High Power Competition Goals

[Jenrick]

My goal is as follows:

1) Get Oct 24-26th off to go to the Texas State Service rifle championship

2) Shoot over a 712 at the Service Rifle championship

I will do so by the following

1) I will talk to my Sgt. tomorrow and get the day off before any one else does.

2) I will EVERY DAY build my position from scratch in all three positions 5 times, focusing on consistency on my NPA. I'd like to get to the point where I can do this every day before breakfast.

3) I will dry fire at LEAST 3 times a week for 30 minutes, practicing all 3 positions. Emphasis will be on the weakest position from last practice.

4) I will shoot a 100 yd reduced practice 88 rd match at LEAST every other week.

5) I will attend the monthly 200 yd reduced match at my local club work permitting, and the weekly 300yd reduced match 1hr away work permitting.

6) I will purchase the supplies necessary to load 900 match rounds.

7) I will load 900 match rounds, shooting them both in practice and competition.

8) I will establish through diligent practice and position building what my actual equipment NEEDS rather then wants are, and purchase accordingly (I can tell you a good sling is #1).

9) I will clean up my eating and get at LEAST 20 minutes of cardio 3 times a week to improve my overall health.

10) I will follow all the steps I have outlined above.

Wish me luck folks.

-Jenrick

 

[Jon Coppenbarger]

good luck!
you have a very good handle on what you need to improve. just remember to get good feedback on every shot you take and learn from every shot and string.

 

[Freedomv]

I wish you good luck, but more importantly greater skill.

Vern

 

[Howard Roark]

Sir,

If you do as you have stated along with getting some coaching from an experienced shooter you will exceed your goal of 712.

Opportunity+Skill=Luck.

Good Luck

 

[rhubarb]

Good goals in general for us all:
*Work on building position and NPA daily
*Dryfire with emphasis on weakest position
*Shoot as many matches as possible
*Eat clean and exercise

Thanks for the post and good luck.

 

[taliv]

i'm not quite as motivated as you are. my goal is just to not have my windage knob a full revolution off before the next leg match

 

[RockRifle]

Set Goals!

Good Start!

I was frustrated last year when our State AG match came and went. I started shooting one match a month (preferably 800agg full-course) and planned to get a team together. I didn't get much support from command, and have had a hard time forming a team around our training schedule, but I have continued to work on my own. We pulled it all together by the seat of our pants, and took third of seventeen teams.

Three important things have happened.
1. We now have a rifle team.
1. We WENT to the match this year.
2. We now know what we need to improve on.

I like your list. find an experienced shooter to partner with... My uncle gives me tips every time we shoot together.

Being comfortable and finding NPA easily is the reward for lots of practice.

Get some long range in there too. Wind will break you at 600yds.

 

[P-32]

Sounds like you have a good goal. Don't forget to focus on the front sight. Once you hit the 712, things should start moving quickly.

When building positions, don't forget the placement of your rifle stock butt. When dry firing, hold the rifle like it's going to go off. Don't get used to holding it loose.

My goal is to shoot a 775. 10 more points to go.

 

[Borg]

Jenrick;
If you are in the guard, get in touch with Col Tryce and tell him you're interested in getting started in HP, and that you have your own equipment. He may be able to help out as for practice, or getting off for the matches, or maybe coaching.
He usually practices on Mon at ARC.
'Borg

 

[Jenrick]

Borg, not a guard member, but I have met Col Tryce at the state matches a couple of weeks ago. I'll probably run into him at ARC one of these days too.

Well I shot the 200 yd reduced match at ARC today, 514 total (I don't have my exact score's handy but these are close). 68 (yeah 68, not 168) offhand, 174 sitting, 151 rapid prone at simulated 300yd, 121 prone at simulated 600yd.

Issues with todays shooting:

1) New rifle, that I had only had a chance to put about 20 rounds through on a 100yd range to try and get a zero. That meant I was chasing my zero around, and basically had no clue where I was shooting during offhand. Goal: Get my rifle sighted so this is a non-issue.

2) Shooting three different loads through my rifle, ran into a shortage of match stuff and had to go into my experiment loads (68 grn Hornady BTHP, 69grn Sierra MBTHPs, and the Sierra's with a light crimp), and had to combine them. I was able to avoid mixing them in my strings until the simulated 600yd line. Goal: Get enough ammo loaded this is a non-issue.

