We will from time to time be providing some basic coaching tips to help you improve your enjoyment of precision pistol target shooting.
 

Air Pistol Basic Tuition And Range Safety:

This is an enjoyable and mostly indoor sport to partake in, which requires the minimum amount of physical exertion, however, it does require high levels of concentration and well developed mental control of your muscles.

This makes the sport suitable for both male and female shooters of all ages and all physical abilities, who are able to compete equally at all levels of competition pistol target shooting.
 

Range Safety.

Air pistols, despite their relatively small size, can still be potentially dangerous and for this reason, should never be pointed at anyone.

SAFETY has to be the number one priority whenever handling the pistol.

The pistol MUST ONLY be loaded with a pellet when on the range, with the pistol pointing down the range and when ready to commence shooting.

Any pistol, when being handled on the firing point, should always be pointing down the range.
 

The Basics In More Detail:

The basic principle of shooting with an air pistol is fairly simple, in that you need to hold the pistol in one hand, align the sights just below the aiming mark on the target and then when ready, hold the same aim and gently increase the pressure on the trigger to release the shot. With any reasonable amount of luck, you will hit the target.

The art of successful air pistol shooting relies not on physical strength, but on the combination of precise hand/eye coordination, that is the hand to hold the pistol fairly steady, but never completely still and for the eye to align the sights, which will require very good and fine muscular control along with a high level of mental concentration.

There is however, one basic physical bodily position that is most essential to master, that is STANCE.
 

Stance:

This describes the method by which you hold the pistol and align your body naturally with the target. The pistol is held in one hand, with the arm outstretched.

If this is tried with your feet too close together, you will find that you tend to overbalance. To overcome this undesirable effect, it is necessary to spread your legs apart, about as wide as your shoulders.

You now need to find a comfortable position facing the target and then gradually move the position of your feet to gain a stable position.
 

Sighting:

To 'sight in', you need to align the blade foresight in the notch rearsight so that the obtained 'sight picture' resembles that of an epsilon or an E on it's back.

The target that you are aiming at is a black circle on a white or cream coloured card and you aim with the black aiming mark sitting on top of the sight picture so that it resembles a 'Belisha Beacon' with a small area of white between the tip of the foresight and the lower edge of the black aiming mark. This is called "area aiming".

You need to try to get the amount of white visible in the notch, on either side of the foresight to be equal and also to get the amount of white betweeen the tip of the foresight and the bottom of the aiming mark to be a similar size.

It is not possible for your eyes to focus on three things at one and the same time. Therefore it is important that you focus on the foresight only and allow the aiming mark to become slightly out of focus.

The foresight is the important item as it is at the muzzle end of the pistol and the one item that is likely to be moving around.
 

Firing the shot:

Whilst retaining the same area aim, you gently increase the pressure on the trigger until the shot releases. If you are able to maintain a steady aim during this process the resultant shot placement should be on the target.

Having now described the basic principals of air pistol shooting, all that remains is to put these words into practice, so have a go and with some practice you will very soon be pleasantly surprised with your progress.

In order for us to help you to appreciate the various technical aspects or elements of each shot creation process, you might wish to follow these links which will open up detailed information on each of the following items:

All of these elements are very important and all interact with each other in one way or another. Practicing these elements will help you to become more proficient in your shot creation process.

Do not be afraid to ask for help or advice, we are all actively involved in the sport and would be pleased to help.

For further information, you can contact us at coaching@tenrings.co.uk

We intend to try to vary the information and hope to gradually build up a small library of tips from other shooters.

If you have any helpful tips, we would be pleased to consider them for inclusion.

All images are the copyright © of Tenrings Coaching and www.tenrings.co.uk unless otherwise stated.

Tenrings Coaching

Helping you to achieve your natural shooting potential