Leinster 50m Open

I changed my handstop setting for this match. I'd been suffering a lot of pain in my support hand, and to try alleviate it, I turned the handstop more in line with the stock. It had been offset towards my hand, but this had been forcing the hand to turn and it was causing me too much pain. The alteration made a big difference and I didn't suffer nearly as much.

I found shooting on the right hand firing point meant the wind flags stayed pretty dead, so I was far better off watching the flag at the far left hand side of the range and paying attention to grasses close in to make wind alterations. Light was very consistent, so I didn't need to worry overly about that.

Score was decent. 558, which is a new competitive personal best. I also took second place in class D and some crystal to boot. It wasn't a bad result for me, so I was pleased enough. Got some good technical advice from Tony Cogan, so I've got things to work on for the next while as well. Indoor season opens next week, so hopefully that will be interesting as well. At least it's entirely technique then, so it'll push me to improve that.

Training of September Fifth

Went down to Rathdrum for a session with Dave Cullen today. He was quite pleased with my technique, but my position needs work. I need to work on the consistency of it, and my best position at the moment could use some extra work in and of itself. I intend to try spread my legs a little more, try keep the left leg straighter. I also need to remember that my right elbow should fall reasonably close in, right in front of my face, for stability. My weight is focused very slightly on my right hip, more so my right elbow.

One of the things that came to light today was that I wasn't applying pressures properly; my inner position is obviously inconsistent, and this needs work. Not looking forward to having that drilled out however, as that's going to be a fairly arduous process. I'll be doing more training in the future anyway, so hopefully I'll eradicate it over time.

I shot a quick match at the end of my training session after Dave had left. I dropped the first card horribly (88) but got it together after that. The next four cards ranged from 93 to 95, and I finished with a 92, which was disappointing given the volume of high nines which nearly scraped in, but I couldn't find the ten ring. 555 for the match, and I personally felt, even with the defects in myself, it should have been 560. Oh well, there's time and plenty of training ahead anyway.

DRC August Open

DRC had their August Open yesterday. It was a really enjoyable shoot, with a barbecue (much appreciated). It was tricky however. Conditions looked distinctly amiable when I was getting down to shoot, but the wind was far less reliable than it looked, and light kept spiking for several minutes at a time. I was reasonably happy with my positional consistency and technique wasn't bad. Mind could have been better, but the score was largely down to a failure to deal with the conditions properly I think. I was using a 4.5mm foresight element for the first two cards, and switched to a 4.1mm for the last card, which was my best overall. I shot very consistently, which to me points to technical consistency, with all my strings between 90 and 92, and four of them being 92, and finished with a 549 overall. I can shoot better than that, and I think the indoor season will see a lot of better scores for me. I need to dedicate some time to learning to read and react to conditions outdoors however. I'll have plenty of time to try before matches start up again next summer. There's only one outdoor match left here before we move indoors for the winter. I'm looking forward to the indoor competitions because it'll force me to really focus hard on my technique and consistency. It's definitely improving, however, and I aim to hit 570 in the next few months indoors. Plenty of dry-fire training, positional and technical analysis, and some coaching should help me get there. I'll also work on the outdoor aspects between the close of this season and the matches next summer.

Foresights and Matches

I've been experimenting with foresight element sizes lately, and it's something I'd only heard of recently, so I think it worth publishing here, as it's proven very useful to me. I had been using a 3.3mm foresight element, and found I couldn't distinguish between sight pictures that would result in a nine and those that would result in a ten. This was bothering me, but I was struggling along, assuming as I got better, it would get more obvious, and I imagine this is still true to a large extent, but I read an article on the importance of the right foresight element, and after consultation with my more knowledgeable acquaintances, I decided to experiment a little.

I went down to Rathdrum with my box of AHG elements to see what worked. I began with a 4.5mm foresight, and found it very disorienting. The sight picture seemed to swim and I found myself snatching at shots. Groups were alright, but nothing I couldn't have achieved on a good day with my old foresight. I then switched for a 4.1mm foresight, and improvements were immediate and distinct. I shot some practice groups, then a match. I beat my personal best cards and match score. So it's definitely worth experimenting with foresight element sizes, and later in the post, I'll say more on it.

Yesterday saw the Fermoy 50m Open, and it was a good day. Despite having had five hours sleep in two previous nights, starting driving around a quarter to six in the morning and driving for rather a lot of hours to get there, I was looking forward to the shoot. (Madness prevails!) The range was lovely, really nice complex. Daniel Fleming gave us a quick tour before the competition, and the centrefire pistol range was impressively laid out and put together, as was the smallbore range and the benchrest and silhouette sections. It was very challenging to shoot however. I found the wind quite difficult, especially in the second card, which brought my score down, but I did okay. All things considered, I wasn't unhappy with my 552.

