The program I developed for Louisiana 4H in .22 rf Pistol

This is the outline I use for training .22 rf Pistol Shooters participating in 4H /22 RF Pistol Events. The 4H leader, Davis Boldt, had to submit a training plan for .22 RF Pistol before the LSU board would allow the program to be adopted.

DOUGLAS BOWSER
907-8th Street
McComb, MS 39648
USA
601-341-8797
douglasmbowser@yahoo.com

PROGRAM FOR .22 RF PISTOL CLASS AND SYNOPSIS OF MATCHES FIRED AT THE 4H NATIONAL INVITATIONAL MATCHES


1. INTRODUCTIONS
A. Introduce the facility to the Students.
B. Introduce myself to the Students and have them do the same and tell where they are from.

2. SAFETY
A. THE THREE BASIC RULES OF GUN SAFETY ARE:
a. Always keep the firearm pointed in a safe direction
b. Keep the finger off the trigger until ready to fire
c. Do not load the firearm or air pistol until ready to use
B. ADDITIONAL SAFETY CONCERNS
a. When instructing shooters in the standing positions, have a table directly in front of them. This prevents the shooters from lowering the pistol to their side and pointing the pistol at their leg and foot.
b. Instruct the shooters to bench the pistol and raise their hand when there is a pistol malfunction at the range. Do not tolerate them turning toward you with the pistol in their hand.
c. The use of a full barrel length CBI (Clear Barrel Indicator) is mandatory in air pistols when they are not being fired. Smallbore pistols should have a CCI (Clear Chamber Indicator) in the chamber when not being fired.
d. Eye and hearing protection is mandatory in 4H smallbore pistol events and practices. Permanent hearing damage will result from using smallbore pistols without hearing protection.


3. RANGE COMMANDS AND PROCEDURES FOR NRA PISTOL EVENTS
A. Shooters to the line
B. Your 3-minute preparation period has begun; you may remove the CCI.
C. Your preparation period has ended
D. i.e. For the first string of slowfire, load (tell the course of fire at this time)
E. Is the line ready? At this time, if the shooter is not ready, he/she informs the range officer and more time is allowed. No response is needed if the shooter is ready.
F. The line is ready
G. Ready on the right
H. Ready on the left
I. All ready on the firing line
J. Commence fire
K. Cease fire

4. RANGE COMMANDS FOR THE .22 RIMFIRE HUNTER PISTOL SIHLOUETTE EVENT
A. Shooters to the line, ready (25 seconds is given for loading and assuming the position), fire (2 minutes are given to fire 5 shots).

5. PARTS OF THE HANDGUNS
A. Use charts to illustrate the different parts of handguns. Explain what the action is.

6. TYPES OF .22 RIMFIRE PISTOLS USED IN THE 4H NATIONAL MATCHES
A. Revolver
B. Semi-auto
C. Single shot but not bolt action pistols for silhouette
D. There is an obvious advantage to a reliably functioning semi-auto pistol. Only a highly experienced pistol shooter can shoot rapid fire well with a revolver.

7. SELECTION OF .22 RIMFIRE AMMUNITION
A. Explain the advantages of higher-grade .22 rimfire ammunition in competitive shooting.
B. .22rf ammunition is manufactured in many grades. The ammunition purchased at most sporting goods stores is not usually of high enough quality for serious target shooting. I have observed low accuracy standards and misfires from some of this ammunition.
C. A .22rf pistol can be very selective as to the brand and lot number of the ammunition that it will shoot accurately and function reliably. Target shooters must test different brands of ammunition to determine what brand is the best for their pistol.

8. DOMINANT EYE CONCERNS
A. According to USA Shooting, (the governing body of Olympic Shooting in the USA), changing the shooter from strong hand to weak hand when the dominant eye is not on the same side as the strong hand is counterproductive, as long as eyes are similar in strength and acuity. The procedure used to shoot strong hand with cross non-dominant eye is to put a translucent occluder over the dominant eye on the safety glass lens. A piece of Scotch Magic Tape 30mm wide from side to side is all you need. Unless a shooter is firing at moving targets, retraining the shooter to shoot weak hand with dominant eye is not necessary. When shooting the pistol, those with weak hand eye dominance can also shoot strong hand with the cross dominant eye. Holding the pistol in front of the cross dominant eye is an easy procedure.

