Consistency

I've discovered what separates the good shooters from the mediocre shooters. (Or the really good from the pretty good, if you prefer.) It's not the ability to shoot well, 'cause you have to shoot well to shoot, say, a 350 on a light rifle target, the dividing line between marksman and sharpshooter. And it's not just the ability to shoot 10's. For example, last night during my club's light rifle competition, I managed to shoot two 10's on the last bull on a target. On each of those, I fully intended to make the shot a 10 because I needed to make those two 10's. I needed to pull what was looking to be a miserable 83-85 target up to a barely-acceptable 87.

Of course, what frustrates me is that, if I can pull out those 10's when I really need to, why can't I do it every time? Why am I not shooting 100's on every target? Why did I have to work so hard to pull that target up to an 87? And this brings me to the difference between the good and the mediocre: consistency. The good shooters can pull off those 10's far more consistently than I can. They're not dropping the occasional shot down into the 7 ring.

This statement becomes obvious at the extreme end of the scale. For a 400 target, every shot is a 10. The mean is 10, the median is 10, and the standard deviation is 0. This is perfect consistency.

But consider a score that's below perfection but still a very good score, a 380. Each target scores on average a 95, each bull a 19. For each 9 you shoot, you have to be able to pull out a 10 to stay on track. Dropping a shot into the 7 ring means that you need to shoot six 10's to bring yourself back up to where you need to be.[1] And given that you have ten shots on target, the dropped shot only leaves you nine shots from which to pull those six 10's.

Now go farther down to a 360. Each target scores, on average, a 90. For a shooter who otherwise shoots 9's, every 10 gives him leeway to shoot an 8. Two 10's can afford him to drop a shot into the 7 ring without harm. This shooter can likely shoot a 6 and still pull out a 360.

So all I need to do now to pull myself up from a 360 (my latest official score from our light rifle competition) to a 400 is learn how to shoot consistently.



1. Put another way, you'd need to bring three of your succeeding 9's up to 10's. But you already needed three 10's to match those 9's, which makes six. And that's assuming you dropped a 10 to a 7. If you'd dropped a 9 to a 7, that would mean two 9's to 10's.