Please e-mail address changes, unsubscribe requests, or submissions to me. In this issue: Need training ideas and ISSF rules Re: canting / buttplates Re: The problem of canting Re: The problem of canting / HW660 firing pin Re: Colored covers for rear iris? Re: Colored covers for rear iris? / canting Re: The problem of canting Re: The problem of canting ******************************************************************** I'm a central fire pistol shooter. I use a Hammerli 280 .32 wc and i want to know how i should practice: days a week, physical training,etc. I also want to begin shooting with rifle. I choose an Anschutz 1913 supermatch for this purpose, i want to know if i can use this rifle in standard rifle copetitions. Please send me or tell me where i can find the ISSF shooting regulations. [Editor - While I'm not a pistol shooter, I think everyone should be training (shooting, physical and mental) as many days a week as they can for 1-3 hours a day. That is better than having one megapractice a week. There are a variety of pistol specific exercises that can be done that I have seen in the UIT Journal in the past, but they would be hard to describe. I'd suggest trying to get a hold of back issues from the ISSF. I haven't checked lately but the ISSF website is apparently going to have the rules there at some point in time. Aside from that, I would contact your national shooting organization (they probably get the UIT Journal, too). If you have specific questions, feel free to submit them.] ******************************************************************** Thanks for the latest issue. I've been enjoying the cant debate but I can't (pardon the pun) say that I've noticed anyone agreeing with Chet Skinner........ Re your point on the legality of supporting the rifle on the upper part of the arm in the standing position, this rule has been amended this year to reflect what most people already do. This together with a number of other general technical rule changes were given in an ISSF journal at the start of this year. I'm afraid I can't find my copy at the moment to tell you exactly which one, but I have a photocopy which shows the rule change on page 33. [Editor - Yes, I am aware that rule (issue 99 #2). It is fine to hold the rifle AGAINST the upper arm (1-2" out from the shoulder/arm pocket), but what Chet is suggesting for air rifle is the butt is resting ON TOP of the position. His .22 suggestion is inline with what the rule is clarifying, but I question how somebody could hold it further away from their head and still see through the sights without canting the rifle or the head so Chet wouldn't freak out. After discussing this further with Chet, he said he didn't mean on top of the shoulder but on top of the position. I don't know what the difference is so I have asked for a picture showing what he means. He had me hold the air rifle on top of my shoulder when I visited him a few years ago so that is why I took his statement that way.] If you are looking for a good adjustable butt plate, there are a lot of people over here using an S&N plate. I have 3, one for each position and a lot of positional shooters here do the same. Particularly in the 3x20 discipline where keeping changeover time to a minimum is beneficial, this can be a considerable time saver. For more info, contact Robert Nibbs at robertfnibbs@cwcom.net Shirley PS, It's nice to see shooters of the calibre of Wayne Sorenson taking an active part in the list. ******************************************************************** In the last UIT List Mike Ray made the comment that the non-shoulder contact of the rifle was a violation of the ISSF rules. This of course is true. Many of the shooting athletes find that the shooting jacket rumples up and gathers in a bundle as the rifle butt is pressed against the shoulder. The main problem is the shooter thinks the rifle butt is in contact with the shoulder when it is not . This then becomes a violation of the rule in that the rifle is not in contact with the shoulder. As for the remaining items of the List, the submittals have accomplished a very good response to the subjects under consideration. After reading your responses I have decided to reduce my submissions to the UIT List. In the time to come I will be reading your comments and submissions. As for the Cant and its recoil conditions, a couple of members are at this time doing some investigation on the recoil reactions or responses to recoil. They will submit their collective findings when complete. Hope some of you will have a look at my home page. You will find photos (1999) of Olympic and World Cup 50 meter ranges from Munich, Milan, and Atlanta. Enjoy. Chet Skinner, Coach cskinner@dol.net http://www.geocities.com/colosseum/dome/4512/index.html ******************************************************************** Michael, In UIT #37, Chet said "With the rifle positioned across the chest without touching the chest the rifle butt will be at the upper arm and using the upper arm in place of the shoulder in position." I Looked back on my notes from the smallbore clinic that the USAMU (Army Marksmanship Unit) gave at Camp Perry this year, and this is the same message that the USAMU gave. The buttplate can be out between the shoulder and the elbow, which