Calling the shot

[benos]

Lately, it seems calling the shot and followthrough are recurring themes, so I expanded this post. Please bear with me if I repeat myself….

First, let’s define "sight picture." Think of sight picture as consisting of two components—1) sight alignment, which is ONLY the alignment of the sights in relation to your eye; and 2), sight picture, which is the relationship of sight alignment to the target.

Followthrough:

You improve followthrough by becoming aware of what your eyes see as you fire the shot. It's not different from learning to "call the shot" (with utmost precision). As you fire a shot, will yourself to "hold" your attention on the sights until they lift in recoil. If you were actively observing the sights alignment and your eyes stayed open DURING the firing of the shot, you should remember the last exact spot they were before the sights lifted in recoil. Then when you check the target and realize that some did not go where you thought they did, you will awaken to the art/science of shooting. In the beginning, you must consciously remember "your call," after training to remember, your call will occur simultaneously with the firing of the shot—that’s shooting.

If you have not mastered "fundamental #3," practice the following examples in the order listed.

The greatest obstacle in shooting a pistol accurately offhand is produced by the movement of the gun in the hand (wobble) combined with the movement of the wobble on the target (hold). These all too observable visual inputs distract us from what is important, the aforementioned third fundamental of shooting—releasing the shot without disturbing the gun’s hold. This can help: imagine your pistol is in a machine-rest even though you are holding it offhand. Now imagine the target is moving (in the same pattern/manner as your hold). Now, what can you do?

Knowing this, it’s best to begin by shooting from a bench rest, or other supported position. Bag your pistol so that it’s rock solid. Aim into the backstop and then direct ALL your attention to building the pressure on the trigger until the gun fires. After you become comfortable with the feeling of firing the gun with all your attention on the trigger while simply watching the sights lift in recoil, place a target at 25 yds and repeat the above procedure with the following addition: Use this "order" to fire the shot—1) Align your sights in the center of the target. 2) Shift all your attention to your previous feeling of your finger building pressure on the trigger until the shot breaks. During #2, you are still looking at the sights; however, you are looking in a detached manner. Which means: Your concern is not in trying to shoot a particular spot; you are simply looking with the intention of remembering where the sights were aligned at the moment the shot fires.

Only after you’ve mastered "benchrest calling," begin shooting offhand. Again, begin by shooting into the backstop with no intention of hitting anything in particular. This will allow you to focus all your attention on what is important—"releasing" the shot without disturbing the gun’s hold. Relax your attention into the gun, look at the sights without staring, and then shift all your attention to the previously mastered feeling of your finger on the trigger; with great determination and purpose, increase pressure on the trigger until the gun fires—"FEEL" the shot off. At the moment the gun lifts, recall the sight alignment—again, this is what you must see. After mastering this, when you put a target behind your sights, you simply recall the "sight picture"(sight alignment plus their relationship to the target).

Now to shoot a "good shot" (one that actually goes where you intended it), you must combine the feeling of releasing a perfect shot with the feeling of "willing the gun still" as you build pressure on the trigger. Eventually, with training, this becomes ONE FEELING.

more:

Accurate calling of your shots is the most essential ingredient to successful shooting. Set up an IPSC target a 25 yds. Using 3/4" white tape, tape the target into four quadrants and tape a two-inch "X" in the center of each quadrant. Then shooting slow-fire, shoot one shot at each X. After establishing your hold in each respective quadrant, tell yourself to LOOK RIGHT AT THE SIGHTS, and without "trying to aim the shot," release a perfect shot. This is important—you just use the "X" to assist in remembering where the sights were when the shot broke. Then check the target and see where each shot landed on the target in relationship to where you thought it went. (It also helps if you know what size group your gun will shoot off the bench at this distance.) Even if it takes forever, keep practicing this until you immediately know, as you fire a shot, where it landed on the target. If you have a spotting scope or binoculars, you can look at the target after each shot to get more immediate feedback. This is most important: Through the relationship of where you thought the shot went by "reading the sights," and where it actually went—you will learn to know as you fire the shot, exactly where it went.

For many years I ended each practice session by shooting slow-fire groups at a nine-inch white paper plate at 25 yards. I’d take all the time I felt I needed to shoot the smallest five shot group possible. I’d shoot five to ten of these groups each session and keep the smallest group as my "record." This is a great exercise to train all the above.

Imagine how much easier this would be if you were shooting with a scoped pistol. All you would have to remember is where the dot or crosshairs were when the shot broke. With iron sights, you get this information by "reading" the relationship of sight alignment and sight picture at the moment the shot fires.

To summarize, train to call your shots by: Accepting your hold, looking only at your sights, and then as the shot fires, remembering where the alignment was on the target.

