amazing groups

She is very talented! Every shot is done the same way, with a brief rest between shots. Very steady hands, too. What country is this from?

mikemyers said:

She is very talented! Every shot is done the same way, with a brief rest between shots. Very steady hands, too. What country is this from?

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Indeed. Talent or skill through lots of practice, we don't know, but she does the fundamentals exceedingly well, and that's the important thing. Well done.

Looks like Thai to me

Wow! She is quite a good shot.

roval said:

the muzzle of the gun was lined up with one of the cement lines on the wall and you could see it stops moving a few seconds before she squeezes off the shot.

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What's more important is that she broke the shot without disturbing the gun.

Things going through my mind as I watched these....

• Physically, she's a little kid, probably not all that strong, but she in no way looks like she's picking up something too heavy. I think she's doing what Mr. Borland calls "the fundamentals" without being aware of this - she has been trained to do everything properly.
  
• As Mr. Borland pointed out, when she fires, there is absolutely no sign that the gun is moving in any direction - and after it fires, the gun doesn't move as far as I would have expected, meaning maybe they are "light loads". If so, I'd like to be shooting the same loads.
  
• After watching over and over and over again, the gun isn't "rock steady"; it does move, but in a way that it is still pointed straight ahead. When the front of the gun moves, the rest of the gun moves exactly the same way. And she is in no hurry - when she is ready, she fires.
  
• With the Colt Combat Commander, when there is a misfire, it's the person behind her who clears the stuck shell. Very nice camera work too, as the camera shows this very clearly.
  
• I was thinking that as she rests the gun on the table between shots, she is able to keep her hands in exactly the same position on the gun - which a few minutes later was proven wrong, as she took her left hand off the gun, did something, then put her hand back on the gun.
  
• Between shots, she just lowers the gun, tilting it down until it rests on the table. That doesn't seem very safe to me - if the gun were to fire, the bullet is going right into the table.
  
• Still wondering - most of the "expert" shooters I watch in videos can extend their hands, take a shot, then retract the gun right back to them. What this girl does seems effortless by comparison. Not sure if I'm right or not, but I guessed that's because she's still a little girl, and it's easier to just lower the gun and let it rest.
  
• Finally, I thought she had a "rhythm" going, as she did exactly the same thing over and over, but just when I thought that, she raised the gun after a very short rest. I'm guessing this was all just her way of dealing with the weight of the gun.

It's often said that shooting well is easy - in theory. Just get a good sight picture and break the shot cleanly. We find it tough to shoot well because we do so many other things to dilute or screw up the 2 that matter. To this end, the vids are notable in how she simply shoots without the accuracy-killing things many of us do.

Note the things she doesn't do:

- obviously, she doesn't flinch. She sees what she needs to see, then "lets" the trigger break cleanly.

- she doesn't use a silhouette target, instead using a bullseye-type target that offers a precise aiming point.

- she doesn't search for a sight picture, and she doesn't futz with her grip and stance. Her grip and stance are set so that she simply raises the gun, and the sight picture's pretty much set.

- she's not distracted. She doesn't jabber with anyone else, or even seem to notice them (or their shooting). She doesn't address the camera, let alone give any indication it's there.

- she's not distracted by shots she's already taken. The only shot that matters is the one she's currently taking.

- she doesn't shoot a string. She's completely focused only on the one shot she's taking now. One can shoot a string well, but the mindset has to be that it's one shot at a time, and one has to be willing to put the gun down if necessary.

- related to the two previous points, she's not likely thinking ahead of time that she wants to shoot a good group. IOW, her absence of "trying" is notable. She just raises the gun and perfectly executes the shot at hand. The group takes care of itself.

an amazing thread and even more amazing shooter. lovely woman too.

She's very good at performing the basics we all know about but so often fail to execute correctly and consistently.

She's also got the advantage of youthful vision and steady nerves that us old farts find slipping away all to quickly...

The one shot at a time with a pause is also part of classic slow fire bullseye shooting. It's surprising how quickly the arms tire and start shaking around. A old bullseye match shooter mentioned that if you can't take the shot within a maximum of around 15 seconds of raising the gun then it's best to take the finger out of the guard and lower the gun for a pause and relax and try again. Trying to tough it out after that well see your sight picture jumping around a lot more.

There's often a sweet spot where you raise the gun and after the a few settling moments that your arms are as steady as they are going to be. There's a roughly 4 to 5 second window where the muscle tremors are minimal and then the fatigue tremors start up and increase. She's using that and only holding the gun long enough to let the motion tremors settle then she takes the shot during the minimal motion period and has the gun lowering before the fatigue tremors come up.

