I'm headed to the local indoor range this afternoon (25 yards) with my silhouette rifle and a couple of boxes of shells.

This will be my first true "training" session since I started shooting Silhouette about 1-1/2 years ago. I'm a pretty solid A class shooter, but like everybody, I want to move up in class.

I've read all the training suggestions here, and have read "With Winning In Mind", which helped me break out of B class last year. Now I'm ready to get more serious, and plan to spend at least 1 session per week (after work) at the range working on different aspects of my shooting.

I think that I should probably start with the holding drills as described in the article by Glen Zedicker (sp?) to improve the radius of my holding ability.

I realize that there are a lot of good training methods and drills to follow, and I want to spend my time wisely. Does anyone have suggestions for a particular sequence of training drills, or a "program" to follow for improving silhouette shooting skills? (i.e. work on X during the first weeks, then Y, then Z, and then start the whole process over again?)

Thanks for any input.

SteveM.

This training regiment from Troy Lawton has been one of my favorite, and most productive exercise. It forces you to work on hold, trigger, breathing, stance, and builds muscle memory. Besides, you also don't even have to go to the range. Just do it for 10-15 minutes a day.

http://nragc.com/ballistic%20charts/zcomlawt.pdf

I don't really have a scheduled sequence that I stick to for training, but I'll share what training that I do. At home, I practice holding drills and dry firing. I was doing them separately for a while, and may again, but for now I'm practicing holding and trigger breaks at the same time. If I don't get a good solid hold long enough to break the trigger correctly, I lower the gun so I can take a few breaths and try again. If it doesn't work a second time, I evaluate what's keeping it from working starting with foot positioning and work my way up. It's amazing how much just turning your foot a little differently can affect the steadiness of your hold.

At the range, I use some paper silhouette targets (black outlines printed on white paper, as I always shoot white targets) and see where I actually hit compared to where I think I hit. Sometimes the two are very different. When that happens, I have to try to figure out what I did wrong (tension in my front arm, anticipated and pushed/dropped hand at shot, yanked trigger, etc.) to make where my dot was not be where the bullet hit. This has been very useful to me and such embarassing work is much better done in practice instead of at a match.

Do you shoot airguns or can you shoot them at your residence or inside perhaps? Since you have to go to a range to practice this would give you really good practice without leaving the house, cheaper ammo and no range fee or times.

Since moving these past few months have been nice getting home and being able to shoot everyday almost but I still find myself rotating around from SB sils to spinners with my 10m air rifle, to Hunter Field Target with a PCP, to online scaled down airgun silhouette matches for Rifle @33' and Pistol @33' & 18'.

Now that the jungle growth is dying off I hope to get my stands in place and measured off so I can shoot a full distance rimfire match at the house from then on.


Dee

I guess it depends on what you are 'not so good at'.

If it's your hold, practice on holding on a circle. Start with one that is quite large, say around 6 or 7 minutes. As your hold improves, make the circles smaller. This can be done in your house with a close-up lenz for your scope.

If it's your trigger control, DRY FIRE every day. This can also be done in your house with a close-up lenz for your scope.

I realy don't think shooting at steel is good practice. If you are going to shoot at the range, shoot paper so you can realy see where you are hitting.

I also think shooting at a different range, go to some other matches besides your home range, will help you handle match pressure better.

Just my opinion.

What ever you decide to do make sure that you have fun doing it. If you want to progress rapidly do it several times a week. The best training that you can do is with a match quality 10 meter air rifle at home.

My suggestion is for you to find a mentor that really knows what he is doing so that he can observe you shooting and offer advice. You would not want to train doing the wrong things because it would make it harder later to correct them.