I think this works best with younger eyes. Some work is needed to
stay focused on the sights. Your eye doctor will tell you that after you hit 40 or 45 the focusing apparatus in your
eye loses its elasticity and will refuse to give you the clear sight picture that used to come so easily. Of course
he might use proper medical terms, and that’s why he earns far more money than I ever will…

What Do Shooting Glasses Offer?

It’s quite important to position any corrective lens as square on to the eye as possible. It will depend on your
shooting position as to whether purpose-built shooting frames are necessary. If a conventional spectacle frame
allows you to be looking through the center of the lens at the correct angle you could use this to set whatever
lens works best for you. Most optometrists can frost the lens in front of the non-shooting eye, and this makes a
great low-cost option, especially for people who have old glasses frames lying around.

A lot of shooting stances are not so friendly to such an easy option however. Frames such as Varga, Knobloch
and Champion allow a great deal of adjustability in height, angle and rotation to position the lens correctly. They
can also make it possible to quickly and easily change lenses if need be. Why should you want to do that after
everything you’ve been through so far to find the optimum lens? I never said this would be easy…

Unfortunately ranges just don’t have the same conditions. Lighting on the shooter, target and everything in
between can change the whole shooting match – literally. Some shooters can comfortably use a +.75 diopter
lens for an event with a target that’s not so distant, such as 10m Air Pistol. For 50m Free Pistol he may change
to a +.50 diopter. The brightness of the target face might draw the eye away from the sights, so under these
unusual conditions a shooter may find himself using a stronger lens than usual. Changes in shooting conditions
then bring into play other options…

Colored Lenses and Filters

This is the toughest of any part of shooting optics to predict. Every one of us is color blind to some extent. That
is to say, we all perceive colors in slightly different ways. A color filter that works well for one shooter in
accentuating contrast might make no difference, or even worsen the sight picture, for another shooter. I use a
red lens on outdoor ranges because it darkens my sights and makes everything else a pinkish hue, which cuts
down on any color distractions (and heaven knows I don’t need to be encouraged to be distracted). Other
shooters find that vermilion or gold works best for them. Yellow can enhance the available light when it's
gloomy, and a dark lens can help cut down on glare on extra bright days.

The Adjustable Iris

The iris certainly has its uses but can create some bad habits.

By adjusting the size of the aperture it’s possible to fine tune your sight picture if lens power or color filters
haven’t done the trick.

On the down side, if you close the aperture to the stage where everything is in focus, sights and target, there is
a very human and irresistible compulsion to look at the target. Keep your attention on the sights and you’ll call
shots like you’d never have believed possible. But as soon as that group size starts to spread you just KNOW
your mental focus has gone “out there”. Fight it if you can, it’s a losing battle. Been there, done that. These days
I still use an iris but it’s wound wide open and I use it mostly to keep my head in a constant position (by looking
through the center of the aperture).

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A Few Final Thoughts
Color choice of the occluder (cover for the non-shooting eye) is fairly important. It's a good idea to have a
similar amount of light coming to both eyes, and for this reason a black cover might be a mistake. Mileage does
vary from shooter to shooter, it's just something to keep in mind.

Side blinders are another one of those good/bad attachments. On the good side they block visible movement in
your peripheral vision that might cause a distraction. On the down side they might cause you to sway.
Peripheral vision is necessary to maintain your balance, and some people find they become unstable when they
don the horse blinkers.

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The Subconscious Shot - Hit or Myth?
Surely the Holy Grail for pistol shooters is to understand and be able to produce the subconscious shot
release. But does anyone ever really get there? Do we ever get more than a flash of insight, a hint of
how our mind can control our performance without prompting on an active level? Is it something we
should aspire to, or are we barking up the wrong tree? I’m sure from a coaching perspective this talk is
akin to heresy. But we are not coaches, we are shooters. We need a practical solution to the problem, a
paint-by-numbers plan to provide a quality shot process every time. We don’t need to immerse
ourselves in a world of theoretical psychobabble that we really don’t understand, and if we could, would
be about as much sense as a race car driver struggling to understand the technical aspects of his
turbocharger.

I could contend that the subconscious shot, that wonderful, magical break as the sights sit exactly in the center
of the aiming area, the shot that you just know has punched through the middle of the x-ring without even
looking, is just a fluke and is bound to happen every once in a while just from the law of averages. Why do we
assume that for that shot we were more responsible for the outcome than for the 7 that preceded it? Why are
we convinced that our subconscious worked for that shot and was out to lunch for the not-so-exciting shots?