9. USING NON-SHOOTING EYE BLOCKING DEVICES
A. Do not use any device on the safety glasses that completely blocks all light from entering the non-shooting eye as this will cause the shooting eye pupil to dilate to the size of the non-shooting eye pupil and cause a loss of vision sharpness in the shooting eye. Use the Scotch Magic Tape procedure mentioned in the paragraph above.
B. While shooting International air pistol and rifle matches, the blocking device must not be wider than 30mm.

10. PROCEDURE USED TO FIRE A SHOT IN SLOWFIRE
A. STANCE
a. The feet should be shoulder width apart wearing shoes with unpadded soles. Shooting barefoot is better than having spongy-soled shoes such as tennis or running shoes.
b. Attain the Natural Point of Aim by holding the pistol as if it were going to be fired and moving it in a clockwise motion with your eyes closed. Let the pistol settle and open your eyes. If the pistol is not centered on the target, move your feet until it is.
c. After the Natural Point of Aim is determined, do not move your feet. If you move your feet, you will lose the Natural point of Aim and the procedure to find it will have to be repeated.
d. The advantage of using the Natural Point of Aim is prevention of horizontal stringing of shots. Also, in shooting sustained fire, the use of Natural point of Aim helps prevent cross fires. When muscling the pistol out of Natural Point of Aim to point at your target, the pistol has the tendency to revert to Natural Point of Aim during recoil. This causes the pistol to shoot horizontally spread shots. Your pistol will return to the Natural Point of Aim when shooting rapid fire. So it is likely that, after recoil, the pistol will be pointing at the target next to you and you could cross fire on that target.

B. GRIP
a. With the non-shooting hand, place the pistol grip into the shooting hand being sure it is gripped in the same way each time.
b. Squeezing the pistol grip with the same amount of pressure for each shot is critical. Different amounts of grip squeeze will cause vertical stringing shots as the pistol barrel is in motion upward before the bullet leaves the muzzle. If a different amount of squeeze on the grip is used for each shot, the barrel will be at a different attitude when the bullet exits the barrel. This causes the vertical stringing.
c. When shooting an air pistol with one hand, I do not grip it tightly. I hold it just tight enough to have control of it. This works well for me. Some really great shooters hold the air pistol with a firm grip. This will have to be determined by each shooter by experimentation. The important point is the grip has to be consistent.

C. HOLD CONTROL
a. When shooting offhand, whether you are shooting one hand or two handed; you must attempt to hold the pistol as steady as possible.
b. Let the pistol settle into your position before attempting to fire the shot. It usually takes 3 to 4 seconds to accomplish this.
c. Show the class the suggested exercises used to strengthen the shoulder and upper arm. Most Junior shooters do not have the muscles needed to hold a pistol steadily in the one handed position.
d. Explain that no shooter holds a pistol perfectly still. A pistol shooter has to know what his acceptable hold or wobble is. Proceed with the shot when this optimum hold is attained.

D. SIGHTS
a. Sight alignment (show proper sight alignment on a chart)
b. Show the different styles of sight pictures. (6 o’clock hold, center hold and line of white hold) Explain that there is no good or bad style of sight picture. It is up to the individual shooter to determine what sight picture is best for them.
c. It is more important to have the sight alignment as perfect as possible. If properly aligned sights are not perfectly placed on the target, it is still possible to shoot shots in the black of the target. If the sights are slightly misaligned, however, the shot groups will be much larger.
d. Sight picture (consistency is most important)

E. BREATH CONTROL
a. Shooters cannot hold the pistol perfectly steady when breathing. Take a deep breath and let some of the breath out until the body is relaxed; then begin the trigger squeeze.
b. If you don’t fire the shot before an 8-second time period, put the pistol down and start the procedure over again. Becoming starved for Oxygen will cause a desperate feeling and the shot may be rushed or thrown away. Also the sharpness of the eyes fails when the retinas are starved for Oxygen.
c. During rapid fire, take a deep breath and let half of it out between each shot. This will have the effect of not having you starved for Oxygen and it will tend to slow down the rate of firing of the shots.