adds chest support. They did indicate that cant was being used, and they recommended some type of cant indicator be used. [Editor - nothing wrong with that though I'm having a hard time visualizing how you are getting more chest support by moving the rifle further away from your torso. Chet's comment you indicated says "without touching the chest" so how would it give support?] On the subject of the HW660, I took one of these rifles with me to Camp Perry to have it repaired for one of our club members. Steve Moore from "10 Ring Service Inc" (904)-724-7419, did the repair on the trigger unit of the gun. Steve also did a presentation on gun cleaning at the Junior Smallbore Camp, during his presentation he indicated that the firing pins on Anschutz rifles are fit to the individual rifles, and if you break a firing pin you should have it installed by a gunsmith. The firing pins are not a drop in fit. I assume from his talk that the firing pins are adjusted so they will not strike the chamber when dry firing. I would recommend that Larry send his rifle to Steve and have the firing pin properly fit. [Editor - correct. Since Larry had lots of coaching experience, I assumed he would take it to a gunsmith to do the work. Steve does a good job as does Neal Johnson.] ****************************************************************** Concerning the colored covers for the rear iris: I first saw them on Centra. I have no any personal experience, but a few of my fellow shooters tested them. They were pretty sceptic at first: "another gimmick merely invented to make us spend more money", "it will only make my rifle look better, but I won't improve my performance". After just 1 evening of trying it, they were ready to buy them. They really felt that the coloured ring helped in keeping the eye centred with the diopter. Rather than just having a little black hole you're looking through, you get another ring that you can easily center with the front sight and the target. So that's why you might want to try 1 colored ring. Remains the question: why a set of rings in different colors? All I heard about that is what Heinz Reinkemeier wrote in one of his 'Tips' pages in the catalogue from the German company "Schiesssport Stelljes". When aiming, the colored ring is pretty close to your eye. It functions as a reflection surface and thus influence your pupil diameter. A bright ring will close your pupil, a dark one will open it. If this will bring the shooter any advantage...? I wouldn't know. Jeroen Hogema (air rifle, The Netherlands) jhogema@worldonline.nl [Editor - see next message.] ****************************************************************** The way I explain how these rings help is that they reflect some of the ambient light back into the aiming eye. The eye (pupil ciliary muscle) does not go through such radical changes from dark (aiming) to light (loading, scoping or looking around). During a short course of fire you may not notice much but if you shoot 3x40 the difference is quite amazing. Eye fatigue went away immediately when I used them for the first time during a long day of training. My vision during kneeling is just as good as prone. This was not the case previously. The choice of the ring color depends on the amount of ambient light available at the firing point and the sensitivity of the eye to particular wavelengths. For example, when Jan and I were testing these at the 50 m Olympic range in Atlanta, we found that I was more comfortable with the silver (more light of all wavelengths) and Jan seemed to do better with the yellow. In addition to the silver and yellow, the set includes red, green and blue rings. In the 10 m range at Atlanta the ambient light seems brighter and Jan likes the red ring for that. The key is to minimize the amount of change that the ciliary muscle must perform during each shot cycle (dark-light-dark), not just to reflect as much light back into the eye as possible. Also, remember the non-aiming eye which usually receives more light (unless you are still using the huge black blinders) causes a sympathetic response in the aiming eye, opening or closing the pupil artificially. When you are in the aiming position the light reflected from the ring is barely noticeable and really only if you look for it. I have not found it distracting in any way. The choice of color for the ring may seem somewhat subjective, but everyone's eyes react differently to light of differing intensities and wavelength. You need to test them on the different ranges that you shoot to find what works best for you. Eventually you will be able to choose a ring based on the light conditions like you choose color filters to improve sight picture clarity and contrast. On a different matter, the discussion of cant is always interesting. The old "wives tale" about high sights causing increased error from inconsistent cant is pervasive. Heck, I believed it too until a few years ago. It is one of those things that makes intuitive sense but the physics don't back it up. The most recent discussions are correct in that the error associated with changing cant angles is described by a circle of radius equal to the drop of the projectile at the selected distance. There was an article in the UIT (ISSF) Journal about this subject. They