I guess my main reason for cynicism stems from a physics problem. In my experience the main culprit for poor
shot result is a trigger release that alters the alignment of the gun, ever so slightly, but of course this has a far
more dramatic effect on the path of the bullet by the time it reaches the target. You jerk the trigger, you pull the
shot away from the center of the target. And by making a definite decision to make the shot break, that minute
physical movement can wreck the smooth release of the shot. Is there any earthly reason why we should
assume that if that same movement is initiated by the subconscious, that the result will not also be affected?
Okay, so the same rules for reaction time don’t hold, the subconscious works with a fraction of the lag time, but
the physical movement must still be made to make the shot break. Unless you can tell me you can make the
sear release by mind control I find the concept fairly dubious.

Linking Physical Tasks

It is not my intent to fly in the face of convention. I am not claiming that all the coaches are wrong in contending
that shooters can attain a mental state that allows them to perform at a higher level than normal. I seriously
doubt, however, that a little entity in the back of the brain is responsible for "automagical" shot release. The
"zone" as it’s so often called is many different things to many different shooters. My own experience I can only
describe as being the ability to link two separate physical tasks and create a new one. Those tasks being to
take up a gradual but steady increase of trigger pressure that actually steers the front sight and holds it exactly
in its position within the rear notch. Sight control and trigger movement become one physical action in your
mind. If there is anything mentally difficult about this it’s not allowing the target to become a distraction, or
anything else for that matter.

Our capacity for thought becomes one of our greatest enemies. For this reason we need to attain a different
level of consciousness, not so much to be more aware of what we are doing, but to be more channeled toward
two simple tasks that must be performed as one. And not only is thought something to be avoided, emotion can
also destroy what we work so hard to achieve.

Complacency can take the edge off performance. As can anger, dwelling on a poor shot, or allowing yourself to
be distracted by a neighboring shooter. Fear of failure. Any number of mishaps can occur. This is normal
human behavior. This is what makes shooting so difficult, the de-humanising yourself for a period of a couple of
hours to create a thing, a work of technical excellence in motion.

The Slippery Slope

I believe that by glorifying that lucky shot, the one where the sight picture lines up perfectly as the shot breaks,
as the ideal (that MUST have been caused by the subconscious), we reinforce the need for perfection in every
other shot. We hunt for it, we do everything we possibly can to make every shot a perfect ten. In doing so we
overhold, we abort, we gnash our teeth in frustration until we finally make a conscious stab at the trigger. All for
the sake of making a better shot.
To play the game smarter we have to accept our own limitations. We have a certain hold, and the best we can
hope for is to have our shots fall within that area. If we can release our shots with perfect trigger control, that is
having a surprise shot release every time, not only will all shots be within a much smaller than normal area, a
high percentage will have broken while the pistol was crossing the target center. As we become more skilled in
our hold, the score will increase accordingly.

45
Maybe the secret is to take away the importance of the actual shot. Instead of considering the release of the
shot as the actual task, we lessen the significance of the shot and make it an almost incidental byproduct of a
process. This process being the combination of physical movements linked together with mental adhesive that
results in a trigger release that also controls line of sight. The process continues until such a time that
heightened awareness has passed – so that it may or may not have concluded in the firing of a shot. An
unconscious shot.

I don't profess to have all the answers. Honestly I don't think there is one path to enlightenment in this sport. If
you've managed to get this far through my flight of fancy I hope I've given some food for thought about the way
this game is played. I've gone full circle over the past 27 years, from a beginner learning the physical basics to
an intermediate searching for secrets to a high level performer experiencing spiritual highs through single
minded focus. These days I think the whole process is too complex, and we're our own worst enemies. If we
can keep the shot process simple, and find a way to turn off most of the circuits in that supercomputer in our
heads, we'll all be thumping the center out of our bulls.

But I guess that would take the fun out of it...

46
Free Pistol
50m Free Pistol is the toughest of the Olympic shooting events. Of course it may be a frustrating
discipline to master, but when things go right there is no more satisfying feeling than holding ten
shots within the 4-inch nine ring. Why not the ten ring? If that question entered your head you're
either a hopeless optimist or have never shot much Free Pistol…

The rules for Free Pistol are quite simple. As the term would suggest, there are few restrictions on the pistol
used. It has to be a .22 caliber rimfire pistol with open sights. The grip may not contact the hand beyond the
wrist. There are no restrictions on barrel length, sight radius or trigger weight, although the pistol must be set off
by the trigger finger of the shooting hand. A repeater may be used but one round must be loaded at a time.

