How to interpret good score with low x count

Ever shoot a decent score with a very low x-count?  What does that mean?  Does it mean anything?

It doesn’t mean much.  100-0X either makes you very lucky or “the best all around shot…”.  

Levity aside, I’d look to see if there was a pattern.  As in good groups but displaced from center or a general opening up.

100-0 beats a 99-9x! Like Ashley said, a nice evenly distributed group is sometimes as good as it gets, on that day. It all changes, day to day, and over the years.Evenly distributed is what you want to see, not all over the place.

A bigger round group with a lot of 8s means you could improve your hold. If they’re low left, that your fingers doing the walking…on the grip and trigger. Hard to analyze without pictures.

In a local Bullseye league the final standing came down to one X, and I had it.

It means that one is pulling the trigger well. By that I mean the trigger is being pulled accepting whatever the the wobble is that the shooter has. They are accepting the wobble and working the trigger and letting the gun shoot, instead of making the gun shoot. Typically when we make the gun shoot at a precise moment in the hold or time, we tend to make it worse than what it would have been.

A better score will beat a better X count every time. Work the better shot process for each shot, the score and later X count will take care of itself as the wobble is reduced.

Couple of thoughts from a sharpshooter, take 'em for what they're worth.

1. Suppose two shooters both fire a 270 NMC. One is a better long line shooter with an 87/92/91 and the other is a better short line shooter with an 80/95/95. Well, most days the 2nd shooter will have the higher X-count. 95+ short line targets have LOTS of 10s and many of them will happen to be Xs. So maybe if you're getting a good score but low X count it means your short line is not as good as it could be but your long line is making up for it.

2. When I am shooting air pistol at home for practice sometimes I have a target where I keep shooting 9s but can't seem to get a 10 to save my life! A donut-shaped group if you will. What I tell myself is... I must not be trusting my hold. If I shoot my wobble and do not try to time the moment the sights cross the X, then my group should end up with a normal distribution within that wobble area, concentrated towards the center. The only way for me to *not* shoot a group that gets denser towards the middle is if I am trying to outsmart myself and shoot when everything is "right". If so then every shot will be a 10 plus a little offset due to either my trigger control errors or the delay in perception when I reacted to the 10 I saw in the sights, so the group will repel away from the 10 like a magnet and will end up donut-shaped. Anyway, I figure this same effect could keep one out of the X-ring.

It means, "Get yer X-count up."

Depends on whether it's a one-off or a trend. For the converse, I normally look at a low or middling score with a high X-count as a sign that I'm nearing a breakthrough, as it indicates that I'm doing things really right a high percentage of the time, and part of that commitment to excellence is risking some shots that are wider than I'd like.

A good score with low X-count can indicate a lot of things: fatigue, (de)hydration, HALT (hungry, angry, lonely, tired), not having razor-sharp focus, I was doing a job keeping things (mostly) together under tough conditions, etc. I don't dwell on it too much. I write it down in my journal so it's there for me to refer to in the future if a pattern develops.

YMMV.

Might mean you need a better pistol   
Jon

Perhaps a head factor.

One time long ago I shot this target with 38 OMM

XXXXXXXX98

Guess when I scoped the 50 yd target

Jon Eulette wrote:Might mean you need a better pistol   
Jon

Inherent bias from a gunsmith aside ( ), this also could be the case. Depends on your skill level.

john bickar wrote:

Jon Eulette wrote:Might mean you need a better pistol   
Jon

Inherent bias from a gunsmith aside ( ), this also could be the case. Depends on your skill level.

Jon recently put a new trigger in my RO and it didn’t improve my shooting one bit. Rather it is teaching me to shoot better. It’s remarkable.  In just a few weeks I’ve gone from trying to hold the 8 ring to nearly cleaning a 25 yard target.

My Father missed a chance to go to the Olympics by one X

I would rather have a 100-0X! But makes a bizarre looking 97

If you try to TAKE a center shot, you likely will not GET a center shot.

Let it happen.

Dot dead center has no place to go but out. Dot outside and moving to center can be a 10. A 10 and moving outward could be ugly.

bruce martindale wrote:If you try to TAKE a center shot, you likely will not GET a center shot.

Let it happen.

Dot dead center has no place to go but out. Dot outside and moving to center can be a 10. A 10 and moving outward could be ugly.

Dave Salyer taught me that the best way to NOT hit the X, was to aim at the X.  Dave was all for "area aiming".  He wrote about this in the bullseye encyclopedia.  Bruce, I think the following (which I learned from Dave) is also in your book on how to shoot better:

If you carefully align the gun and deliberately SHOOT at jus the perfect moment, most likely the gun will move, and you will miss.
For starters, what your eye sees is "history".  By the time the gun actually fires, the gun will have moved.
If you watch the following two videos below, they explain some of this.

Or, if you get the sights lined up, and gradually apply pressure to the trigger, until it eventually fires in its own, you will shoot better.

....and if you do the above for 10 or 20 rounds in a row, you will get a lot of holes clustered around the center of where you were aiming.
....and if you fire those 10 or 20 rounds in a row deliberately, trying to hit the X, you will likely find holes all over the target EXCEPT the X.


One YouTube shooting expert (IMHO) is 'gunblue490", who posted the following videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1yxrEek-Dw 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNymQcADch4

When Dave told me the above, I thought he was nuts.  How can you hit something without aiming at it.  Every time I've tried the above, I got the same results.  

Like 'CrankyThunder' told me, "watch the dot, and wait for the bang".  

Chances are, any of you can hold up the empty gun, and deliberately take a "shot", and you will likely see movement in the front sight or dot.
But if you do as described, and let the gun fire on it's own, which it will when you apply enough pressure, the sights will remain still.

I think people reading the above are likely to think this is the stupidest thing anyone has posted, as in how can you hit the X without deliberately trying to.  That's how I felt when Dave first explained it - and the videos from 'gunblue490' make it easier to understand.

Could have been a 100-10x. I shot this recently during timed fire. 

I found this video, and it may be talking about the issue at hand.

link starts video at normal distribution discussion, point of interest starts shortly after at the 3:20 mark.

https://youtu.be/JSxr9AHER_s?t=108

It would appear by his simulation that if you shoot a normal distribution, and the gun shoots a normal distribution, together you shoot a chi(sp?) distribution which is effectively a doughnut.

Thanks for sharing the link above! I’m realizing my “pet load” is probably bullshit. Even the ransom rest “proofs” sent with my “match grade pistol” are probably bullshit. This fully explains that random WTF when I scope what I called as an X. Reinforces that YOU are the biggest variable.

. Reinforces that YOU are the biggest variable.


That's why I love pistol shooting