Most recently at the Autumn Grand, there was a situation where in a Championship round two shooters ended up going head to head for about 70 shots in a shootoff to determine a winner. During this shootoff it became apparent that one shooters pre shot routine was getting on the nerves of the other one. The shooter had his gun on the pad, and would rock back and forth on his feet once or twice to get his feet set before picking his gun up and mounting it. The other shooter was incredibly annoyed by this and ended up loosing the shoot off and the very large sum of money that was attached to it.
At the missed shot and instant loss of the championship, the shooter turned around and started yelling profanities and saying that this other shooter was being unsportsmanlike and trying to distract him. Instantly the herd of spectators jumped on him to shut up and keep his own behavior in check. The champion was 14, the loser well above 60.
Despite the constant yelling, grumbling and throwing hulls around the champion stuck to their pre shot routine and won it all.
Once you have your set routine you have to stick to it no matter what is going on around you. If you do not have a base, then when you call for the bird you are not gonna be ready. goofing around and changing what you are doing before each bird, your mind is in a completely different place and not focused. this directly relates to being behind the bird and trying to play catch up from the second you call for it.
I shot in 30 degree weather, while rain was coming down sideways. I was in a long sleeve cotton t-shirt and shorts and tennis shoes. I broke a 96/100. How did I do that? Baseline. Given in between shots I was shivering uncontrollably and hand my soaking wet hands in my soaking wet pants. But before each shot I would put that freezing temperatures, the fact I was in a puddle up to my ankles and the rain in my eyeballs aside and did the same thing every time.
Here is what I do. Now this is my personal thing but everyone I have seen has a derivative of this.
Pick the gun up and close it. Mount it, make sure it feels right in my shoulder. Look out and set the barrel where I think it should be on the trap house. Exhale. Inhale and set my eyes on my eye hold point. Exhale. Inhale and before I exhale, "PULL!"
To show how important this is I will give some examples. The whole above sequence takes me between 6.5 and 7 seconds. If I don't take the second breath, or just look out and call for the bird, My eyes are not set. I can tell this because 1 of two things will happen. I will be looking at the bird fly away and have to catch up to it and shoot at it. or I will lift my head off the gun and try and re mount the gun and still shoot the bird. Both of which will almost always result in a miss. If I take a extra breath or blink somewhere in that process I will extend my pre shot and end up staring straight out as the bird flies through my vision and I am way behind it playing catch up once again. This will also result in a miss for me.
Once you have the baseline and pre shot routine, never deviate from it even if other people complain or say something to you. The rules state you can take as much time as you want. You are out there for yourself to shoot a perfect round. sticking to the basics is how you do that.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Shotgun: ATA Autumn Grand
I had the recent opportunity to shoot in a national ATA shoot. There were 3 events a day from Mon-Sun with the champion ships on the weekend. Of the three events offered I shot in Singles Trap everyday and shot doubles a few times in the week. Thinking I had the best chance at winning something in Trap. In order to get classified I wasn't aware that a penalty was imposed on shooters that haven't shot more then 1000 registered targets in the past year. I briefly argued with the guy saying that I'm in college and how am I supposed to afford that, needless to say he didn't by the story. I don't even have even targets to be classified in a normal ATA shoot. I was put in B Class and 23 yd handicap. Normally I am put in C and at the 17yd mark. Although I can keep up with the A guys and the 25+ yd shooters I prefer the lower classes so I have a chance of winning money.
The week started out rough when I got in a small dispute in the qualifying rounds about the ammo I was shooting. I know there are a ton of rules about the weight and speed of ammo for ATA Singles. Since I shoot Fiocchi Int'l target loads I wanted to stay as consistent as possible and shoot those for all the ATA events as well. First out of the gate, two people flagged me for shooting Fiocchi's. Didn't even make it two shots. I argued that I could shoot these shells and a ATA delegate was called over and confirmed that my shells were at the absolute MAX of what I was allowed to shoot. the Max was 1350fps and thats exactly what the box said. Ended up shooting a 94/100 in the quals. I would have been happy with a 98 or higher but considering it wasn't a money winning event I wasn't concerned.