Match duration is a limit of two hours for 60 shots, with unlimited sighters (all of which must be fired before the
first competition shot). Targets are the same as used for 25m Standard Pistol and the Precision section of Sport
Pistol and Center Fire except shot at twice the distance. And as with all ISSF events we stand on our hind legs
and shoot like real men (and women) – one handed.

For starters, let’s look at some of the pistols popularly used for this event. I won't go into every possibility or this
article would take on the aspect of War and Peace. All of the following pistols are 22LR and are single shot. I
am aware that some shooters have used 22 Short Rapid Fire pistols with some success in the past, but I'm
going to stay with purpose-built precision pistols.

Beginner Pistols

Drulov
These Czech made bolt actions have been extremely popular throughout the Commonwealth and Europe as a
club level Free Pistol. The Model 70 was severely lacking in the sight department, with opposing screw windage
adjustment for the rear sight and pivoting height adjustment in the front sight. The Model 75 solved that problem
with click adjustable rear sight, however still sported quite basic grips. The Model 90 was their most refined
model, with an adjustable palm shelf on the grip. All had the option of a set trigger, although the earlier models
were a little disconcerting to purists as the trigger “shoe” was actually a button. The Model 90 also changed that
with a bent wire that gave more the feel of a conventional shoe.

Thompson Center Contender

While extremely successful in silhouette competition, the 22LR version is not user-friendly enough to be
considered a serious Free Pistol contender (apologies for the pun). The lack of a real match grip and trigger
make it difficult to control compared with even the likes of the Drulov, despite the fact that it’s a fine and
accurate pistol for most applications.

Webley & Scott

Quite a British classic, this break barrel was extremely popular throughout clubs right up to the 1970s. Sights
are a little basic and the trigger is really only capable of getting down to a pound or so with any safety.

Competitive Pistols

Hammerli
Hammerli has probably the most history in this event. Their 102 series started in the 1950s, and some of the
102-107 models are still seen on firing lines today. These were a Martini (falling block) single shot action with
full wrap around grips and excellent sights. Some spare parts are getting a little hard to find, but they are
certainly still a competitive option.

The 120 was a budget model produced in the 1970s. Being basically a lever-operated straight-pull bolt action,
the standard grips were quite basic and the plastic trigger shoe was never very sturdily attached. For all this it
shot amazingly well and embarrassed a lot of shooters using more expensive guns.

The 150 and 152 were the first of the models that sported under-barrel floating forends. A more refined falling

47
block action than the 100 series, these guns were very popular internationally through the 1980s. The 150 was
the mechanical trigger version, and the 152 was electronic.

With the 1990s came the updated 160 and 162. Again in either mechanical (160) or electronic trigger (162), this
time the forend was made of a black synthetic. There was some buyer resistance to the plastic paddle, and a
160 Special was released as a no-frills version (no paddle) that seemed to enjoy a lot more popularity.

Latest in the line is not made by Hammerli but another Swiss company, SAM. The FP10 has an interesting
counterweight system on swiveling bars. However this new model has done little to rejuvenate the glory days of
Hammerli’s popularity within the ranks of shooters at international level.

Morini
The CM84E would have to be the most popular of the late generation of Free Pistols. Another falling block
action, it features an electronic trigger with a built-in electronic safety. If the trigger finger is not breaking a beam
in the trigger guard the gun will not fire. The barrel and sight radius is long, even for a Free Pistol, which means
those shots that are on, are really on. Grips on the Morini are probably among the best of the factory grips
supplied with any pistol.

Pardini
While none of the Pardini Free Pistols could be said to look attractive, they have certainly performed well over
the years. The original was the PGP75 from 1979, a fairly clumsy looking bolt action having the trigger set lever
protruding out the front of the stock. A twin weight wire straddled the front of the barrel and gave support for two
underslung sliding weights back towards the stock.

The K50 was a tidier affair that was released in 1994. This time the sliding weights attached to a more
substantial bar that was suspended above the barrel.

The current model is the K22. While it has only been on the market a couple of years, and seems to be prettier
than its ancestors, it doesn't seem to enjoy the same level of shooter confidence enjoyed by the previous
models.

Steyr
While Steyr have certainly dominated the past decade in air pistol events, their Free Pistol has not had the
same level of impact. It promised much with an innovative falling block immediately in front of the trigger shoe
(thereby giving an extremely low bore line) and levels of adjustability rarely seen in target pistols. While it
performed moderately well, it never succeeded in knocking the King from its castle, that gun being next on our
list…

Vostok
The Toz 35 is truly a remarkable pistol. For thirty years it has dominated the event, and unless somebody
produces something special, there is no reason to suppose it won't continue to do so for some time yet.

