How do you deal with heartbeat?

jimaok,

Heartbeat bothers some more than others. You have already mentioned light grip/contact with the rifle. Some people find different shooting postions and/or wearing more layers of clothing helps too.

You could try slow breathing exercises to get your heart rate lower/less noticable/more predictable and take more time after cocking the gun before shooting. 

In general, more exercise/higher fitness level will lower your resting heart rate. 50 to 60 beats per minute is about once a second, so it makes it easier to "time" trigger pull between beats.

Good luck

A highly predictable trigger makes it possible. A distinct wall just before the sear releases.

Or an electronic trigger...point and click. Hole appears. 

I was shooting from this unit last week I noticed the same. It was like someone was walking heavy. I found I had to do a Cirque du Soleil performance to keep off the table. Good luck Crow

the better shape I'm in, the slower my resting heartbeat is.

timing my heartbeat is much easier

I'm 66. I'm active. not a gym rat. I eat health and take my meds. I Take a couple of deep breaths to oxygenate the blood before I take up position. Lowers my heart rate. I Hold my gun like I hold my wife; gently and lovingly. Squeeze the trigger in between beats. 

I shoot HFT and my biggest Achilles Heel is forced positions. Typically, they are the make or break shots in a match for me. I practice those a lot.

Sorry I can't tell you where you can find it on Amazon or give you some sort of special voodoo-deep-meditation-yoga-use-your-pinky-finger-right-here technique. 

Good luck! 

I shoot the same distance,I think 12x is too much,plus it magnifies your heart beat.I use 7x...

Breathing is the key, lighten up,relax...your follow through is just as important as your let-off.

Your heartbeat should not have such an effect,you need to practice your breathing .

Your trigger pull,let off and follow through=good sight-picture and aim.

All three are important,,,no jerking of trigger;I like a light first stage,then I feel some resistance of the second stage,settle down and keep a good sight-picture and squeeze until the shoot goes off..important.. do Not move when the shoot goes off=follow through.

Relax,practice and it will all come together...also try to shoot off-hand....until you get frustrated then seat down...

Off-hand shooting requires you learn good follow through....try 10 shoots or so.....that is if you have no problems holding your rifle.

I have the same problem. Whilst I can't completely get rid of it deep breathe in, then fully exhale and repeat 5 or 6 times. 

Even using a bipod and supporting the butt on my fist I get it a little. 

I don’t have that problem. I’m thinking maybe it’s because my blood pressure is always on the lower side. I just do what other people have mentioned about taking a few deep breath’s and slowly exhale.Then right before I pull the trigger I’ll take In a normal breath and then let half of it out. And as long as I have a good trigger, then there Isn’t any problem.And I’m not in that good of shape Compared to how good of shape I was when I was younger.

Like the others have said, it’s a process and takes a lot of practice! 

Work on deep slow breathes, calm yourself, be slow and methodical, put as little external pressure on the air gun as possible, press the trigger at the end of a long slow exhalation-just don’t hold your breathe, follow through.

Some guns like to be held firmly, others loosely. If your gun allows, apply as little pressure as possible-there is less chance for external factors(like your heart beat) to affect the hold. Practice, practice, practice, you can practice your trigger press anywhere! 

Higher magnification definitely shows the movement of the air gun but regardless of the magnification, the gun is still moving the same amount. You can just see the movement more! Practicing on high magnification is a huge benefit to my boys and I. We like having our guns cranked to 40x-50x-60x while shooting at a tiny 2.5mm target at 75yds. or 100yds. We make sure to hold the gun very steady, we try to work on the fundamentals like hold, breathe control, trigger press and follow through so that the floating dot on the reticle never leaves the center of the bullseye when pressing the trigger. It’s great practice and a super way to train. I totally subscribe to the philosophy, “aim small, miss small”. If you can hold the reticle at the center of a 2.5mm target at 100yds while breaking the shot, everything else will seem a lot easier. 

I hope this helps at least a little. Good luck

Stoti

For me, 2 healthy, regular breaths, exhale & hold for 3 seconds, shoot between heartbeats. I practiced this a lot when all I had was a Springer. Breath control & a not too firm hold was/is something I worked hard on.

I was shooting 4 days in a row, only one with heartbeat, I remember zooming in 12x. I have to thank you guys as well for sharing this info. It all makes a difference. Crow 

Just be glad you have a heart beat.

Heartbeat? Just have to live with it.

What I do is adjust my hold so that the cross hairs are on the target at the point of longest pause. In other words, there is a cycle of movement and within that cycle there is a point of "pause" or least movement. Then, knowing my trigger, I trigger at the point when the cross hairs are on target at the point of least movement.

As a competitive Field Target shooter the heart beat issue you try and mitigate best you can. Only when your a REALLY ACCOMPLISHED shooter having figured out all the other required skills in shooting VERY accurate is adverse conditions does the "Beat" really need to get addressed in finer detail.

I'm not saying don't pay attention to it, just suggesting that work in other areas of your shooting skills pays larger dividends for most shooters.



Scott S

Most spring guns require a pretty firm hold. You might get away with a light hold with your R7, but anything bigger it’s going to recoil. One of the nice thing about Springers is it really teaches you to shoot. Any mistake you made is magnified.

someone else above mentioned you need different holds for different rifles. As I said above most Springers need a firm hold, they bounce around when they fire. Unless they bounce the exact same way every time you’re going to get flyers.

Most Springers don’t shoot very well from a bench with a rear bag. Quite often I only use a front rest when I’m shooting the springer from a bench. If I do use something in the rear it’s just barely touching. Lots of guys roll up a towel for the rear. I actually have a round bag that I just barely rest it on.

I believe this is contrary to some of the advice you’ve been given. Dave mentions holding the rifle like you’re holding your sweetheart. That works really well for PCPs. For a springer, you want to hold the rifle like you held the girl when you were 17, and it’s the first time you were in a clinch. I believe at that point you were holding her pretty tight. Most high powered Springers need a pretty firm hold. I find it actually sometimes easier to shoot mine accurately from a field target position, Vs a bench.
I spent an entire summer trying to shoot a 1 inch group with a springer at 100 yards. I finally did it with a couple of different rifles. The hold I used was firm, and exactly the same every time.

Now for the heartbeat thing. I think we all try to time our shots around the heartbeat. With a 60 X scope, at 100 yards, it’s maybe moving a quarter inch. It’s just a little bump. I never stop breathing, because I don’t really know when I’m going to shoot and I don’t want to hold my breath forever. I pull the trigger on the Lull not the bump. At this point it happens automatically.
I’m kind of shocked you’re seeing that much movement from your heart rate at such a small distance with 12 X. Just conjecture on my part but I would try holding the rifle firmer. You need to set it up where you’re just totally comfortable.

my 10 cents

Here are the pictures of the groups that I shot at 100 yds that summer. Because they don’t exist if there’s no picture.

I'm with you on the "how you held your girlfriend" analogy, except that it's more similar to how temperamental they can be. It seems to me every springer has a different way it prefers to be held. And it absolutely, positively will not tell you how it wants to be held. You have to try every conceivable way of holding it, and be fully prepared to accept whatever grief it may give you for your temerity.

Then once you've found that magic hold, tomorrow when you pick it up, it will have changed its mind.

Perfect:

I'm with you on the "how you held your girlfriend" analogy, except that it's more similar to how temperamental they can be. It seems to me every springer has a different way it prefers to be held. And it absolutely, positively will not tell you how it wants to be held. You have to try every conceivable way of holding it, and be fully prepared to accept whatever grief it may give you for your temerity.

I do think they remember from day to day, and don’t change their minds. I think it’s we who forget.