I just want to thank Boats for taking the time to give me a quick "Intro to Schuetzen" yesterday. We met at a local range and he not only gave me a quick rundown of the sport he allowed me to shoot a few of his rifles. Now I'm hooked! 

We only shot at 50 and 100 yards but that was far enough to painfully remind me I haven't really shot offhand since high school. Well I shot a N-SSA match the other weekend but other then that all my distance shooting has been supported of one sort or another. Nothing some coaching and a lot of practice won't fix!

Anyhow I just wanted to thank Boats for taking the time to put up with me and I'm looking forward to Green Frog's match next month. I may not have the best score but I bet I'll have the biggest grin at the end!

Merwin,
I had a whole list of folks to track down and meet at the Nationals and I left it on the kitchen table.  Oh well, there is always the Fall Nationals!  

I tend to get involved in too many things at once and will probably only shoot .22 this year in Schuetzen. The only centerfire single shots I own are .577-450 and .50-70. I am hoping to get some ideas from the upcoming matches on which direction I want to go with a centerfire Schuetzen once I am set up for N-SSA. 

I have to put in my vacation time at the beginning of the year and am either working or already committed on all the Thurmont dates. The good news is I'll be in Bushy Mt. in June and hopefully at least one day in Sept.  

I think you are taking a good aproach shooting the .22 and seeing what direction to go from there. This is just my opinion and it is based on my own experience. A couple of years back I tried to go wild fire into too many different types of shooting. What happened was I suffered at all of them. I went from doing "ok" at the couple I was doing to not very good at all in any of them. I got too excited and wanted to shoot everything. This caused me to loose track of what worked and what didn't with some guns, loads, etc. I am trying to scale it back down and concentrate on a couple of things at a time instead of shoot my whole arsenal in a weekend! It is already helping.
I also had a struggle between N-SSA and ASSRA as far as how I hold the guns. I found it hard to hold a 3 band enfield like I hold an off hand singleshot, ballance, weight. I have kind of had to "go back to basics".
I got some good advice at my last schuetzen match last year by a very good shooter. He told me to not shoot my centerfire gun until I get it set up properly or I will learn bad habits. He said I was trying to shoot around the gun and its problems. Once I get the gun fit properly he said I would retain the old habits of trying to compensate. I thought about it and I believe he is right. So, until I get that gun set up right I will only be shooting .22 and big bore.
DUring my all or nothing phase, my N-SSA guns went severly down hill. Carbine I was shooting upper 80 to low 90's at 50 and mid to upper 80's at 100. Then it went to low 80's at 50 and upper 70's 100.
Musket was only marginally better. Once I started cutting back and concentrating on fewer disciplines, things have begun to move back up. Don't know about schuetzen this year, tomorrow will be my first crack at it this year!
I should ad that I also feel that personal issues contributed to the problems I had as well. It can get your head other places which never helps my shooting. I was running my own company and business was getting slight, money tight, etc. And I had medical issues with a liver disorder and new medicines to adjust to. As a result of that, I lost 60 pounds. That effected how I hold the gun! I lost my counter weight!
I did not realize How much my gut was used to rest my left elbow!
Of course this is all just opinion and I am rambling on again, I will do that. If you ever make it by our camp at night while the fire's burning and the liquid flowing, you will see that first hand! It can be ugly.
MerwinBray