Practice-v-Matches

H

Hambone

Guest
Do you practice or do you just shoot matches?

Its sometimes hard to find the time to do a significant amount of practice, and I've often shot better when I've had a lay off for one reason or another. Go figure............. is it a concentration thing? Its the same when I'm shooting skeet.

One problem I've always had is reading the wind for a given weather condition. Despite thinking a few hours practice is what's required in the days/weeks before a match. I've never had the pleasure of having the same conditions present themselves on match day. Similar but never the same. Especially when shooting away from home turf.

I been shooting long enough to know that the guy that dopes the breeze best on the day is the guy who's gonna be taking home the silverware.

Help!
 
I'd love to practice but my Social Security check doesn't allow for the cost of the ammo, so I mostly just shoot matches and test ammo every once in a while.
 
Well I think there's 2 kinds of practice. The first kind is to make sure that your platform and what you feed it are as good as they can be. Lots of folks try and do it in very questionable conditions with too much going on and don't learn much, ever. The second kind is when there's a pretty fair determination that what you have is as good as it's going to get and now you have to practice actually shooting it. Lots of folks try and do it only when it's nice and don't learn a lot because a fair number of matches tend to be shot when it's anything but nice. It's a damn shame that it's getting to the point where it's cost prohibative but I guess that's true.
 
tim said:
It's a damn shame that it's getting to the point where it's cost prohibative but I guess that's true.
Click to expand...

Double bubble recession ain't going to make it any easier for a good while yet. Timbo
 
Hambone said:
This might help some

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8711043/m/9871088921
Click to expand...
Went and looked at the post.

It is probably pointless to bring it up on this forum, but both the NRA and U.S. Army tested shot dispersion over distance. They used multiple targets, so each shot passed through a target as it went downrange. Shot dispersion was proportional -- that is, stayed constant in terms of MOA -- for windage, and MOA plus velocity differences (gravity) for vertical dispersion.

That means if a particular set of components groups .100 at 50 yards, it will group .200 at 100 yards. It would seem that Saeed's five, five shot groups aren't a big enough sample size to be conclusive, only indicative (and for his rifle). Still useful, of course.
 
So what round count (approx)is a GOOD practice. Does the round count (more-less)vary between stable conditions and changeing conditions during the range time. OR is round count irrelevent IF (BIG IF) your calling your shots correctly ? Do you then SHORTEN your range time ? Generally my sessions have been 150-250rds over 3-4 hrs between 2 separate rifles ( never switching rifles back and forth). So ya between 30-60 $ a session. Thoughts on this please.
 
Practice for me is usually a 2 -3 cards session depending upon how I'm shooting on that day in those wind/weather/light conditions. If its going well it will be 2 cards if not so well 3 cards to see if I can get a grip of the wind etc. I see little point in flogging out hundreds of rounds over the course of a number of hours as I find the dropping off of mental and physical stamina starts to have an adverse affects on the results. So I'll quit and go and have a chat with a friend over a cup of coffee and make myself something to eat for an hour and then if the conditions have changed or I feel the need I'll go and settle back down behind the rifle for another 1 or 2 cards.

A good friend who's a high scoring DLT clay shooter told me to practice like it really mattered. Otherwise its just pulling the trigger and you don't reap the benefit of the time, effort and expense.
 
Charles E said:
Went and looked at the post.

It is probably pointless to bring it up on this forum, but both the NRA and U.S. Army tested shot dispersion over distance. They used multiple targets, so each shot passed through a target as it went downrange. Shot dispersion was proportional -- that is, stayed constant in terms of MOA -- for windage, and MOA plus velocity differences (gravity) for vertical dispersion.

That means if a particular set of components groups .100 at 50 yards, it will group .200 at 100 yards. It would seem that Saeed's five, five shot groups aren't a big enough sample size to be conclusive, only indicative (and for his rifle). Still useful, of course.
Click to expand...

Charles

I think Saeed intention was to only provide an indicative example. IIRC he has intentions of expanding the trial to other rifles, larger samples.

Fair do's to the AR team that took part in the initial test. It was a hell of a lot of shooting to under take.
 
I understand the fatigue mental/physical/eye strain issue and I do take breaks (walk away,stretch,shoot the breeze etc. A quality/learning session is what I strive to have.
 
Imho - -

On should always practice under the same constraint as one must be under at an actual match. Set a timer and shoot a card. In my humble opinion, unless one is testing, it is of no value to do otherwise.

Pete
 
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