Gurus Grumbles
The Primary Causes of elevation shots.
The Primary Causes of elevation shots. Over the years with our grade teams, quite often there are elevation shots creeping into the performances of our shooters. This is puzzling, as generally elevation shots are few and very far between in the normal shoots of the members of WWRC. You wouldn't see an elevation shot for yonks beforehand, (and after if it comes to that), so I had a look at the plot sheets I have collected. It is significant that the ranges where these are prevalent, is twice at 600m, which is one of the easier ranges now, once at 400m which we do not shoot all that much, and twice at 500m which is usually fired after the time out for Xmas break, and the Cessnock range closure. The last grade we fired, at 600, on a really easy day I might add, the team lost nine points, eight of which were elevation shots at either above or below the bull. So I put this grumbles together for our shooters to think about. Elevation shots can come from a number of sources, but there are three technique areas that can result in shot loss in elevation. They are?. 1. Breathing technique associated with natural aim point. 2. Muscle control relative to stress and pressures of the position. 3. Aiming and trigger release co-ordination. Breathing techniques are associated with your position and the realization of the natural aim point governed by body movements under the affects of breathing. In my opinion it is crucial to align the target waterline to correspond with the normal exhalation of your breath in the breathing cycle. This is done by making sure the rifle points under the aiming mark when you first start to assume your firing position, so that when you breathe out, at the point of natural breath expulsion, your foresight reaches waterline. If you have to move either forward or back to achieve this, it must be done. It is crucial to good elevation performance that your shot release has no overriding muscle direction influence, and that the position is directed at the target by breathing control and subsequent relaxation. Once the position is achieved to natural aim point, then the rest is up to sighting and trigger release. As I said above, it is very rare for a Westy shooter to give an elevation shot away at our home range at Cessnock. This is because you have all established a position that points to the target correctly while on your home range. When you get to Malabar for grade matches, the mounds are quite different to Cessnock, and unless the position is not altered to suit, there will be elevation discrepancies. I know that I make some significant adjustments to the butt plate and cheek piece, and particularly at the short ranges, the hand stop position and thus the sling adjustments. All of these are written in my diary, so that I know I am in front with the adjustments before I get a shot away in our morning training sessions. Without crowing about it, I have had one elevation shot counting in the last two years of grade, because I am prepared for it. You guys need to think hard about this?.. Muscle control segment. A lot of shooters actually force the rifle into position on the plate, shooting the grade match with very high levels of pure strength. This is connected really with the first segment above, and the tell tale is the levels of stress you should be able to feel in the forward position. The left arm strength needed to hold the rifle up to the aiming mark, usually with different tensions on the sling to your normal routine.. The pressure in the right shoulder as it is pushed forward to attempt to hold the rifle still, and finally the trigger hand grip and cheek piece pressures on the rifle. If any of these are different to what you normally shoot with, something is wrong with your position, and you need to pay attention to getting it right. To give you an idea of my own differences when compared to Cessnock (the ?home? range adjustments) take note of this, At 300 and 400m distances on Malabar, I always move the hand stop BACK towards my face 2cm, and lift the buttplate 25mm before I leave the club house. I will wait until I get down on the mound to make the needed adjustment on the sling to gain the sling tension I want. Why do I do this? Because the targets are a lot higher that those at Cessnock, actually beyond the scope of mere position adjustments. Somethings needs to be drastically altered to bring about the rifle point at the target that I want to achieve. You see, all of my position adjustments are based on the adjustments I reach in dry fire segments on the flat floor in my basement. I regard these measurements as ?ground zero? because the floor is flat. Every range I have ever fired a full bore rifle on all have the adjustments to the rifle entered in my book. My ?position? adjustment diary. This is logical, because every range has totally different mounds, and your position is critical if you do not want to lose points with elevation shots. There is nothing worse for a wind coach who has picked a 4 point (or more) wind change only to lost the point over the top, or underneath. (Unless you put it on the wrong plate!) To give you all an idea, there are two mounds that I find are almost impossible to gain a position with. The one where the right elbow slips away from you, and the mound that slopes severely towards the front. It is crucial with these that you find an area within your allocated space that roughly resembles ground zero quality. With the right elbow considerably lower, the recoil rotates drastically, and can often result in shots that are well out of the bull at 11 o?clock, in spite of being well aimed. All these little things make a difference? It is up to you to find them, but as I said above, if you feel high amounts of muscle tension in your forward position and lower back due to using these muscles to gain an aiming point, then something needs to be done. Even if you do get a well sighted shot away, and disturb the hold with the trigger operation, you can often shoot these shots underneath the bull. I have heard it so often when a shooter says ?I dunno about that one it looked OK when I shot it?. Trigger release shots if they are doubtful, usually fall in the 4 to 6 quadrant, and you will only tell this if you watch the recoil factors in shot release. You see, the recoil strike of the rifle will often mask the effects of a poor release system. You need to be very aware of the sight picture at the time of shot release. If you run a shot with a good aim, it will usually go right where you put it! If it is aimed well, and you do not nominate a rough shot, and it is out of the bull in elevation (usually at 5,6, or 7) you can bet your last dollar you moved the rifle under trigger release. That is the only tell tale you need to be aware of if you lose a well aimed shot. The other cause of low shots is shoulder tension where the strength behind the butt causes the recoil pattern to alter if the pressures are different. Not too many will pick this problem up, because of the other tensions you are trying to monitor as well. Keep your mind on this one too! If you get a recoil that stops differently in height of the foresight ring on the target, or recoil behaviour of the rifle stopping short of normal, then you can bet your shoulder tension behind the butt is different. This will give you guys something to think about, and always understand that rifle shooting is? Simply a matter of continuing the process of repetition. Guru