3) Wow my offhand needs work. Even with the above issues, my target looked like I was patterning a shot gun. I probably would have had a higher score if I had been. Goal: Improve my offhand to at LEAST 150 by the next match I shoot.

Ways to achieve goals:

1) Get my rifle sighted in at 200 with my match load, since I don't have even close to a hard hold in standing (shoot I don't have a particularly hard hold in prone with a sling) I'll do it prone. That'll help a lot as I'll know that misses are my shooting and not my sights (my first sitting sighter was into the berm over the top of the target frame).

2) Get at least 100 rds of match ammo loaded ahead of time. I should be loading at least 40-60 rounds a day on my weekends. More then enough to keep me in sufficient ammo for practice and matches.

3) Practice my off hand, a lot, a whole lot.

Other issues identified:

1) I need a spotting scope, I got lucky and the match director loaned me his spare (thanks Paul!). The little bushnell birding scope I borrowed from a buddy is not satisfactory in comparison to a real scope. Probably will be the next MAJOR purchase.

2) Far as other equipment goes, I'm not in too bad a shape. A good sling is the next item, but I'm currently doing some research to see what I want to get. Got something that works for a glove, don't see the point in buying a $200 cart etc right now. Only other major item equipment wise is a coat, that is on the back burner while I do some research.

So far so good, learned something, got a plan, and got to shoot.

-Jenrick

 

[ocabj]

Jenrick:

Read every article posted here:

http://www.odcmp.com/USAMU/Shooting_Tips.htm

For your standing, pay special emphasis to these two articles:
http://www.odcmp.org/1007/default.asp?page=USAMU_STANDING
http://www.odcmp.org/1207/default.asp?page=USAMU_TC

Establishing a good standing position and having good call in standing is fairly simple to attain if you spend the time on it. Once you get to point where you are scoring 95% in standing, the physical pinnacle has been reached, and the key to breaking that average and maintaining a high average is to establish a positive mental program.

After I missed points in my last few EICs due to my below average standing scores, I was advised to develop a mental program and my standing scores in actual matches went back to my average of 96-97%.

Check out "With Winning Mind". It's an inexpensive paperback and the mental aspect of shooting sports is outlined and it should help you immensely if you find yourself shooting worse in competition than you do in practice.

 

[P-32]

Jenrick,

It appears you have figured out most of your issues. I would not dream of going to a match without having the proper ammo. Ammo prep for me is important before every match. I assume nothing and check sized brass for chamber fit before priming. For the short line ammo I make sure it fits my mags. For the long line ammo I make sure at least a couple of the batch fit the chamber. I try to reduce as many problems as I can before even going out the door on my way to the match. I check my supplies, carbide, and mags. I make sure the rifle is ready and check spare parts. Any problems I do encounter is only related to the nut behind the trigger. Some times this works for me, other times Murphy shows up and I'm pretty done in. I have never had a DNF however. I hate refires.

Offhand. This comes with trigger time. I send almost all of my dry fire practice working on off hand. Here it is very important to gear up just like you would for a match and dry fire at least 22 times. Your eye will take a "photo" of where the sights were when the trigger breaks. I alway try to call my shot. The other thing is to wait for the shot, not force it. Trying to grab a shot during off hand will put you in the trees. When shooting off hand, I'm not nice on the trigger, I take the shot when I have sight alinement. You can only expect to hold the rifle and look through the sights for about 8 seconds. I take a breath and let it out slowly and then hold. If I don't like what I see I will dismount the rifle and look away for a few seconds before trying again. I have mounted a rifle as many as 4 times before I finally got the shot to break. My goal is to keep every shot in the black. X's will take care of them selves.

Sight picture....nothing is written in stone. Use what works best for you. I like and use the Navy Hold which is a center hold. This way if the rifle breaks with the front post in the black I know it's going to be at least a 9. For everythig else I use a 6 O clock hold. Even this can change for 600 depending on light. Sometimes I find a flat tire works better.

