Author: stevefostershooting

The most effective way to increase your speed while shooting Steel Challenge or any shooting discipline is to take your time to be accurate first, and then the speed will come. There is a point of what I call ‘the edge’.  As you shoot faster and push yourself, your accuracy starts to decline.  You go over ‘the edge’ when your level of accuracy declines. This is where you can’t “see what you need to see” so that when you pull the trigger, you start to miss.  In most cases you are pulling the trigger while looking at the target and you are either not looking at your ‘dot’ or front sight to have a satisfactory sight picture.  Some call this ‘out pacing the gun’.  You may see the target and pull the trigger, but the gun and sight(s) are not there yet or they are not aligned on the target to get a hit.  For me, with a pistol, my front sight has not settled, and I have a tendency to shoot ½” high on a 15 yard target.  When you practice pushing ‘the edge’ and gaining consistency, ‘the edge’ starts to get faster and faster.  If you don’t practice or shoot for that matter, ‘the edge’ can slip back slowly or quickly depending on your experience level. So, how long does it take for your sight picture and being able to shoot against the “Edge” take to really decline?  I am a proponent of shooting once a week. You don’t have to shoot many rounds down range to maintain your current standard, perhaps just as little as 50-100 rounds once or twice a week.

Steel Challenge is about speed, but you will never be fast if you miss.  It is not uncommon for a Grand Master to shoot an entire match and not to have a string where they have to carry a pick-up shot.  I really believe the difference between a Master shooter and a Grand Master shooter often times comes down to making your hits or as some people call it consistency.  It is OK to have a miss and have to make-up in a string, but you need to try to limit this to one of the five strings per stage.

As soon as you can shoot accurately, you now have the ability to shoot fast.  I have always been a numbers person, so I keep a log of my progress for every division and every stage for matches as well as practice sessions.  It was soon evident the delta between my match times and practice were misses.  The great part of Steel Challenge is you have the same target presentation whether you are shooting a match in Georgia or California.  I am still not as fast during my matches as I am in practice, but the gap has closed significantly.

Until next time, see you out on the range soon!

Steve

I remember when I first started driving.  I learned to drive ‘stick’ in my parents’ 1989 Toyota Corolla.  I would get in the car, make sure my seat was adjusted where I could adequately reach the pedals, adjust the mirrors so I could see what was behind me, put the key into the ignition, push in the clutch, turn the key and start the car.  It took several conscious steps, but I was now ready to make my first drive ‘around the block’.

Today, all I have to remember is where I put my keys, better yet find where my kids hid my keys from me. I no longer think consciously about all of the steps I made sure I did to start the car.  It is all automatic, is it being done in my subconscious.  Some of the best shooting performances I have ever had is where I was shooting in the ‘zone’ or my subconscious.

We all know in order to hit a target you have to have proper sight alignment, your index finger has the ‘sweet spot’ on the trigger and you squeeze the trigger not to alter the sight alignment to get your ‘hit’ on target.  So how do we get to subconscious shooting?  Just like we did with driving, it takes practice and repetition.  Your natural disposition, or your ability to shoot better than someone else without a lot of practice may start you off at a different point, but you will never get better until you put in the time.

Have you ever had a string where you heard the timer go off; you shot all targets in the array and then you realized you were done?  Have you ever had a situation in a string where time felt as though it slowed down?  Congratulations, you have a taste of what it means to shoot in the subconscious!  After you get a taste, you are hungry for more.  Be patient, the frequency of these occurrences will increase with practice and repetition!

Until next time, see you out on the range soon!

Steve

I find it important to write about the experiences which have made me a better shooter and person.   I can only hope some of my fellow shooters can find something to relate to and to take away.

Recently, I was up against a wall with my shooting. After one of my best shooting performances at the February GA State Steel match where I shot one, if not the, fastest times in the world with my PCC, breaking the 70 second barrier, I have not been  shooting to my potential ever since.  I was still shooting well by many standards, but not nearly as well as I could. I found myself being very conservative and over-thinking what I have done tens of thousands of times in the past 12 months: pulling the trigger.

Fortunately, I have a great friend and mentor named John Nagel who shared impactful insight in a single question.  I am not sure if he knew how profound I took his words. I walked him through what was going on, and he laughed.  He said all top shooters go through what I was going through. He then asked me if I was shooting to win, or shooting not to lose?  As soon as he completed his sentenced, I laughed out loud.  He knew exactly from where I was coming.

After reflecting on what John shared with me, I decided to go back to having fun and shoot in the subconscious, leading to faster times.  I just came back from the 2017 GA State Steel Challenge Championships, and this is exactly what I did.  I set two personal best times and shot a 2^nd best time in a third division which enabled me to earn the title of Rifle Master and a nice cash payout for my efforts.  It is not about being reckless; it is not about shooting a perfect match. It is about shooting to the “Edge” of where you can shoot and doing it as consistently as you can.  Make sure you get your first shot on target and let the string be the best as the last! This is how you shoot to your potential.

I hope this helps you as much as it helped me.

Until next time, see you out on the range soon!

Steve