TargetTalk

I've been shooting in an informal online competition where we use A23/5 targets. I tend to shoot the top one OK but for some reason when I get to the ones on the right, I almost always shoot way off to the right and high. In one case I shot a group small enough to clean the 10 ring but the whole thing was outside the 10 ring at around 2 o clock. It was incredibly frustrating because I could see my shots and I kept saying, "ok this time I'll make sure to shoot the center" but no matter how hard I tried they just kept going high/right. When I moved on the to the next target below that one, I had no issues.

Has anyone ever experienced this before? Any ideas? I suspect it might be my grip since that is something that changes for each target but remains more or less constant for a given target. It's not always the targets on the right where I have this issue, but that's the most common place it happens.

1. Why do you change your grip between targets? That seems a recipe for otherwise unexplainable misses.
2. Gaze at this image:

william wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 7:28 am 1. Why do you change your grip between targets? That seems a recipe for otherwise unexplainable misses.
2. Gaze at this image:

I don't change my grip on purpose. But I have to put then gun down to reload.

I've always been a little bit skeptical of those diagrams. For instance how do you tell the difference between a combination of "Wrist breaking up"/"Thumbing" and "Anticipating recoil"?

injb wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 7:49 am

william wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 7:28 am 1. Why do you change your grip between targets? That seems a recipe for otherwise unexplainable misses.
2. Gaze at this image:

I don't change my grip on purpose. But I have to put then gun down to reload.

I've always been a little bit skeptical of those diagrams. For instance how do you tell the difference between a combination of "Wrist breaking up"/"Thumbing" and "Anticipating recoil"?

The diagrams are a great place to start. What are you shooting? Rimfire? Centerfire, sub caliber? 45? We have found that each shooter is a little bit different, and must 'adapt' the diagrams to their own 'known' errors, as they progress.

Move the 3 o'clock answer to 2 o'clock and you've got it.

You may want to work on your grips.

Generic charts DEFINITELY the way to go! Much better than using a coach or actually training. The bigger the chart, the better!

m1963 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 3:57 pm

injb wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 7:49 am

william wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 7:28 am 1. Why do you change your grip between targets? That seems a recipe for otherwise unexplainable misses.
2. Gaze at this image:

I don't change my grip on purpose. But I have to put then gun down to reload.

I've always been a little bit skeptical of those diagrams. For instance how do you tell the difference between a combination of "Wrist breaking up"/"Thumbing" and "Anticipating recoil"?

The diagrams are a great place to start. What are you shooting? Rimfire? Centerfire, sub caliber? 45? We have found that each shooter is a little bit different, and must 'adapt' the diagrams to their own 'known' errors, as they progress.

.22lr (Hammerli 208)

The trigger finger thing is interesting actually. I have been attributing some of my mistakes to not being consistent in which part of my finger touches the trigger. But I was convinced it was the opposite way around to what's shown in that diagram. Sometimes when I have one shot going to 3 o clock, I thought it was because I didn't use enough trigger finger.

I think next time I'll shoot the targets in a different order. I don't think this issue has ever happened to me with the top target, it's always one of the bottom 4, and usually on the right. But I also always go the same order: top, left top, left bottom, right top, right bottom. So maybe I'm developing a flinch that tends to manifest after a few targets.

Thanks for the input everyone.