Been thinking about Natural Point of Aim lately. My routine has always been settle on the 3rd Critter then swing back to the first and go through the bank no change in foot position. Pigs and Rams are wide, less than perfect NPA is not going to cause trouble.

Turkeys another story, taller than wide. Anybody shift foot postion as they work through a bank of Turkeys, or Chickens for that matter ? Am making up a 5 wide stencil to paint targets on cardboard 5 at a time instead of praticing on a single cardboard target. It will tell the story, after a lot of testing. Meanwhile somebody else may have figured it out, saving me a lot of shooting

Boats

Boats, that is interesting. When I shoot 4P, 3P, or Schuetzen where time is really not an issue, I shoot the targets in columns and I verify my NPA on every column. If I don’t, I can’t shoot good centers in any position, OH included. Without verifying my NPA I get horizontal wide shots that are predictable---but when you see them it’s already too late. To me my horizontal NPA is more of an issue than the vertical.
Just thinking about this I suspect the angle between the C,PT, and R targets on the horizontal is at least as great as the angle on a smallbore 50’ target between the columns, so I believe it would make a difference.
I’m curious what you find out and what other shooters say.

It's Schuetzen that got me thinking about it.

Shot the 100 Shot Hudson match Rimfire @ 100 yards last weekend. Save time walking down range I hang 6 targets two rows of 3. 5 record one sighter. And always adjust my NPA from Target to target. Distance from center of 25 ring on one target to the other is about 15 inches thats all. Not ajusting NPA will get a distinct bias one way or the other. Same thing with the 10M Air Rifle OH target I adjust changing from bull to bull.

Of course Silhouette is another thing light rifle no hook plate or palm rest and a short relay time. Still I suspect lot of Turkey misses blamed on wind are NPA errors. Getting the old jig saw out and making some in a row critter stencils now.

Boats

I try to pay attention to NPA for every shot I take. Sometimes you will feel like you are close enough but still have to twist the torso to get on the animal and for me personally it becomes a higher probability of a miss when I do that. If you can establish a good NPA footing for the first animal it doesn't take long to adjust it as you go down the line of targets. A simple small move like rotating your foot on the heal in the direction of the next animal is usually all it take for me. Sometimes it is the rear foot opening up my stance just a bit and then I switch to my front foot for a pivot to try and keep my stance as consistent as possible. It doesn't take much at all depending on the distance between the animals a small change in foot position at the firing line equates to a larger distance down range. Sometimes I don't even lift my shoe at all but rather simply shift my foot inside my shoe to just get over a tiny bit more.

I very rarely miss left or right, most of my misses are high or low and I am now trying to work on my Vertical NPA more as I tend to drop out of shots at times and I think it has to do with being to far off the vert NPA.

Dee

My input, FWIW....There is no difference in approach to any of the animals...we are shooting at a spot on the animal so it doesn't make any difference what the shape is, they could be squares or triangles, a spot is a spot. A true NPA is just that, a Natural Point of Aim...it should not cover more than one animal.....you can get away with a slight upper body movement to move across the row, but very much of that will introduce a spring like stress into your upper body/waist/hip area that at best will increase fatigue, at worst will throw the shot as you release the shot. Slight adjustment of your rear foot is advised to move your NPA across the bank. Better, "remake" your stance as you need to move across the bank.

Kitty

Funny this NPA came up. This past Saturday morning match 40/80 Hunter, 3/4 the way through I mentioned to Pat that I keep wandering off to the left..long story short. DAH! Pat says, why don't you move your back foot. !@#$%^&*()_+? DOINK! End f story!

Good tips all,

My change in NPA paper target matches is slight just a teak of one heel, no reason I can't do it during a Silhouette match. If you think about angles change in postion moving from one 10M air rifle bull to another is probably the same as changing from one Critter to the other at more distance.

Don't change your NPA on the Air gun target you will get shots favoring one side or the other.

Boats

boats wrote:....Still I suspect lot of Turkey misses blamed on wind are NPA errors. Getting the old jig saw out and making some in a row critter stencils now.

Boats

Excellent points all. Good idea about the stencil.

teetertotter wrote:Funny this NPA came up. This past Saturday morning match 40/80 Hunter, 3/4 the way through I mentioned to Pat that I keep wandering off to the left..long story short. DAH! Pat says, why don't you move your back foot. !@#$%^&*()_+? DOINK! End f story!

I'm always glad to help where/when I can Jon. It was great shooting with you guys again last Saturday.

Have a good 4th!

Take care,

Pat