Calling the shot

[RNshooter]

So I have been reading a lot on this forum and one of the drills I was reading about was calling the shot. So today I decided to try that at the range. I found it very difficult. I see the front sight and the target behind it, but at the moment of discharge I don't really know where the sight was I kept trying over and over with little improvement. I am beginning to think I am blinking as the shot goes off. Finally at the end I could at least see and recognize the rise of the muzzle. But I couldn't tell you were on the target the shot was going to land.

Am I missing something?? Or does this just take a lot of concentrated practice. I am new at this so your guidance is welcome.

[Clint-M]

A lot of practice is one thing that you'll have to do but on top of that a few tips that will help are to stop looking at the target or even stop shooting at a target. If you're trying to learn to see your sights, learn to see your sights; then put them where you want them. Another thing is to wear plugs and some earmuffs on top. If you're blinking it is probably from the noise and anticipation so cutting out almost all of the sound will help. Final thing that helped me is benching the pistol and shooting from the most stable platform you can. You're effectively putting everything in your favor to start then progressing as you learn.

Hope that helps to some degree.

CM

[JimmyZip]

What distance were you shooting at? Benching is good as Clint said. As matter of fact, I agree with everything he said. Just wondering what distance you were shooting at. I wouldn't try that drill at 40yds to begin with.

[RNshooter]

Shooting about 10yds. Not using bench rest. I already wear ear plugs with earmuffs on top, i seem to have sensitive ears. So your saying don't even worry about the target for now just focus on being able to see the front sight all the way through the shot?

[sroe3]

Try a heavy bullet at low velocity. Less flip and slower slide movement makes the front sight easier to track.

[wide45]

Did you aim at the target?

When did you stop aiming at the target?

Why did you stop aiming at the target?

[JD45]

I think Brian suggested started on sandbags in his book, and it's great advice.

Then learn to call shots dryfiring. If you can do it dry, you will be able to do it live.....eventually.

[Poppa Bear]

Shooting about 10yds. Not using bench rest. I already wear ear plugs with earmuffs on top, i seem to have sensitive ears. So your saying don't even worry about the target for now just focus on being able to see the front sight all the way through the shot?

Yes and No. You should be seeing the rear sight, front sight, target. While keeping all three in alignment you squeeze the trigger. Your primary focus is the front sight BUT you should still be seeing the rear sight and the target slightly blurred. When the shot breaks the bullet should be impacting where the front sight was pointed. If it does not you either did not have the sights aligned when the shot broke, jerked/slapped the trigger, or your gun is not able to shoot a decent group.

Try shooting off a sandbag. By keeping the sights very steady you will either eliminate the possibility of the gun being unable to group, or verify that it is a mechanical problem. It is a 99% chance that your gun is very capable of shooting decent groups as long as you are slowly squeezing the trigger, so keep practicing your shot calling off the sandbag until you can confidently call every shot that breaks. Now you can start trying to call your shots freestyle.

An important part of calling your shots shooting freestyle is the ability to control the recoil. Being able to control recoil enough that the gun is aligned with the target again in less than .25 seconds is critical when it comes to seeing your sights. When the shot breaks you will lose sight of the front sight while it recoils. With practice the gun will return to exactly where your eyes are looking. The effect will be as if the front sight never left your vision. An example of the timing would be the shot breaks at 0.000, the gun will come out of recoil and back into your vision at 0.03 to 0.10, and be aligned with the target again at 0.08 to 0.20 seconds. It is so quick that it is if the sights never left your vision because your brain sees it as sights going up, then sights coming down.

A key element to remember is that the sights will move to where you are looking so work on seeing the sights as they come into your vision, and not chasing the sights with your eyes.

[Chris iliff]

You got to see the exact moment of sight lift to call your shot.

Point gun at berm. Pull trigger as fast as you can while concentrating on front sight. I do this in 6 shot groups. Some guys do more, like 10 shots. You are not aiming at anything and you should be only a couple yards or feet from the berm.

