scoping

rickard9 · Post by **rickard9** » Sun Jul 21, 2013 9:11 pm

What do you people regard as a practical scoping routine of your target? The pros and cons of scoping are abvious to everybody I'm sure but given the ying and yang of scoping too much and therefore concentrating on target results and scoping never in the attempt to train the mind to only mind the foresight and trigger, there has to be an in between; cadence if you like. And maybe that applies differently to air and to free......

jackh · Post by **jackh** » Sun Jul 21, 2013 11:13 pm

You can scope to learn or verify. Hopefully you will learn enough to not need to verify.

rmca · Post by **rmca** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 12:10 am

For free pistol I:

- Scope every shot in the 15 minutes preparation and sighting
- During the match, I scope every two to three shots, or if one shot "felt bad"
- Scope every time before changing the target (to confirm the number of shots) and before shoting a new target, to confirm that it has no holes.

For air pistol I:

- Pull the target every time for the first three to four shots, and then every two to three shots during the 15 minutes preparation and sighting
- In a match I only pull the targets for changing (we usually do two shots per card).

Hope this helps

RobStubbs · Post by **RobStubbs** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 2:12 am

You should really scope every shot. Certainly until you're really confident in your ability and your shot calling. The point of scoping is to confirm your shots went where you expected and to re-affirm the good shots (i.e. a good technical results in a good outcome, i.e a 10) . You can back off if you want and just concentrate on perfect shot execution, but you still need to scope every few shots, just to confirm all is as expected, and/or if you need a small tweak of the sights.

Rob.

brent375hh · Post by **brent375hh** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 7:55 am

I can't help but look at every shot. If I don't I can't concentrate on the one I am currently shooting because I am so inquisitive.

rickard9 · Post by **rickard9** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 9:22 am

Ahha, a rookie eh? Been there, done that

rickard9 · Post by **rickard9** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 9:27 am

Ahha, a rookie eh? Been there, done that

Rover · Post by **Rover** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 12:20 pm

I scope every shot. I occasionally shoot an off call shot. I want to know I did it so I can dry fire a couple of times as I've found if I screw up once I'll likely do it again.

I gotta watch that nut behind the butt every second!

Gwhite · Post by **Gwhite** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 5:21 pm

If you are training, scoping every shot maximizes what you can learn.

If you are competing, you should shoot the way you train (or vice versa).

End of story.

rickard9 · Post by **rickard9** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 5:28 pm

Yeah, looks as if this nut behind the butt has been havig a bit of a holiday. (Sorry about the stutter guys--computer, not me)

brent375hh · Post by **brent375hh** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 8:01 am

rickard9 wrote:Ahha, a rookie eh? Been there, done that

Started rifle shooting in 1976, pistol in 1982, but still a rookie I guess. If I see a shot that did not go where I thought. I want to fix the problem in my head before I bleed out a couple more 8's that I thought were centered.

john bickar · Post by **john bickar** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:56 pm

There are very few things in shooting that are unequivocal, but this is one of them.

Unless you hate winning, scope every shot.

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Fri Jul 26, 2013 12:55 am

I normally do not scope every shot. Once it is gone you can not change it. You should not need to scope every shot.

Last night I was shooting my 45 at 50yds and since I was shooting a new load I wanted to make sure my shots were going were I expected them to. So I was shooting along and looking after every shot. after 4 I had 3 x's and 1 10. Now the pressure started to build.....6. Bummer. My normal process is to shoot the first shot and look and then look after 5 then I check again after 7-8. Spending most of my time trying to focus on shooting 10s and what I need to do not what I have done. There is time to look at the target when you score.

Of course if I did look at every shot then maybe I could shoot the same scores as John does.

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Fri Jul 26, 2013 12:57 am

john bickar wrote:Unless you hate winning, scope every shot.

That is a great one John

David Levene · Post by **David Levene** » Fri Jul 26, 2013 1:05 am

Chris wrote:I normally do not scope every shot. Once it is gone you can not change it. You should not need to scope every shot..

You shouldn't need to scope to see where the shot has gone. You should be scoping to confirm that it went where you called it.

RobStubbs · Post by **RobStubbs** » Fri Jul 26, 2013 2:09 am

David Levene wrote:
Chris wrote:I normally do not scope every shot. Once it is gone you can not change it. You should not need to scope every shot..
You shouldn't need to scope to see where the shot has gone. You should be scoping to confirm that it went where you called it.

It's not about seeing what's been and gone (and what you can longer affect), as David says it's about positive affirmation that you shot process resulted in a good shot that you called correctly. You reinforce the positive scoping the good shots, and learn from your errors with the poor or incorrectly called shots.

Rob.

john bickar · Post by **john bickar** » Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:13 am

David Levene wrote:
Chris wrote:I normally do not scope every shot. Once it is gone you can not change it. You should not need to scope every shot..
You shouldn't need to scope to see where the shot has gone. You should be scoping to confirm that it went where you called it.

The other (extremely important) reason is, when shooting on electronic targets, you must challenge a zero immediately (6.15.4.2.1), before firing the next shot.

If not, you own it.

So if you ever plan on shooting on EST any time, anywhere, you simply must have it in your shot plan that you verify every shot.

john bickar · Post by **john bickar** » Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:27 am

Chris wrote:So I was shooting along and looking after every shot. after 4 I had 3 x's and 1 10. Now the pressure started to build.....6. Bummer.

Not to pick on you, Chris (OK, maybe a little ;), but this is the argument that I most commonly hear against scoping every shot.

Often people will avoid scoping every shot as a crutch against the internal "pressure" that they feel as a "good" target starts to develop.

In doing so, they are tacitly acknowledging a weakness in their mental game plan, and stubbornly refusing to take any steps to overcome it.

Conversely, the way to learn how to shoot 100s is to put yourself in the position of having 9 10s on a target as often as possible.

David Levene · Post by **David Levene** » Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:31 am

john bickar wrote:The other (extremely important) reason is, when shooting on electronic targets, you must challenge a zero immediately (6.15.4.2.1), before firing the next shot.

I think you mean 6.16.6.2 John.

Welcome to 2013 ;-)

conradin · Post by **conradin** » Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:37 am

John, can't thank you enough for those few sentences that change my shooting life.

For me in AP, in practice I do not scope. If I follow thru correctly, know that everything is line up right, a quick peek far away will be enough. However if I know something is not quite right, whether my hand shake, or my breathing is wrong, then after a couple more shots I will stop and examine if indeed my suspicious is correct or not. Follow through is extremely important, without which I cannot identify the shots that I know are wrong.

I am far from being a good shooter, just beginning to reach a 5:1 ratio of black vs white. So when I count I count the shots that did not land in black. I think when I get better, or at least hit my limit then I will examine more often.

If FP since it is far away, I scope every single shot.

Just my two pellets from a first year rookie.

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