Saturday, January 27, 2007
Learn to Shoot
It may come as a surprise to my regular readers, but I have a confession to make. The truth is, despite being very much in favour of more liberal gun laws, to paraphrase from a quote from Kim du Toit's site: "Gun control should mean use both hands". The fact is I don't own any kind of gun, nor could I shoot for toffee.
Needless to say this isn't a state of affairs to be proud of, and have determined to change the same. Deciding that actually learning some shooting skills would be a step in the right direction, I repaired to a local air gun club and have for the last few weeks been shooting 10-meter air rifle.
You can shoot air pistol as well, but I'm inclined to try to get halfway decent on one before trying the other.
I need to try to be clear here for people unfamiliar with the discipline as indeed I was not so long ago.
Basically you shoot at a target slightly larger than a two pound coin, from a distance of 10 meters, the rifle is equipped with "dioptre sights" these are very accurate, but have no magnification, so what you're shooting at is a small dot in the distance.
The rifle shoots .177" calibre air rifle pellets, the .177" refers to the size of the pellet measured in inches. .22" are also available, but are not used in this discipline. Obviously a smaller pellet means greater accuracy is required, no doubt being why they're used for this sport.
The rifle is a highly accurate one, it is I believe heavier than a standard "sporting" air rifle, as a result a specific stance must be adopted, which seems quite contrived at first, but after a while, you soon get used to it.
You shoot at the aiming mark from a standing position, which is the hardest position, and you have nothing to rest on or are allowed any form support, other than clothing. There is specialist-clothing available, but I have none of that so am making do with an old leather jacket, the clothing certainly helps steady your aim a lot.
Air pistol, again uses a special accurate pistol, it only has iron sights, you aim over 10 meters again, but the aiming mark is quite a lot larger than that for air rifle. You shoot with you arm extended, using only one hand and you're not allowed any supporting clothing - obviously you're allowed normal clothing.
So how am I doing?
Well I don't think they'll be calling me up for the Olympics, but you can see the results of last nights range visit.
The two pound coin, is shown for size detail, on the bottom left, you can just make out the black edge protruding from the side to the coin.
So there were 125 shots, 11 didn't hit the black area (obviously at this stage, I'm just wanting to hit the black), which I calculate to be an accuracy of 91.2%. It's much better than when I first started, and hopefully soon I'll be able to put them all in the black. Obviously when you start to get any good, you want to get them all within the sevens or eights, and some people manage even better.
It'll be while before I'm that accurate, but (pardon the pun) it certainly gives you something to aim for.
Needless to say this isn't a state of affairs to be proud of, and have determined to change the same. Deciding that actually learning some shooting skills would be a step in the right direction, I repaired to a local air gun club and have for the last few weeks been shooting 10-meter air rifle.
You can shoot air pistol as well, but I'm inclined to try to get halfway decent on one before trying the other.
I need to try to be clear here for people unfamiliar with the discipline as indeed I was not so long ago.
Basically you shoot at a target slightly larger than a two pound coin, from a distance of 10 meters, the rifle is equipped with "dioptre sights" these are very accurate, but have no magnification, so what you're shooting at is a small dot in the distance.
The rifle shoots .177" calibre air rifle pellets, the .177" refers to the size of the pellet measured in inches. .22" are also available, but are not used in this discipline. Obviously a smaller pellet means greater accuracy is required, no doubt being why they're used for this sport.
The rifle is a highly accurate one, it is I believe heavier than a standard "sporting" air rifle, as a result a specific stance must be adopted, which seems quite contrived at first, but after a while, you soon get used to it.
You shoot at the aiming mark from a standing position, which is the hardest position, and you have nothing to rest on or are allowed any form support, other than clothing. There is specialist-clothing available, but I have none of that so am making do with an old leather jacket, the clothing certainly helps steady your aim a lot.
Air pistol, again uses a special accurate pistol, it only has iron sights, you aim over 10 meters again, but the aiming mark is quite a lot larger than that for air rifle. You shoot with you arm extended, using only one hand and you're not allowed any supporting clothing - obviously you're allowed normal clothing.
So how am I doing?
Well I don't think they'll be calling me up for the Olympics, but you can see the results of last nights range visit.
The two pound coin, is shown for size detail, on the bottom left, you can just make out the black edge protruding from the side to the coin.
So there were 125 shots, 11 didn't hit the black area (obviously at this stage, I'm just wanting to hit the black), which I calculate to be an accuracy of 91.2%. It's much better than when I first started, and hopefully soon I'll be able to put them all in the black. Obviously when you start to get any good, you want to get them all within the sevens or eights, and some people manage even better.
It'll be while before I'm that accurate, but (pardon the pun) it certainly gives you something to aim for.
Labels: guns
