NPA stands for Natural Point of Aim, mentioned several times in various articles, forums. Basically, put the rifle in yur shoulder, with your eyes closed, open them and see where you are pointing with relation to the target. If right or left you can adjust the feet to correct, if high or low adjust the rifle butt in your shoulder to make it such that when you open your eyes you are pointing at the target you wish to shoot.

IPSC and IDPA are pistol shooting organizations that focus on "defense" type shooting, where the scores are a combination of speed and accuracy in different scenarios. New shooters should work on accuracy first and worry about the details of magazine change and shooting faster after they get the basics down.

Hope this helps clarify especially NPA for you.

Mary

perfect, thanks Mary you are a savior! NPA means the same in archery too... I have the spinners loaded in the truck, range bag full of ammo, sight in target, and various tool, and the rifles in their cases ready to go to the range as soon as the wife get home from work....I'll let you know how it goes.

Get the wife involved too. Women can often be very good at this sport and it would be a great way to spend time together.

Trent wrote:Get the wife involved too. Women can often be very good at this sport and it would be a great way to spend time together.

I wish I could....she ain't havin' it though.

Me too. Mine shows no interest.

Chromie, after you get a taste, bringing her to a bigger match will help change that. A lot come along for the chance to sightsee or shop in the local area, and some hang around the range enough to see the family spirit and enjoy that. Usually there is one or two around can talk the ladies into trying it and smallbore is fun.

Mary

OK where do I find info on the technique of off hand shooting. out of an entire 100 ct. box of CCI SV, I was able to hit about 6 chickens, and 0 turkeys set out to 60 meters. OK what gives?

My wife is a home body, she even hates to shop!

ok on the wife...we can deal with that later. As for offhand shooting, how much did you adjust your scope with the turkeys set at 60 meters? THe typical adjustment between chickens (40 meters) and pigs (60 meters) is 1.5 to 2 minutes of angle, with a "Weaver" is probably 8 clicks to a minute. The adjustment from chickens to Turkeys (at 77 meters) is usually 4 to 6 moa, and chickens to rams (100 meters) 9 to 11 moa. Thus the scope settings you see where the listing is:
C=0
P=+2
T=+5
R=+9
Each rifle, conditions you are shooting in, the ammo/rifle combination varies but thise are good starting points.

Now how to shoot standing, back to that balance point and NPA. Some coaches say feet shoulder width apart, elbow on the hip, rifle balanced on your hand (many options on finger hold here), should be bone to bone contact from the rifle to the ground, stock securley in the shoulder, head confortably erect, and trigger hand resting (not holding) the rifle. Relax the stomach muscles, few deep breaths in, let last one half way out, then hold...between 4 to 8 seconds after you release your breath, will be your slowest heart rate, which equates to least movement. Try to break shot during that time, if you are not sucessful, stop start the breathing over and repeat the process. If your NPA is good, you will relax into the target and your movement will be reduced, then learning to break the shot during that time is probably the biggest challenge, and learning to stop and repeat, rather than trying to "hold" the rilfe where it should be.
There are several links on this web for shooting standing techniques.

Mary

thanks Mary this is a good start, nearly dark here now and pouring down rain. I will try this tomorrow, but I can rest assured there will be no elbow to hip contact for me....

Not really required to have elbow to hip contact, bring your left arm (assuming you are right handed), into your body, this is one of the spots where a vest helps, and try to get as much support, with out using muscles.
In my repsonses to On-Off Again, I mention him pulling his head down to look through the scope, much like a turtle pulling it's head in the shell, this is gouing to cause muscles to tighten up (especially back and stomach muscles), very difficult to reduce the amount of movement. Any way to be in a natural stance and use the least amount of muscles will be the best for helping you develop a tight group of shots.

Mary

I think head positioning it the first thing I need to correct. I was not very comfortable standing. My head had to be cocked forward a good bit to get correct eye alignment.(Which I never noticed shooting from the bench) I'll raise the scope up and back a bit and see how that does. I have a 20 MOA base for the 10/22 and Med. Burris Sig ZEE rings hopefully that will be the answer for now. The next thing would be cheek weld. If I raise the scope I will have to build up the stock too. right? I 'm going to look for a pic or two of David Tubb's 10/22 he won with

Crank those adjustments on the scope! Move your elevation adjustments up as you move out with distance.
Yes there is a difference so between head and bench eye relief, usually. Setting the scope so your eye relief is correct when you are in a natural stance is important. For any rilfe, scope combination, any way you can get it to a position that uses less muscles will help you. See if you can find some photos of Troy Lawton shooting his 10/22, watching Troy shoot you will understand what I am saying about repeating the breathing, NPA etc, and starting over if you don't get your shot off in the 4 to 8 second period.

Mary

I know this is off topic, but what exactly have you done to that ruger to get it to shoot like that. After I get done with my Anschutz build I want to go full bore on a 10/22 build. Mind telling me what goodies you put into her?

CZforlife wrote:I know this is off topic, but what exactly have you done to that ruger to get it to shoot like that. After I get done with my Anschutz build I want to go full bore on a 10/22 build. Mind telling me what goodies you put into her?

CZforlife, take a look at the SuperStock forum over on rimfirecentral.com. It is amazing what these gentlemen can get a 10/22 to do. A lot of them are getting it done with massaged factory parts too.

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/fo ... .php?f=167

I completely understand when you say massage the factory parts. With my gunsmith stones I got my ruger trigger down to a nice 2lbs. Dont forget the brasso too.