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.