Developing a shot process:

I'm looking to tap into the wealth of experience here in an effort to effectively develop my own shot process. I guess one of the things I'm looking for is a starting point, where does your process begin? Do you begin as you drop your shooting box on the bench? As you load the magazines? Or as the range commands begin? I'm also interested in what's in your process, the mental checklist if you will. I think I understand what I should be doing to develop the shot process but each outing leaves me doubting myself in one way or another. Thanks in advance for your comments/advice.

Jeff

I start my shot process from the moment the command to load is given. One day last summer I shot a 93 SF in practice. It was my personal best at that time. I took the target off the backer and immediately sat down and on the back of the target wrote down step by step exactly what I did to shoot that. It gave me a list and it gave me a visualization of how good I could shoot. I brought that with me to matches and looked at it before I shot so I could see that I was good enough to shoot another 93. That visualization has helped me tremendously.

I think a shot process should be for each shot. If it were more than that, it would be a shot string process.

So for slow fire, it could start with:

NPOA, position, stance, or some other such idea
grip
consciously firm the muscles in the arm
raise the arm from the shoulder while breathing in
settle into the aiming area while exhaling to neutral lung capacity
build trigger pressure while aligning the sights
recover or reject the shot

sixftunda wrote:I start my shot process from the moment the command to load is given. One day last summer I shot a 93 SF in practice. It was my personal best at that time. I took the target off the backer and immediately sat down and on the back of the target wrote down step by step exactly what I did to shoot that. It gave me a list and it gave me a visualization of how good I could shoot. I brought that with me to matches and looked at it before I shot so I could see that I was good enough to shoot another 93. That visualization has helped me tremendously.

Excellent post!

As is stated, learn what steps will produce what you want and write those down. Remember that this document will change as you progress.

As to when to start, that's all up to you, but remember that concentration is taxing, so build in relaxation in the overall plan.

Relaxation hasn't been an issue to date but what gets me is when I'm alone, shooting, taking notes, I tend to do much better than when I have shooters on either side. I also recently noticed that I'm not getting adequate breath control when shooting for score so I guess it's a good thing that I'm picking that up. The progress is starting to show and I have so many of you here to thank for that. I just have to keep preventing myself from over thinking things and keep working on the basics. I've already started to condense the process to a single page!

You can have a long drawn out shot process but as a great legend bullseye shooter once told me it all boils down to,#1 Align the sight or dot, #2 put sights or dot on the target. #3 Press trigger straight to rear without disturbing #1 or # 2.

I once wrote down everything I do from the point I arrive at the range to the first shot.

Shot process:
1. set box down
2. open box
3. take out mouse pad and set under corner of box
4. align box to target
5. set up scope
6. fine tune scope alignment to target
7. take out gun
8. remove dot cover
9. turn on dot and adjust intensity
10. set gun down
11. take out ammo
12. take out 2 magazines
13. load magazines
14. take out oil
15. take out ears
16. take out screwdriver
17. take out glasses
18. clean glasses
19. put glasses on and adjust iris/blocker
20. put on ears
21. take out stapler
22. take out scoring pad and enter date and place of match
23. check position for stable stance
24. check grip/position/stance/aim with gun.
25. dry fire several times
26. remove dry fire plug
27. insert loaded magazine and load first round
28. breath deep
29. maintain grip pressure and aiming tension
30. look down range at target
31. breath deep
32. raise up arm and check point of aim.
33. allow gun to settle
34. increase pressure on trigger
35. aim
36. bang

#1=After breathing,raise pistol over target,perfect grip of middle and ring finger on grip. Thumb is neutral, make sure by moving thumb and no movement in sites, thumb is relaxed, make sure pinky is neutral.
#2=Trigger first stage to make sure finger is in the proper location with no movement of the sites, leave finger just on blade.
#3=Exhale and lower to site picture on target.
#4=When settled start trigger finger movement immediately while focusing on site, allow trigger to move through first stage until shot breaks and follow through.
#5=If anything looks or feels wrong STOP
Side notes.
I cannot think of two things at the same time(site picture and trigger).Settle into site picture, start slow but deliberate trigger pull simaltaniously revert to the sites and focus, let the trigger finger pull through the first stage and release the shot and follow through the shot.
Breathing notes.
Deep exhale, deep inhale while lifting the gun, normal exhale to relieve pressure, normal inhale to top off, tiny controlled exhale to fine tune the site picture, still(hold breath)while shot is delivered, exhale normally while lowering the gun, normal respiration while resting between shots, belly breathing and not chest breathing to relax between shots.
This may not all make sense to some but it is how I have written it for myself in which I understand it.
Your process may be different but I think you can understand what I think what a shot process is to me(notes).
Hope this helps.
Clarence