The next day I shot a 92/100. Less then what I wanted. I shot early in some fairly cold weather. I was on the leader board for some time but ended up getting knocked off about halfway through. I never have shot with gloves before but I was determined to get a pair for the next cold day. No idea what type of gloves to get but I went to Ross to dress for less on a college budget. I bought a pair of football receiver gloves with a sitcky ish palm and a pair of winter snow looking gloves. I opted for the football gloves for the grip on the gun and the shells. They also seemed more water proof then the cotton timberland gloves.
Wednesday was my day off so I slept all day as homework and other things kept my up late and was up at 5 am.
Thursday and Friday went off without a problems. Showed up before 8 both days and waited around to shoot, then took off fairly after the events were over. Both days I was in the 90's with a high of 96 and a low of 92.
Saturday was the Singles Championship. 100 birds in the morning and 100 in the afternoon. I shot the first 100 with a U of A teammate and a older guy whom we both knew. He seemed to not feel well in the second 100 and dropped out. I shot a 187/200 in this event and was on the leader board in 3rd place until the last round of shooters and was knocked off. That was quite disappointing.
Sunday I Shot doubles in the morning and Handicap in the afternoon. I have only shot doubles twice before, once in a local ATA thing and then once earlier in the week. Both times I sucked on the first round and would shoot 45-50 on the second round. So I decided that a practice round would help. It did not. I was surprised I stayed in the 80's for that.
Handicap in the afternoon. I also shot a full practice round which also didn't help. After the first round the rain rolled in and my scores picked up. I was planning to use the rain to my advantage since I like the rain and think it's fun to shoot in. I also know how to block out the cold and wet pain and suffering after many days in backpacking in freezing temps and soaking wet.
Overall I didn't have high hopes for the handicap. Earlier in the week I had a better shot but out of the 400 shooters in this event I knew I wasn't gonna win. I shot with the U of A team for this event and needless to say they were far from anything. Their scores ranged from 58-79. given I shot a 83 but when you look at it. I got a B grad and then had C's and F's. I am happy I proved myself as a good shooter in the event. Personal vendetta to be the best.
After being soaking wet and standing in puddles to shoot I hung around and got food then went home to rip apart the shotgun and dry it off and clean it before rust hit it.
More updates to follow this week about other experiences about the week.
The week started out rough when I got in a small dispute in the qualifying rounds about the ammo I was shooting. I know there are a ton of rules about the weight and speed of ammo for ATA Singles. Since I shoot Fiocchi Int'l target loads I wanted to stay as consistent as possible and shoot those for all the ATA events as well. First out of the gate, two people flagged me for shooting Fiocchi's. Didn't even make it two shots. I argued that I could shoot these shells and a ATA delegate was called over and confirmed that my shells were at the absolute MAX of what I was allowed to shoot. the Max was 1350fps and thats exactly what the box said. Ended up shooting a 94/100 in the quals. I would have been happy with a 98 or higher but considering it wasn't a money winning event I wasn't concerned.
The next day I shot a 92/100. Less then what I wanted. I shot early in some fairly cold weather. I was on the leader board for some time but ended up getting knocked off about halfway through. I never have shot with gloves before but I was determined to get a pair for the next cold day. No idea what type of gloves to get but I went to Ross to dress for less on a college budget. I bought a pair of football receiver gloves with a sitcky ish palm and a pair of winter snow looking gloves. I opted for the football gloves for the grip on the gun and the shells. They also seemed more water proof then the cotton timberland gloves.
Wednesday was my day off so I slept all day as homework and other things kept my up late and was up at 5 am.
Thursday and Friday went off without a problems. Showed up before 8 both days and waited around to shoot, then took off fairly after the events were over. Both days I was in the 90's with a high of 96 and a low of 92.
Saturday was the Singles Championship. 100 birds in the morning and 100 in the afternoon. I shot the first 100 with a U of A teammate and a older guy whom we both knew. He seemed to not feel well in the second 100 and dropped out. I shot a 187/200 in this event and was on the leader board in 3rd place until the last round of shooters and was knocked off. That was quite disappointing.
Sunday I Shot doubles in the morning and Handicap in the afternoon. I have only shot doubles twice before, once in a local ATA thing and then once earlier in the week. Both times I sucked on the first round and would shoot 45-50 on the second round. So I decided that a practice round would help. It did not. I was surprised I stayed in the 80's for that.
