A personal best and a thank you.

I wanted to say thank you to all here that have answered all my dumb questions over the past 6-8 months. Things seemed to come together for me in training this morning, and shot my personal best NMC, a 275-5x. So, what did I do different?

I shoot iron sights, I refuse to venture into the "Dark Side" and use a dot sight.  I'm no spring chick any longer and the eye sight ain't what it used to be. So an optical attachment fixed that. Front sight is now nice and clear. I told myself this morning, be it good or bad, the whole world exists because of my front sight, the reason for my existence is because of that front sight. Focus on the damn thing!

I changed up my trigger finger placement. I'll call it "The Zins Trigger" after you know who.  I now put the crease of my trigger finger on the center of the trigger rather than the pad of my finger. I dry fired 30-50 times every evening for the past 6 days trying to get used to this new finger placement. Appears to work. Still feels strange, but it works.

Grip. As much as it pains me to add plastic wood to, or rasp away from $250 grips, I went ahead and did it. Now, when I grasp the pistol, raise it up to shooting position with my eyes closed, open my eyes, the sights are lined up and on target.

Stance. I'm paying close attention to my stance. Marking the floor with a chalk to keep my stance consistent and comfortable.

Only 3 of my 30 shots today where outside the black, and I was able to call them. What did I do wrong? Simple to say, harder to cure, but I'm seeing a perfect sight picture and snapping/jerking/snatching that trigger. I need to convince myself to accept the wobble zone and let the shot happen. If the basic fundamentals are applied, the bullet will hit the 10 ring. Easier said then done, isn't it?

Also, this personal best was shot under less than favorable conditions. The line was full this morning at the range. Guy right next to me was blasting away with a snub nose .357 at a silhouette target at 3 yards. I decided to put this to use. Simulate distractions. Stay focused, concentrate, stay with the shot plan. Must have done something right for a change?

A 275-5x NMC would equal out to a 825-15x in a 900. I'll take it. Now to repeat it in a match I'm going to next Saturday.

Again, thanks to all, you may not know it, but your words of wisdom are greatly appreciated.

Mike38 wrote:...
Only 3 of my 30 shots today where outside the black, and I was able to call them. What did I do wrong? Simple to say, harder to cure, but I'm seeing a perfect sight picture and snapping/jerking/snatching that trigger. I need to convince myself to accept the wobble zone and let the shot happen. If the basic fundamentals are applied, the bullet will hit the 10 ring. Easier said then done, isn't it?
...

Congratulations! You're getting there.

However, not to be too rough with you, but I suggest the following:  Change the portion above to a positive vein.  If "only 3" shots strayed, don't focus at all on them or waste any time with the question, "Why?"  Don't try to "cure" anything.  Focus on the 90% that worked properly.

"Easier said than done, isn't it?"  If you believe this, it will be true.  Write it on a piece of paper then draw a line through it, call it bullsh!t, crumble up the paper and throw it away.  Black shots are easy!  We fight hard for the rest.  Use affirmation statements to change your self vision to one of, "I shoot black all the time."

Good job on making a new high, but don't hold yourself back from even bigger things with negative focusing.

Sorry if I've seemed to be too rough on you while giving you a high five.  It was not my intention to be mean spirited.

To summarize:

90% of your shots were black today.
You observed what it looks like to perform a good process.
You always accept your wobble.
Shooting black is easy - you do it all the time.

P.S. Get rid of that negative in your Classification field.(smile)

Lots of wonderful people here, and lots of great advice!   It makes a difference.  A big difference.

Hey, congratulations - do you know how to post a photo of your target?  I'd love to see it, and even more so, see various targets over time, as the holes start to behave.   :-)


(If you don't already have a copy, you might want to buy "The Pistol Shooter's Treasury", if you can find it.  I found my copy on Amazon, but the price varies over time.  It's a goldmine of wonderful information.   https://www.amazon.com/Pistol-Shooters-Treasury-Second/dp/B003XSZW2C  )

Ed
I don't know about Mike but I think your posts are great and as far from mean spirited as they could possibly get.

TomH_pa wrote:Ed
I don't know about Mike but I think your posts are great and as far from mean spirited as they could possibly get.

I'm also a "mike", so can I comment?   Having slowly read so many of Ed's articles over the past week, I think his post up above is just like his writing style in his articles.  In absolutely NO way do I consider any of it "mean spirited" - to me, here and in the articles, he has a great way of getting his point across, in a way that people can relate to.

I don't think "great" is the appropriate word, as they're much more than that.  The way Ed describes things (such as "cant") allows me to understand what he said, and also why he said it.    So many people in other forums would tell me "what" to do, but it was rare for them to explain "why".  


Me?  I go home from the range analyzing what I did right, what I did wrong, and how to improve.  I can't forget "flyers", but I can work at eventually eliminating them.  

OK, back to reality.  For anyone who hasn't already done so, there is a lot of good advice available here:
http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/articlesand.html

TomH_pa wrote:Ed
I don't know about Mike but I think your posts are great and as far from mean spirited as they could possibly get.

I took Ed's post for it's intent, constructive criticism. I appreciate all of that I can get. So thank you Ed.

mikemyers wrote:Lots of wonderful people here, and lots of great advice!   It makes a difference.  A big difference.

Hey, congratulations - do you know how to post a photo of your target?  I'd love to see it, and even more so, see various targets over time, as the holes start to behave.   :-)


(If you don't already have a copy, you might want to buy "The Pistol Shooter's Treasury", if you can find it.  I found my copy on Amazon, but the price varies over time.  It's a goldmine of wonderful information.   https://www.amazon.com/Pistol-Shooters-Treasury-Second/dp/B003XSZW2C  )

That Amazon link took me to a beauty site. Here's a good link:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=The+Pistol+Shooter%27s+Treasury

The link I posted still takes me to an Amazon page to buy the book, but the "buy now" cost is $75 on the main page.  Your link also takes me to the book, but the cost is "only" $44.

It's a wonderful book, with lots of great information, described in easy-to-understand terms.  Anyone with an M-52 will find it especially helpful, as back then this *was* the gun to shoot.  Well, one of them at least.  

I can't say that it's worth so much money - the cost keeps going up because it seems to be a collector's item, but I wanted it for reference, not collecting.

Ed, great advice!  Anytime you mention or focus on a negative you lose ground.  Back in the day when I was selling my time (working) our focus groups always said 1 negative review had the same impact as of 100 positive ones.  People don't tend to positive speak to themselves, this is something we should be correcting.  

Lanny Bassham, Olympic rifle Gold Medalist, when asked about the what happened on the 2 9's he shot when he scored a 598 in a major match.  His response was "You learn nothing from focusing on the 2 nines you should be focusing on the 58 10's.  I'm sure I've shot nines during my career but I don't remember any of them I only focus on the good shots and work to repeat them".
- Dave

Mike38 wrote:I took Ed's post for it's intent, constructive criticism.

First time that has ever happened on the Internet and I was here to see it!

As an admin, it is always nice to see the opposite of arguing. Keep up the good work everyone!

Didn't make it to that match mentioned above, rain, 40mph winds kind of take the fun out of it all. I have been dry firing a lot lately. I was bored last night, was went to the range for some training. Decided to leave the Benelli at home to keep the "miles" off it and took a Ruger MkII with trigger job and Vitarbo grips. Not as good results with the Ruger, NMC of 265 and 267, but one target really shined! (Attached) The 100s will come, I just know it, the 100s will come!

Nice, 8 in the 10 ring with two in the X and they are all in a nice group!      :-)