F. TRIGGER CONTROL
a. Do not look for the perfect sight picture, as the tendency is to see the perfect sight picture and suddenly jerk the trigger. The poorest shots are usually attained this way.
b. Apply steady and even pressure on the trigger; by squeezing when the sight picture is within your area of acceptable wobble.
c. Think smooth when applying pressure on the trigger.

G. FOLLOW THROUGH
a. As in any sport, you must follow through in shooting. Do not drop the pistol down or raise your head immediately after the shot is fired. This error may cause the barrel to be moved just as the gun fires, causing a bad shot.
b. Follow through by holding the position and do not move any part of the body for 3 seconds after the shot is fired.


11. PRACTICE STANCE
A. Practice the stance without the pistol
B. Practice the stance with the pistol
C. Practice the stance with the pistol and find the Natural Point of Aim. Use the sight picture while dry firing and practicing breath control.
D. Emphasize the Natural Point of Aim
E. Demonstrate and practice two handed and one-handed positions


12. SMALLBORE PISTOL MATCHES FIRED AT THE 4H NATIONAL INVITATIONAL MATCHES
A. NRA CAMP PERRY EVENT
a. All shooting is done on the NRA B-8 target at 25 yards.
b. Always use the sight in time given to zero your pistol. Each range will have a different zero. Even though the pistol is sighted in on your home range, there will be differences when you shoot at any other range.
c. Course of fire
i. 10 shots slowfire fired in 5 minutes
ii. 15 shots timed fire in 5 shot strings of 20 seconds each
iii. 15 shots rapid fire in 5 shot strings of 10 seconds each
iv. All shooting is done with one hand
d. Any sight system may be used in the Camp Perry Event that does not project an image on the target. I suggest the shooters use iron sights. There is little difference in performance and the apparent movement of the iron sighted pistol used with one hand is less than with the telescopic sights. If used, the telescopic sights should have no or very low magnification.
e. Timing is important in this event. There should be practice using a timing device. There should be 1.5 to 2 seconds remaining after the 5 shots are fired in timed and rapid fire. This allows time for any secondary adjustments to the sight picture or adjusting the hold on a shot that the pistol has not settled down
f. A good procedure in sustained fire shooting is to raise the pistol when the command “Ready on the Left” is given. This allows the pistol to settled down, then get your breath control working and the sights aligned on the target, so that when commence fire is given, you are ready to fire the first shot immediately. This gives the shooter a full 10 or 20 seconds to fire 4 shots instead of 5 shots. Thus increasing the time available for the remaining shots.
g. To slow down the shooter, make sure they take a deep breath between shots and let some of the air out, until it is comfortable, before firing each shot. The same technique is used to shoot rapid and timed fire as is used in slowfire but it is done faster. Rapid and timed fire groups can be comparable to slowfire groups if fired with good technique.
h. Alibis in the timed and rapid-fire stages are conducted in this way: If a shooter has a malfunction he/she must bench the pistol, raise their hand and not try to clear the malfunction. If they try to clear the malfunction, the alibi is not allowed. If the alibi is allowed, the shooter has to load 5 more rounds in the pistol and fire them in an alibi relay. Then the low 10 shots on the target are scored. The shooter cannot have more than one alibi in each sub-event, such as timed fire or rapid fire. If a malfunction occurs during slow fire, the shooter should clear the malfunction and load another cartridge. No additional time is allowed for malfunctions in slow fire. If a pistol is disabled and replaced the remaining shots to be fired are counted and the time allotted will be 1 minute for each shot that has to be fired.

