Sporter techniques

[Jimro]

I recently competed in a 60 shot standing match (Camp Perry Open) where I was the only guy in his thirties shooting with a bunch of juniors in the "sporter" category.  It seemed that we were all trying to imitate the techniques used by the shooters in the "precision" class but without the exoskeleton shooting jacket, pants, and shoes.

Having watched shooters in both "sporter" and "precision" use the Crosman Challenger to good effect in both that the uniform is just as important to air rifle as my High Power jacket is for that sport (ISSF rules say that I can't use a jacket that buckles, so my that is 400 dollars in gear that doesn't translate between disciplines).  For what it is worth I was the only guy on the line shooting a SSP rifle (my Daisy 953) and I shot about what you would expect for someone with about three months of practice under their belt.  I'm not ashamed of my 703-4X score over the two day match, but I really do want to get a lot better.

I shot without a stand, there is no point resting an underlever SSP rifle on one anyways.  But watching other shooters maintain stock position convinced me that rebuilding my stance with every shot (I kept my feet in place, so it was really just shouldering the rifle and getting my support arm tucked in right) wasn't doing me any favors.

The questions I have are;

1, are there any technique differences that help tighten groups and raise scores that are different when you are wearing sporter legal clothes instead of a shooting uniform?

2, what is the best way to practice and get better when you don't have a shooting coach?  Film yourself shooting?  Film your target at the same time? 

3, since there was a distinct lack of SSP or springer rifles on the line, when should I accept that I need a different rifle to shoot better scores? 

4, since I beat shooters using the Daisy 887, I am looking at the Air Arms T200, Crosman Challenger, and Air Force Edge as potential upgrades.  I like that the challenger can use CO2 which would be cheaper initially for me than compressed air (although it can use compressed air too).  The T200 and Challenger were well represented in the Sporter class, but there was not an Edge to be seen, is there something that everyone else knows about the Edge that I don't?

5, I practice what seems like a lot, but I don't seem to be getting better.  I shoot 7.5 meter targets in my basement.  In the last three and a half months I've gone through 1,500 wadcutter pellets and that works out to about 17 shots a day (a normal shooting session is 20, 30 or more, my job keeps me from shooting every day).  For a guy used to centerfire and rimfire rifle, that's a lot.  Should I increase the number of pellets sent downrange, or should I increase my dry fire training?

6, is picking up the air rifle in my thirties trying to teach an old dog new tricks?  I'm all for learning a new skill, and I will stick with it because I enjoy the feeling of shooting a ten but I don't want to have unrealistic expectations.  I honestly don't think I'll ever beat any of the people my age that started out as juniors, no matter how dedicated I am I don't think there is any way to make up for twenty years of training and competition that I don't have.

Jimro

[ac12]

First of CONGRATULATIONS on shooting at a national match.
Very few of us get to experience that.

For your questions, here are some ramblings.  You may have to clean it up to read better.

As for the rifle rest, even with a SSP it would be good, because you can rest the rifle on it before/after the shot, relaxing and resting your muscles.

#1 - Yes, you have to concentrate on your stance.  You do not have the shooting jacket and pants to support your body, which lets you get away with sloppy stance technique.  Luckily the sportser rifle is lighter than precision, because shooting an 11 pound precision rifle w/o some kind of back support is hard on the lower back.  But you still need to strengthen your back muscles.

#2 - Dry fire in front of a mirror, so you can see what you look like from the front.  A video camera would also be helpful, as you can position it to aim from specific angles to look at specific things.  The reason for this is, you cannot see what your body is doing, you have to look at yourself from the outside.  Example most people do not realize that they slouch in a chair.  It is someone looking at the person that sees it.
Get the book "Air Rifle Shooting"  (I have this and "Ways of the Rifle," both very good books that I wish I had when I started)
http://www.pilkguns.com/books.shtml
But be aware that there are basically 2 different schools of stance, the European stance (as shown in these 2 books, well they were written in Europe) and the US stance.  Neither is better, just different, and you will see both in use on the firing line.  I learned the American stance from my AR coach, but switched to the European stance later.  I could do the European stance better.
And talk with other shooters and coaches. 
A trick that one of my coaches taught me.  Setup like a melting snowman...you SAG.  When you set up your stance, you do not want to use muscle to hold up the rifle.  Muscles get tired, so you do not want to use muscles to hold up the rifle.  You want either weight pushing down (rifle down onto your support arm) or body being pulled (support arm pulling down in left shoulder).  It is all in the technique of the stance that makes it work.