Basically it’s a Russian version of an early Hammerli. Nothing is particularly well made, machining is fair but not
great and the factory grips are quite uncomfortable (the best add-on you can buy for this gun is a set of Morini
grips). But the trigger, when set up right, is exceptionally consistent and the overall balance and feel contribute
to it being a “forgiving” gun. Sight radius is not as long as some, and maybe this adds to the comfort level.
Typically a good shooter with a Toz may not shoot as many tens as a similar shooter with a Hammerli, Pardini
or Morini. It seems that the poor shots don't punish so badly, it’s far easier to shoot an eight (or worse) with the
other pistols.

The MU55 (or MC55, depending on your alphabet) is not such a common Russian Free Pistol. Again, factory
grips are difficult for most human hands to come to terms with. If not for Franck Dumoulin, winner of the 2000
Olympics in Air Pistol (and winner of the 2000 World Cup Final in Free Pistol with one of these pistols) I'd
probably not mention this model at all. But it does have an avid following by a few devoted owners who swear
by it.

Walther
Some time in the 1970s Walther released a Free Pistol with an electronic trigger. Not much good has ever been
said about it, I believe the gun itself is quite a heavy lump, and unfortunately the triggers did give some
problems.

48
There are of course other models I haven't mentioned, but I feel the likelihood of coming across a Luna, Pfuff or
Green (or anything else exotic or rare) to be fairly low.

Tactics for Shooting Free Pistol

Pre-Match
Shooting a Free Pistol match is pistol shooting's equivalent of running a marathon. Admittedly it's more a mental
marathon, but many competitors feel drained by the end of the match. It's important to be prepared both in mind
and body for the trial ahead, and to be fully functioning by the time the first shot is fired.

Most major competitions are held in the morning. It's important to awake at least three hours before the match -
four is better if you're not a morning person. This gives ample time for the body to be fully functional and to have
digested breakfast.

I find it helpful to read over my shooting diary within about an hour and a half of the match. Not the New York
phone book version with dates, weather conditions and scores, but the concise collection of thoughts I've
written over the years that best describes how to shoot well. It's a means of positive reinforcement at a critical
time. It also provides insurance against making repetitive mistakes that tend to slip the mind when we become
more interested in the occasion than the task at hand.

A gentle warm up is also a good idea, starting about thirty minutes before you are due on the line. Just some
mild stretching to be sure the muscles are ready and willing.

Some shooters also find it helpful to take their pistol and dry fire or simply hold at a wall in a quiet corner. This
may be two hours prior, one hour prior, half an hour - it's really up to the individual. Trial and error will tell you if
it's helpful to your own performance.

Preparation Time
Traditionally this is the ten minutes newer shooters use to set up spotting scopes, blacken sights, arrange gear
and ammunition on the shooting bench and then kick around telling jokes waiting for the match to begin. It may
seem that two hours is ample time for shooting sixty shots, but when that clock starts I want to be almost ready
to fire my first competition shot.

Equipment can be set up before prep time starts. Ten minutes is about the right amount of time to become
comfortable in your shooting position. You have the target to dry fire at as well as range conditions (bench
height, lighting, temperature, etc) to become accustomed to. Dry fire at your target as if you were really
shooting. By the time the command "Start" is called you'll be warmed up and have your mind and body on the
job at hand.

Sighters
Using prep time constructively means you will no longer have to fire twenty shots in sighters to warm up. If my
first few shots are on call I'll fire between three and six sighting shots before starting the competition. This gives
me an added time buffer should things turn rough during the match - time to rest, regroup and restart.

This tactic does not work for all shooters. Another quite valid tactic is to fire as many shots as is necessary to
feel comfortable before starting the match. If firing more shots helps to settle nerves, that's a very good reason
for putting more sighting shots down range.

Try to avoid shooting 5, 10 or 20 shots - anything that can be mentally scored. If you shoot say a 93 for a 10
shot sighting series, I don't care what self discipline you think you have, you're going to make comparisons
between your sighting series and scoring targets that are self destructive sometime during the match. Probably
sooner than later.

A Match Plan
Don't assume because you have bucket loads of time to shoot your match that you don't need to plan and
prepare for contingencies. Even in as sedate match as Free Pistol things can go wrong, take a long time to

49
resolve, and leave you in a panic to complete the course of fire. Something as accidental as a cross fired shot is
a good example. In itself it's not a big deal, but the time needed to regain match composure after any major
distraction should be allowed for.