However, to return to my foresight point, I hadn't changed my 4.1mm foresight element for the match, and I didn't have quite the same distinction and definition of my sight picture as I had enjoyed indoors in Rathdrum. It was unquestionably better than my old element, but I intend to experiment with a 4.3mm and a 4.5mm foresight before the next DRC Open in two weeks, in order to see whether I can further improve on my outdoor results. It should be good.

So, to conclude, thanks to Fermoy for running a really enjoyable and efficient shoot on a lovely, but very challenging range, and it's worth anybody's time to experiment with their foresight elements and see whether they can eke out some advantage for themselves.

Coaching and Progress

I went to Rathdrum yesterday, having arranged a session of coaching with David Cullen.

He gave me a lot of very direct advice, which is exactly what I was looking for. My spine wasn't as straight as it should have been, so we re-arranged my position, and he suggested I move my handstop forward and adjust the sling correspondingly. It's awkward to get used to, but I think it's more stable than previously now, and think it will help me in the long term.

One point is that he suggested I get shooting lenses, as my glasses seem to be distorting the sight picture quite a lot (I often get an oval sight picture, at a diagonal slant, especially after a while of shooting) and this makes it very difficult to centre. So it looks like I'll have to invest in a pair of lenses, which was something I had considered anyway, but it's good to hear it's definitely a good idea.

Definitely think his coaching helped me squeeze out a few points where I might not have before, and shot 90-95 for the day, so if I can drag things to the upper end of that scale, I'll be fairly happy. I should definitely be scoring well this Autumn, and will be getting more training from Dave any time I can, as I found it very helpful.

Nationals Today

Turned up early this morning to help set up the range and conditions were fantastic. Lovely day for a match. The day was marked by good conditions. Light was quite tricky at times and tripped up most people, but the wind was very low for the most part.

My own match got off to a dodgy start, with two 87's in a row, with which I wasn't best pleased. I did manage to get my act together however and even put in a 94, which is my best card outdoors, fairly pleasing. Finished with a 539, which is a shade lower than I was anticipating, but it's my own fault. What I have to remember in future is:

-Adjust my rearsight aperture better to suit conditions and optimise sight picture (this was the primary issue with my first two cards)
-Adjust my handstop and sling to bring my position up when shooting in BRC; found myself constantly trying to shift upwards today and was very uncomfortable for the whole match. My neck is still quite sore.

I also would like to pay attention to my rhythm in future, as I found when I got into a quick, regular rhythm rather than taking laborious time over shots, I shot a lot better.

I won the class, but the turnout for the class was small. I was happy enough with my score, but it wouldn't ordinarily win. Still, it was a good day, fun was had, things were learned to be applied in future and the company was good. There is a more comprehensive report on the event here.

Progress Update

There's been plenty going on and much to log over the past while, so bear with me and I'll see how best to illustrate it. I've been keeping fairly relaxed about shooting recently, training about weekly, and relaxing in between, trying to intensify training but keep it out of the rest of my time, as I think that was getting counter-productive. Best to keep it simple for now and not overcomplicate things.

The DURC Open didn't go very well. My mind just wasn't on the task in hand, I was using a scope that couldn't make out the targets and I had a misfire, so finished dead last, and forgot to take a shot on another target as four holes looked like five through the scope I had. Unfortunate to say the least.

After the DURC Open I resolved to getting some outdoor practice to try and figure out what was going so wrong that I was dropping fifty points off my indoor scores, and after a little bit of practice and tweaking, I started getting it right. All I changed was my rear iris, and I just edged it down until my sight picture gained distinction, and everything fell into place and my scores immediately went up to where my indoor scores were. Many thanks to the guys in DRC for being so accommodating with the use of their range for my trouble-shooting, and for all the advice.

Yesterday I went down to Rathdrum for some training, and it quickly became apparent that my work outdoors had paid off dividends for my indoor shooting, as I beat my personal best by a significant amount and only had one match card slip under 91, and that was the last one, which was a mildly upsetting 87, but it was a product of tiredness, bad decisions, and I think the ammo may have thrown a couple of points at one stage, but it was cheap, so I can't find too much fault. So I finished with a 549, using Lapua Super Club. Were I using Master, I probably would have gained a couple of points elsewhere, and probably there, so it's rather good for my own pride and it shows there's been a lot of progress.

