First night of Bullseye

Well, I made it home from my first night of NRA Bullseye shooting. Did pretty good, mostly happy with my shooting, with one exception. I was in my first set of rapid fire, which goes load five and shoot in 20 seconds, then wait to be told to reload. Then you do the same thing again, load five and shoot them in 20 seconds. I loaded five and started shooting. My first four shots were two in the "X" ring, two in the 10 ring. My fifth shot was a click. I opened the action and dumped the cases. I only loaded four instead of five. Dangit. That threw me off and my next five were all in the 9, 8, and 7 rings. I got settled down though and in the 10 second rapid fire came back nicely. All in all I would say that I had a great day out, was far from the worst, and at the top. In fact, the nice old guy that was scoring my first 10 shots asked me what kind of optic I was using, lol. I told him "no optic, I am running iron sights." He came back to the line with me and wanted to check out my gun, cause he couldnt believe it. That makes a guy feel pretty good. I guess all this time of slinging those Missouri Bullets at the berm has really paid off.

Im sure you can tell I am quite excited, I am, its my first time out shooting bullseye.

Nice. Good job. There are advantages to irons, especially if you get the chance to shoot the Service .45 for points towards Distinguished.

Are you shooting a 900 match or a Gallery 30-shot match?

We are shooting thirty round match. 10 slowfire in 10 minutes, 10 rapid fire in two groups in 20 seconds ech, then 10 rapid fire in two groups in 10 seconds each. It was fantastic fun.

Well done. Thats a great start for timed and rapid fire. I believe that course of fire is called the National Match Course. Bullseye is a great game, especially when you get into the centerfire and 45 stages. Keep at it.

Thanks guys, I am real excited right now. I dont know how I will sleep tonite, it was a blast. Im slowly learning this stuff, I dont know a lot about bullseye, but I am learning. There are alot of older gents that are shooting with us, and I know when to shut my mouth and listen. It was the first night and I already learned some good stuff.

Actually, if you are slinging Missouri bullets, you must be shooting a centerfire.

What are you shooting for a pistol? Are you indoors or out? What distance? Do you have turning targets?

I am shooting centerfire. Its actually at the Olin Winchester shooting facility in Alton, IL. Unfortunately you are not allowed to use your own reloads, so I am shooting Winchester 148gr Match Wadcutters. They do shoot well. I am using a 4" S&W 686 with factory sights right now. We have turning targets there too, its a pretty nice range.

http://winchestergunrange.com/

There is a link to the range that we are shooting at.

http://winchestergunrange.com/handgun.html

In fact, it mentions the industrial league, thats the one I am in. Our team is mainly employees of a Nissan Dealership, but my uncle recruited me to join also. It fits though, because I am service manager of a dealership too, just not thiers.

Revolver!

That is the way to do it! I have a similar revolver, a Model 27. Absolutely love it.
I bought it to shoot in the Harry Reeves Distinguished Revolver matches. The other .38s I tried were too small. My thumb was too close to the hammer for me to comfortably work the trigger. The Model 27 is a little larger and fit the bill.

Are you doing the thumb dance and shooting single-action? Or are you pulling all the way through the trigger for double action?

What is the reason that your reloads are not allowed during a match? I have never heard of that before. Are they just trying to skim some extra money off of the shooters?

Unless things have changed since the dark ages of the 1950's - 60's....

Time Fire strings = 5 shots in 20 seconds
Rapid Fire strings = 5 shots in 10 seconds

For a first night out - and shooting a revolver to boot - you did very well.

That from a former Camp Perry/National Matches competitor. ;)

What is the reason that your reloads are not allowed during a match? I have never heard of that before. Are they just trying to skim some extra money off of the shooters?

This is the Olin Winchester shooting range in Alton IL. They sell all Winchester Ammo. They do not charge a single penny to shoot, you are just required to buy thier ammo. Prices are reasonable. 148gr wadcutter match ammo is 14.50 a box. I would rather use my reloads, but you play the game thier way.

Unless things have changed since the dark ages of the 1950's - 60's....

Time Fire strings = 5 shots in 20 seconds
Rapid Fire strings = 5 shots in 10 seconds

For a first night out - and shooting a revolver to boot - you did very well.

That from a former Camp Perry/National Matches competitor.

Thanks! I had a great time and looking forward to the rest of the season. I am going to get a mount and a red dot at the end of the month, but i want to shoot a few weeks with irons first.