Zero's....I have a cut down clip board I use to hold my data book. On the back of the clip board is my sight dope. I have data for 3 different rifles taped on the back. My John C. Garand rilfe data is in brown because the rifle has a wood stock. My 308 M-1 is in green because the stock is green laminate and my AR data is black because it's a black rifle. I don't change load data unless I find something better.

Finally, keep working on your shooting. Very few people take up a shooting sport and fire Master or High Master scores after a couple of matches. But the only real difference between you and the match winner is simply trigger time. You gots to pay your dues. Don't forget to check your NPA and focus on the front sight!

 

[30Cal]

Make sure you set ambitious goals. With that training regimine, it should only take you a couple weeks to start shooting in the 90's offhand.

 

[Jon Coppenbarger]

becoming good in high power takes time and devotion. work on those positions as you outlined and the following is very important!
You must learn the correct positions before your memory gets set. its like a golf swing bad habits in your learning will be harder to break later.

here are a few tips without over loading the info. when dry firing your rapids work on positions and taking good shots. force yourself to take a breath between every shot and time yourself. in the beginning you may take longer than the regulated time but you are building and learning the positions. After awhile when the positions and your breathing get more comfy you will notice you will start to get within the time frames required.

I find it is easy to go fast and make mistakes than go slow and make it every shot count. think of it this way, if you build a very good position at the beginning of each string of rapids your shots will come easier and it will allow you to take more time making a very good shot instead of adjusting each shot a little because your position is not solid.

you have the typical begining scores. what that means is your rapid scores are much higher than your slow prone scores. you may think this is acounted for because of slightly friendlier targets but it is because you have set your position for the string and shot it. where in the slow prone you most likely changed position between every shot slightly.

when you pull the trigger in slow prone you should get a imidiate feed back. if your recoil is not the same every shot your npa is not the same. practice having your sights go up and down the target exactly straight up and down every time. no up from the bottom left to top right when you exhale your breath or vice versa. if you fix that alone it will get rid of shots out in the corners and out the sides. then controlling your breath will take care of your elevation scores.

Relax and have fun.

As far as leg points and the matches they are shot in.
#1 Never give up on any shot and never give up in any part of the match. matches can not be won untill you are done.
#2 40% of the match is shot at 600 yards so make your self good at that range and you will always rise to the top as allot of folks fold back there.
#3 do not worry about anyone elses score as it does not matter. only what you do matters so reduce the mistakes and make every shot your best shot.
#4 there in no such thing as a monkey on your back as you make your own fate. you can not control what someone else does so if you get beat it is just their day and your day will come.

It took me awhile to realize the above but once it sunk in my 4 legs came at 4 different ranges over 1 year, 1 month and a week period. my last leg came at Camp Perry. starting out with a 88 of is not a good start. then with a 97 and 95 in the rapids I could of thrown in the towel. instead of letting the pressure and the conditions make me fold I wanted to make every shot count. The wind at 600 that day was very ugly and made every shot count. yeah I missed a few calls back there but a 194 that day in that condition gave me a 4 point cushion it turned out.
NEVER GIVE UP!

 

[Jenrick]

Thanks for the all the advice and encouragement so far from everyone.

P-32: Yeah was my own fubar on the ammo. I'm so used to not having to load ammo, I was surprised to find I was low. That has been taken care of now though. I may have to try the navy hold on offhand, seemed a heck of a lot easier to settle down to vs a 6'oclock. Good advice on putting the rifle down if need be, I need to get into that habit. Also a'men on the trigger time, and even shooting poorly beats working

Jon: Great point on why my rapids were better then my slowfire. I decided about 10 rds in to say the heck with trying to spot and adjust I'm just going to shoot, and see where they land. I fired the next eight before curiosity overcame me and I broke position to look, and I had actually started to get a group going (it wasn't where I needed it, but it was at least a group). I think next match, knowing that I'll have a good zero to work with, it'll be 2 sighters for windage, and 20 without breaking position if I can do it. Hopefully all the position building repetition and NPA work will let me start to settle back down to the same spot time and time again. Far as the mental aspect goes, I think the biggest thing I've got going is that I have absolutely 0 expectations about my ability right now. I know how long and how much work it took to get me comfortable running into a room behind a flashbang and shooting, this is the other extreme. Practice, practice, more practice, and then a lot more practice We all started somewhere, and isn't getting into something new the best part?

-Jenrick