Bullseye Pistol: Training tips thread

[earplug]

In slowfire. After the shot is fired, is it a good idea to retarget/reaim the bull? or just lower the pistol and rest?
I shoot a revolver in centerfire and I'm wondering if getting a pattern for timed and rapid fire is worth while or to just concentrate on the next round in slowfire.
Now, I thumb cock after the shot then rest my revolver/arm for the next shot, without trying to reaquire the target. Any idea of what the old masters did.

 

[cdrt]

In slowfire. After the shot is fired, is it a good idea to retarget/reaim the bull? or just lower the pistol and rest?

I've been shooting Bullseye since 1974, so I'm not sure if that qualifies me as "old" but I'll try and address your question.

I don't really remember anyone pointing out that particular technique when I was just starting out. I glanced through Gil Hebard's Pistol Shooters Treasury and did not see any mention of it.

Having said that, any technique that can help you do a better in timed and rapid fire certainly can't hurt and I can see some merit in "following through", as it were, in slow fire to accomplish that.

And it may help in another way. Sometimes under adverse conditions (windy) you may have to shoot a series of shots in slow fire without putting the pistol down. I did that a Perry last year since it was really windy. Any time there was a lull, I would fire two shots in succession during slow fire without putting the gun down to take advantage of the less windy condition. It helped a little.

Make sense?

 

[kle]

After the shot is fired, is it a good idea to retarget/reaim the bull? or just lower the pistol and rest?

I shoot a .22 revolver in my local bullseye league, open sights, and I find that I feel more consistent when I shoot in 3-shot strings during the slowfire part, thumbcocking each shot. After each 3-shot string, I rest the gun on the table in front of me, hammer down, with my hand still holding a loose grip. My scores seem to reflect it, as well.

 

[bdutton]

I rest after each shot UNLESS the shot really felt great and the gun returned to center immediately after. If that happens, I'll squeeze off another.

Otherwise, I don't see much benefit.

 

[coldtrail]

Stumbled across this easy method of training the brain for slow fire and T/RF. While using the gun box to steady the pistol and check on general accuracy of the pistol, I noticed that I shot better afterwards. What you see while resting the pistol on the box of course is a near perfect sight picture. Then when taking the shot you get the mental reinforcement of seeing a well placed shot. After testing some new rounds this way before shooting freehand my score improved. Now all you have to do is get the ground connector link firmed up and the rest is all tens and x's. Accuracy is just as much mental as physical and of course good equipment.

 

[.38 Special]

In slowfire. After the shot is fired, is it a good idea to retarget/reaim the bull? or just lower the pistol and rest?

There are two reasons to "retarget". One is that if you find the pistol naturally ends up pointing somewhere other than the bull after the shot, your stance/grip needs work. The other has to do with follow through; the idea being that if you don't continue to aim at the target during and after the shot, eventually you will start putting the pistol down too soon.

HTH!

 

[krs]

For both timed and rapid fire it's important to establish a sense of rythme, i.e.: use a timer that has a bell or buzzer and can be set for start dings and end dings for both 10 sec. and 20 sec. Mine is an old windup version that was sold by Gil Hebard for the purpose but I've no doubt that there are electronic types today.

Using the timer and no ammo and no need of a cocked pistol (you can practice with a stick in your hand if you want - the only thing you're after is that slow spaced rythme), raise your 'pistol' and when the bell goes off "fire" five imaginary shots spaced out over the alloted time. You can even simulate the recoil, but the important thing is to become good at getting the five aimed shots off without any sense of urgency or rush. Space shots to the time period - before too much of doing this you'll find that the time is plenty to get off good X's, five in a row, on the beat, just like it's music. (Old? Think Lawrence Welk )

 

[kle]

Starting a couple weeks ago, I was having issues getting the first shot off in Rapid fire--the buzzer would go off and I'd just sit there, trying forever to get the perfect shot. When it would finally break, I'd only have 7 or so seconds to light off the rest. I don't know what it was, but some first-shot drills seemed to help:

I'd set my (programmable) target to face for two seconds, and start the timer. The target would face and I'd have to get the first shot off and re-cock the hammer (I'm still using revolvers for Bullseye) and start aiming again by the time the target turned away. That seemed to help a little bit.

---

I also seemed to be getting into a rut with Bullseye--no matter how much harder I tried, how much more focused I attempted to make my practices, my scores were steadily dropping: 579/600 on Nov. 2nd, 573/600 on Nov. 9th, and finally 571/600 last week. Barely a Master-level score. My slow-fire was suffering (I couldn't get a good follow-through and started throwing shots into the 7- and 6-rings), and my rapid-fire was getting wilder and wilder (there were several shots where I watched the dot zig-zag all over the target, but somehow the shots ended up near the black).

I took a three-day break from shooting--not even switching to other disciplines, like defensive practice or shooting Trap with my shotgun. No live-firing at all. I did go to a 3-day gunshow, walked around the tables for a couple hours each day, and I did touch quite a few guns, but I didn't visit the range, nor did I do any dry-fire practice in my house (I have a section of my house that is about 60-ft long, so I put an aiming black at one end and I would stand at the other, dryfiring at the target).

I'm not going to proclaim myself 'cured', but tonight I shot a 579/600, shooting the weekly match cold both figuratively (I got to the range early, but didn't opt to warm up) and literally (for some reason, the indoor range we shoot at had the air conditioning on, and it was cold enough in there that most of the other shooters wore their jackets to shoot).

Sometimes you just need a break. Once in a while.

 

[HighExpert]

One of the tips I was given when I started was to pretend there was a long pencil in the gun barrel and determine what kind of circle or oval it would draw on the target. Learn to time your trigger action to when the gun passes over the bull. As you get better the circle or oval gets smaller. As a beginning shooter it helped a lot, along with 4-5k dry fires a week. You have to live with your trigger until you no longer even think about it. Pistol shooting is 75% mental and 25% trigger control.

 

[mickeygrimreaperblueeyes]

Tip: a consisitant Grip the first time and natural point of aim can set up your first target for a great run. Just don't forget to check both as that 2700 match goes along. Your wear and tear of your body change as you shoot and your point of aim is changing with your fatigue. Check these things on each string and every string of fire. Then the Follow through comes naturally from the recoil of the action to a last minute sight picture.

I loved that feeling of getting in with my shot calling to a consistant thing. I could definately feel when I was heeling a gun. I could tell when I was squeezing too hard with my grip fingers also. Check that grip and hold all the time.

 

[bdutton]

RELAX! The biggest reason for screwing up a shot is over thinking the shot! LET IT HAPPEN. RELAX!

 

[fahad khalid]

I am a competition shooter from Pakistan. I mostly shoot one hand, at 25 mtrs. Initially i had a problem, i would take to long to take a shot. Once you have raised you gun, focus firmly on the front sight, hold your breath, and shoot within the first 5-7 seconds, if it takes longer than that, lower your gun, breath, then try again. Try it out on the range. I am sure that will help alot.

 

[zxcvbob]

I recently started shooting my revolver double-action instead of SA -- just for practice, because I've shot SA revolvers all my life and my thumb instinctively cocks the hammer. (I have to think about not thumbing the hammer.) I was surprised that my score went up instead of down. Now I've figured out to shoot Slow Fire in SA and Timed and Rapid in DA. (I'm using a 4" S&W Model 15-4) When I get better at it, I will probably even shoot slow file in DA.