Other than practice, the best thing for me was to have some coaching - someone who knew what they were doing (score wise) watch me shoot and give pointers at every step.

  As I see it there are three things you have to do to become a good offhand shot.

  First you have to establish your shooting position so that when in a relaxed mode the rifle points naturally to the target. This is known as your Natural Point of Aim or NPA. This can be shown to you in a general way but everybody is enuf different that you'll have to find your exact position for yourself. Basically, if you have to "push" the rifle in any direction to accomplish this you need to adjust your stance a bit more. When out of position you just put strain on your system and in a 100 shot match you'll be tired out before you're halfway there.

  Your feet should be about shoulder width apart. This will vary with individuals but is a good starting place till you develop your own personal stance. Foot placement, if your right handed, should have the right foot 90 degrees to the target and the left foot about 45 degrees to it, and your body turned slightly away from it. With the Schuetzen rifles we use we have to use a slightly less body angle to the target than modern rifle shooters use.

  Second is physical conditioning. The older you get the more important this becomes. A full body work-out is best because you want to strengthen the legs, trunk, and upper body in order to be able to hold the gun as steady as possible. It is physically impossible to hold the gun perfectly still, but thru proper exercise this can help reduce this to a minimum. Jogging or power walking is very good in that it increases your lung capacity and will allow you to "hold" longer before becoming winded. The old timers had a saying about this..... If you have to run for the train you might as well stay home. In other words. Stay calm and don't let anything bother you, before, on the way to, or during the match, as if you get all worked up about something it'll be just that much harder to shoot well.

  Third is mental training. You have to develop a method that allows you to focus on the sights rather than the target and to shut out everything not applicable to what you are doing. This is the one thing that's very hard to explain. I tried to explain the two methods I'm aware of in another post so won't get into that here. Look at it as an application of Zen. This is something that only comes over time, and will vary with individuals depending how "nervous" a personality they are.

  Trigger control comes under this to. If you consciously tell yourself to squeeze the trigger, you're to late. The gun will already have moved off where you want to have the shot hit. The best practice for this, as well as the other phases of shooting offhand, is using an air rifle. Barrel time is almost twice that of a .22 and a third of a CF rifle so an unconscious trigger release is mandatory. I always tell people if they consciously make the shot happen it's an automatic 7 or worse.

  Another part of mental training is knowing where every shot went before you look thru the spotting scope. If you can't reasonably tell where the shot hit on the target you weren't focused on what you were doing. Without this part you can't tell what you're doing wrong. Good shots can tell exactly what ring and o'clock the bullet hit without looking. After the shot, and before the score was signaled, Hudson in his record setting score turned to the audience and said, "I win!". He knew exactly where that shot went. The better you are at this the better that offhand shot you'll be.

  We can, of course, throw in a fourth item to better offhand shooting, and that's practice....... but you all knew that, didn't you?  The more you do the more easily all the above will become second nature. I'm sure you've all had a shot, when it broke, you just KNEW that it was a 25. Make that happen every shot and you'll be hard to beat. But, it takes practice, and more of it than most will want to put into it.

  This will give you, in a general way, an idea of how difficult it is to become really good at offhand shooting. The sad part is that not everyone is created equal either. Some are more naturally suited to it thru temperament than others. Some have to really work hard to become good, and others never will. This is why the best offhand shots in the old days were held in such high esteem.

PETE

Boats,

  Agree with your last post entirely, altho the post seemed to be going in how do you go about improving you offhand scores. Thus my post going into some of the general principles of doing so.

  Considering the number of "reads" it appears as tho others are interested. Was sorry to see it die out since there are many many things that can be said for improving your accuracy.

  But, I'm kind of a poor one for telling others how to do it as I'm not really that good of an offhand shot. But.... .There are several on here tho who could give lessons and I'm kinda surprised they haven't chimed in. Wonder why?

PETE

This has been a good thread and if all advice followed there would be a score improvement. As we get older the importance of stretching increases. Tendons shorten and stiffen, same for muscles and muscle groups. With loss of CNS cells in the aging process, balance becomes more important.(
"Google" balance exercises for interesting sites.) I have spent much time talking to Luke, Feren, and Blender re: training techniques and hopefully will put into print. The next issue of the Journal should under letters to the editor reprint Jim Luke's physical training regime. It is about perfect for shooters.

Dick

Since I have a little time on my hands will preach a little bit on offhand shooting.

There are many different approaches and methods that work well.  I am a big proponent of David Tubbs methods.  It’s impossible to go over his whole book in a short post but the primary points are,

Tubb divides the shot into 3 sections. When he goes through one section he leaves it behind mentally and moves on to the next. He does not allow thoughts to switch back and forth between the stages.  If for some reason he does not break a shot Tubb will go back to the previous stage and work his way through his routine in order before shooting.

First is the mechanical stage. This covers sight settings, loads, equipment readiness, etc. He is a big believer in check list and mental inventory’s, and following a set routine when preparing. He writes a lot of things down. Sight setting pasted to his stock etc.

2nd he uses a well defined position. He refines and works on his position so it is consistent and repeatable.  He does not claim to be able to hold the rifle steady but works on a consistent swing with no irregular movements. Tubb has a firm idea of how long he can hold position before breaking a shot. If this time passes it's put the rifle down and start the mount and settle routine again.

3rd is the mental portion of his shot, and the most important section of the routine. He visualizes the shot and puts all his energy in breaking the shot when the sights are aligned.  He shoots approach, that is, he swings the sights into the bull and breaks when they cross the center.

What I found when I read his book some years ago it’s hard to get away from the mechanical stage. Most of what we read and talk about is the mechanical part of shooting. Useful yes but when you are on the line it should be put out of your mind once you confirm everything is right.

The position is key but frankly is no more difficult than any other sport that requires a repeatable swing, approach, grove, whatever.  It’s possible to develop the muscle memory that allows a repeatable position with practice. Its drill and routine work. You want to know exactly what the position is and more important can tell right away when it’s off.

The Mental game is what separates very good shooters from the rest of us. The ability to visualize the proper sight alignment and have your trigger cooperate with what you see is the real key.

I recommend Tubbs book over all other programs or instructions

Boats

dbm,

  Your area point of aim might be a more appropriate term as I don't know of anyone that can hold on a point.  NPA was just what I was taught was the term to use.

  It's just about imperative when shooting Schuetzen at 200 yds. in a 100 shot match to have as little muscle strain on your body as possible. You can tell if you've got it wrong when you wake up the next morning. Altho the ASSRA allows shooting coats (olympic style(?) only) I don't recall seeing a full fledged one at any of our matches. We seem to be throwbacks to the old days when even a tight vest was not allowed, or placing the butt under it.

PETE

     Reading over my point of aim in relation to a 10:00 wind it does not seem very clear.   
     Dividing the target in half vertically I will try to shoot in the left half from the 22 ring to the center.   Sighted in for a wind of 5 to 10 miles an hour the shot should go to point of aim at about 8 miles an hour.  If you shoot during a gust of wind up to 15 to 20 mph you still have a good chance of shooting a 20 or better that should land in the right half of the target.  When it reverses to about 10 mph from the right you now have a in effect a wind of around 18 to 20 miles per hour and it will take you right off the target or into the 10 zone on the ASSRA target.   
     That wind switch seems to occur on just about every relay at Beeson's Range during the National matches. It will occur in a very short time also.  I don't know how many times I have looked at the wind and picked the rifle up and made a shot and then checked the flags to see that they have switched 180 degrees. Then when you check the target you get to say a few words to the wind gremlins.  That wind flag in the scope view cures the wind switch problem.  This probably also means that I hold too long for any given shot.