Please e-mail address changes, unsubscribe requests, or submissions to me. In this issue: Re: Effects of caffeine on vision? Re: "Smoking" 2002 Re: Machine rests Canting rebuttal Pistol PTOs in NE US Requests for "Stuff for sale" list ******************************************************************** Michael, Jerome Hogema of the Netherlands might be interested in my most recent experience with caffeine withdrawal. Having quit caffeine several times in my life I feel qualified to report on the process. I normally drank several caffeinated colas per day plus some coffee. If I expected to shoot I had no caffeine for 4-5 hours prior to the session. Otherwise, my hand was too unstable to do much of anything. I could expect at least a 50 point drop in air pistol score if I tried to shoot with fresh caffeine in the system. I eliminated all caffeine from my diet and went through a three day withdrawal period. I had bad headaches the second day, a bit of head pain the second day and none thereafter. Aspirin did nothing for the headaches. I also felt very lethargic. I could feel the caffeine level decreasing in my body for about a week. My metabolism slowed considerably and so did my wobble. The wobble amplitude dropped as did the wobble speed. I noticed no detrimental effect on visual acuity (I didn't have shooting glasses at the time). It was much easier to hold steady and to isolate training needs. Highly recommended for the pistol shooter and probably for the rifleman. Many years ago I broke a very strong caffeine habit. I had a full week of headaches and lethargy to deal with. I was pretty miserable but managed to stay "clean" for 10 years. Incidentally, if someone is having regular headaches on Saturdays or Sundays it can often be traced to a change in caffeine intake as the weekend approaches. He is actually going through a mini-withdrawal. Hope this helps with the caffeine topic. Nasty stuff. James Cave ******************************************************************** >[Editor - ... I was told by Neal Johnson that you can shoot the 2002 >without having a pellet in (eg, dryfiring) OK, but you should shoot a >couple through afterwards to clear out condensation in the barrel. I'm not >sure why you wouldn't get condensation with a pellet. It's the same >compressed air and the air passes through the barrel after the pellet does. >You think you'd have a major rusting problem if that was the case so I >don't know.] When dryfiring it is likely that more than one shot is taken, and so more condensation will have to be removed than would be deposited behind a pellet. That amount appears to be tolerable. Also - I wonder if the resistance of the pellet which slows the expansion of the air column causes a decrease in condensation. --henry schaffer hes@ncsu.edu ******************************************************************** Hello Michael, Some back I became interested in testing the accuracy of my rifle, & finding which round which would give best results. A rest of some sort seemed to be required. At that time I was aware of the '820 Gehmann machine rest', while it looks like a great rest; at IR£800 (USD1200) it was way out of range. www.gehmann.com I would be most interested in getting further information (drawing or photos) of the Russian rest which Dan Durben described recently, with a view to possibly having one made. Please let me know if he would contribute via the List or direct contact. Also if anyone has a contact name in US or Russia for the purchase of the original item. While following up a search for rifle rests I came across the Lahti Rifle Evaluator (USD285), has anyone any knowledge of this rest ? The site below gives details of rest along with reviews. Interesting point the system includes a remote trigger release, something I had not seen before. http://lahticompany.com/index.shtml On a separate matter, are there any US magazines which cover smallbore target shooting ? Best regards, Joe Conroy Fermoy Rifle Club http://indigo.ie/~joecon [Editor - I'm hoping to call the contact for the Russian rest tomorrow. I also found the Lahti site, but it wasn't going to work for what I wanted. It probably would be OK if you were using a scope. As for US zines, I understand Precision Shooting sometimes has articles on smallbore in addition to varmint, benchrest, etc. Other than that, just the 2 newsletters put out by the NRA or USA Shooting would be the only others, but they rarely cover topics on coaching, techniques, etc. like the ISSF news.] ******************************************************************** Would like to reply to the thoughts offered by Martin Sinclair as entered in UIT List 3-38. Many of his assumptions being based upon non-specific fact of empirical reasoning making his stance appear correct and yet containing little or no basis in fact. However, many of the items I have espoused have their origin in very specifically known psychological or physical rules and technical aspects. Therefore, I will respond to Martins Sinclair's comments with my comments denoted by ///( ). >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. ///(the acknowledgment of authority therefore assumes that the champion is fully cognizant on the factors of cant and in most cases that of shooting technique. In fact the champion is showing that they have failed to size the stock to the shooters body build and position causing the cant requirement during the position build and development. Therefore the champion really does not have the requisite knowledge about the technical aspects of precision shooting or position construction.). >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. 