Pistol Shooting

After many years of justifying the use of these “control targets” I have decided to include them in training notes. I acquired these targets and documentation from the National German Shooting Federation coach in the early 90’s. Having been told over many years that “I am using them wrongly” and the way they should be used is…..Blah Blah, by other so called “coaches”, I believe these targets and others are now for sale around the traps. It was intimated that “I” was the only person in the “world” using them and wrongly at that……..

Following are excerpts from the original documentation with a little editing from German translation:

Target 1 Vertical On the control target, the black 2/3 strip ends exactly at the point where the black of the target ends on an air pistol target. This means that the aiming area is similar to the circular black, under the lower end of the strip.

This control-target is an element for training under more difficult conditions: It forces the athlete to follow through, a neat sequence of movement, if most of the hits are to be in the area of the 9 and 10 rings.

A training “rhythm of shooting” and for a “smooth let-off of the trigger can be done as follows:

The sighting is picked up in the black strip. The movement into the aiming area is smooth and slowly until the sights are seen clear in the white area (aiming area). This training for rhythm and smooth trigger press should be done live and dry firing.

Target 2 Horizontal - Exercises for holding The horizontal strip should be in the sight line of the pistol. Examine whether the aiming position is swinging out of the strip upwards or downwards. If so, correct as long as the correct level can be held.

Shooting at the control-target: Examine whether sight is swinging upwards or downwards out of the sight line while firing the shot. In this case, there are many sources of error, eg. Faulty trigger press (the fingers are pulling; the thumb is pressing; the wrist position is changing; also body position me be changing in the back being unstable (bending).

With the aid of this control-target, the real source of an error can be detected.

This target is also very good for perfection of trigger technique. Try to place the hits very close together, doing this the athlete can see very easily, whether the shot is smooth by seeing any sight movement.

The vertical “target” is used for correct entry into the aiming area. This being a very important part of setting up your shot. If the target entry is incorrect, then the athlete will need to re-adjust alignment to the centre as the sights are entering into the area of aim, which takes up valuable time. Time better spent on sight alignment and not trying to “find” the area of aim.

The other aspect of the vertical strip is, it helps to train holding from side to side. Simply hold the sights in alignment on the strip. Be conscious of holding the sights aligned left & right and do not be concerned with the height of the sights within the black strip.

When live firing on the vertical strip, all aspects of shot release should be followed such as correct target entry, taking up trigger pressure, settling in the area of aim and firing the shot.

Because it is difficult to judge height with the vertical strip, the athlete should discover a vertical, elongated group pattern. Any wayward shots outside of the vertical group, indicate poor trigger release and/or lack of follow through.

When using the horizontal target, the application is the same but the sights sit somewhere within the black strip. Either simply holding or live firing.

Again the athlete will not be able to “judge” the movement from left to right, but will be able to judge up and down movement. So when live firing, the desired group pattern would be elongated horizontally. Again, any wayward shots outside of the horizontal group, indicate poor trigger release and/or lack of follow through.

With the training of holding vertically and horizontally, when combined on a normal target, the athlete’s ability to hold steady will be greatly improved.

Below are pictures of sights aligned and the type of shot patterns we are looking for. Illustration with black scoring rings attached, indicate the area below the vertical strip is equivalent to the target area of aim.