Your sole attention being "seeing" front sight and it's movement. Also, during the string focus on your muscles around your eyes and face. Are they twitching?? Got a blink going on? This is the drill to fix it.

This simple little drill is a bullet burner. It will drastically help you with "seeing" the sights and "blinking". The trick is putting your attention on first one, then the other. I'd recommend the focus on the muscles in your face and around your eyes first. Basically, you got to cure the blink, before you can "see" the sights to call your shots.

Most people have to cure the blink over and over. It's a little drill to do just that. Don't feel bad if it creeps back after you thought you beat it. Happens to almost everyone, continually.

Just remember to pull the trigger as fast as you can. Drill isn't about hitting a target. Basically, if you could stand behind a fully automatic gun and just "observe" the sights is what you are trying to simulate. Just rip on the trigger ok, as fast as you can.

[38supPat]

I came up with a little drill the other day to help a student learn to call shots. Place a target at 7 to 10m. Take aim at the target with a proper sight picture and start tracing the C/D line with the front sight in a clockwise direction. While maintaining proper sight alignment and tracing the C/D line start slowly taking up the trigger pressure. Do not stop the gun movement! Keep tracing the C/D line until the shot breaks. When it breaks immediately call the shot by the clock face method, in other words call it a 6 o'clock hit, an 8 o'clock hit and so on. Do this for a full mag. Reload and now hold the center of the target. While holding a proper sight picture fire each shot and call out the hit by the same clock face method. Call where the sight was from the center hold by where it would be on a clock face.

Repeat this a few times, it will force you to stay with the sight and learn to see the shot off.

[Poppa Bear]

Nice drill Pat, I will have to try it during our Monday night practice sessions.

[38supPat]

It's really meant for newbs or people who have never worked in calling shots. But I did run it a couple of times myself when I made up the drill, I think you can still learn from it. Just something different to try.

[Poppa Bear]

We tend to use Mondays during the summer as a chance to practice different drills. Many are utilized so that shooters can learn to shoot with greater accuracy, and speed as well as try different techniques. This sounds like a good drill for teaching some of them how to call their shots.

[RNshooter]

Lots of good advice and tips for me to try next time. Thank you all. I'll let you know how it goes.

[leemoe83]

What helped me with learning to call shots was to stop thinking "call the shot" but "remember the shot", you should really be able to recall everything that happened as the shot broke, remember the muzzle flash, sight alignment, it can extend beyond just when the shot broke, you will see brass ejecting, where the sights track in recoil etc. When I was able to recall the shot, then my awareness was at the point where I could call the shot subconciously as it broke. My opinion is that calling the shot is not actually hitting any target in particular but simply knowing where the sights where aligned as the shot broke. So, calling your shot is a tool to diagnose what you are doing right or wrong, I can shoot very poorly and still be calling my shots. So if I am calling my shots and shooting C's, I can then use this tool to adjust so that I will being hitting A's, or do some make up shots. Sub conciously you need to train to shoot A's, it needs to happen automatically, calling the shot will give the ability to know where the shot went and subconciously make up poor shots without hesitation. Shot calling also enhances one's confidence to "leave" a target. This is most noticeable with steel targets. Many shooters are waiting for the audible ding and worse case visual fall of the target before transitioning, this is way to slow, calling the shot and transitiong to next target and shooting it can sometimes happen at about the same time the audible ding from the first target has registered.

Shot calling is a tool to enhance one's shooting. The best drill I have found for shot calling has been the 25 yard bill drill, shooting at different speeds, especially shooting at speeds that you cannot hold the A zone and your seeing where the shots are breaking all over the target.

Shot calling can very hard to do all the time, especially when shooting at high speed. I think the really good shooters are able to do it all the time at just about any speed, I sometimes find my self thinking after a stage or a practice array I didn't really see what I should have, or I did see and didn't use it to correct myself.

Or maybe we could consider calling the shot the combination of seeing the shot off and knowing what you saw and how that correlates to bullet impact. The seeing the shot off is usually the hard part, knowing what you saw and how that effects bullet placement is something attained through lots of shooting at different speeds, targets, and distances.