This is related to navybowhunter's thread on front sight focus/calling the shot, but it's a little different flavor. I ran across this article on White Oak Armament's website, written by Bruce Woodford (former Army Reserve rifle coach and accomplished shooter, now deceased):
https://d3fknx2v3di431.cloudfront.net/media/wysiwyg/Documents/SOME_THOUGHTS_ON_PRONE_SHOOTING.pdf (https://d3fknx2v3di431.cloudfront.net/media/wysiwyg/Documents/SOME_THOUGHTS_ON_PRONE_SHOOTING.pdf)
Quote
Follow through is no more than sticking with the shot in all respects until the bullet has left the barrel. I
place more importance on one portion of follow through than any other part of it. The portion that
concerns me most is capturing the image of my sight picture at the instant recoil starts. I want to know
where that shot went. It's an uncomfortable feeling to me just thinking that it was a good shot, I want to
know for sure. A few years ago I learned a valuable lesson about seeing the shot through to the end. I
was shooting on the 200 yard reduced 600 yard target. (A tough little target.) I had a good lead in the
tournament but was desperately trying to give it away. First it would be a nine out the left, then a low
nine. What was making me mad was that they all looked good as far as what I was seeing. Part way
through the string I recalled losing a tournament in the same manner just the year before and never
knowing why. Then just as a shot broke, I saw it go a little low and left. It was a mid ring eight at 7
o'clock. That's not a little low left. I realized right then that I wasn't following through and seeing the
shot through to the end. After that, things improved. What was actually happening was that I was
associating the completion of the shot with the pulling of the trigger or the release of the hammer. My
concentration would immediately break down and I never saw the rifle moving away from the ten ring.
As soon as I realized what was happening, I knew I had been muscling the rifle. I corrected my natural
point of aim and worked on getting that very last sight picture image. By seeing the very last sight
picture before recoil, you'll be able to quickly identify a problem. This leads to higher scores and that's
what it's all about. By seeing the last sight picture you can also help the coach. If it broke on the left side,
you won't be telling the coach it was a good shot. Is your follow through doing the job?
The bold part is a problem I've been having in slow prone, and I caught myself doing that in practice last week. I was looking at the target, but mentally lost focus as the shot broke. Now that I've identified a problem, I think I can fix that and get back to calling shots as they are, not as I want them to be!
More articles here:
https://www.whiteoakarmament.com/blog/bruce-woodford-articles/ (https://www.whiteoakarmament.com/blog/bruce-woodford-articles/)
Good Stuff Maxwell!
Time for some HONESTY:
In my journey for the Appleseed Rifleman patch, some instructors would ask "what was that, or how did that feel, what was your call". I felt like a moron, cause I HAD NO CLUE, LOL. I would answer "It felt good, or it was a bullseye", sometimes it was....most times it was not.
Shot calling/Follow thru for me is about being HONEST with myself. Took me a bit to learn that.
Started with my first KD at Ramseur, where Fred and Jumpboot worked me "like a rib" in a ball and dummy drill. That was the "beginning" of my follow thru/shot calling journey. How can one call a shot, if they are flinching/jerking or bucking....or in simpler terms....CLOSING the aiming eye when the shot fires.
That was the start for me....simply not flinching my eyebrow or eyelid.....and forcing myself to keep the eye open.
Then....I started on my HP journey. As it is common knowledge, many of the nations best marksmen are NRA HP shooters. Many of those are some excellent coaches.
Team match/practice matches. My coach would ask after every slow fire shot. "Chris, how did that feel....and what was the call"?
Still a novice to it.....I replied "I have NO idea"! LOL
SO we started to work on it.....that is the only way to perfect something. Amazingly the first 100 or so shots I did start to "Call" were a matter of me calling the shot.....and then ABSOLUTE AMAZEMENT when the shot was sort of on call. Self confidence is starting to build!
SELF CONFIDENCE is starting to build. That is a HUGE part of it for me as well. I've alluded to this before...myself the novice putting up 4 misses in a row offhand/standing....but my calls were 10's and 9's. Had I had the self confidence at that match....or should I say were my self confidence higher.....it would have only been 1 miss.....cause I would have rectified my equipment issue earlier.
DRY FIRE for me was the ONLY way to learn to call my shots. In my case (cause I am VERY hard headed and stubborn) the SCATT electronic training system paid for itself in this area alone within a month. Beauty of the SCATT (or any electronic trainer) is that it will tell you what the shot value is......and you compare your shot call to that. It really SPED UP my learning curve on shot calling.