Some thought should be given to the number of shots fired between breaks. Of course there will be alternate
plans should the wheels fall off. By thinking ahead you won't feel so much that you're making up the script as
you go along. I've detailed this at greater length in The Importance of a Match Plan. If you remain more in
control of your actions, you're sure to have more control over your own state of mind and of course the outcome
of the match.

Setting Up For Free Pistol

I'd make the following recommendations to any newcomer to this sport. In time your experiences may send you
on another course, but I believe they will initially help you avoid some of the more common mistakes:

Don't set your trigger too light. You need to have enough weight to confidently rest your finger on the trigger, at
ANY temperature you're likely to experience on the firing line. If set too light, on a cold day, you'll be too scared
to even touch the trigger. I'd even recommend a heavy trigger, say 100 grams or more, just so you have more
control over the trigger pull and are less likely to anticipate the shot. Just because a trigger is light does not
mean it's easy to shoot better scores; in most cases the opposite is true (without getting ridiculous).

If you're shooting with an adjustable wraparound grip, don't crank it closed so tight that you're putting undue
pressure on your hand. This will make it difficult for you to regulate your grip pressure reliably. Adjustables are
best, because the difference between your hand size will vary quite a bit from winter to summer, just be sure to
adjust it so it gives support rather than compression.

Be absolutely sure of your target EVERY time you raise the pistol. More crossfires occur in Free Pistol than any
other pistol event. Because the targets are so far away the angle from your target to your neighbor's is not so
great. With practice your body position will automatically bring your gun onto the correct target BUT as your
body tires your NPA can also change. Check your target number as you raise, giving yourself time to bring
focus back on your arm and then the sights before you commit to your shot.

If possible, avoid the fashion of tilting the trigger shoe at an angle. For some shooters with short fingers this
may be unavoidable, but even with a light trigger pull, all trigger force should be exerted in a straight line
rearward.

Don't be afraid to limit your use of your spotting scope. In this, the most difficult of the precision pistol events, it's
easy to get carried away with minor details such as score, when ALL of your efforts are needed to be focused
on technique. Sighting after 5 or 10 shots is not a bad idea, especially when learning the match. However, with
changing light conditions this may not be such a good idea, since these changes might alter your point of
impact.

Lack of consistency is quite common in this match. If you follow a 90 with a 75, you can feel in good company
because it happens to the best of them. Also be aware that your lapse in concentration was the cause. It
punishes, and it doesn't take much of a lapse.

At a major match such as the Nationals, wind flags will be planted downrange. If you have never used them
before, ignore them. Wind will affect you as it buffets the body far more than it will affect the flight of the bullet. If
you have enough wind to move the bullet a whole scoring ring on a pistol target at 50 meters, you'll probably
have more trouble standing upright.

Know your pistol. If you shoot an electronic trigger, have a spare battery and know how to replace it yourself -
and have the tools on hand to do so. Toz firing pin springs have a habit of losing their oomph very rapidly; one
minute you'll be getting an occasional misfire, the next you'll be getting an occasional ignition. It's a five minute
job to remove the bolt and replace this spring OR the firing pin. If you can do this yourself you'll save a lot of
stress and probably won't need any more time for a break and cease to function.

50
Finals
Free Pistol Finals are perhaps tougher than other Finals because poor fine motor skills will punish you badly.
Getting nervous for an important Final is understandable, and inevitable.Your pulse rate will be high, adrenalin
will flow and your hold will look shaky to say the least. The more worked up you get, the harder it is to control
your trigger finger - even more so with an extremely light trigger.

Some shooters can control their level of arousal by self-induced relaxation techniques. I found that worked very
well until I heard the command "Start!", at which point the wave would engulf me worse than before. We do tend
to get less nervous as we became accustomed to shooting at a certain level, although if I had to do it all again
I'd try to find a method that doesn't take so many years.

Learning from Experience

Elsewhere in the Hitchhikers Guide you'll find my thoughts on trigger release. Nowhere is it as important as in
Free Pistol. If you can maintain and concentrate on a good sight formation, SOMEWHERE within your aiming
area, and simply continue loading your trigger until it goes off - all by itself, you will have discovered the
technique that works best under the worst of conditions. It took me more than 20 years and a lucky encounter
with a Russian coach who knew what he was talking about to learn this. Otherwise I'd still be trying to somehow
make the shot break when the sights crossed "that point" on the target.

Hopefully some of this might make some sense and steepen the learning curve for a few shooters.

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