TargetTalk

How should you sight an air rifle in for 10 meter shooting. I ask my son how they had been sighted and do they sight them on a rest etc. His shooting coach told him they each sight in their on rifles while shooting and no rest are used. My son is a new air rifle shooter, all shooting has been done in a hunting situation w/scope.

Does this sound correct to you, for sighting in an air rifle??

That is 100% correct. Sighting a gun in on a rest is great if you are going to shoot a gun off a rest. Since the gun is shot free hand that's how it should be sighted in. Don't forget that sight adjustments can and will need to be varied depending on light conditions, shooter position etc. The very simple fact is that the sight adjustments are there to make sure the shots are averaged on the centre of the bull. If shots are not centered in the right place then adjust the sights and never be afraid to adjust them - they can always be adjusted back !

Rob.

You don't mention how advanced your young shooter is in the sport, but with beginners, you try to get them to shoot for group. It isn't important where that group is on the paper, just shoot a series of shots that all go in the same relative spot. Once they are shooting consistent groups, you can teach them to change the sights to move the group to a center point on the target.

Joe

He is a new shooter. Having a hard time with standing not quite as bad with kneeling. Shooting in the eighties in prone. Been shooting for two months now.

Anonymous wrote:He is a new shooter. Having a hard time with standing not quite as bad with kneeling. Shooting in the eighties in prone. Been shooting for two months now.

If he's been shooting for only 2 months, I'd suggest only working on one position. I'm no rifle coach since I coach pistol but I would have thought concentration should be focussed on say prone or standing for now and then build in the other positions later.

Rob.

I agree, but he is in ROTC and is shooting in matches because of lack of members. So he has been shooting in all three positions.

I'm a 4-H coach that also works with the local High School JROTC program. My $0.02:

In 4-H we start our "season" after the county and state fairs at the end of Sept and I don't really try and get the 4-Hers shooting all 3 positions (especially my younger shooters) until after the holidays (i.e in Jan or even Feb).

The JROTC shooters, we have to progress at a more rapid pace. I usually try and get them started in all positions so that they can be shooting in the matches that begin as soon as school starts. Once they have the fundamentals (and read about 1 practice per position here) we go almost exclusively with tuning up their standing and fire a LOT of standing practices until after the new year when we'll go back and work prone and kneeling. I find that working on standing also helps out with the other positions when we get back to concentrating on them. It's not easy on them to focus that much on that position, but I try and "spice" it up with shot calling exercises, and mock FINALs and Guts matches. Occasionally we fire a full 40shot or 60 shots in practice to begin building the stamina required for the INTL matches

Here in NM our International (standing) season is pretty much thru mid-Jan and then we transition into the 3-P part of the season so this philosophy comes from the way our JO's and sectionals are laid out.

I guess in short I don't get too worried about the 3-P section of the year until about a month before we fire our 1st American Legion targets in late January. All of the "mental" things they learn in standing translate to the other positions anyway and probably make them more aware of them when they get to the other positions

>It's not easy on them to focus that much on that position, but I try and "spice" it up with shot calling exercises, and mock FINALs and Guts matches.

Could you please elaborate on shot calling exercises.

>Occasionally we fire a full 40shot or 60 shots in practice to begin building the stamina required for the INTL matches.

Any exercises you recommend to build stamina that don't involve shooting or firing the rifle?

Any exercises you recommend to build stamina that don't involve shooting or firing the rifle?

Some of the best rifle shooters I've seen in the high schools are also cross county runners or swimmers .... tends to lower heartrates.

Could you please elaborate on shot calling exercises

Allow shooters to sight in and then turn spotting scopes away. Have a spotter.
Shooter takes a shot and then "calls the shot", such as 9 ring left&high. One point for correct ring one point for the correct direction. As they advance, go to a clock position in the direction ... i.e. 8 ring 2:30 .... if they are within an "hour" they get the point. Spotter keeps track & scores. This way you are not having them focus on the "score" but on concentrating on their follow-thru. Many times you will "discover" that your top shooters have no clue where their shot went and are relying too much on the scopes for their adjustments and not their observational skills.

I also make up shot calling games of this type around the World Series or superbowl and we have a good time "predicting" the winners.
(example: http://www.vc4hss.com/Air_Rifle/Photos/ ... /index.htm