This last came from my buddy that used to shoot slow fire bullseye competitions. Once he talked about this I found I could see and feel it all happening. And when I remember to "listen" to my body I tend to shoot better groups too. But like many of us I tend to forget and be stubborn. And then the groups open up.

Awesome trigger control completely devoid of target panic. I was more impressed two times. One when the gun jammed and two when she let down. Most won't let down and rush (target panic) the shot.

Red Cent said:

and two when she let down. Most won't let down and rush (target panic) the shot.

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Good point & very true.

One of the hardest things to do in shooting is to not take the shot. It's strange why that would be so, but the urge to be rid of the round in the gun before starting afresh can be overwhelming. A mark of a really good shooter is choosing to not take the shot.

Words of wisdom.

I translated all of the Thai I could find at the Youtube channel but didn't see a name that crossed in the ISSF Athletes database, as I figured if she shot that well she may be on the national team. A challenge is that there is about twenty ways to romanize Thai, and most Thais use a nickname too.

There have been some Thai shooters in the ISSF World Cup finals over the last few years, meaning they outshot about fifty or more other shooters from around the world in qualifying to make it to the final match.

How to get everyone, myself included, upset at me....

I was thinking about the title of this thread, "amazing groups".

I got to wondering if these groups are really "amazing", or is it just that almost all of us do things incorrectly, preventing us from doing so well?

All the books I've read say that if left on its own, a gun will shoot right where it's aimed - but most of us twist, and pull, and push, and squeeze, and shake, and probably are thinking about lots of things other than what we're doing at that moment.

I watch lots of people at the range take a shot, and the gun goes way up high, as they get pushed backwards. I watch this little girl shoot, and even though she can't be all that strong, the gun is very controlled. Maybe most of us are using a bullet that could kill an angry dinosaur, but she's using rounds just strong enough for hole punching?

She's been trained very, very, very well. I wonder how many of us get any training or feedback, once we're past the basics?

I'm guessing that she gets to shoot many times a week, over and over, with feedback from someone who is very good. Continuous practice would help anyone do better.



For anyone really serious about getting better, MrBorland has convinced me that it's possible, even when someone is thinking the opposite, but "possible" means doing a lot of things repeatedly, and getting advice/feedback, and keeping an open mind, and again, a lot-lot-lot of practice.

(I didn't use to think that way, but now I do, and I've accepted it, but I see it as a very long, long road, with no end... I figure, no matter how good anyone gets, they'll always want to get better.)


(Sa-tevr, I have lots of friends in Thailand. I'll see what I can find out, if anything.)

Sa-tevr said:

I translated all of the Thai I could find at the Youtube channel but didn't see a name that crossed in the ISSF Athletes database, as I figured if she shot that well she may be on the national team. ......

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If you can speak Thai, you can ask at this Google+ location:
https://plus.google.com/108709405178798034189/posts

I just did, but my Thai is limited to one or two words... :-(

Nice. Enjoyable to watch a good shooter's routine.

I notice for myself that when the range is more crowded consistency drops. The guy/gal in the lane/s next to me shooting a 10mm, 45mm, .357 or .44 mag, that blast unsettles my concentration. Even worse when the case ejects into my stall and lands on me. Takes a lot of mental energy to focus in those scenarios.

I'm usually pretty chauvinistic but I generally expect women to be excellent shooters, far better than myself.

Thermactor said:

I'm usually pretty chauvinistic but I generally expect women to be excellent shooters, far better than myself.

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Why do you think that is?

The patience required to stop and breath between each shot is harder than it appears. I know every-time i shoot a match I take a few shots in succession, and every time I think, man, why didn't I just stop and rest.

old lady new shooter said:

Why do you think that is?

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Because women (and new shooters) don't tend to have their ego wrapped up in their shooting. They're more willing to listen and just "do", instead of arguing, doing it their own way anyway, and/or making sure someone else is impressed. Some of the worst shooters I've seen are those who know the most and who've been doing it the longest.

True story: I took my 77 year old father to the shooting range last Christmas. He hadn't shot a rifle in nearly 40 years, and then it was a .22. But with instruction, he was almost immediately shooting MOA groups with my deer rifle. Then we headed out to the pistol range. He's never once in his life shot a handgun. Same story. After a little instruction, he simply did what I told him to do and was immediately shooting better groups than anyone else on the line.

You gotta put that ego away if you really want to shoot...

This is the reason the bullseye community should have a "two-handed" division. Young shooters just cannot one-hand a 42 ounce pistol. This gal would clean house in a two-handed bullseye contest.

murf

outstanding

I always wanted to shoot like Lucy Chambliss: http://www.mouseguns.com/blast/lucy.htm