TargetTalk

Dry fire. Lots and lots and lots of dry fire. Eventually (tens of thousands of dry shots, just holding the sights as you hear the trigger click) one should, theoretically (and reportedly from those who've been persistent in this form of training) not notice the difference between dry and live fire, and the heeling reaction will not happen. Concentrating on follow-through is of course imperative. If you forget sight alignment once the trigger clicks, who knows what happened? Got to hold through the shot as steadily as possible for at least a half-second, preferably longer after the shot, whether dry or live.

My analysis is that since nearly all shots are below the horizon like (that's the imaginary horizontal line across the Bull), most probably the front sight is dipping, i.e. not remaining level with the rear sight, just before the shot is taken.

If you can specify approx. how many seconds you normally hold position, before firing the shot, maybe something more can be said about it.

Being careful about the dipping front sight will surely eliminate the ugly 6s and 7s and bring up all the shots to 8s upwards.

This should be the first step of your 'correction' !!

My 2 pence worth !

Regards,

When the sight picture is perfect and its not from a follow through

Coming from the practical world, one of the most common errors is the desire to peek over the sights at the target to see what you just did. It can happen very quickly and subtly, the only cure is to shoot the sights and not the target. If you have the target in mind at all then it can capture your attention at the wrong time.

What Rover said about "shooting in the past".
My current "project" is related to this and not my own invention.
I used to wait until I was in the aiming area before establishing 2nd stage "contact". Now I try to do that a little earlier so that the trigger squeezing process develops while my sight picture is improving.
Then hopefully shot release and best sight picture will coincide.
If I haven't fired the shot at a point in time where I'm beginning to struggle with "the shakes", it's time to abort the shot because from this point things are only going to get worse.

Simple, but not always easy.

The downside?
Long ago I used to be a "triggerhappy" recurve archer who shot "automatically" when the sight was approaching target center. I'm very much aware that this must not be allowed to happen. You should not make the shot coincide with movement into the aiming area, but with improvement in your established hold. You need to be calm and determined at the same time.

I see Vic mentioned a couple of times. He and Bill taught me a lot about shooting.

In the first place, if you think you should abort the shot, then do it. That little voice is always right.

It doesn't matter how many time you abort, as long as you don't run out of time. If your hold is deteriorating from multiple aborts, put the gun down and take a break.

Turn your target over in practice and shoot the back. The bull is a seductive witch. Your groups will converge as you learn to pay attention to what really matters, sight alignment. You shouldn't see the bull anyway, just the sights. In a match, your brain will know where it is. Conscious attention has to be on the sights.

Larry

I made the mistake of repeated cancelling, during my match yesterday, and nearly ran out of time. The last shot was taken in the last minute !!

I learned :
You tire yourself much more by repeated cancelling... although 2-3 times maybe ok on occasional shots.

You also lose confidence in your ability, by repeated cancelling.

You tend to run out of time and the consequent panic is worse as the 'little man' in the brain screams - TAKE THE SHOT, TAKE THE SHOT !

You tend to over-concentrate on the sight-picture and as a result OVER DO it... losing the 'coolness' in the mind.

Instead of enjoying the shooting, it becomes a labour and a struggle to finish the match.

Regards,

As an addition to aborting the shot, you can always dry fire during a match to regain your composure and confidence, if you feel that you have gained a sudden bout of lack of smoothness to your shot creation process. You still have to be mindful of the time though. It is no good having re-found your confidence to then put yourself under additional pressure if the time is now running out.