Gurus Grumbles
The value of cutting or keeping sighter shots.
The value of cutting or keeping sighter shots. Psychologically, this remains a challenge for many shooters. To keep, or not to keep, that is the question. Of course, if you shoot both sighters smack in the middle, it does never pose a question does it? Although I was not at the recent Westy OPM, I saw, what I think was a bulls eye sighter kept, and the shooter then finished with nine Vees to win the 600 match. A good effort, in fact superb…. What I would like you to consider is the thoughts behind this decision, on a very obviously calm day, judging by the scores, not the least of which was a 150.28 aggregate win in A grade. Also a superb shoot! (Very impressive.) Ok, let us have a look at the psychology of keeping a bull, or bulls for sighters. What it does is effectively shorten the shoot by two shots, and in some cases this is good, but on a very benign day, you could well lose the match. The best you are going to shoot is a 50.8, which on the last OPM we had, did not win a single match. Not much fun when you run 6th with a 50.9 on the board! Sure it is sometimes a good idea to keep bullseyes for sighter shots, as on a day where the conditions are rough, or challenging, but to my thinking, I would have cut the bull, and given myself a chance to shoot a 50.10 on a calm day such as we had…. I reinforce my thoughts with an example from the Wingham open prize meeting, two or three years ago, when one of their best shooters, started with a kept 5 for her 50.9, only to get done by my 50.10. I further reinforce this by the fact that I shot V,5, for sighters and cut them that day. I trusted myself to improve on a day that was relatively easy., and psychologically, I learned a great deal about myself in the process. You see this was my first competition 50.10, and this was extremely important to me. I would also suggest that our shooter who won the 600 with 50.9 was in exactly the same boat. It would be nice to be able to say, “I shot a 50.10, (even though the match winner was a 50.9), and that is a huge mile stone for me. Now I know I can do it.” The best training for this is in the Westy Club shoots, where it does not really matter much if you cut bulls, or even Vees for sighters, does it? To my thoughts it just gives me a chance to fire four extra shots every time I cut sighters. I love to shoot, and those four extra shots are a bonus. It also teaches you that you can trust your abilities, if you stay in the middle where it counts. The next time you face a sighter decision, you will also be quite confident in cutting them, because you normally cut sighters anyway. Trust yourself, have a shot at this! You may soon be faced with needing to accumulate vee bulls to win something that is important, and because you are quite comfortable with this decision, you could well achieve a goal, and win a Queens by one centre bull. Guru