Hearing a ping doesn't mean the steel fell!

[Vincerama]

I recall shooting the last couple of targets in a stage. Bang! Ping! Bang! Ping! Bang! Ping! then stopping and saying "OK, done". The RO says "Uh .. IF you are finished, show clear", so I do all that. And he turns to me and says "Do you want to call for calibration?" I'm asking "Calibration? Why?" Then I notice one of the poppers standing there mocking me.

I just ASSUMED it fell down (bang! ping!) without actually looking!

Oops! Well, I called for calibration then and they knocked it down. At least I engaged the target. The RO was perplexed why I didn't shoot the target again .. I just told him I wasn't thinking.

So check! Especially if it's the last array of targets on a stage, where you sort of have time to decide if you want to try again to knock it down!

[JayDee]

What happened when it was shot for calibration?

Edit- yep, that has happened to me, too.

Edited August 3, 2014 by JayDee

[gng4life]

It fell. Probably just winged it or shot too low.

[blaster113]

yep, that happened to me more than once at majors. call the shot, hear the ping, and the damn popper is still standing after ULSC. two times there was a hit with a 170 pf .40 round in the circle of the calibration zone, albeit on the edge. at Area 1 I had a low hit on a popper with a 147 gr. mousefart 9mm round; called the shot heard a hit moved to next array. After waiting a bit for the swinger that was supposed to be activated I had to haul my big slow moving ass back to the first position and re-engage the popper. screwed my stage time totally.

of course during calibration the poppers always fall....

[davsco]

Yep bad habit of mine, costs me every once in a while.

[fishsticks]

Similar thing cost me at a recent sectional match. Edge hit at the lower part of the calibration zone. Called for calibration, and it went down like it had been hit by a freight train.

[Chris iliff]

So you guys need help calling shots,..........

Calling a shot only relies on vision, you should change your focus from BANG, PING to........SHOT CALLING.

I'D ALSO SUGGEST white paper plates stapled to target sticks. They tend to get you out of that BANG, PING mentality.

It's the only answer.

[motosapiens]

Personally, I don't thing there's anything wrong with leaving steel standing occasionally. If you called a good shot, and as you are moving away you even hear a ping in confirmation, why would you look back? It is a LOT slower to visually verify that every piece of steel falls.

[copecowboy22]

Unless theres a steel hard cover guarding the popper. Happened to me yesterday. FIrst stage, head the "ding" and moved on. After it was over the dang popper was still standing and a nice dot on the black.

[motosapiens]

Unless theres a steel hard cover guarding the popper. Happened to me yesterday. FIrst stage, head the "ding" and moved on. After it was over the dang popper was still standing and a nice dot on the black.

You must not have called a good shot.

[copecowboy22]

I've only been doing this a few months and can't call my shots yet.

[motosapiens]

I've only been doing this a few months and can't call my shots yet.

neither can most of us who have been doing it for years, lol.

[yellowfin]

Insurance shots are a lot faster than the penalty for not doing them.

[davsco]

Insurance shots are a lot faster than the penalty for not doing them.

true, but if one takes an insurance shot or glimpse at every target at a match, that probably uses up more time than a miss here and there would cost.

[Biloxi23]

Is that why my times are so slow?

[MAC702]

Insurance shots are a lot faster than the penalty for not doing them.

To borrow a car racing phrase:

Checker or wrecker!

No one wins playing it safe.

[m1agirl]

We had steel not fall at a match I attended. We just called hits since it wasn't falling for any caliber.

[boudreux]

I had this happen to me this weekend at the Georgia State. Shot a MPPopper twice dead center and nothing. Shot it a 3rd time and knocked it down. I've given up on calibration as every time i've seen somebody call for it, the steel has fallen. I'd rather take the few extra seconds and make sure its down.

[UCOShooter]

Had it happen to me at Double Tap Championship this year... and it was in my head for the rest of the day. I had a bad habit that day of hearing the "Ping!!" transitioning to the next target and then looking back to make sure that steel actually feel.. Rookie mistakes but you live and learn.

[Nimitz]

Take up Steel Challenge. You'll either learn to call your shots or always end up at the bottom of the heap. The first time you see a shooter execute a 2.0 sec or better string attach yourself to them at the hip, offer to carry their range bag, buy them drinks ... Do whatever it takes to learn from them becuase you've just found someone who calls their shots .... It is the only path to real success in this sport ... The only one ....

[Zoomy]

Happened to me too many times. Be especially careful when shooting poppers from positions not directly in front of the popper. At 45 degree angle of engagement the kinetic energy is reduced by 30% or more.

Edited September 18, 2014 by Zoomy

[lawboy]

So you guys need help calling shots,..........

Calling a shot only relies on vision, you should change your focus from BANG, PING to........SHOT CALLING.

I'D ALSO SUGGEST white paper plates stapled to target sticks. They tend to get you out of that BANG, PING mentality.

It's the only answer.

^^^^^ This. You are right not to look. You are wrong to listen for the ping.

Call the shot off the front sight, if it is good, move on. If you occasionally end up calling it wrong, deal with it. But do not call off sound or waste time waiting to see if the steel fell. Those are losing strategies.

[Graham Smith]

Defensive shooting instructors teach you to do a "scan" after shooting to "see if there are any more bad guys that need shooting". That's not a bad habit to get into. Of course if it takes you 2-3 seconds to spot a standing popper then you might be better off leaving it standing, as long as you are sure you shot at it.

How many seconds = 1 miss? Depends on the COF.

Edited September 19, 2014 by Graham Smith

[BGREID]

This is the best reason for electronic ear muffs, you will hear the target fall. Once while shooting a match I heard the peanut gallery comment that it did not fall, they were talking to each other but I could hear it, so I made up the shot. Not really coaching but it helped.

[Graham Smith]

In a match I setup Saturday, I put two forward poppers next to each other with a rear popper behind. From the shooting area, all three were easily seen so people tended to shoot them left to right. I saw four people who hit the left popper and when to shoot the middle (rear) popper and had their bullet actually strike the left popper as it was coming down, then shoot the right one. Three shots, three dings, but only two down.

Now that the match is over I can say that I designed this array this way on purpose - I knew that it might catch a few people. Not trying to be mean but just trying to make people think a bit. Of course, the "trick" to that array was to either shoot very fast or shoot the middle (rear) popper first.

The really strange thing is that in one squad, even when this happened to someone and the RO told them why, the rest of the squad continued to shoot it left to right and just a few shooters later someone had to take a makeup shot for the same reason.