Shooting to do your best or shooting to hit a certain score.

Yesterday I shot a match at Oak Harbor. I have been shooting around 840 for rimfire and 800 for centerfire/.45. I sail through rimfire with my normal score. When I get to centerfire I am shooting normal and then make a huge mistake in rapid fire. I called for a second alibi and lost 50 points. Ended up with a 754. I jokingly said I needed to shoot an 850 to make up for it.

So when I went out to the line to shoot .45 I actually told myself that I had to shoot an 850. I ended up with a personal best 826. Shot a slow fire best of 93.

Do you walk in with expectations or an attitude when you start a match? What do you do mentally to shoot a better score rather than "what I always do"?

I've read, and I believe, that sometimes folks have expectations that keep them shooting a certain score. Usually it seems to be a wall that is mentally built. It is buried in the subconscious. I often times found myself shooting a certain average because it seemed like after I fired, for example a high score (compared to my average) in the .22 match, I would come back with a lower score than my average in either the CF or .45 match. I found it best to just focus on each shot or string of shots and apply the fundamentals. Most top shooters consider goals important and I do think that they come into play, but focusing on scores as goals never worked out for me. What I did find helpful is when I would shoot a very good score, say a 97 in slow fire, that I eventually trained myself to think..."That's the way I shoot." I would then expect the next slow fire to be in the ballpark. I would tend to expect clean targets in sustained fire, instead of being surprised at them. It was an attitude of continually building good scores. One on top of another. For me that helped to prevent the building of subconscious "walls". Of course this mental aspect can only be overcome when one has a full grasp of the fundamentals of marksmanship. I hope that this makes sense to you.

If everything mechanical is working and you do your part, you will start to see a average emerge, only thru practice and stepping up your game will you progress to a higher average. Everyone will have those great days and the not so great ones, but advancing your average is the goal.

I normally only write down the individual strings. I don't total up until after the match, otherwise my mind starts interfereing with my shooting.
I keep telling myself, "this is the only shot you came here to shoot today". Sometimes it works, sometimes there are too many other things weighing on my mind and it doesn't. But it does help to focus on every shot.
FWIW

I train my mind to ignore the actual score, but to focus on the process of letting off a good shot each time (within my personal wobble). I only scope maybe the first one or two shots in a SlowF string just to make sure I'm on call and then I don't look through the scope again. My short term memory issues help me here, in that I can easily forget how my previous shots/scores were like, and just focus on THE CURRENT SHOT.

During training, I may scope more and do drills that require certain scores/outcomes, but I still try to forget past shots/outcomes and focus on the current shot.

Keeping track of match scores and a diary can really help. We tend to remember the good and forget the bad. Weaknesses can become apparent when one keeps track of scores. By that, I mean, keep track of all shots and that way you can focus your attention to those areas where you need more work.

Not scoping is something I have done in the last two matches. I have been working on my pistolbox so I just didnt bring it. I wish I had it for scoping my first few .22 rounds but my eyesight is good enough to see a .45 hole that falls out of the black at 50 yards. My scores have not suffered from the lack of it.

The other thing I quit doing is using a timer for slow fire. Every match I shoot in other than Perry they forgo the last few minutes of slow fire if everyone is done (they ask first so if I am not done and they are asking I know I am strapped for time) and at an indoor match only a malfunction would force me to use the full ten minutes.

sixftunda wrote:Not scoping is something I have done in the last two matches. I have been working on my pistolbox so I just didnt bring it. I wish I had it for scoping my first few .22 rounds but my eyesight is good enough to see a .45 hole that falls out of the black at 50 yards. My scores have not suffered from the lack of it.

The other thing I quit doing is using a timer for slow fire. Every match I shoot in other than Perry they forgo the last few minutes of slow fire if everyone is done (they ask first so if I am not done and they are asking I know I am strapped for time) and at an indoor match only a malfunction would force me to use the full ten minutes.

Personally, I would stay in the habit of using a stopwatch for slow fire. Sometimes there are conditions where it is important to know how much time is left. One would be when a person has a gun problem and needs extra time during slow fire. Another would be when weather conditions (read windy) requires that a shooter wait for the lulls before shooting. Time can really slip by.

I shoot to have fun. This is my hobby and my playtime along with archery. I'm a newcomer to Bullseye but not to competitive archery. When I relax and have fun I score better in both which is why I never practice. I always play. Yiogo

A stopwatch is good to have just in case you have difficulty in SF. Or you can use it if called upon to call the line. And it also can be used to check the face time in T&R. One time at a Regional, I clocked 12 second rapids.



And scoping or not can bite you both ways. Really you should not need to scope if you prepared well and have confidence in your call. If you scope each shot and your head is on straight, no problem. If you donot scope and do not see a problem developing, then surprise surprise. I hope your head is on right straight now. One EIC I shot I scoped the first two SF shots. Both were decent 9s at ten. I thought I saw the sight go that way just a little so I fire at will. Final group was a nice 9 ring size group centered on the 7-8 ring at ten. There I should have scoped more.

I noticed I started shooting better once I had a few good targets under my belt. For example, the first time I shot a 100 in sustained fire, I thought it was a fluke or luck. After I did this 2 or 3 times I realized I could actually do that with intent. The same thing for slow fire, once I started shooting 95s or higher a couple of times, I realized I could do that too with intent and not just by luck. The more this happens, the more you expect it.

Every shot I send downrange these days I expect to be a 10. Anything less than a 10 results in disappointment for me. In the last few years that I have been shooting, I know I have shot thousands of 10s so it seem natural to expect every shot to be a 10.

But I think there is a chicken or egg story inside there. I didn't magically start shooting 10s because I thought I could, rather, I started shooting more tens once I realized I could.

Chris D

People generally perform better when they have a performance goal instead of a number goal. Working towards excellent sight alignment or a good trigger squeeze will generally do better than thinking about a high score. Pick a fundamental, any fundamental. Working toward that goal will help.

When evaluating a target, focus on what you did right. Too often, people focus on and reinforce the negative. That is counter productive.

sixftunda wrote:Yesterday I shot a match at Oak Harbor.

What a place to shoot! I shot in the 1st match held there in Nov 1968, also my 1st match and in the 1st match in which the 50 yd range was used. I think Apr '01. And most all of the matches between.
This thread contains some very good thoughts & ideas and would be worth rereading and thinking about their application to your game.
I thoroughly enjoy, and think it helps my shooting, to reshoot that 50 yd X w/ the .45 over & over in my mind. Just how good it felt and looked! It truly is something special.
Ron

I lived in Bowling Green for over 10 years and never new of the range in Oak Harbor.

The road between BG and Oak Harbor was a blast to drive!!



Tom