Finally the one thing that I do NOT expect you to get, is an electronic trainer like RIKA or SCATT.  These provide "some" of the input that a coach would provide.  I found it valuable in refining the shooting sequence, seeing when my hold was steadiest, and when it started to deteriorate.  But these things are EXPENSIVE.  I got mine used which helped me afford it.

#3 - The big advantage of co2 or CA/PCP is when shooting 3P, you don't have to break position to charge the rifle, especially important in the prone position.  When you feel that your scores are as high as you can get and leveling off, you might have hit the level where less physical exertion during the match will help.  But this is also a personal call.  If you feel in your head that the effort of charging the rifle for each shot is costing you points, then switch, as this is as much a mental game as physical.  This is called, removing an excuse for a poor score.
I switched my AP from SSP to CO2, and my AR from spring to CA/PCP.  In my case it was tendonitis that drove the switch to compressed gas for my AP.  For my AR, I ran into a good deal on a CA match rifle, so switched from spring to CA.

#4 - The Edge did not get the acceptance it could have.  I understand that it is fussy with pellets so you have to expect to spend time finding which pellet shoots well out of it.  Some shoot GOOD, others just can't get it to group like the Daisys.  The Edge has the BEST sights of all the sportsters.  The rules only permit OEM sights on the guns, so only the Edge has that sight.  There was talk of trying to get the rules changed so shooter can put the Edge sight on other than AF guns.  Although for whatever reason, AF chose to use a non-standard front sight diameter, so you cannot easily get inserts for the front sight.  IMHO, that was a dumb decision by AF.
Another factor is who buys the guns.  When they are purchased by club/school/ROTC/etc. the purchasing considerations and decisions is different than when YOU buy the gun.  Not having to do a trigger tune on each new rifle is a consideration for switching from Daisy to another rifle.  Those that shoot in HOT weather prefer CA over CO2.  There have been cases of valve lock due to the heat effect on co2.

The standard recommendation of the tier 1 guns is to try each one and see which one feels better to YOU.  Some guns will just fit your body better than others, example I have a short LoP so I don't like a rifle with a LoP of more than 12 inches.  Keep in mind that the LoP of all the rifles is adjustable.  But it is the minimum LoP that is critical for small shooters like me.  Other parts of the fit will require adapting and change of muscle memory, which is not a big deal.  The different fit of the pistol grip is another factor, I much prefer the AF Edge's pistol grip to any of the others.
As you know the Daisy rifles NEED to have a trigger tune, to be competitive.  I do not know how the triggers of the Challenger 2009, the current T200T or the Edge compare to a tuned Daisy trigger.  The problem with a tuned Daisy trigger is there is no slack, as soon as you pull the trigger, the sear is moving.  I prefer a 2-stage trigger (personal preference).

