G-ManBart Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Since I've recently moved I lost ready access to an outdoor range near the house so I have to do some stuff at the local indoor range...ugh. A couple of weeks ago I was zeroing one of my Open guns after a scope mount swap and noticed that I was blinking on many of the shots. Now granted, this is an Open gun, with a very slow powder, and it produces a lot of pressure you feel on your fact (and it's loud), but I'm not typically a blinker. Since then I've shot the same gun, with the same ammo, two times at indoor ranges. Once was a practice match and the other a full 4-stage match. I realized I absolutely wasn't blinking during the match/practice match, andI was calling my shots like normal. This sort of suprised me....why should there be a difference? I'm guessing it's just that I'm either more focused or not as distracted when I'm actually shooting a stage. I'll make ready, turn off my electronic ears (did this while zeroing too) and after the beep I'm just shooting. I know I'm not blinking in the match/practice match scenarios because of what I'm seeing, and I know I was fighting blinking when I was just shooting groups to zero. WTF....this is weird. Anybody ever find themselves doing something similar? R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calishootr Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 most people dont like shooting indoors, let alone shooting compguns that are loud an nasty(not my words, but of some who have RO'd me) and I think the difference is also in the practice session vs. the actual match conditions, like yesterday's match, we were doing a el prez classifier, im loaded and facing uprange, and for whatever reason i can hear the others in my squad talking about stuff as well as the RO commands, but att he buzzer, I pretty much turned off/tuned out all the other crap and concentrated on the stage at hand....for me lately, any practice, short of being on an actual stage, my focus sint what it proabably should be, so for you Bart, bein indoors, enclosed etc...everything is magnified, sound muzzle flash etc...if the range is running detroit armor, those booths arnt very wide so you get to 'experience' everything about the compgun hehehe good an bad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calmwater Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Bart, Have you ever heard any of Col. Dave Grossman's stuff? He talks about a sort of auditory blink being responsible for people not hearing the shots during fire under stress. I wonder if the match format might cause enough heightened awareness or positive stress for your body to kinda shift gears. IE, auditory blink equals less report equals no more actual blinking...... Just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted December 21, 2009 Author Share Posted December 21, 2009 Bart,Have you ever heard any of Col. Dave Grossman's stuff? He talks about a sort of auditory blink being responsible for people not hearing the shots during fire under stress. I wonder if the match format might cause enough heightened awareness or positive stress for your body to kinda shift gears. IE, auditory blink equals less report equals no more actual blinking...... Just a thought. Yep, I'm familiar with his work and you may be on to something. I also think the previous comment about the stalls may factor into it as opposed to standing out in the middle of the range. Oh, in case anybody was wondering, I always double plug. R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Since I've recently moved I lost ready access to an outdoor range near the house so I have to do some stuff at the local indoor range...ugh. A couple of weeks ago I was zeroing one of my Open guns after a scope mount swap and noticed that I was blinking on many of the shots. Now granted, this is an Open gun, with a very slow powder, and it produces a lot of pressure you feel on your fact (and it's loud), but I'm not typically a blinker. Since then I've shot the same gun, with the same ammo, two times at indoor ranges. Once was a practice match and the other a full 4-stage match. I realized I absolutely wasn't blinking during the match/practice match, andI was calling my shots like normal. This sort of suprised me....why should there be a difference?I'm guessing it's just that I'm either more focused or not as distracted when I'm actually shooting a stage. I'll make ready, turn off my electronic ears (did this while zeroing too) and after the beep I'm just shooting. I know I'm not blinking in the match/practice match scenarios because of what I'm seeing, and I know I was fighting blinking when I was just shooting groups to zero. WTF....this is weird. Anybody ever find themselves doing something similar? R, I remember - it seemed more natural (easier) to blink when shooting slowfire/zeroing that when shooting a stage. Shooting a stage - you're more "wide open," keeping track of lots of stuff. Whereas while zeroing, you're more "tunnel vision/focused down." be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Cheely Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 I have the same problem indoors. I believe it is the concussion from the comp. I used to bring out my open gun to shoot PPC for fun, and I couldn't do better than a 580 when my avg was 598 with a 1911 or revo. I couldn't keep myself from flinching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted December 22, 2009 Author Share Posted December 22, 2009 I remember - it seemed more natural (easier) to blink when shooting slowfire/zeroing that when shooting a stage.Shooting a stage - you're more "wide open," keeping track of lots of stuff. Whereas while zeroing, you're more "tunnel vision/focused down." be Yeah, that makes sense. When shooting slowfire/zeroing you're actually thinking about the act of shooting where (ideally) you won't be while shooting a stage. That's probably it. R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted December 22, 2009 Author Share Posted December 22, 2009 I have the same problem indoors. I believe it is the concussion from the comp. I used to bring out my open gun to shoot PPC for fun, and I couldn't do better than a 580 when my avg was 598 with a 1911 or revo. I couldn't keep myself from flinching. Come on, it was just that Open guns don't like you so much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calishootr Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 for me. it was the confines ofthe booths, like i said, Detroit armor doesnt make em very wide at all, and i used to have to unscrew the light bulb in the booth before i shot otherwise get showered in glass....when we would shoot indoor matches(before that club went the way of the Do-Do and carrier pidgeon) we used to have to put down a deposit on the big flourescent lights because our comps(ok, mine) had