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Shot Calling


Sac Law Man

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I would say most people don't do it because it's hard.

I'd say shot calling is one of the two big things that keep shooters stuck at A or B grade. The other one is transition speed.

At a certain point of practice and training most people can:

pull the trigger without too much sight displacement

get a decent grip than enables splits down to sub 0.20s

hit targets in the A/C zone with regularity at 25 yards

move with some speed and aggression

draw, reload, clear malfs (all the fine motor gun handling stuff)

stage plan

but at that point they'll find without shot calling they'll be getting uncalled mikes and they'll be taking too many extra backup shots (sometimes when not needed). The other place they'll be loosing time to the Ms and GMs is in transition speed.

You see an open M or GM shoot a 4 target array with some wide spacing and perhaps staggered distance and it's just 8 fast shots. See a A or B shooter shoot the same and most often the splits are close to the same speed but the transitions are not. so instead of 8 fast shots you hear a distinct 4 groups of 2 fast shots.

The shot calling thing requires first of all that you can actually track your sights while shooting. As other guys have already said many people either switch off, or flinch/blink. To start gaining some awareness of this you can do the drill where you just rip 6 shots into the berm. do nothing else than try and watch the front sight the WHOLE time.

I won't repost the whole thing as chalee and others posted some great info on shot calling.

The transitions part requires one key thing that many people don't/can't do. That is getting your eyes moving ahead of the gun. Until you can do that your transitions just won't cut it at the top grades. For me personally this has been very tough and something I most definitely still need to develop a long way....

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  • 5 weeks later...

Something to remember is don't just be slinging lead. Make your shots count. Don't break your shots on a long distance target unless you can see your sights lined up. I see to many times people shooting the same splits at a 20 yard target as they would a 5 yard target.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Best practice for me when I started the journey to shot calling was 6 shot, 10 yrd "Bill Drills." You may be blinking hard and missing the sights the first couple shots in the string but your eyes will start staying open. Once you're able to keep your eyes open through the shots and focusing on the front sight you'll be on your way to calling the shots.  If you can't get to the range grab an airsoft with no BBs in it, it cycles a little slower but that's ok too, you'll start picking up the sights when the shot breaks and staying on the sights through the recoil cycle. 

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I like doing the same. This is a really good drill for calling shots and more. I add a reload before I finish running this drill usually 7 times. Also just Bill Drilling the berm w/o the target help to only have the sights/dot to see. Cheers.

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A good test of your sensitivity to shots going off is to go into a public range when there are a lot of other people shooting. Then point your gun at the target and observe the sights while OTHERS are shooting all around you. Don't even shoot, just look at the sights on target. If you are blinking or flinching when the random shots are going off around you, then you are more than likely doing the same when you fire the gun.

Here is a good example. I went to a public range this week after work to sight in a couple of my guns. There was a .44 magnum on my left and a full auto .45 caliber KRISS to my right. I was able to block out all of the other shots and shoot quarter size groups slow fire at 20 yards while all of the other shooting craziness was going on. You need this level of shot desensitization and full uninterrupted observation to be able to call your shots effectively.

When I first started shooting I was really sensitive to the "BOOM" sounds, muzzle flash, and mechanical recoil. To get over the "BOOM" sounds I would do just as I described above. Not shoot, but simply point my gun at a target while all of the other shooting is going on and force myself to not blink or flinch when the random shots are going off around you. It took about a month of practice sessions to get desensitized by the "BOOM" sounds but it worked for me. 

Most people don't even realize they are blinking when they shoot. If you blink during the shot then your eyes are closed and you can't call the shot.  

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Hmm. Okay, I'm not at that point yet. I'm used to 9mms near me, but other calibers still rattle me, especially rifles.

I guess I'm not doing myself any good practicing away from gunfire? I usually shoot by myself in the premium lanes.

Edited by SlvrDragon50
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Doubling up on ear pro initially can also help get over the initial sensitivity. It helped me a lot. The reduced noise almost conditions your body that pulling the trigger isn't as bad anymore. The end result is what Cha-lee describes, your mind stops focusing on interruptions and starts "seeing" the sights lift and track. 

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I think most people just don't take the time to learn everything this sport requires in order to be competitive.  There is so much going on at the sound of the buzzer, that if your fundamentals aren't ingrained, your focus is constantly shifting. 

Shot calling requires one thing, to focus and track your sights.. You must know where your sights were at the time you pressed the trigger.  If the fundamentals aren't sub-conscious , your focus is constantly shifting to a point where you are no longer focused on anything. 

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2 hours ago, jrn1975 said:

I think most people just don't take the time to learn everything this sport requires in order to be competitive.  There is so much going on at the sound of the buzzer, that if your fundamentals aren't ingrained, your focus is constantly shifting. 

Shot calling requires one thing, to focus and track your sights.. You must know where your sights were at the time you pressed the trigger.  If the fundamentals aren't sub-conscious , your focus is constantly shifting to a point where you are no longer focused on anything. 

Yea. I think I am noticing that because when I actively try to call my shots, my shooting goes down the drain and I get a lot of fliers. My fundamentals aren't solidified yet. Sometimes I think I am trying to do too much for my skill level, but I hate to admit that.

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I struggled with shot calling until recently. I started to incorporate a drill where I am shooting at a bare backstop. When I do this, I'm not concerned with hits, just trying to watch the sights rise and fall...blocking out every other input except visual. I start slow, and gradually speed up my cadence. I usually start each practice session out this way to "tell" my eyes what to do for the rest of the session.