Handicap in the afternoon. I also shot a full practice round which also didn't help. After the first round the rain rolled in and my scores picked up. I was planning to use the rain to my advantage since I like the rain and think it's fun to shoot in. I also know how to block out the cold and wet pain and suffering after many days in backpacking in freezing temps and soaking wet.
Overall I didn't have high hopes for the handicap. Earlier in the week I had a better shot but out of the 400 shooters in this event I knew I wasn't gonna win. I shot with the U of A team for this event and needless to say they were far from anything. Their scores ranged from 58-79. given I shot a 83 but when you look at it. I got a B grad and then had C's and F's. I am happy I proved myself as a good shooter in the event. Personal vendetta to be the best.
After being soaking wet and standing in puddles to shoot I hung around and got food then went home to rip apart the shotgun and dry it off and clean it before rust hit it.
More updates to follow this week about other experiences about the week.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
First USPSA Competition
I responded to some ad on the Internet for a 15 dollar Action Shooting course. I figure for 15 bucks whats the worst that could happen.
After going to bed at 0300 after a tree fell on bunch of cars in the parking lot and getting back up at 0530 I was already having my doubts.
Turns out the Action Shooting Course is really a USPSA event. Just like the videos you see on YouTube of people running around and blasting targets. which looks like super fun online. Well let me tell you the second you do it in real life you'll be hooked. It is so addictive in fact that if you watch people do it you want get addicted. My dad also drove out and watched just for fun. He is now going to buy a gun to shoot in this event.
I got there early as usual and was the first one there, dang that military mindset. Set up all the targets with the pros so I feel I had an advantage of walking the course once or twice before everyone else saw it. This also included walking full speed and getting knee capped by a trailer hitch. which hurt more then you would think.
After setting up the target we had our little shooters meeting we broke up into squads. Which I still have no idea whats going on just hoping someone will tell me what to do.
The general idea in the event was there are brown paper targets (bad guys), white paper targets (good guys), and steel targets. Each brown guy had scoring rings and you had to put at least 2 bullets in each. The steel targets just had to fall over and the white ones counted against you if you hit it.
The courses consisted of one Action type course were you run around obstacles and pop off targets, and avoid shooting the good guy targets. This was by far my favorite. You start with you gun in condition 1 on a table in front of you, when the timer beeps you pick it up and blast 4 targets then run you the next area where the course starts. It was a 36 shot course, if you didn't miss. So that was 4 mags for me. 
The next course was you stand in a little box and had three sets of two steel plates and one paper target. between each set you had a mandatory reload. Shoot one into each steel plate to knock it over then double tap the paper target and reload. The middle set of targets you had you fire through a slit in a board that was maybe 2 inches wide and 8 inches tall. tricky but doable. (No pictures of this sorry)
The last stage was a running in a straight line, first with brown and white targets then a 6 steel plate rack with white targets. This was by far the most difficult. From your starting point there was a little box and you had to shoot at least one bullet from the box before moving. These brown targets were half painted black to give the impression they were behind cover. Of course as I was sprinting through the course I was getting good groups for one hand firing while running but they were in the black part which counted as a miss. Bummer.
After the brown targets the steel targets were required to be shot through a little window. This was basically impossible for me. I could shoot half dollar size groups at the range at 60 feet but up against the clock and after sprinting and playing police sniper trying not to hit the white hostages it was not happening. As you can see in the picture the window to hit a steel target was pretty small.
All in all I ended up 3rd in my division and was pretty happy. I will definitely be back to compete in future events.
After going to bed at 0300 after a tree fell on bunch of cars in the parking lot and getting back up at 0530 I was already having my doubts.
Turns out the Action Shooting Course is really a USPSA event. Just like the videos you see on YouTube of people running around and blasting targets. which looks like super fun online. Well let me tell you the second you do it in real life you'll be hooked. It is so addictive in fact that if you watch people do it you want get addicted. My dad also drove out and watched just for fun. He is now going to buy a gun to shoot in this event.
