Perfect practice #5

[X-ring]

BREATH CONTROL Breathing is easy. Everybody does it. If you shoot at any target or animal and want to increase your chances of hitting where you are aiming, there is a little more to it. I observe a lot of shooters at the range who just breathe normally as they break the shot. If I ask them if they paused their breathing when they took the shot, they usually answer "no" or something like "I thought you take the shot when you exhale". Nope. Only if you like the crosshairs moving around. It is taught now that you break the shot at the natural pause between when you exhale and start to inhale. During the pause, you make sure your sight picture is perfect, then begin the SLOW trigger press until the shot breaks, then follow through. The respiratory pause can last from 5-8 seconds without any undue discomfort or getting the urge to breathe. [for most people] . If for any reason you go beyond about 8 seconds, the sight picture and your focus generally start to degrade pretty quickly, especially using iron sights. If that happens, stop the shot cycle, look away at the grass, trees, or wind flags, take a few deep breaths, refocus, and start the shot cycle over. Never rush your shot. I have modified that shot cycle slightly. I get my N.P.O.A. locked in, rifle pointed at the correct target [double check!] good cheek weld, good grip, rifle butt firmly in the "pocket", take a couple of deep breaths, inhale a half breath and hold it, perfect sight picture, slow squeeze, shot breaks, follow through. If you are a long range muzzleloading competitor, you are getting up and down to reload 12-15 times in a fixed time limit so breath control [and everything else] is more challenging but doable. You have to get through the day the best way you can. The only consolation is that everybody else is going through the same thing. More to come. X