Timing Swingers.

[SRT Driver]

Had a 29 round COF with a swinger this weekend. It appeared through a port roughly the size of an IPSC target at about 10 yards and did not disappear. There was a lot of movement before and after so you couldn't activate it and wait.

It appeared for about .5 to .6 each pass.

Does anyone have a method of timing these other than busting a few off and hoping?

I shot 4 and got lucky but there must be a better way.

Thanks!

[lynn jones]

srt driver,

most times it's better to make two seperate shots, one each time the swinger appears. i like to line up in the middle of the port, as soon as the edge of the target appears i fire. always look for the edge first.

if the swingers appears from a hidden wall, i like to shoot it when it hesitates near the ground.

hope this helps.

lynn

[Flexmoney]

A search for "swingers" ...clicking the "search titles only" button...got me this:

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...ghlite=swingers

[shred]

Lead the part you want to hit.. know how long a cycle is.. eventually the time wasted waiting for it to swing back exceeds the time value of the miss.

[mcoliver]

If it disappears, shoot through the cover.

.5 to .6 visible time with a dot at 10 yards should pose no problems and you can probably get 2 hits on it in one pass. For irons, it's trickier unless you can setup for it. The problems lies when you try to rush your setup by "buying time" engaging other available targets first. Bottom line is to know what you're capable of.

[j1b]

Don't be rushed and call the shots. Your vision will tell you if you got the hits.

My best guess is that you may have been a little concerned about the swinger going into the stage. If you get ANY chance at all break one out during a practice session. What you'll find (with rare exception) is that a swinger is only slightly different than a static target and that if you do in fact call your shots "as you see them" then you'll have your hits.

The only trick I've learned is that they are put in the stage to "rush" the shooter. They are meant to be a distraction. I've allowed them to distract many many times. The times I shot them as targets versus "swingers" were the times that I hardly noticed they were moving and both hits were there. Sometimes I had to wait for the target, sometimes I could double them - but inevitably if I just shot the target it all worked out.

JB

[mcoliver]

Also, we've been told many times to shoot swingers at their lowest arc, right? I would agree. But during practice, you can do lots of other stuff. Learn to hit them while they're moving. And learn to hit them while moving.

[Dave Marques]

The larger the COF, the more time you can take on each shot. So, for a 29 rnd stage you should probably take the time and get two good hits-call your shots as JB said. If you can't take two shots in one pass then take one for each pass. Sometimes waiting is the right thing to do.

JB's other comment about rushing the shooter with activation targets is RIGHT ON! This sport is soooo mental!!!!

If the COF was smaller (say 10 rnds) then you might wanna take some chances and bust two or three off and hope for two hits because time factors in greater in smaller courses.

But if you are new at the sport my reccomendation is-GET A's - speed comes with time. Most people are happier at IPSC knowing they got all their hits rather than gaming the stage out. And if you walk away happy-you've won every time!

Dave M.

[SRT Driver]

mcoliver,

Yeah, the Open gun would have been nice!! But the flavor of the day was Production.

J1b,

It was definitely meant to slow us down!! The activator was a US popper at 25 or 30!!! Boy, did that chew some people up.

My train of thought was since it was less than a 5 factor stage, I had about 4 seconds to wait and get the points or blow it off. Either way, if it took less than 4 seconds, it was worth it.

It seemed like there was enough time to get a couple off each pass before it disappeared. Two passes (about 3.5 sec) and two shots each when I saw about 1/3 of the target was the plan. It worked out but I didn't feel very comfortable with doing it that way.

It was hard to call the shots. My focus was somewhere in between the sights and the target. Not really clear which made it more difficult.

I was more concerned about the points. I really don't see swingers that much so I thought that maybe there was a better way to approach them.

Thinking of them as nothing more than a static makes sense.

Thanks!

[tightloop]

Leading hthem depends on how far away they are and how fast they swing...initially, it is better to shoot them at the bottom of the arc...

[j1b]

SRT

What I meant when I said that it tried to rush you is that a the actual swinger generally tends to force shooters to shoot faster on that specific target than they ordinarily would on a static target at the same range. The activater popper, while some distance away, was static thus you probably felt like you could take your due time to engage it.

Once the swinger gets going many shooters rush to it, and then try to double it quicker than they normally would. That's why I say they "rush" shooters.

Kind of like you said - the swinger came out and you popped two quick shots, let it go through its rotation, and you popped it twice again. This isn't (I assume) something you would do on an ordinary target. The swinger in essence challenged you to change the way you engage targets. By virtue of that, the stage designer was successful in accomplishing what they wanted to do.

I try to approach them like I do static targets but I'd be lying if I don't screw a lot of them up too and let them screw with my brain more than normal.

One time at nats we had a stage with a bunch of swingers and I felt really ready for them. I knew how I wanted to shoot them and I was feeling solid about going in. Rob had just shot and he came up to me and tried to help by saying "they are no problem - nothing quick - don't do anything different" For some reason that screwed with me because I was so prepared to attack. I flubbed the whole stage up. Rob was just trying to help, but I wasn't capable of correlating what I thought I needed to do with what I did need to do.

JB