The aiming is not the hard part. Releasing the shot without disturbing your hold is (the hard part).

Once reading the sights is firmly ingrained, practice to preserve this most important of all fundamental while increasing your shooting speed by projecting your attention into your sights as you shoot. When you master this, everything else will vanish—even "you."

be

[bonedaddy]

Hi Brian,  I was able to follow you through the entire post until the last paragraph.  The english language is a real dull blade for me sometimes.  Would you please elaborate on the way I should be "projecting my attention into my sights"?  If you had said, "onto my sights" it would have given me a different mental image, one that I am comfortable with.  But, I know you choose words carefully, so I'm missing the difference between "onto" (which is what most people would have said) and  "into" which possibly means something entirely different?

[benos]

bonedaddy,

Good question produced from careful reading.

I added a bunch of new material to that post with one new sentence at the end. (It may help, or it may not)

Yes, I am suggesting a different meaning when I said into vs onto. Into implies a "deeper" level of attention in which the "self" (the self in this case meaning - "someone" seeing "something") disolves, and only awareness remains.

be

[lenard]

Hello Brian, I have been practicing calling my shots all week.I noticed that if your mind is totally absorbed with trying to call your shots, then the chatter going in your head as you try to shoot disappears. i think this may be useful in maintaining your focus on a match. Well, I have a level 3 match next week, I'll see how it works.

[Jeff Gonzales]

As a former sniper, calling your shots was part of your shot.  You had to know if you hit or missed.  Being able to do this with the pistol has generated great success for me.  I employ this but slightly different when shooting my pistol, rather than attempt to call the shot's impact, I merely call whether I had the front sight.  Was I focused on the front sight when the round discharged and started the recoil impulse.  If yes, my follow through is dictated by the effectiveness of the shots.  If there is still a threat, press off more rounds.  If I cannot recall my front sight, I assume I did not have it  and immediately acquire the front sight and follow through with more shots.

What I have really tried to do lately is totally let go consciously.  I know that when things heat up, I default to good mechanics.  It is just every other time that is not heated up that I work hard to call the front sight.  You get that floating sensation, as the brass flies up and away almost in slow motion.  I am not sure if I am thinking this as it happens or reflecting back on it, but those are my thoughts.  It really helps when I remind myself, "don't think you can hit, know you can."  Everything seems to fall into place then.  

Cannot emphasize enough how important it is to call your shots or in my case calling the front sight.

later,

[benos]

Jeff, good add.

I read an in-depth interview with the 'king" of benchrest shooting. After about 10 pages of questions and answers regarding the building of equipment, load development, doping conditions, etc., the guy finally asked him what the most important thing was that seperated him from the other competitors - "The most important thing is KNOW, at the instant the shot breaks, EXACTLY where it," was his reply! I remember thinking - he knows.

But I guess, even I didn't expect him to say that. A benchrest shooter?

be

[steve horsman]

Hi Brian, great post.........I think this is the biggest problem facing new shooters (an old shooters like me).  They see people shooting fast and think they can just throw the gun up there and get the shots to go where they want them to.  If we could teach our cops to do this, our job would be alot eaiser.........but I guess if it was easy, everyone would want to do it.

Everyone reading on this board should have a copy of Brain's book, I bought it as soon as it came out and still read that thing all the time.  I should probably buy another as the binding is starting to come apart, there is information like this on every page.  I know it has helped me everytime I read it.  

See Ya,

Steve

[Detlef]

Good post, Brian. Many of us are aware of this, BUT WE STILL DON'T SEEM TO OBEYE IT! Let me relate this brief story from last year's Area 2: I had just finished a stage with 2 swinging targets from the last position. I remembered that on the first swinger I called two hits, on the  second one I called one hit and one *don't know*. During the actual shooting I noticed this, but I didn;t shoot again because I was hoping. Well, turned out that the 2nd shot was a miss. So next goes Robbie. Of course, quite a bit faster than me, and what do I hear him mumbling when he comes back? "Well, on that 2nd swinger I wasn't sure about that second shot, but I was hoping that it was still there..." It was a miss. And I didn't think that my and Robbie's thinking were even in the same universe!

If I had to name one accomplishment from the past three years it would be *learnig to call my shots, and shoot again if necessary*. It is an extremely powerful concept! Now if I would just apply it *every time* instead *most of the time*!

--Detlef

[benos]

There ya go Detlef!

We have a term for your description - it's called shooing a "hoper."

big surprise...

be

[Chriss Grube]

I just finished up with Todd's class last weekend one of the big things was what Todd calls the "Kodak Moment" Basically that when you squeeze of the shot the sights stop for that brief millisecond to give you a perfect picture of the sights or dot on the A zone. I slowed down on my splits and actually got faster overall. He doesn't shoot .12 splits. His averages are like .18-.20. He just makes up the time elsewhere.