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. ///(Powder is powder and respond to changes of temperature in the same manner regardless of the type or caliber of the rifle. There are of course many interactive factors involved in this condition of temperature changes upon the powder inside of a casing. However, the results is always the same in that the flight of the bullet becomes erratic during its flight to the target.) This followed on from his assertion that shooting glasses were unnecessary. ("The mental art of shooting"). ///(The normal but often unknown sighting technique is accomplished within the cognitive entity and not the physical eye as most general shooters empirically rationalize. The general shooter uses the physical eyes to sight because they do not understand the mental aspect of the sighting technique. If any of the shooters which find out about the mental technique of sighting can do so by purchasing a copy of my book.) 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.) ///(here we have a champion that has done well but possibly still has a lot to learn about mental shooting technique. Will be happy to instruct him if he will contact me via Email. Of course Mr. Allen is unknown to me as I have never met him. As for Mr Allen telling or instructing Martin to take the actions indicated, maybe Mr. Allen should have so informed Mr. Sinclair, but this is a problem between the coach, Mr. Allen, and the shooter Mr Sinclair. Do not under stand why I was brought into this situation as I have nothing to do with either Mr.'s Allen or Sinclair.) I therefore have to ask what successes have been achieved by the shooters that Chet is coaching. I apologize 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. ///(It appears that Martin Sinclair is a bit short on training and experience in psychology and the better physical aspects of shooting. My resume may be found on the Internet. Those who wish may go to my home page and read the information listed therein.) Chet Skinner, Coach cskinner@dol.net http://www.geocities.com/colosseum/dome/4512/index.html ******************************************************************** PTOs for Pistol in the Northeast Nashua Fish and Game, located in southern NH, is again hosting international pistol tournaments (PTOs) after an 11 year hiatus. We have 6 PTOs planned so far for the 99/00 season: 24 Oct 99 - Air pistol 23 Jan 00 - Air pistol 27 Feb 00 - Free, Std, CF/Sport pistol 26 Mar 00 - Air pistol ?? Apr 00 - Free, Std, CF/Sport pistol Jul 00 - Air, Free, Std, CF/Sport, Rapid (tentative) Contact Steve at StJWhite@aol.com for entry and more info. Programs for the above events are available on Nashua's bullseye web page at http://www.nfga.org/be/be.html The Sharon, Mass club is again active with PTOs for Free, Std, CF/Sport, and rapidfire pistol and the Woburn Sportsman Assoc. in Bedford, Mass returns for the 99/00 season with its monthly air pistol series. The Capital City club in Augusta, Maine continues its monthly air pistol and air rifle matches with their premier event being the Air Regional in late March. The NFGA web site (http://www.nfga.org/be/calander.html#inter) has a calendar of International (and conventional) tournaments in the Northest. The calendar includes contact information. regards, Dave Suitor ******************************************************************** [Editor - Please respond directly to John] From: John Crossman mailto:jcrossman@thurston.com Subject: OCTOBER 1999 STUFF FOR SALE Ladies and Gentlemen: Welllll, October is upon us and, with it, time for another edition of Stuff for Sale. The usual questions apply: 1. Does anybody have anything they want to list in the October edition? 2. Does anybody have stuff listed that has been sold recently? Some of the stuff on the current list is getting reeeaaallly old and I seek verification that it still needs to be listed. If either situation applies, please let me know within a couple of weeks. I'll be cutting this one off about October 19th. Y'r Humble and Obedient Servant, John Crossman Steilacoom, Washington ****************************************************************** End of UIT Mailing List #3 Michael Ray - Systems Engineer Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech. Rifle Coach UIT Shooting Page - http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/1190/index.htm