#5 - DRY FIRE to refine your trigger control.  This is just pulling the trigger to drop the hammer, no release of gas.  There are a lot of sins/mistakes masked by firing the gun that become apparent when dry firing.  I discovered an AP trigger problem that I had by dry firing.  Until then, I could not figure out the problem when I was sending pellets down range.
Use both a blank sheet of paper and a target to aim at.  The blank paper is to concentrate on trigger release and technique w/o the distraction of a bull to aim at.  The bull is to work on perfecting sight picture during the hold and release. 
Dry fire as much or more than sending pellets down range.  Yes it is that important. 
When you practice, have 2 different types of sessions.  #1 to work on a specific thing, like trigger, or sight picture, or calling your shots.  #2 practice like a match (same time limit and total number of shots).  When you practice try to end on a good shot.  But if things are going crappy, STOP shooting and switch to dry fire practice.  Don't end a practice session frustrated, it screws up your head. 
When you shoot a 10, stop and think about what it felt like.  You want to duplicate how your body felt setting up for that 10.  A trick that I once saw was a shoot taped a target, a perfect centered 10, into his pellet box.  So each time he reached for a pellet, he saw what he could do if he did everything well.  Positive reinforcement.
Keep a shooting log.  Like a diary; what you need to work on, what worked, what didn't work (be careful of this one, as it can be like a 'self fulfilling prophesy'), how you shot, your scores (total and individual shots), what time of day you shoot, etc.   When I was learning, I discovered that as much as I am NOT a morning person, my best scores were shot in the morning.  I would not have learned that w/o keeping records.
My AR coach once told me that 2 or 3x a week will maintain performance.  To increase performance you need to increase the amount of practice.
But don't practice just to send lead downrange.  You need to practice GOOD, practice for a purpose.  And practice in not always sending lead downrange, dry fire is practice.
Hitting a plateau is an indication that you need a coach to get you past that plateau.  Something is limiting your scores, and you need help to break that limitation.

#6 - Never to late to start.  I started later than you, I think I was in my 40s when I started shooting AP matches.  I just won't be going for national/international matches.
Based on my personal experience, getting coached was the best thing for my shooting.  When I started, my scores were so bad I was about to quit.  I had trouble keeping all 10 shots not inside the target, but on the target paper.  Yeah it was BAD...and that was FRUSTRATING.  I got a few lessons from an AR coach and my shooting went from FRUSTRATING to enjoyable.  The coach totally rebuilt my shooting stance and taught me basics of stance and holding the rifle.  I think all it took was about 5 or 6 sessions and I was good to go.  If I really wanted to compete with AR I would have stuck it out for a lot more sessions, but all I wanted was to shoot well enough to NOT be frustrated.  When I finished I was able to keep all 10 shots in the black.  I was able to get to get my AR40 score up to 83% = 335/400, which I was plenty happy with.  I am primarily an AP shooter, so I was not going to sacrifice my AP scores to get my AR scores up.

Finally, go check out www.targettalk.org and check out both the rifle (for precision) and youth (for sportster) sections, as that is where the 10m AR stuff will be.
That is where some of the 10m guys hang out, including several coaches.

geez was that enough words

Well feel free to ask more questions.
The more specific the question the more specific I can be with answers.

[Jimro]

ac12,

Thanks for the advice, I hadn't considered using a mirror before, and I definitely need to up the amount of dry fire time.  Pellets are so cheap (even good ones) that I dry fire more with my service rifles (AR-15 and M1 Garand) than air rifle.  From my limited experience, air rifle is tougher than High Power, although the top scorers in each shoot similar scores.  The 10 ring is 2 minutes across for a High Power target.  That would be like a 1/5th of an inch 10 ring, which would be 0.03 inches larger than a single pellet, although I guess with the inside scoring rules the current target gives about that to score an X or a 10.

I've been looking at SCATT more than RIKA because it is cheaper and looks to do the same thing, but that will definitely be a "post deployment" purchase next year.

Thanks again,
Jimro

[ac12]

Dang, if you are shooting "service rifles" you don't need much of my advice, you know more than me about match shooting.

Your comment about "we were all trying to imitate the techniques used by the shooters in the "precision" class but without the exoskeleton shooting jacket, pants, and shoes." is exactly true.  When I shoot my 953, it is with the same stance that I shoot my FWB P70 jr.  The limitation is that I have to use technique to stabilize my stance instead of relying on the support of the jacket, pants and shoes.  Although at home, for casual shooting, I use the HD back belt to give me back support.