I got there early as usual and was the first one there, dang that military mindset. Set up all the targets with the pros so I feel I had an advantage of walking the course once or twice before everyone else saw it. This also included walking full speed and getting knee capped by a trailer hitch. which hurt more then you would think.
After setting up the target we had our little shooters meeting we broke up into squads. Which I still have no idea whats going on just hoping someone will tell me what to do.
The general idea in the event was there are brown paper targets (bad guys), white paper targets (good guys), and steel targets. Each brown guy had scoring rings and you had to put at least 2 bullets in each. The steel targets just had to fall over and the white ones counted against you if you hit it.
The courses consisted of one Action type course were you run around obstacles and pop off targets, and avoid shooting the good guy targets. This was by far my favorite. You start with you gun in condition 1 on a table in front of you, when the timer beeps you pick it up and blast 4 targets then run you the next area where the course starts. It was a 36 shot course, if you didn't miss. So that was 4 mags for me. 
The next course was you stand in a little box and had three sets of two steel plates and one paper target. between each set you had a mandatory reload. Shoot one into each steel plate to knock it over then double tap the paper target and reload. The middle set of targets you had you fire through a slit in a board that was maybe 2 inches wide and 8 inches tall. tricky but doable. (No pictures of this sorry)
The last stage was a running in a straight line, first with brown and white targets then a 6 steel plate rack with white targets. This was by far the most difficult. From your starting point there was a little box and you had to shoot at least one bullet from the box before moving. These brown targets were half painted black to give the impression they were behind cover. Of course as I was sprinting through the course I was getting good groups for one hand firing while running but they were in the black part which counted as a miss. Bummer.
After the brown targets the steel targets were required to be shot through a little window. This was basically impossible for me. I could shoot half dollar size groups at the range at 60 feet but up against the clock and after sprinting and playing police sniper trying not to hit the white hostages it was not happening. As you can see in the picture the window to hit a steel target was pretty small.
All in all I ended up 3rd in my division and was pretty happy. I will definitely be back to compete in future events.
Friday, November 4, 2011
The Best Choke Tube Combo.
I shoot a over under shotgun which means I can have a set of two choke tubes with me at any point in time. I find that any combination of choke tubes are just a real mind game. The only difference between the chokes that I see happens between a Skeet and at Extra Full. Those two are on the complete opposite of each other.
Given there are a lot of different games that you can shoot and some need two barrels, you may need to find a different set of chokes. The only time I will make huge size changes is when I shoot Skeet.
For Skeet I will shoot a Skeet (SK) and a Improved Cylinder (IC). SK in the bottom and IC in the top. Since you can select to shoot top or bottom barrel first I think it works. For the fly away birds I will shoot the IC then the coming at me birds I shoot the SK. This gets tricky when you get to into it and forget to switch the barrels, but then again the difference in the choke size is .005 of an inch.
For almost everything else I like to shoot a Modified (M) and a Full (F) or the Extra Full (XF) on top. This is where I think it turns into a real mind game.
In trap I will shoot a M on the bottom and a XF on top. Given you only get one shot at the bird, but if you hit a bad streak and gotta pick it up it seems to give you a much better focus and timing if I switch to the top barrel and shoot the XF. Then switch back over to the M. I have tried shooting anything from LM to XF on trap and find that M is the most consistent with me. This is the same setup I will use if I shoot Int'l Trap. Easier to carry over then to switch them out.
When shooting Sporting Clays the birds come at a bunch of different angles, I may open it up to a Light Mod(LM) on the bottom and a M-XF on top dependent on how the birds are looking.
Doubles Trap you know EXACTLY where the birds are going to be going so I open it up to a LM and F. See flash of orange and fire away and you killed it then pick up the second one and pick it off. Very easy.
Keep in mind that your personal shooting style and choke tube selection go hand in hand. But this is not to say a good shooter can't shoot a SK on trap and still break a 25. The important thing is to not get to frustrated to quickly and switch out chokes and change everything. If you consistently are missing birds then your baseline or pre shot routine may be the problem, especially if you aren't keeping your head on the gun!
Here is my shotgun with only a XF Briley Splash Choke:
Given there are a lot of different games that you can shoot and some need two barrels, you may need to find a different set of chokes. The only time I will make huge size changes is when I shoot Skeet.