Now, having improved greatly, and fixed some of my outdoor problems, roll on the Nationals on Sunday the 20th. I'm optimistic, so hopefully nerves won't show me up.

Well, that was something of a disaster. Could not group or get decent scores, whatever I tried. Even reverting to my older routines, still just could not pattern tighter than the eight ring, and there were a pile of seven's, and what should have been tens just weren't. So, I'm going to leave the rifle alone for a while. I'll try wind down and keep a clear head until the DURC Open, then see how that goes.

Hopefully I'll be heading for the range this afternoon. I want to bear in mind my position, but pay particular attention to my head position and eye alignment and centering, and my trigger control. Should achieve a respectable score if that comes off. Also, what I'm going to try when zeroed and sighted in, is get up, relax, stretch and have a drink every five shots in the match, whether I feel I need it or not, and no matter how good the last shot was. I have a feeling that will cut out fliers dramatically. So today's focus is:

Head and eye position
Trigger control
Extremely regular breaks.

I'll update later with a report. Hopefully the electronics are playing ball today.

Okay, time to report on yesterday I feel. Couple of things to note.

Trigger break is brilliant. It requires loads more dry-firing training to adapt to properly, but it's extremely crisp and smooth now, quite pleased with this. Didn't use it to its full potential, but that'll come with time.

Position was bad. I was stiff and sore from having worked for the morning, so couldn't get comfortable for longer than a couple of shots, so it wasn't a good day for positional analysis. My neck was sore in position and I was overall, far too restless and couldn't find my balance properly. Was dry-firing today and position was absolutely rock solid, so was just out of sorts yesterday I suppose.

Didn't get to shoot a match like I wanted. I couldn't get the electronics to co-operate (insisted it was a pistol target whatever I did) so I was forced to use paper. While this was a pain in the ass, it did tell me some things: I suspect it was largely to do with how uncomfortable and out of sorts I was, but I could not get proper scores on the paper targets, my position just wasn't steady enough and I was very uncomfortable indeed. On the other hand, when I focus on shooting groups on a single target, I'm definitely at an advantage. Shot a ten shot group, with two fliers, but the eight shot main group would have fit in the ten ring. As is, it was slightly high and left, so a couple of the shots broke the nine, but it was still small enough.

The fliers are bothering me though. Even on the electronic targets, I find it'd be a rare ten shot string where I didn't drop an eight. It's getting that the eights are getting better, as are the nines for that matter, and there are a lot more tens, but I'll be very pleased to see the eights get thinned out altogether.

So, on the whole, I didn't learn as much as I would like to have learned yesterday. My trigger adjustments have paid off I think, though I wasn't in the position to really find out yesterday, so maybe next week will tell better. I also learned just how big a difference the single bull targets can make, which is something I haven't really appreciated properly before. I'm somewhat more apprehensive about the next match now, as it'll be outdoors on paper targets, but if I just keep my wits about me, it shouldn't be too bad. I'm going to be fairly conservative with it and, as it's outdoors, if I break 510 I'll be satisfied. I'll be aiming for 525 if it's a good day for me though.

Okay, I'm going to head for a training session now, so I want to lay out some objectives for the day, and I can come back afterwards, see how well I realised them and what effect they had. So, for today:

- Analyse my consistency of position. When I zero, I will take note of my mat position and my body position in relation to this. Hereafter, I will note this when positioning myself.
- Take long breaks between firing a shot. Establish rigorous check routine. Refer to notes for details of this routine for each shot.
- Watch breathing control. Focus on breath for every shot.
- Trigger control. Be careful and analyse new trigger settings.

Before each shot, I want to run through my list of checks and ask myself "Is there any reason why this shouldn't be a ten?" I then want to focus on taking the shot immaculately carefully.

I'm going to shoot a match. My target for today, assuming I take proper care, is 545. I will post again later with details of how I got on.

Aims and Ambitions

I'm David Franklin, from Dublin, Ireland, and this is ostensibly my training diary for shooting. It will inevitably become more than that though, and entries are quite likely to relate to college, events in my personal life, and assorted other bitching. It's important, however, for me to keep a good training diary. I shoot smallbore target rifle. I have shot air rifle and want to get back into that in the autumn and train competitively at it. My averages are fairly paltry, but rising, and the only way I'm going to do that is to document my problems and their solutions in order to create a troubleshooting database and make sure such problems don't recur. And there we have an explanation of this journal. Articles of interest may also be added, shooting-related or otherwise, and I'll almost inevitably have things to complain about with regard to shooting beurocracy or media misrepresentation.