[xcount]

Try this one for a "shot calling" experience.

Evenings are getting shorter and darkness is coming more quickly. Last evening I was shooting with some guys and we tried to extend our range time, nobody really wanting to give up and go home.

In the semi-darkness we were shooting Vice Presidente drills, mainly by index as the fading light made it almost impossible to see the sights clearly on the target. There was barely enough light to see the outlines of the targets.

After finishing my run someone said "Let's go see what you got." I said, "There are two high ones on the center target, probably C's, the rest are in there." And that is exactly where the hits were.

Every single time there gun fired, just for an instant - like a flashbulb going off, I could see the post and notch of the sights with perfect clarity against the target. The rest of the time about all I could make out was the blackness of the gun against the slightly lighter colored target.

Now, I'm no slouch at calling my shots, but never before like that. Perhaps the lack of light dialated my pupils more than usual, maybe the enveloping darkness focused my awareness to a greater degree, but I swear that I could replay the video tape in my head and call every one of those 12 shots within half an inch. (24 actually, I just had to do it again.) With 4 hits scattered in an A zone I could recall which hole came from which shot.

Conclusions? #1- I'm definitely not blinking as the shot is fired. #2- Maybe I should quit shooting daytime matches. #3- that was one wicked cool experience.

[benos]

I've been there for that one, it is a fun experience! Why don't we "see" like that in the daytime?

be

[Nik Habicht]

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Quote: from benos on 12:53 pm on Oct. 10, 2001

I've been there for that one, it is a fun experience! Why don't we "see" like that in the daytime?

be

---

Beacouse at night we don't expect to be able to call our shots and therefore we are not thinking (about calling our shots) and so are able to be in the moment and call every shot perfectly.  I had an experience one night on the indoor range where I thought I wasn't seeing anything ---- until I realized that I was watching my slugs falling down the backstop.  That's when it dawned on me that the eyes are capable of amazing vision, to see a half inch object falling maybe six feet under poor light 25 yards away....

[EricW]

Nik,

Good job on taking the step up the the next level!  It's a huge achievement in shooting.  

I've had the same kind of thing happen.  I know when I'm "ON" when I can see the puff of carboard as the bullet rips through the target.  It's a great sensation.  When you're in that zone, it's just like magic, the bullets just go where you will them to.

Eric

[Rich Bagoly]

A stage at the last match I shot started with a row of poppers.  As the first shot was breaking, I realized I had no idea if it would be a hit.  I did not start the trigger until I saw the sights on the popper, but sometime before it went bang, I took a little vacation from what I was doing.  It was a total suprise to hear the ding.

Its really not that demanding to pay attention to the sights for that moment after starting the shot, until its finished.  What is the cause of the aversion to doing it?

[Flexmoney]

Rich,

I have a vivid example of shooting without using my sights...and why.

Earlier this spring, I was in the habit of skipping the first mag pouch when going for a reload.  This was not on purpose...I blame it on taking the winter off, and not practicing enough.

So...now it is an issue with me.  I don't want to keep skipping my first mag when I do a reload.  I am so intent on this that as I am shooting a stage, I come to the final paper target before my reload...after the first shot, I drop my head completely down to look for the mag in the pouch.  I then realize that I am not looking at my sights...hell, I can't see the gun.  My index was felt on, so I fired the shot, and got the hit.

(for me)...my mind wasn't in the moment.  I was already off doing the next thing.  I was thinking..not doing.

O.K.,  maybe that doesn't answer the "why".  Sorry.

(Edited by Flexmoney at 11:44 pm on May 22, 2002)

[Nik Habicht]

Flex,

You can see the first mag on your belt? Man, I gotta join a gym......

[DogmaDog]

Hmmm.  I had an issue similar to this one.  Except it was with my 600 yard slow fire in highpower competition.  I kept shooting about 190 to 194, with several 9s and an occasional 8.  Then I had a string where it suddenly dawned on me:  focus on the damn front sight!  Still threw 2 into the 8 ring, but 18 of 20 shots were in the 10 or X.  

I think one of the problems in rifle is that you can focus on the sight so long that its image sort of "burns" into your retina, and you temporarily lose capacity to really focus on it.  I had been staring at the front sight too long, but not focusing on it.  I don't know if this is ever a potential problem in IPSC, as your eyes oughta be shifting focus pretty rapidly from target to sights to next target, etc.

Semper Fi,

DogmaDog

[ErikW]

It's easy not to see the shot you are working on now because you are too eager to get to the next shot. I had a bad habit of yanking off shots between targets, and I still have a habit of breaking the shot early on the C or D zone before the sight gets into the A zone. Impatience.

