Hi folks!
So how about an online postal match that's kinda the antithesis of the 1/2in at 50, one that has very little to do with your equipment, and everything to do with you?
I've decided this year that my summer 2022 practice will be to improve my deliberate standing unsupported shooting, towards the goal of changing my whitetail hunting technique so it feels like I am doing more than just executing deer from super-supported positions. I've started practicing, mostly with my .22 to discover and improve my fundamentals with affordable (woohoo...6$ for CCI Standard Velocity!) high-volume training, and one of the drills I'm using I've started calling the 50-4-50:
Here's a link to the target I'm using: http://www.eclecticworks.ca/pics/50-4-50/4in_b40b.pdf; print it off on an 8.5x11 piece of paper, and set your print settings to "actual size" with no scaling so the target circle measures 4 inches in diameter.
Set it up at 50 yards.
Then, take 50 unsupported standing shots at it, completed within 20 minutes. That's it! Anything in the black counts as a hit, anything outside the black is a miss. Your score is however many hits you made divided by 50.
Via practice through April and May, I am hooked enough that it's something I look forward to every time I think about hitting the range. Since starting my average is 80.2%, lowest score is 68%, and just this past weekend I shot my current personal best of 92%....woohoo! My goal for the end-of-the-summer is to try to get consistently into the 90% range, even when it is windy and the rifle is getting blown all over the place.
I think I've started to discover some things about setting up my Natural Point of Aim (NPI), breath and trigger control, as well as my (lack of) mental discipline, and how much my EGO can negatively influence my performance; am excited to see what the rest of the summer brings and would be thrilled if anyone else decides they're going to give it a go and share parts of their experience here.
To kick things off, I'll share some pics from my PB setting range session:
The target:
Looking back towards the firing line from the mid-field berm - my spotting scope is set up just to the right of the steel deer my daughter and I use for centerfires practice:
Here's the view from the firing point, where I am loving the struggle of exploring what works, what doesn't, and how to discover and build good habits:
And what my Personal-Best looks like so far...what was infuriating about this was I dropped three of the four misses finishing my last 5 round magazine! Aaaak! Brobee has no focus when it counts.
Lastly, a bit about my rifle - I am running a left handed Tikka T1X in .22lr, and for glass I have a Leupold VX-4.5HD. I have one unique aspect to my rifle, which is the configuration of the magazine floor plates. The regular T1X 22lr 10 round magazine has a massive keel that protrudes below the rifle, totally destroying both it's look, and IMHO as well as destroying it's ergonomics. So I bought a bunch of .17HMR magazines which have a floor plate that sits much more flush, and swapped them out. To do this I had to grind off a bit of plastic from the .22lr magazine body that extends down into the keel, which makes it impossible to go back.
Hope that others decide to give it a try and post about their experience; if a small group takes it up(so this thread does not just turn into a Brobee vanity project!!), I'll share more in the months to come!
Best,
Brobee
So how about an online postal match that's kinda the antithesis of the 1/2in at 50, one that has very little to do with your equipment, and everything to do with you?
I've decided this year that my summer 2022 practice will be to improve my deliberate standing unsupported shooting, towards the goal of changing my whitetail hunting technique so it feels like I am doing more than just executing deer from super-supported positions. I've started practicing, mostly with my .22 to discover and improve my fundamentals with affordable (woohoo...6$ for CCI Standard Velocity!) high-volume training, and one of the drills I'm using I've started calling the 50-4-50:
- 50 yards
- 4 inch diameter target
- 50 rounds, all fired standing unsupported, and within a 20 minute time limit.
Here's a link to the target I'm using: http://www.eclecticworks.ca/pics/50-4-50/4in_b40b.pdf; print it off on an 8.5x11 piece of paper, and set your print settings to "actual size" with no scaling so the target circle measures 4 inches in diameter.
Set it up at 50 yards.
Then, take 50 unsupported standing shots at it, completed within 20 minutes. That's it! Anything in the black counts as a hit, anything outside the black is a miss. Your score is however many hits you made divided by 50.
Via practice through April and May, I am hooked enough that it's something I look forward to every time I think about hitting the range. Since starting my average is 80.2%, lowest score is 68%, and just this past weekend I shot my current personal best of 92%....woohoo! My goal for the end-of-the-summer is to try to get consistently into the 90% range, even when it is windy and the rifle is getting blown all over the place.
I think I've started to discover some things about setting up my Natural Point of Aim (NPI), breath and trigger control, as well as my (lack of) mental discipline, and how much my EGO can negatively influence my performance; am excited to see what the rest of the summer brings and would be thrilled if anyone else decides they're going to give it a go and share parts of their experience here.
To kick things off, I'll share some pics from my PB setting range session:
The target:
Looking back towards the firing line from the mid-field berm - my spotting scope is set up just to the right of the steel deer my daughter and I use for centerfires practice:
Here's the view from the firing point, where I am loving the struggle of exploring what works, what doesn't, and how to discover and build good habits:
And what my Personal-Best looks like so far...what was infuriating about this was I dropped three of the four misses finishing my last 5 round magazine! Aaaak! Brobee has no focus when it counts.
Lastly, a bit about my rifle - I am running a left handed Tikka T1X in .22lr, and for glass I have a Leupold VX-4.5HD. I have one unique aspect to my rifle, which is the configuration of the magazine floor plates. The regular T1X 22lr 10 round magazine has a massive keel that protrudes below the rifle, totally destroying both it's look, and IMHO as well as destroying it's ergonomics. So I bought a bunch of .17HMR magazines which have a floor plate that sits much more flush, and swapped them out. To do this I had to grind off a bit of plastic from the .22lr magazine body that extends down into the keel, which makes it impossible to go back.
Hope that others decide to give it a try and post about their experience; if a small group takes it up(so this thread does not just turn into a Brobee vanity project!!), I'll share more in the months to come!
Best,
Brobee
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