Edited by thepunishur
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I actually learned this from my father who was a bullseye shooter and used it heavily when doing ar15 service rifle matches, f-class matches where in those cases its a much easier place to learn it as there is a lot less stuff going on.  When you add a timer, you moving, the target moving, front and rear sights moving it gets to be a very difficult skill for a new shooter to learn.  I would have them progress from simple to complex and do this on a fixed bullseye target at 25 yards where you cant see your holes at this distance.  Black target and have them shoot and call each shot taking a snap shot picture of where the sights were when you felt trigger break.  This will also help with flinching as if your flinching your eyes are usually closed if they are open and you flinch while calling your shot you will at least be aware your flinching and one step closer to fixing the problem. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 6/9/2016 at 4:07 PM, CHA-LEE said:

Why don't people call their shots? Primarily they are distracted by something else. Such as looking for the result instead of looking at the sights. Looking for holes, listening for the ding on steel, not looking where you should because you are starting to do the "Next" thing just before the shot fires. Or even more simply, most people either blink during the shot or they basically turn their brain off as soon as they decide to pull the trigger. I see a lot of shooters simply turn their brain off right before the shot breaks because they simply want the event over with.

As for learning how to call your shots the first step is to actually know what any given displaced sight alignment equals what hit at any distance. A good drill for learning this is to setup targets at 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 yards. Then put a black mark in the middle of the target. Then use the black mark to center the rear sight notch. Then displace the front sight Left until there is no more light bar on the left side and break the shot at each distance. Repeat the process for displacing the front sight to the Right, Up, and Down. Then go see what the hits look like on target. I think you will be surprised at how "Displaced" the sight alignment can be and still get solid A-zone hits out to 15 yards. For most sight setups if the Fiber dot is contained anywhere within the rear notch that is usually A-C hits out to 15 yards and creeping into the C-D at 20 yards and D-M hits at 25 yards. The important part of this is that you need to KNOW what hit quality a displaced sight alignment will produce at any given distance.

Once you know how displaced the sights can be verses the hit it will generate then you can really start working on shooting the same set of targets more aggressively to understanding what the sight picture means as the shot breaks. These skills are the fundamental baby steps needed to start to learn how to call your shots. This process takes a CRAP TON of shooting to hone and perfect. I have probably shot over 10,000 rounds at this 5 - 25 yard drill though the years to help understand what I am seeing and how it translates to on target hits.

The benefits of calling your shots goes far beyond knowing where your shot went as it breaks. Knowing where the hit will be by calling the shot allows you to do the NEXT thing immediately. This next thing could be firing the next shot, transitioning to the next target, starting a reload, exiting the shooting position, or whatever needs to be done next. The top shooters in this game are usually beating everyone else because they are able to do the next thing immediately. The key to doing that is calling your shots.

The reality is that not many people are willing to put in the homework and hard work to effectively learn how to call their shots. It is a skill that takes a tremendous amount of effort to hone much less perfect. The learning process never ends either. I am still learning more effective ways to call my shots and I suspect that I will continue to learn until I am done with this game.

Thanks Cha Lee,

Im going to give this a go this weekend. Being a B shooter, shot calling is something is is difficult for me to do and usually the first thing that goes when I am on the clock. 

Calvin

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I think most shooters don't call shots because it is very difficult. 

The best way to learn (once you are desensitized to the sound/recoil, double plugging works great for that), is shoot a gun with a dot on it. I learned more bout shot calling in the first month of shooting open than I did in two years of shooting limited. 

Once you have it kinda figured out how a gun tracks/recoils and you figure out what your eyes are supposed to be seeing, it is much more easy to apply to irons. 

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On 8/31/2016 at 10:40 PM, SlvrDragon50 said:

I'm trying to learn how to call my shots, but I just can't keep track of the front sight. I'm not blinking, but it's moving so fast that I don't see where it's going. Is this something that'll just get easier over time or is there like some technique to tracking it.

Usually, the only way to know for sure if you are not blinking, especially in the beginning, is to have someone watch your eye while you are shooting. 

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All of our physical senses relate to each other.  Therefore, it's difficult to isolate a physical response, like blinking due to noise and recoil, unless you do your best to eliminate the causal factors.  I'm still not really good w/ calling my shots.  However, what helped was doubling up on my ear protection, even outdoors, whereby the sound of the shot is muted as much as possible.  This helped me not to blink when attempting to call my shots.  Also, knowing your own trigger pull and which direction you tend to miss or tug helps as well, but only if you're pretty consistent w/ your flaws :)

***EDIT***  Looks like my suggestion was already posted above.  Anyway, I guess I can serve to confirm the effectiveness of blocking out the noise.

Edited by MissionaryMike
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There are a lot of discussions in the forum on shot calling. Definitely spend some time digging them up...

It comes down to maintaining a state of knowing. At the moment each shot breaks, you have to know where the bullet went. To know that, your eye had to be open at the instant the front sight lifted out of the rear notch.

Think of it like a camera taking a picture. ...Due to the simple desire to know where the shot went, if your eye is open when the front sight lifted, your brain will record the relationship of the front sight to the rear sight, and where that relationship was on the target when the shot broke.

With some experience, all the information you need to know where each shot went will have been recorded in each snapshot.

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The way you write about this, Brian, is very relatable and effective in sinking into the shooter's mind.  It is like you are standing right there talking to us.  That's why so many of us refer to Practical Shooting : Beyond Fundamentals as the bible of practical shooting.

For me, I had to learn to trust that my sights over the target are exactly indicative of where the bullet will go and that any error is mine.  If my eyes are open to seeing both goodness and error through the trigger press with no bias, in a state of mind where I am most able to make the sight picture what it needs to be and maintain it as the shot breaks, there is no doubt as to where the shot went.  Occasionally lack of stability or muscle control come into play, but that can be seen and it's no surprise when the shots go where I hadn't intended.

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  • 1 month later...

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