Double plug and try not to listen to steel. Try to shoot purely on visual feedback.

[Ron Ankeny]

Rich:

I don't know what the aversion is to not paying attention. But I had a real interesting experience at our last club match that I would like to share,

I am working my way through Matt Burkett's 10 week training program and last week was the time to focus on speed and let it all hang out.

I shot the first stage, a long field course, as fast as I could while trying to call each shot. I did fairly well and I shot several D's and C's that I knew were on the paper. No misses.

On the second stage, a speed shoot, I let it rip and I knew I had a bad shot. I made no effort to make the shot up and I just kept on going at warp speed.  I had the fastest time of the day, with a miss. Why didn't I make the shot up? I don't know.

On the third stage, the classifier After Work Blues, the door blew shut and hit me in the butt and I watched the sight lift off of the no shoot. I knew I hit the no shoot, but I didn't have the presence of mind to make the shot up. I shot the rest of the stage clean, but with a no shoot and a Mike, the classifier was tanked bad.

The fourth stage was an 18 round speed shoot with several no shoots and a little leaning to see around the no shoots. I shot the course in 7 seconds at warp speed. About half way through the stage I was engaging a cluster ("Christmas Tree") of targets when my mind went out to lunch, I fired 6 rounds at three adjacent targets and I was just hosing them. I had two misses and I don't know which shots they were. I have evolved to the point where I detest having a Mike and not knowing the cause and which shot it was.

So what did I learn? The lessons are well known. If you call a bad shot, fix it right then. You can't miss fast enough to win. I also learned that I can run with B class shooters while in hose mode, but I don't want to be a B class shooter. Brian has said it over and over and I am experiencing it first hand. To be a good shooter you need to know where each and every shot hits.

[benos]

Rich,

We DOUBT

that accurately reading the shot will produce the best result.

Therefore we occupy our minds with such illusions as trying (to go fast, or trying anything whatsoever); instead of decisive action based on commitment, trust, and determination.

be

[NMS]

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Quote: from Rich Bagoly on 12:16 am on May 23, 2002

A stage at the last match I shot started with a row of poppers.  As the first shot was breaking, I realized I had no idea if it would be a hit.  I did not start the trigger until I saw the sights on the popper, but sometime before it went bang, I took a little vacation from what I was doing.  It was a total suprise to hear the ding.

Its really not that demanding to pay attention to the sights for that moment after starting the shot, until its finished.  What is the cause of the aversion to doing it?

---

Rich,

Here's my theory...for what it's worth. I'm an IDPA shooter. Have never shot an IPSC match. When shooting paper targets I never look at my targets to see if I have hits or misses. I just "know" if the shot was good or not. I consistently clean all match stages with paper with decent times. My problem lies in shooting steel. I must admit I'm new to the sport and shooting steel is a bit of a thrill. When shooting 8" plates I frequently miss. I've been trying to figure out whats going on. My conclusion, although perhaps not correct is that instead of following through with my front sight picture I am at the last milsecond focusing on the steel in anticipation of watching it fall. I just love watching that steel fall and have somehow conditioned myself to messing up the shot.

Really would just like to shoot steel exclusively to get the thrill factor out but unfortunatly there are no ranges with steel close to home. In fact I have to drive 2-3 hours just to get to a place I can shoot outside.

Take Care

NMS

[gm iprod]

Similar thing. When I shoot real well the target seems huge, (sometimes needs to be).

Like a ball player saying " they looked like beach balls"

[Shooter Grrl]

My learning style is to DO something rather than read or be instructed.  So... until my brain recognizes that "this is calling your shot", it just doesn't sink in!

Can somebody tell me what it FEELS like to call your shot?  How does your brain recognize that is what you've just done?

[Ron Ankeny]

Shooter Grrl:

Jerry Barnhart's Limited Review tape and the first tape in his series cover this in depth. In the IPSC Secrets tape Brian talks about calling the shot and there is some decent video footage of same.

Unless you are blinking or flinching, calling the shot is pretty simple. Set your IPSC target out at say 10 to 15 yards. Stick the dot on the middle of the A zone and fire while you are watching the dot. What position on the target was the dot on when it began to lift? If the dot lifts from the center of the A zone you have a center A hit. Now follow through. Watch the dot lift and return. Shoot another shot. Where on the target did the dot lift from? If it began it's upward travel from the 10 o'clock position in the A-zone then that's where your bullet went.  As you can see, where the dot lifts from is where the bullet went, not where you think you put the dot before you pulled the trigger.

At high speeds it looks like this: bang-lift-return...bang-lift...acguire next target...repeat the process.