mikemyers" said:
After reading Paul Weston's article, and changing to what I understood "area aiming" to be, there seemed to be a uniform spread of shots all around my "group", including over the X in the center. As you (and others in that book) have written, trying to shoot at the perfect moment when the sights are lined up is a simple way to guarantee a miss.
Correct. Literally, you're working off the law of averages. Presuming a 7-ring hold, an even distribution across 10 shots would result in an 84 or 85--a pretty solid place to start in a BE match.
But it gets better. If you manage to center your hold pretty well over the 10-ring, then the sights are going to spend more time over that spot. In other words, the distribution isn't evenly split between all the rings the sights touch, it's weighted towards whatever they touch the most.
Once you've achieved that, you start working on improving the ratio. Your hold isn't static--if you sit there and hold the gun for 20 seconds, you'll be wobbling all over by the time you're done. There are two points in most people's hold that are most stable--one happens about half a second as the sight settles onto the black (assuming you're settling from the top-down, as a 1-handed shooter does). Most people actually over-hold and are too slow on the trigger--they shoot a couple seconds later, when another, less-stable MAoM occurs.
If you've ever had the experience, when using the red-dot, of the dot suddenly dancing into the 10-ring and pausing
right when the trigger broke--that's what you're going for. I would also point out that applying trigger pressure is integral to those moments. In other words, you start the trigger pull before you're actually ready to take the shot. If you wait to start until the shot looks perfect, by the time the trigger breaks, you'll have missed your chance.
The other trick is identifying when a shot is going to go bad. If you feel yourself slowing or stopping the trigger, getting distracted, blinking unexpectedly, losing focus, or if the hold isn't good. Again--make more good shots by avoiding the bad ones.
Do you have a spotting scope of some sort? It's a lot easier to analyze shots when you've got instant feedback. In fact, I would suggest that once you progress beyond "a bad shot is one I can see in the white, a good shot is one I can't see in the black", a spotting scope becomes essential.
(I imagine that as some people get better, they eventually may get to where their "area" is so small, that for all practical purposes they're aiming at a spot - how else can people shoot at a playing card's edge, and split it in two... Or, write out someone's name using bullet holes. Or put five overlapping holes on a target.)
Some of them work at it like a job. They train every day, and practice a few times a week.
The more human shooters who exceed what should be humanly possible are using a "shot process", if you've come across the term.
A shot process--usually written-out--is a comprehensive description of all the steps that go into shooting a 10, from picking up the gun, to putting it down when you're done. Even conditions where a shot should be aborted.
Simply-put, the idea is to do the same thing every time. The same grip, the same trigger pull, the same timing, everything.
With steel sights on my M-41, I am not satisfied with my current shooting. It is considerably better when I switch the barrel to my Clark barrel with Matchdot II sight, but I wanted to see if I could shoot the same using steel sights.
If you haven't already, try zeroing the irons for a sub-6 o'clock hold to get the front blade off the bull. Side-to-side, it puts more "white" in the sight picture, and vertically, it makes it easier to see how high the front blade is in relation to the notches.
Again--spotting scope, binoculars, something like that. If your problem isn't fliers, then there's no gross error in technique.
Don't be afraid to change things up, especially speed-wise. On a sub-6 hold, try starting a 2-count as the front blade passes through the 10-ring on the way down to your aiming point--"one-one thousand, two-one-thousand-bang". Alternatively, use a timer, or get an audio recording of NRA Rapid Fire commands, and do a 5-shot string in 10 seconds.
Now analyze the groups. Discard
all fliers. Study the most closely-grouped shots, closest to the point of aim. If those groups are smaller than your normal groups--guess you better figure out how to get on the trigger faster, and then figure out why you shot those fliers.
Good slow fire is shot like rapid fire, but one at a time.
Sounds the OP is conflicted then. On the one hand he implies he's dissatisfied with his current ability and says he wants to improve but has no idea how he's ever going to get there. Then he says he's "area aiming" which teaches "accept your mediocrity."
Area aiming is about accepting a limitation and overcoming it. Namely, the limitation that the sights are always going to move.
Very, very few people can hold to the 10-ring of a B-2 at 50 feet. After all, that 10-ring is .9 inches across (a US quarter is .955"), but folks hit that thing all the time.
If you focus on the fact that the sights are wobbling all over the black, and then try to "snatch" a shot--you're going to miss. Even if you manage to time the shot perfectly, you're going to wind up jerking the trigger. You'd be lucky to get it in the black at all.
That's okay. You don't need to have a perfect hold to shoot stupidly good scores. You barely even need a
good hold. All you need is the fundamentals--trigger, sights, grip, breath control, and follow-through.
And now I hear that striving for better is too stressful. Better to accept mediocre success...it's easier and more "fun" than trying and failing.
Diff'rent strokes, I guess. It's all good, man.
A few bits.
You're (intentionally?) misreading "focus on the process, not the results". It's
very difficult to reconcile the idea that every shot must be a 10, with good trigger control. If I can't hold to the 10, but insist that I shoot only 10s, then the result is bad technique like a "start-stop-start" trigger pull or shot-snatching or overholding.
I'm literally suggesting that shooting is an act of faith. You have to believe that if you do X, you will get Y result. And when things go wrong and you throw a 6, you've gotta get right up back on that horse and follow the same process the next shot. If you don't do that, then you're taking all your practice and training and throwing it right out the window.
The other thing is mental management. Why do people shoot better in practices than in matches? Because there's no pressure. They're free to focus on their shot processes. So how do we shoot well when it counts? Relax, have fun, focus on the process and routine.
Focusing on outcomes and beating yourself up is toxic. It's self-defeating. By all means, have a goal--achievable short-, medium-, and long-term goals are good:
Long: "I want to improve my slow-fire scores, therefore, I am going to..."
Medium: "...improve my ability to abort bad shots, starting with..."
Short: "...identifying when I am forcing a shot."
Once I stop forcing shots, I move on to "...recognizing a bad trigger pull", or "...identifying a poor hold."
What I don't want to say is, "I'm going to average a 90 in Slow Fire." That's not constructive, and when I
don't average a 90, I'm just going to get discouraged. I haven't created a path to success, I've set myself up for failure.
Encyclopedia of Bullseye Pistol
