Shooting between heart beats

I have a Hawke 8-40 Sidewinder with EDS glass on my RAW, terrific scope, with all of my dope calculated at 32X, and one can really see the heartbeat reflected in it. Once-in-a-while I notice it on my other scopes down in the lower 20s. I don't worry about it much as most of my shooting is in side of 60 yards or so, and it doesn't seem to have hardly any effect, though I do try to feel the trigger break just as the reticle moves to DC.

..I don't it's all muscle memory for me and lots and lots of drills (dry fire) and course familiarity with the shot course but I'm talking about 3 gun competition not National match style. But give me a proper rest or bench I'm pretty hole in hole at 50yrs with my wildcat MKII I don't think shooting between heartbeats even comes into the equation.

Unless I’m pesting or hunting, most of my shooting (plinking and targets) involves being in a calm state to begin with. The bulk of my PCP shooting is sub 70 yards, I only notice my heartbeat through the scope if I’m already excited. Otherwise I just calmly send them down range... 

I don’t compete against anyone but myself but I do shoot better by timing the trigger break between my heartbeats. I don’t know if a person’s frame contributes to how much readout there is, but if anything I expect a thin person like me would have more bounce on account of having no padding. 

Not between heartbeats, slowly breathing out for me.

Good topic.

Perhaps the best thing to do would be to break the shot at the resting point where there is no movement? Yet, with the relatively slow fps the pellets are moving it, it takes a while for them to leave the barrel. Would that long enough so that if one breaks the shot at the rest point between heart beats, that there is movement of the next beat would happen before the pellet leaves the barrel? I don't know. Does anyone know that?

A rough calculation of a pellet traveling at 900 fps would mean that it would travel a foot in 1/900 of a second. Assuming that's correct, then it seems like the pellet would leave the barrel before the movement of the next heart beat kicked in. I have no idea though. Can any of the experienced shooters weigh in on this?

One other thought. Trying to break the shot at the pause in the heart beat might cause one to pull the shot. I think one would need to practice this technique a ton so that the timing was correct AND the trigger pull was smooth. 

OK, enough mental proliferation. I'm going to go shoot my course now!

Chas

When I first start shooting, 40 years ago, an old Navy veteran, and Gun Builder and world Record Benchrest shooter, from Jackson South Carolina told me to remember the BRAS. Breath Relax Aim Squeeze. Some of you could guess who this guy is. I will always remember that.

If you're going to play the heartbeat game you need to get your active heart rate as low as possible through diet and exercise. Then you need to practice getting your heart to calm itself on comand using breathing techniques. Through trial an error I can get a 10bpm drop for appx 2sec. This is when my heart induced wobble settles, and if I'm on target I'll take the shot. Of course this is for standing and seated shooting. Benched there's so little interaction as only my shoulder and hand are touching the technique isn't much help.

Too see ones heart beat in the scope / target picture you typically are already VERY stable in the holding of the gun. Most folks self included while shooting Field target using a Tri seat and shootin sticks seldom are THAT steady. In those instances where you do see the bob & weave of the heart beat, YES once getting your natural POA established the best one can do is relax, breath with a partial exhale, relax and try to get your sight picture to settle down. Trying to take a shot between heart beats will IMO create a SNAP SHOT situation contrary to what you should be doing in a steady squeeze on trigger not knowing exactly when shot will break but being more concerned with maintaining the most wiggle free POA as possible.

Snap shooting creates tension that ... well, is very hard to control when precision shooting with a stabilized POA. Offhand shooting however the "Snap" is standard practice.



My bit of learned technique ...



Scott S

Sometimes I do try and time it as stated by OP. But I think the main reason is that I'm using a scope with 100 yard parallax up closer. That does have a slight magnification of perceived reticle motion.

On that gun snap shooting, or at least to a small degree, is advantageous because the trigger break is slightly uncertain. Better to get it thru the trigger break in a short, light, quick motion when it is most at rest/centered. At least that's how I feel. And yes, I will adjust so that the natural POA is where the rifle rests between heartbeats.

Maybe im doing something wrong. But it's something I found myself doing very recently. I like trying different things to see what works and doesn't. Good food for thought 

Sometimes I do try and time it as stated by OP. But I think the main reason is that I'm using a scope with 100 yard parallax up closer. That does have a slight magnification of perceived reticle motion.

On that gun snap shooting, or at least to a small degree, is advantageous because the trigger break is slightly uncertain. Better to get it thru the trigger break in a short, light, quick motion when it is most at rest/centered. At least that's how I feel. And yes, I will adjust so that the natural POA is where the rifle rests between heartbeats.

Maybe im doing something wrong. But it's something I found myself doing very recently. I like trying different things to see what works and doesn't. Good food for thought

Click to expand...

On that note of snap shooting ... If you hang with competitive shooters and watch the truly talented ones, a pretty consistent commonality exists .... That being if you watch there trigger finger you won't see it move or there finger relax either until target is hit. This a part of FOLLOW THREW.