used an air rifle with some extraordinary sight riser blocks (10-15 cm) and showed that it made no difference in the amount of error due to cant angle. There is a problem that may be encountered with different cant angles and that is the rifle may recoil differently due to the way it is being held and the recoil energy absorbed by the body-rifle system. What I am talking about are relatively large changes in cant angle from shot to shot. Consider that the angle change from straight up 12 o'clock and one minute after is 6 degrees. This seems both large and small at the same time!! When the shooter is zeroed at a specified cant angle (a), and then tries to shoot at a different cant angle (b), the shooting position may be changed enough that the forces exerted on the rifle by e.g., the shoulder, the cheek, the hands, are no longer the same. This will affect the impact of the bullet on the target when the rifle is fired. This may be much more than the error associated only with the change in the cant angle a to b. I would think that the difference between a and b would need to be much larger than a few degrees for this to have much of an effect. No matter what the cant angle the shooter has, 0 degrees or 30 degrees or any other angle, the shooter can and must be able to hold it consistently from shot to shot. Consistency is one of the elements of a good shooting position. I would guess that a shooter would be able to control cant to about +/- 2 degrees if he or she pays attention. In smallbore that would equate to about 0.14 of an inch error left and right and negligible error in the vertical (downward) direction. don't quote me on that exactly because I just swagged that the drop would be about 4 inches at 50 meters. if it is more or less than that let me know. Hope that is clear. Maybe too clear!? Marcus [Editor - that is clear, and I agree. Keep it consistent and you won't have any problem. Drop at 50m was calculated at 11.9cm according to Jeroen's web page so you are pretty close.] ****************************************************************** Hello List: Chet skinner has a point here. I shoot in a smallbore league here in Central PA. The best shooter on our team uses an old Anshutz 1413 with no cheek piece adjuster as do I. I am saving money to get an adjuster installed. But He has the hook run all the way down and the buttplate is actually on his bicep. He has a fair bit of cant and head position is absolutely straight upright. The position at first looks wierd but it works. I am trying to adapt some of this and a little cant in my offhand position as it feels good. And thanks for the air rifle tip I will try the no cheek piece trick and not worry as much about my shoulder position. And to MR. Ray thank you for this valubale info that you take your time to send to us. I am also interested in some postals. Some air and 22 rifle would be nice. I need all the match time I can get. If anybody has info let me know. Mark Shuman Shamokin PA ****************************************************************** >Fact: when a shooter is canting 1 or 2 degrees, it looks like the shooter is >canting the rifle and therefore this must be good as this is a champion. >This is competition tactics. It is done to trap a less knowledgeable shooter >into making major mistakes. Defense: against this type of competition >tactic is to not be so quick to acknowledge something that appears to be >correct but in fact is wrong and is intended to harm or eliminate the >beginning shooting or a less experienced athlete during competitions. >Any way good show Wayne. > >Chet Skinner, Coach I've not replied so far on the cant subject, although I did reply to Chet's assertion that a round should never remain in the chamber for more than six seconds. This followed on from his assertion that shooting glasses were unnecessary. ("The mental art of shooting"). And now he insists that cant is wrong, and that the only reason international shooters cant is to trap the unwary into mistakes. I'm sure Chet has thought very carefully about each of these assertions about shooting, and I would agree that the basis for them has some truth (eg cooking ammunition, the desirability of a vertical rifle as opposed to its possibility) but he's wrong again. Working from good empirical evidence, I can say that Alister Allan managed to be World and European Champion, an Olympic record holder, and Olympic Silver and Bronze medallist, and he : - wore glasses - kept rounds in the chamber for much longer than six seconds - canted the rifle - is a UIT-qualified coach (He never told me to remove my glasses, eject unfired rounds after six seconds, or stop canting the rifle. And he's had a couple of years now.) I therefore have to ask what successes have been achieved by the shooters that Chet is coaching. I apologise if this seems harsh, but am concerned that an inexperienced shooter who reads this newsletter might waste valuable training time on some of Chet's wilder assertions. Martin Sinclair ****************************************************************** End of UIT Mailing List #38 Michael Ray - Systems Engineer Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech. Rifle Coach UIT Shooting Page - http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/1190/index.htm