OK...., I have a post somewhere in here that was a bit confrontational regarding 4MOA being "good enough". To that point.....if one is truly CALLING the shots.....guess what!??! I bet they will move from a 4MOA shooter to a 2MOA shooter rather quickly.
This is my point to "most Applseeed instructors" have no clue what shot calling is. I'm throwing myself into that bucket....as I was TRULY there. I was NOT HONEST with myself.
Shot calling is definitely one aspect of the shot process that cannot be a "FAKE IT till you MAKE IT" thing. It is impossible. This is a skill one must develop on their own.
My .02 cents on it.
R/
Chris
Maxwell/ anyone else that will view.....
Does this sound familiar? Day 2 of teaching my daughter to shoot. I ask the question......an 8 year old always gives an HONEST response! LOL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V99rF7IlK1Q
Quote from: navybowhunter on March 22, 2017, 10:22:49 AM
Time for some HONESTY:
In my journey for the Appleseed Rifleman patch, some instructors would ask "what was that, or how did that feel, what was your call". I felt like a moron, cause I HAD NO CLUE, LOL. I would answer "It felt good, or it was a bullseye", sometimes it was....most times it was not.
Shot calling/Follow thru for me is about being HONEST with myself. Took me a bit to learn that.
Same. It's not a revelation to any Appleseeder that breaking focus or having that front post go blurry when the trigger clicks is enough to ruin a shot call, but I'll admit now that my shot calling was a fake. I could "call" the ones where I knew the rifle butt slipped in my shoulder or I snatched the trigger, but even then I didn't know where they were…I just knew I had a flier.
The mental training aspect for follow through takes effort: you have to keep focus on the front sight until the bullet is through the pipe, and it's not instantaneous. I had a good enough position to shoot a Rifleman score, so I had a mentality that shot calling was only useful when you were outside the black. Now that I'm trying to shrink my 2-3 MOA groups in prone, that's clearly not so! I finally started calling shots in standing this year after hours of dry fire, and it was a heck of a confidence booster when I could call a 9 at 7 o'clock (until my last practice session, hence my introspection on this topic).
Now, how to communicate this to our group of shooters this weekend…
How to communicate this to students........
That is an issue. A 1 or 2 day Appleseed is not enough time to impart the skill. The knowledge of what it is, that can be communicated. I SLAM it home when I instruct....call em all liars....literally....and with humor. Then we do a card the sights drill. I prove to every single shooter that they are an absolute liar in regards to NPOA. It always seems to work....they "get that" after that drill. Many continue to "lie" but....a few make changes....and typically those are the ones that earn their patch.
Personal experience Maxwell, that is what my response to your "how to communicate this to students" is. Draw on your personal experience with front sight focus and follow thru/shot calling....and SLAM that home to em! Maybe use the Redcoat 100 yard HUGE group versus the tiny group on the 400 yard target....
Personal experience is easier to convey....cause YOU'VE BEEN THERE and DONE IT! You have been a LIAR....and now you are no longer one.
Kind of TOUGH to teach something you are not doing....or have not done. In fact it is embarrassing to listen to someone instruct on this topic...if they have not done it themselves.
One can definitely earn a Rifleman patch....25 meters or KD....without ever calling a single shot. I did it....as I am sure many others have. They are VERY large targets....which allow one to "get away" with some stuff. But....eventually one will stagnate in their forward progression as a shooter....if they do not develop the "art" of calling their shots.
Scopes...., I call shots with the scope as well. That is another reason I recommend that a shooter always shoot the scope on the lowest magnification possible. Shooting at 600 yards at 4X is just about the max power I need to be able to easily call my shots with the scope. Anything greater than that magnification wise....and it becomes more difficult.
Good stuff! Enjoy teaching this weekend Maxwell!
R/
Chris
MY 8 yr old is a LIAR!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY2GC6No6hk
Quote from: navybowhunter on March 23, 2017, 05:20:40 PM
MY 8 yr old is a LIAR!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY2GC6No6hk
Harsh, but fair. I've done the same thing with my boys, who have yet to shoot Rifleman. Carding the sights is a great tool, and I need to get in the habit of doing that with students on the line.
I may sound "harsh", but I am also injecting humor. Anyways....
The card the sights drill should be done every event. I think (may be wrong) that the IM states it and also Ball and Dummy is required.
