Target Analysis

[Surveyor]

Looking for data/reading material on how to interpret groupings in the different positions to help with 4-H but not having much luck with google. Example - In prone position the rh shooter has a tight elliptical pattern running diagonal from high right to low left. Same shooter shoots kneeling with the group looking great elevation wise but going across from left to right.

[Pat McCoy]

Hard to tell for sure in Prone, but I'd look at their breathing (making the shot during the natural respiratory pause) and sling position.


The kneeling pattern is classic. They need to get the left elbow out to the left side of the rifle (like in prone) and shoot "out" of their position instead of "across" their position. This may not be possible for young shooters who have no yet developed enough hip/gluteus muscle to keep the left leg upright.

[randy1952]

Looking for data/reading material on how to interpret groupings in the different positions to help with 4-H but not having much luck with google. Example - In prone position the rh shooter has a tight elliptical pattern running diagonal from high right to low left. Same shooter shoots kneeling with the group looking great elevation wise but going across from left to right.

You need to ask your shooter questions as he shots each shot. The biggest problem I have with juniors is that they aren't watching their sights long enough, which usually means they aren't completing their follow through. I ask the questions to the shooter to make them focus on their sights & to make them become more aware for themselves of what they are doing.

I have a 12 year old that has been shooting for a year & his biggest problem is his head pops off the gun before or just immediately he pulls the trigger or he lets the rifle pop out of his shoulder. His mother was about to take my suggestion of putting a shock collar on him. He has gotten better in the last few months, but is hard to break a bad habit. You should nip any bad habits in the bud as soon as you can your going to be facing many irritations.

The biggest problem with young boys is that many of them just have a hard time focusing & they try to treat the sport as some brainless entity & brute force their way to better scores. The other common problem is sight alignment they usually get the target centered in the front sight, but forget about the rear sight.

[Surveyor]

Thanks for the replies. Not following through is a problem for us as well. I had six younger BB shooters on the line recently. All will follow through if reminded but after a few shots they go back to "pop-ups". They were scored with the Orion system and all of them were centered on the target. What suprised me was the print outs from Orion showed they trended towards the same patterns for each position - some just grouped tighter than others.

[Zoomies]

Thanks for the replies. Not following through is a problem for us as well. I had six younger BB shooters on the line recently. All will follow through if reminded but after a few shots they go back to "pop-ups". They were scored with the Orion system and all of them were centered on the target. What suprised me was the print outs from Orion showed they trended towards the same patterns for each position - some just grouped tighter than others.

Do you have both left and right handed shooters and did they trend toward the same pattern?

[Surveyor]

Negative. The 6 were all right eye dom, rh shooters. Patterns usually described as above. All seem tighter in elevation versus wind age so most have an elliptical pattern left/right prone being high left to low right more or less. Sitting is elliptical low left to high right. Kneeling elliptical l to r. Standing-hard to say. I try to remind them to check npa, follow through, etc.