enuff blast in em, combo'd with the ceiling being just low enuff, morethan once i was showered with a big 12 foot light stick coming down....course it was a re-shoot after i got done pickin the glass out of everything hehehe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LT45 Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 for me. it was the confines of the booths, like i said, Detroit armor doesn't make em very wide at all, When you're out on the range you're not getting the blast from your comp. The gases are vented out and up. But put a couple of walls a foot or so from your face and the pressure is bounced right back at you. I believe the blinking is just a reflex that you would have to work on to overcome. I wouldn't be too concerned about it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted December 24, 2009 Author Share Posted December 24, 2009 for me. it was the confines of the booths, like i said, Detroit armor doesn't make em very wide at all, When you're out on the range you're not getting the blast from your comp. The gases are vented out and up. But put a couple of walls a foot or so from your face and the pressure is bounced right back at you. I believe the blinking is just a reflex that you would have to work on to overcome. I wouldn't be too concerned about it... Oh, I know the cause of it, but the difference between shooting indoors and shooting a stage indoors is what I found interesting. I can shoot a stage indoors and not blink, so there's a mental switch of some sort. I think it goes back to what Benos said about tunnel vision when you're shooting groups/zeroing. Still, it's kind of interesting. R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgunz11 Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Bart, I find when I'm concentrating the most on perfect trigger control and sight alignment I have a blink too. Mine is usually when sighting in an optic or trying really hard for little itty bitty groups. I don't consider it a bad thing. In my mind, the gun went off and I was so into aiming that it almost startles me a bit. I find it easiest to call my shots this way when rifle shooting because it's like my eyelid works as a camera shutter. I know exactly where the cross hairs were the minute the shot broke. I'm not sure if it's that I'm concentrating so much on the aiming and gradually adding pressure to the trigger or less on getting on the trigger when I want it to break. After the optic is zeroed, I've actually been able to watch holes appear in the paper through the scope which confirms to me I am no longer blinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted December 24, 2009 Author Share Posted December 24, 2009 Bart, I find when I'm concentrating the most on perfect trigger control and sight alignment I have a blink too. Mine is usually when sighting in an optic or trying really hard for little itty bitty groups. I don't consider it a bad thing. In my mind, the gun went off and I was so into aiming that it almost startles me a bit. I find it easiest to call my shots this way when rifle shooting because it's like my eyelid works as a camera shutter. I know exactly where the cross hairs were the minute the shot broke. I'm not sure if it's that I'm concentrating so much on the aiming and gradually adding pressure to the trigger or less on getting on the trigger when I want it to break. After the optic is zeroed, I've actually been able to watch holes appear in the paper through the scope which confirms to me I am no longer blinking. That helps and I know exactly what you're talking about....it may just be the surprise factor at work. When we're shooting a stage we're in a different mode and are, to some degree, making the shot happen when we want it to....and even moreso when we're doing stuff that requires timing (swingers, stars etc). I've actually watched the bullets going through the paper with my Win 52C when I put my Lyman SuperTargetspot (20X) on it and shoot groups at 50yds....so I'm familiar with that sensation. Of course, that's a .22 that weighs like 10lbs, and is quiet, but it's still a point of reference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boz1911 Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 When I shoot indoors I like to RO shooters before I shoot to work on "not" blinking but certainlly the open gun blast and all it's noise is extremely distracting when shooting indoors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joecichlid Posted December 25, 2009 Share Posted December 25, 2009 When you're out on the range you're not getting the blast from your comp. The gases are vented out and up. But put a couple of walls a foot or so from your face and the pressure is bounced right back at you. I believe the blinking is just a reflex that you would have to work on to overcome. I wouldn't be too concerned about it... +100 I shoot roughly 45+ matches each year indoors, have done so for about seven years, and to this day I STILL blink when slow fire practicing. Bart, I find when I'm concentrating the most on perfect trigger control and sight alignment I have a blink too. Mine is usually when sighting in an optic or trying really hard for little itty bitty groups. I don't consider it a bad thing. In my mind, the gun went off and I was so into aiming that it almost startles me a bit. I find it easiest to call my shots this way when rifle shooting because it's like my eyelid works as a camera shutter. I know exactly where the cross hairs were the minute the shot broke. I'm not sure if it's that I'm concentrating so much on the aiming and gradually adding pressure to the trigger or less on getting on the trigger when I want it to break. After the optic is zeroed, I've actually been able to watch holes appear in the paper through the scope which confirms to me I am no longer blinking. ++11 I also find that when I am doing slow fire indoors the sound of the shot breaking still makes me blink but when I am shooting a stage I often will run the whole stage without blinking more than once, some time not at all. Another thing I have noticed is I tend to hold my breath when I am shooting *an aray of targets* but when moving between targets I am breathing deep and fast. Usually when I do hold my breath I close off my throat to help cut down on sound transfering to my inner ears through the inside of my mouth, a BIG issue for me shooting Open indoors but as soon as the last shot breaks, before I even move I am taking another deep fast breath and getting set for the next target. When I shot in Vegas it really threw me for a huge loop that first stage because it was so quiet to sheet and no overpressure issues (from the comp) and it was really pleasent to shoot even though I had trouble finding my little dot. lol Joe W. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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