The importance of a shooting diary/logbook

[Albert]

The importance of a good shooters diary/logbook

On februari 27th while competing in a 10m Air rifle open national Match in Haarlem The Netherlands, the importance of a good shooters logbook was evidently proven. Two matches were shot, 40 shots prone and 40 shots kneeling. My prone match went relatively well, scoring 394/400. Immediately after the prone match I had to shoot the kneeling match as well. All went well until the 10th shot. I started with a serie of 99 points. Not a bad start. Full of confidence that the match was in the bag, I placed the rear of the stock on my right upper leg an worked the spanning lever of my old Walther LGM-2 air rifle.
Then disaster struck. Having relatively long arms and neck, I had to glue a wooden filler on the end of the butt to compensate for my arm length. When I pressed the spanner home the force on the back of the stock made the filler break from the stock on the place where it was glued. After years of loyal service the glue had weakened. For an instant pure panic filled my mind. Then (I had read the many articles on the forums of Target Talk and Targetshooting.ca) Remembering all the advice given, I went from the range to the canteen/clubhouse and asked if a club-rifle was available. Immediately another shooter (The one I had beaten by 1 point in the prone match) offered to let me use his rifle, The latest Anshutz with alluminium stock and compressed-air cylinder. I took out my shooters logbook I ALWAYS carry with the rifle and found the page containing all the basic distances; Horizontal: buttplate to front of grip, front of grip to handstop, buttplate to rear of the rearsight. Vertical: center of buttplate to centreline of barrel.
I went back in the shooting position, lined up with the target and finally hooked the rifle to the sling and put the rifle to my shoulder. Expecting to be in a very uncomfortable position I was totally amased when I put my head on the cheeckpiece. The rifle was perfectly lined up with the target and there was hardly any movement! After 8 testshots I shot the remaining 30 match shots. The end result was 388/400 and an overall first place!
The message of this true story: Always write everything down in your shooting logbook and always take it with you!!! It makes the difference between failure and winning!

Thanks to all of you who gave such good advice.

Albert
(The Netherlands)

[mikeschroeder]

Hi

Forwarding your email to my Junior Rifle Team. They all know the "settings" for their rifles, but not the real distances.

Thanks

Mike
Wichita KS

[Ramon OP]

I totally agree on the importance of keeping a journal. This is why after trying many things I've decide to release my own target shooting journal:https://www.olympicpistol.com/target-sh ... k-and-pdf/

[Timberwerks]

I just ordered Ramon's logbook on Amazon, should be here Monday!

[DavZee]

Thank You for sharing that story. I also keep a journal. This is the one I use
https://www.mentalmanagementstore.com/p ... e-journal/
But a journal doesn’t have to be fancy. Just a plain notebook would suffice.
It’s the discipline to write in it EVERY TIME after shooting that’s the hard part.

[Ramon OP]

I just ordered Ramon's logbook on Amazon, should be here Monday!

Thanks! Really looking forward to your feedback. I hope it helps :)

[grif]

I use the Target Shooting Journal from https://www.olympicpistol.com/target-sh ... k-and-pdf/

You can use it for weekly, montly and quarterly reviews for rifle or pistol shooting.