For Skeet I will shoot a Skeet (SK) and a Improved Cylinder (IC). SK in the bottom and IC in the top. Since you can select to shoot top or bottom barrel first I think it works. For the fly away birds I will shoot the IC then the coming at me birds I shoot the SK. This gets tricky when you get to into it and forget to switch the barrels, but then again the difference in the choke size is .005 of an inch.
For almost everything else I like to shoot a Modified (M) and a Full (F) or the Extra Full (XF) on top. This is where I think it turns into a real mind game.
In trap I will shoot a M on the bottom and a XF on top. Given you only get one shot at the bird, but if you hit a bad streak and gotta pick it up it seems to give you a much better focus and timing if I switch to the top barrel and shoot the XF. Then switch back over to the M. I have tried shooting anything from LM to XF on trap and find that M is the most consistent with me. This is the same setup I will use if I shoot Int'l Trap. Easier to carry over then to switch them out.
When shooting Sporting Clays the birds come at a bunch of different angles, I may open it up to a Light Mod(LM) on the bottom and a M-XF on top dependent on how the birds are looking.
Doubles Trap you know EXACTLY where the birds are going to be going so I open it up to a LM and F. See flash of orange and fire away and you killed it then pick up the second one and pick it off. Very easy.
Keep in mind that your personal shooting style and choke tube selection go hand in hand. But this is not to say a good shooter can't shoot a SK on trap and still break a 25. The important thing is to not get to frustrated to quickly and switch out chokes and change everything. If you consistently are missing birds then your baseline or pre shot routine may be the problem, especially if you aren't keeping your head on the gun!
Here is my shotgun with only a XF Briley Splash Choke:
Here is my shotgun with two Briley Extended Chokes in it:
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Description of the Basic Trap and Skeet
As many shooters out there know, a few different kind of clay target sports exist. I can give an opinion on all of them because I have shot all of them, while I'm not very good at any of them I can hold my own and explain the basics.
Trap:
The simplistic of them all. A round consists of 25 birds thrown in 5 bird increments. There are 5 shooting stations in which you shoot 5 birds at each one. You stand at 16yds from the Trap house, shoot in order station 1, 2...then the order starts over until this is done 5 times, then a right hand rotation. Shooter 1 moves to station 2 and Shooter 5 go around to station 1. The birds will fly at 5 different angles. From straight away to far left or far right.
Trap:
The simplistic of them all. A round consists of 25 birds thrown in 5 bird increments. There are 5 shooting stations in which you shoot 5 birds at each one. You stand at 16yds from the Trap house, shoot in order station 1, 2...then the order starts over until this is done 5 times, then a right hand rotation. Shooter 1 moves to station 2 and Shooter 5 go around to station 1. The birds will fly at 5 different angles. From straight away to far left or far right.
Skeet:
The second most known type of clay game. This is very different from trap where the birds are thrown across the field instead of flying away from the shooter. In this sport, you move stations after every shooter has shot at the station. The birds come from two locations. The "High House" and the "Low House." You will see the same bird every time, but the angle will be slightly different based on what station you are at.
There are International Trap and Skeet which are obviously Internationally difficult.
The birds are twice as fast and 4 times as hard to hit. These sports have a different rotation but they are still based on the same fundamental of 25 birds.
Welcome!
Welcome to my shooting blog.
My hopes and dreams for this blog is to give my own personal thoughts, opinions, reviews, facts, fictions and whatever else I can think of to the internet for the betterment of all shooters that feast their eyes on it.
Based on the amount I shoot I will attempt to post at least tri-weekly although this may vary as life is not always handing out good days. This is a learning experience for me so lets give it a few tries to get all the bugs worked out and make a popular Blog.
Thanks again. Lets hope for some good reviews.
My hopes and dreams for this blog is to give my own personal thoughts, opinions, reviews, facts, fictions and whatever else I can think of to the internet for the betterment of all shooters that feast their eyes on it.
Based on the amount I shoot I will attempt to post at least tri-weekly although this may vary as life is not always handing out good days. This is a learning experience for me so lets give it a few tries to get all the bugs worked out and make a popular Blog.
Thanks again. Lets hope for some good reviews.
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