Our bodies are ELECTRIC powered with every muscle connected via this organic wiring. Just because your brain says SNAP THE TRIGGER NOW is that finger the only thing that also may move ? Generally adjacent muscles too may tense up or flinch. Just hold your own hand in a loose fist and try and move a single finger without others moving a lessor amount too. Yup your brains good, but NOT that good !



Fun facts ...

Simply put... - "That being if you watch there trigger finger you won't see it move or there finger relax either until target is hit. This a part of FOLLOW THREW. "

I hold my gun benched firm enough that the heart pulse movement isn't visible at 26x for me. I aim for the center of the center of the center, while slowly squeezing and the subconscious mind will surprise your conscious mind when the shot goes off. Or you're Snap shooting. The conscious mind is only a mediocre shot. 

I normally hear the slug hit at all ranges and still haven't released the trigger to engage the sear yet. I've always called it "staying in the shot". 

My one word response to shooting between heartbeats is... don't. On the vast majority of shots, the typical shooter will be forcing the trigger break when trying to shoot between heartbeats.

I don't have lots of rifle Benchrest experience, but I shot NRA Conventional Pistol (Bullseye Pistol) for a few years. Many trigger control concepts are universal. I once had the pleasure of shooting next to Brian Zins in a competition, and later taking one of his training clinics. If you know who Brian is, you know he has the results & records to back just about anything he says when it comes to shooting and trigger control.

He teaches that we all have wobble. Period. We're human beings and we cannot stop all movement, simply because of our physiology. With Benchrest airgun shooting, there are times when I do indeed get stabilized enough that I can see my heartbeat causing wobble in my scope picture. This can't be eliminated, and is part of my physiological variability in my shooting. The best I can do is get things down to the smallest wobble I can achieve, then commit to my trigger pull. Once I commit, I start the squeeze and maintain a slow steady increase in pressure straight back until the shot breaks. I've been taught that you never make the shot go off. Slow steady pressure until it breaks. If you make the shot break at a specific time, you almost always introduced at least a small amount of extra wobble into your shot.

This is not to say that with enough time practicing with a given trigger, and getting your squeeze consistent enough, that you couldn't learn when to start your squeeze so that it generally broke the shot between heartbeats, but this would generally only work for a given pulse rate, and this is where our physiology bites us again. Our pulse rate can be pretty variable, and is probably changing throughout the course of fire enough that a consistent trigger squeeze won't consistently break a shot between heartbeats.

I have had better results (not that they're great... just better) concentrating on controlling my physiology (breathing and heartbeat) to reduce my sight picture's wobble as much as possible, then accepting that wobble and applying the best steady trigger pressure I can until the shot breaks.

I think one of the biggest causes of bad shots is NOT aborting a shot that started going bad. We so diligently work to set up a good shot, and when all things seem good to us, we look to actually start the trigger pull, then maybe our physiology changes a bit, but we take that shot anyway. Biggest cause of this for me is my breathing. I work to get my breathing consistent, then I breathe out a partial breathe and hold to start the trigger pull, but if I don't get that pull started quick enough, my body starts telling me to breathe again. If I haven't broke the shot by then, I need to abort the shot. I understand these concepts and disciplines, but it's CRAZY how many times I hold my breathe a little longer (wobble is now increasing) to get that shot off, when I should have simply aborted the shot.

It takes some practice, but you can "smooth out" the relation between your heartbeat, trigger/rifle, and target. Finding a comfortable hold is important, snd if you cannot get the pulse under control (often seen in the reticle), you might be holding the rifle wrong or gripping too hard. I tend to shoot off of a bipod and cradle my stock with my left arm (as a right hand shooter), but my right hand does not support or aim whatsoever; it's entire purpose is to not interfere with the shot and only there to make the rifle go bang, but throughout the shot it's important to have "smooth" support through the projectile impact.

Another trick is figuring out if your gun makes you blink when you pull the trigger. If so, you need to get over that first and foremost. The shot should kind of surprise you a little, but you should not blink if you can help it (which can cause other accuracy problems).

On that note of snap shooting ... If you hang with competitive shooters and watch the truly talented ones, a pretty consistent commonality exists .... That being if you watch there trigger finger you won't see it move or there finger relax either until target is hit. This a part of FOLLOW THREW.

Our bodies are ELECTRIC powered with every muscle connected via this organic wiring. Just because your brain says SNAP THE TRIGGER NOW is that finger the only thing that also may move ? Generally adjacent muscles too may tense up or flinch. Just hold your own hand in a loose fist and try and move a single finger without others moving a lessor amount too. Yup your brains good, but NOT that good !



Fun facts ...

Click to expand...

That's an excellent observation. Yep. Even if your brain is that good. The finger is still connected to your hand. And by its movement... Everything else is almost certain to move, whether microscopically or otherwise. That really does highlight the importance of consistency and followthrough

On Breathing, I try to always take two good breaths and HOLD it (my breath) at the end of the 2nd exhalation for around 3 seconds before pulling the trigger. Those few seconds @ the end of exhalation are crucial to lessening the intensity of involuntary body "spasms". I don't know but maybe NOT having one's lungs full of air doesn't transfer those "micrmovements" as readily. Works for me anyway.