Competitive, dynamic shooting has been around for decades now: marksmen and markswomen, moving down a specially designed course of fire, pitting their accuracy and control against the power of firearms and the passage of time.
In simpler terms, how well can you shoot a recoiling firearm, while the clock is ticking? This blog hopes to give you some pointers about how to improve your performance in a competitive setting, even if you already have experience in such competitions.
Where did the time go?
You can perhaps shoot the wings off a fly like Wyatt Earp, but if you shoot slowly, you cannot expect to win competitions. Speed is an inherent part of success. Speed means time, and if you lose that, you lose places. So where does the time go? Here, are some of the typical moments in competitions that lose you those precious seconds and what you can do to limit the impact.
Reloads: smoother means faster
Anyone who knows much about the AR-Series of repeating crossbows that Steambow produces will understand the following: reloading the new M10 upper with its detachable magazine is inherently faster than the AR-6 magazine that requires the lid to be opened, the arrows inserted one by one, or five at a time with the speedloader, before closing the lid again and resuming shooting. Reloading is a massive drain on your time, and getting that time down can only help you.
Here, you have little choice but to practice reloads. You don’t even need to shoot, you just need to go through the movements of taking the discharged, empty crossbow, whether with the M10 or AR-6 upper and slowly reload it. Think about efficiency of movement. That, along with competition guidelines, will help you decide where, on your belt, to keep your reloads.
With the M10, and using M4 magazine pouches for your magazines, this can be a single-handed, weak-side operation: grab the magazine, squeeze the release, lift, discard, open your pouch, take the fresh magazine, seat it in the M10 upper, and you’re ready. For the AR-6, the process is more challenging as both hands are needed, and you will have to factor in safety angles (where the barrel is pointing, even if unloaded).
With your magazines optimally located and the shortest, fastest means of getting arrows into the crossbow with the fewest movements and distances possible identified, your time will improve.
Shooting at different distances
While the first drill above would be done repeatedly without ever shooting a single shot, the rest should include a live-fire element, so consider where and how to do this safely, especially if you inject a degree of stress into the exercises in trying to do things faster or further.
In competitions, you will have targets close, and others far. Sometimes, you will have no choice about where to shoot them from. In others, you will have options: shoot them from far away, and risk missing or scoring more poorly, or losing time closing the distance but increasing your chances of hitting high-point regions of the target.
The solution? Get better at shooting from far away, especially when that means transitioning from a near target to a far one, and the impact that has on trajectory and point of aim. If you know how to reliably hit the “alpha” from further away, the time you would have spent getting close can go towards moving on to the next targets instead.
That means trigger time: repeated shooting, at varied distances until it becomes automatic; until you instinctively know where to hold your sight picture to send the arrow through its arc straight into the center of the target at 35 meters just as comfortably as you can at 5 meters.
Get good with your non-dominant hand
In a competition, you may be required to shoot with your weak side at some points and not doing so will cost you in penalties. This is a topic that you can read about here since the uses of this skill cover more than just competitions. Needless to say, this too involves some live-fire exercises, but can also include repetitive drills to build muscle memory. With that said, let’s move on to the last topic of this blog.
Shooting on the move
Shooting from a standing position will always be more stable and controllable but going from moving to stationary and back to moving will cost you time. It is faster to shoot on the move, even if you slow down from a sprint to a brisk walk: your times will thank you.
For that to work, you need to get accustomed to shooting the second your sight picture is good, and that feeling comes with experience and repetition. You will also have to master smooth cocking of the crossbow on the move, and those reloads too, once you’ve run dry. That’s another instance when you will thank past-you for having taken the time to nail down those movements since the chances of messing it up will be even greater if you have to add navigating the course of fire to the mix.
Ultimately, the key to improved performance is practice. Getting better at even just one of the disciplines above will pay dividends as far as your scores are concerned but, like any skill, it takes time and discipline to master, but the results and the feeling you’ll get will no doubt be worth it. Meanwhile, feel free to share your own drills and ideas for getting better and faster.