Iron sights are very important because they teach you concentration, and the importance of the sight picture in the context of holding the gun steady. Because of a handgun’s short length the slightest movement can throw a shot way off, so you concentrate on sight alignment and focusing on the front sight while holding within an area and applying a steady and increasing pressure to the trigger.

Optical sights eliminate the need for sight alignment as such, and as a consequence may cause the shooter’s concentration to slip. A key clue is when you think you’ve shot an all-X ring target and discover you didn’t.

Show me a top competitor, and I’ll show you someone who has mastered concentration. In the middle of a string you could set off an atomic bomb and they wouldn’t blink.

Thats my thought too. I want an optic to be an enhancement, not a crutch. I went out today with my uncle who is shooting in the league with me and shot 200 rounds in 5 shot groups, 10 seconds each.

I was seriously rushing my first three shots, I got it slowed down today. I found my rythm. My shots improved too. Now I have to try and keep myself calm and take that practice to competition and apply it.

Bullseye is a great sport, welcome! I hope you find it as enjoyable and challenging as I have.

As for optics, if you want to stay away from them, that's cool, but for a new shooter, they are probably worth 10-20 points in a 900 match over irons, at least that's what my experience was. Obviously if you are really good with irons, it won't help much, but you will notice that all the top guys use optics where allowed (ie non-leg matches).

I have found two areas that greatly helped my bullseye shooting:

1. Trigger control. Zins says there are two kinds: uninterrupted pressure and WRONG.

2. Learning to accept my area of wobble. Don't try to snatch a shot as your dot/front sight wanders across the bull.

Tonight is week two. I put in a few hundred rounds in practice this week, 5 shot groups while being timed at 10 seconds. Lets hope that practice show tonite. Looking to shoot about 200 rounds a week in practice and 30 in competition.

Good luck to you and let us know how you score! Bullseye is won in the slow-fire and lost in sustained fire.

good luck. bullseye is a fun and easy entry to other sports; plates & pins being a favorite of mine. IDPA and CASS also.

i looked up on the web and they say that only the ammo they sell at the range can be used.
i suppose they have their reason but unless i am a guest, clubs with rules like that do not get my repeat business. i suppose they keep all the brass also.

good luck. bullseye is a fun and easy entry to other sports; plates & pins being a favorite of mine. IDPA and CASS also.

i looked up on the web and they say that only the ammo they sell at the range can be used.
i suppose they have their reason but unless i am a guest, clubs with rules like that do not get my repeat business. i suppose they keep all the brass also.
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Thanks for the Good Luck! I do not normally frequent any range that requires that, but this range is owned by Winchester/Olin. Its actually part of the Ammunition company. I can see their point, but again, they do not charge any fees to shoot. The only cost is the ammo. They have to keep it open somehow. I should add that you can keep all the brass you want. In fact, the range master saw me picking up 9mm, 45 acp, and 38s last week and asked me if I wanted him to just dump in my bag! As he swept while i was there he dumped the brass in my extra range bag. I counted up three hundred plus pieces of 9mm and 45acp(thats 300 each) and at least a 100 38s!

Good luck to you and let us know how you score! Bullseye is won in the slow-fire and lost in sustained fire.
Thanks Tuj! I havent even practiced slow fire, I do very well there, I have a problem rushing my rapid fire. In fact, when practicing I found that I was averaging three shots in the first five seconds and finishing in an average of 7.5 seconds. Not using all my time and rushing the first three was killing me last week. I worked on it this week and I think I found my cadence. Using most of the time now and not rushing my first shots. I hope it works out tonite.

Training without ammo: Dry Firing is really invaluable. If you haven't started including it into your training, start to do so now. To a man, the top shooters agree that it is worth the time.

The time spent on the trigger will be rewarded down the road.

Good luck!

Back home. Shot a dismal 217 tonite. Much worse than last week. I knew it was gonna be rough, when I got to the range we had our three minute prep time and I was shaking all over. My sights were all over the place. It never settled down tonite. I hadnt eaten in 8 hours so that may have contributed, but I don't believe in making excuses.

Time to practice for next week.

@ljnowell "I was shaking all over"

You might want to seek out some of the techniques that Aooyb teaches to control the stress we can all experience before a competition.

Ric, I may have mis-stated that. I wasnt physically shaking all over, I meant that my hands were shaking and I was all over the target, my mistake. Yeah, Im not sure what made it so bad the other day, but it sure was. I went out today on my lunch break and put 50 rounds out at 17yards. Not the best practice, but I feel anytime with the sights on a bullseye and live rounds leaving the barrel is good practice.

I am open to any advice, tips, hints, etc. There are people here with infinately more experience at this game than me!