lizz Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Here's one that I already know but it didn't stop me from standing there while the front popper fell so I could shoot the back popper. Seemed like an hour passed. There were two paper targets to my left just crying out to be shot while that front popper made it's slow descent. Rookie mistake by a not so rookie shooter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
razorfish Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Yep. Take your shot at the steel and move on to the next target. If a steel doesn't fall, go back and pick it up. The big poppers are insanely slow to fall, especially when shooting minor. Eventually you'll find scenarios where you can take multiple shots to drive down steel that activates other targets or simply take advantage of the extra time it takes for the steel to fall. When I first started shooting USPSA I had the opposite problem. I had been shooting steel for a couple of years previously. I would rip through the steel and pause between the paper targets waiting for something to happen. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 when i train on swingers I always setup 1 or 2 paper and 1 or 2 poppers in addition to the activator and practice seeing how many other targets I can shoot & in what order and still hit the swinger on its 1st pass ... its amazing how many other targets you can shot while waiting for a full size popper to activate a swinger shooting Production ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgardner Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Don't worry Lizz it get better as you get older. It happens more often but you don't really care anymore. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valerko Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Told my son exactly that last weekend at his first USPSA this year. He's only 14 and this was his 3rd time out. Had few papers on one stage. Told him just shoot and move , if it don't fall ca,e back , but don't wait for it to fall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Anderson Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 I spent an entire season playing with where to shoot poppers to manipulate their fall rate... High when I wanted them down quick and low when i wanted more time to do other stuff. the best part of that experiment was that i never missed one. That taught me more than anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 Take care that you don't fall into one of several traps (as I have). --When switching from a popper to paper and back, you can tend to rush the paper and not give it your whole attention because part of your brain is telling you to hurry up and get back to the popper. So rather than two good hits you have a mediocre score. --You shoot the front popper and then paper and forget the rear popper. --You shoot the popper then grab a paper while the popper falls and activates the out-n-back but don't make it back in time to get a good shot on the mover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmob50 Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 I spent an entire season playing with where to shoot poppers to manipulate their fall rate... High when I wanted them down quick and low when i wanted more time to do other stuff. the best part of that experiment was that i never missed one. That taught me more than anything. Cool, something to practice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glockinator Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 I am just starting to shoot again competitively but I ran into a similar situation in some street survival courses a while back. The course was long (~100 yards) and several stages of mixed plates and scored targets, pistol and shotgun. You literally had a reloader running behind you with a box of ammo loading your dropped mags and passing them to you between stages as you ran. The whole course was designed to physically exhaust you by the end and it did. They had a stage in the middle where you shot some paper then a set of large poppers. I was shooting a 10mm so no problem on the power side. I also knew I was probably striking a bit low. I swept across the poppers and heard each round hit. I was up and running/reloading to the next stage before they hit the ground. Spooked the ref since he did not know whether to keep up with me or wait to see them fall. Awareness especially of the strikes will help. I ended up finishing on top with several seconds and about 12 points above the group. The next best shooter on the course was my female partner whom I had spent a lot of training time with on the range. Didn't hurt that I was qualified as a Distinguished Master with the Dept for 16 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevoWood123 Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 I'll be honest, I am far too guilty of not doing this. I have to break myself of watching for the steel to fall. I shoot mostly revolver, and while our club used to regularly shoot ICORE, we had a couple of years off as most of our shooters work in the industry and have put in more hours over the past 2 years than we thought was possible. However, getting back into the swing of things, I have noticed that some of the little things like this have escaped my mind and now need to be reapplied. I am really happy I happened to come across this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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