B. SLOWFIRE BULLSEYE
a. All shooting is done on the NRA B-8 target at 25 yards.
b. Be sure to use your sight in time. This is explained in the Camp Perry section.
c. 40 shots total in 4 strings of 10 shots each in 10 minutes.
d. All shooting is done with one hand
e. Any sight may be used that does not project an image onto the target
f. All the techniques used in the slowfire portion of this outline should be used in this event.

C. SMALLBORE HUNTER PISTOL SILHOUETTE
a. All shooting is done on ½-scale silhouettes.
b. The time limit is 30 seconds ready time and 2 minutes firing time for each bank of 5 targets.
c. The range commands are shooters to the line, READY and FIRE, then CEASE-FIRE.
d. Chickens are fired at 40 meters.
e. Pigs are fired at 50 meters
f. Turkeys are fired at 75 meters.
g. Rams are fired at 100 meters.
h. Iron or telescopic sights may be used but no laser sights that project an image on the target are allowed.
i. No bolt action pistols of any type are allowed in 4H Silhouette competition.

I suggest a telescope such as the Tasco 2.5x10x42mm. It has a parallax adjustable objective, which is imperative for short range shooting with a telescopic sight. The pistol is held close to the face so that the eye relief is about 3.5”. No part of the shooting hands or telescope can touch the forehead or cap. The arms may be held close to the body but may not touch the body. The same pistol may be used to shoot the slowfire and silhouette events by changing the sights for each event. At the Nationals there is a practice session after each day of shooting so shooters can get zeros for the next day’s match. The sight settings on the Tasco 2.5x10x42mm are easily and accurately repeated as the telescope has target knobs for this purpose. This feature is imperative for silhouette shooting, as the data for sight settings can be recorded and reset at will. It is also important to know that the sight settings for the same distances at different range facilities will vary. Use the sight in period to determine the exact setting for each distance for each facility.

It is not productive to practice on steel silhouettes. Shooting on paper silhouettes makes more sense because; the shots that miss are also recorded. There is no way to reliably record the shots that miss the steel targets.

13. IMPORTANCE OF MAINENANCE OF .22 RF HANDGUNS:

1. Timed and Rapid-fire stages in the Camp Perry event require that your handgun function as perfectly as possible. If it does not, you will be penalized for the malfunction. The procedure is explained in Section 12.

2. Lubrication of semi-auto handguns is essential for proper functioning. I suggest spray oil called Tri-Flow. It is available at Ace Hardware stores. The use of light oils like WD-40 is not recommended. The bolt or slide must be lubricated, where they contact the frame or action. The olde bullseye shooters like myself have always said; “If you don’t have a few drops of oil hitting your safety glasses, you don’t have enough oil on your semi-auto handgun”. Be sure all excess oil is wiped off the handgun, excess oil can make the grip slick and the grip may slip in your hand.

3. The bore and chamber must be clean for proper functioning and accuracy. If the pistol is not field stripped and the bore is cleaned from the muzzle, a muzzle guide is essential. Using the cleaning rod without a bore guide WILL damage the pistol’s muzzle.

4. You must use your handgun’s manual furnished by the manufacturer and learn how to field strip your semi-auto handgun. If you can’t get a manual, Google search the model of your pistol on the Internet i.e.: Ruger Mark III disassembly. There are many sites that have this information on them. The slide or bolt has to be clean as well as the inside of the action and the feed ramp where the ammunition is fed into the chamber. For revolvers, I recommend cleaning the barrel, chambers in the cylinder and remove all powder residues from the frame. Lubricate the moving parts of the revolver. The revolver should be field stripped and cleaned at least once each year. Rimfire ammunition has a lot of lubricant on the bullets and this can get into the action of a revolver and cause it to malfunction.


Doug Bowser
4H Level 2 Pistol Instructor
NRA Pistol Instructor
Level 2 NRA-USA Shooting International Pistol Coach
Member NRA-USA Shooting National Coach Development Staff in Pistol