When I was getting my AP going, I was averaging a tin (500 pellets) a week.  So I was buying them by the sleeve (10 tins), usually 2 sleeves at a time.  That was before I learned the importance of dry firing, so I was sending lead down range most of the time. 

You do need to find the pellet that shoots best in YOUR rifle.
I shoot Vogel Sport, which is their training pellets (cheaper), but it does the job for me.  I primarily shoot AP where the pellet selection is not as critical as it is for AR.  The AP target is much bigger than the AR target.

Yeah the 10m AR target is tough.  It is the international ISSF 10m target, so you are using the same target that they shoot at the Olympics.  But w/o the advantage of the precision rifle and the shooting outfit.

To make cocking the hammer of your 953 easier, you could remove the clip advancing mechanism.  If you load each pellet, which you have to do in competition, then you are not using the clip anyway.

Since you shoot the AR-15 you know it's pistol grip, the relation of the trigger to the vertical of the pistol grip.  I prefer that type of grip, which is what the precision rifles, and the AF Edge use.  The other sportsters have the vertical part of the pistol grip further back from the trigger, requiring a longer reach to the trigger.  That is one of the ergronomic issues I have with the sportster rifles.  The Daisy stock is an evolutionary variation of the x53 stock, so I accept the position of the pistol grip.  The screw in the back of the trigger guard limits how far forward the pistol grip can be.  But Crosman has no excuse, they built a NEW rifle with the Challenger, so they could have put the pistol grip more forward.  That is one reason why I keep hoping that the Edge will take off. 

BTW, I would have joined you shooting a SSP on the sportster line, my CA and CO2 rifles are precision class.  Even the TAU-200, which is not a tier-1 match rifle, is a precision class rifle.  I've resisted getting a compressed gas sporster rifle, but I've been tempted several times to get a used Daisy 887.  If I got a gas sporster, based on ergronomics, it would probably be the original Avanti Valiant (first model of the S200T) because of the short LoP, or the AF Edge.  Although I would really like to try out an Edge first, before committing $$$ to it.

I got the RIKA because I found someone selling it used (cheaper), but also the sender was lighter than the SCATT.  The lighter sender is more important for AP than AR.
FYI, the software for the RIKA only works for targets where each ring is the same width (ISSF targets).  You cannot input the non-uniform ring sizes such as on the NRA targets.  The factory did not seem interested being able to handle the NRA targets.  I don't know if the SCATT software can handle non-uniform ring sizes of the NRA targets.

[Jimro]

Hah, I'm not that good of a service rifle shooter, I'm still trying to bump my scores into a consistent "sharpshooter" NRA ranking.  It is funny, being the best shot in a military unit still means you are more than likely to get spanked when you attend a state level match.  Being the best shot in a Company or Battalion is like being the tallest midget at the county fair.  When the Army abandoned traditional marksmanship in the 50's and went with a "point fire" qualification we lost something priceless.

It was in 2006 that I first got the opportunity to train with the AMU.  I was pretty good before that by Army standards (shot 40 out of 40 on qual ranges a couple times) but after that I realized that I was nowhere as good as I wanted to be, and so here I am.   I don't know how much I've spent trying to get better, but it sure beats golf as a hobby.

Jimro

[ac12]

he he
At least I can shoot straight.

In college, I used to have a wicked slice.  The ball went into a nasty right hand curve and was actually starting to come backwards.  That was something that I don't want to remember.

[shootright]

I know this topic is about 2 months old.
You say you shoot National Match why not shoot with your already owed AR lower with the MAR.177 UPPER AR15 Clone? This is National Match For Airrifle look it up on CMP web site. This is a good program hope it start to grow.

We started this program in AZ last summer July it save you a lot of money for time at the range and can spend more time shooting not your pocket book.

Now you said you have a 953 the have all three divisions Sporter, Precision and AR 15 clone.
we also started shooting reduced 10 meter benchrest targets with the AR Clone.