I know for a fact that B&D is not done every event.....time constraints. Carding the sights is easy and does not eat a whole lot of time. My process is this:
1. Safety Rules/Admin stuff
2. Redcoat (no instruction)
3. Teach Loop Sling
4. SHF for prone
5. 6 steps
6. NPOA discussion/laser demo/use of analogies (spring analogy)
7. SQUARES
After 2 squares drills, is where I would typically introduce the carding of the sights. We need to teach them that they are (as I call em) "liars", and using muscles. After physically carding the sights....at that point you have "taught em to fish"....cause they can and should be doing it on their own (by closing eyes) in their "prep period".
I think carding sights is a very valuable drill.....easy to do, and can go a long way to assisting someone on their way to the Rifleman Patch.
R/
Chris
"Harsh but fair" isn't a criticism, at least when I use it! I'm a big fan of using humor as a teaching tool. Sadly, many people (Philistines, of course) don't realize how hilarious I am.
We do the same thing here, and we have been known to cut ball and dummy if the time monkey is hitting us. Shooters get good feedback from carding the sights, even with a mediocre coach, if they're honest with themselves. Maybe I should have my kid card my sights in slow prone…I posted on the national match forum about that kicking my butt.
Right on Maxwell!
Yeah.... national match forum is a wealth of ADVANCED stuff. I peruse it often, don't think I have ever posted in there.
What I did do was Facebook friend many of the nations top shooters! LOL..., so I have DECENT advice typically within minutes.
It's just the way I do it, several of my teammates refer me to the NM forum from time to time.
R/
Chris
Getting a Daisey 853 from CMP will do wonders for your follow through. A 490 fps pellet takes over twice as long as a 22lr and over 4 times as long to clear the barrel as a center fire.
Learning to cock and load it while disturbing your position as little as possible greatly improves your ability to establish NPOA.
Thanks for the great info,
Chuck
Thanks for the Daisy suggestion. It may be in her future. For now, the SCATT "F Coefficient" can be set to account for the slow time of an air rifle.
She needs a ball and dummy drill. But....do not want to overload her. Goal here is a SOLID foundation, with FUN being just below Safety.
That BLINK, that is the issue.
For anyone having issues calling the shot, or "following thru", consider having a friend/significant other video you. It will make you a believer in keeping the eye open, and the intense concentration needed to do so.
Not the best vid..., but it sufficed for me to show my daughter merely minutes later on the big screen TV what I am talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm54hg3SRm8
R/
Chris
Concur on the 853 suggestion, an air rifle is one of the better teaching tools for follow-through.
A vital part of follow-through is also to "reset" your trigger (semi-auto rifles). After you shoot your rifle, have taken your snapshot of where the sights were on the target when the gun went off, you need to continue to keep the trigger held back. Once you start to come back on target for your next shot, then slowly start to release the trigger until it just "clicks" back onto the sear and stop.
Do not just squeeze the trigger and then remove your finger..........follow-through is a very deliberate action for the shooter to accomplish. You should be able to call your shot after the gun goes bang.......and then you will hear and feel your trigger reset as you put the sights back into the middle of the target to send another one.
Another tip that can help, is to take a 0.5mm pencil and place a pencil line on your front sight post (on an angle). If you have a shooter that is telling you they are focusing on the front sight, this little "tell-tale" will reveal the truth. You will be able to see the pencil line if you focus on the front sight post, you will not see it if you are bouncing from the target to your post to the target. This works on front sights that have a flat that faces the shooter.........won't work on tech-sights.
I coach guys on front sight focus and follow-through quite a bit, and you will see a significant increase in scores when it is applied properly.
Trigger manipulation is taught by many that the gun should surprise you when it goes off. I believe this to be true up to a point. Once your students (or kids) have been exposed to good safety rules and have fun when they go to the range. I shift their focus on the trigger to one being this simple........this rifle goes off when I tell it to, because I am in control of it. I tell this rifle to go off when I have built a solid position, have established NPOA, have good sight alignment and a great sight picture. Then, I squeeze the trigger and a hole appears in the V-ring, because that is where my sights were when the rifle went off. I will then take a shallow breath, exhale, start to develop that great sight picture again and reset my trigger. When settled in the V-ring, I tell that rifle to go off again, and another hole will appear in the middle of the target.
You are in control of that rifle. It is a deliberate act to place shots in the middle of the target. Focus on the front sight (or scope reticle) and reset your trigger (follow-through). Your groups will shrink and your scores will increase.
Keep them in the middle!!
Have a Great American Day!!