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The American team keeps on winning at the ISSF World Cup in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun events in Beijing. Joseph Hein and Eric Uptagrafft finished on the podium of the 50m Rifle Prone Men event, securing Gold and Silver. Germany’s Henri Junghaenel claimed Silver squeezing between them by a few tenths.

Three shooters entered the 50m Rifle Prone match tied in the lead with 598 points after the qualifications, and fought right to the end for the Gold.

USA’s Joseph Hein and Eric Uptagrafft, and the German shooter Henri Junghaenel went back and forth in first, second and third position throughout the ten-shot final, in a close battle for the medals.

Joseph Hein, 28, competing in an ISSF Word Cup final round for the first time in the 50m Rifle Prone Men event, started off the round with a great 10.8 that put him in the lead. In spite of struggling on the third and fourth shot (when he scored two 9.9), the young American shooter managed to keep the leadership by a few, precious, tenths, by shooting a couple of great shots in the inner tenths. The 28-year old athlete eventually finished on the highest step of the podium, claiming Gold with a total score of 702.2 points (598+104.2), and just three tenths of advantage on the Silver medallist.

His teammate Eric Uptagrafft and Germany’s Henri Junghaenel duelled right to the last shot for the Silver medal. The experienced 44-year old American shooter (a 1996 Olympian who scored a world record in 2005) lost his chance at the last shot by firing a frustrating 9.9 that landed him in third place with a total score of 701.2 points. On the other side, the 22-year old first time finalist Junghaenel closed the round with an outstanding 10.8, finishing on the second step of the podium with a total score of 701.9 points, just seven tenths more than Uptagrafft.

Uptagrafft, coming back on an ISSF podium after missing since 2005, also risked loosing the Bronze, as the two-time Olympic Bronze medallist Segei Martynov of Belarus placed in fourth just one tenth of a point behind him. Martinov indeed closed with a total score of 701.1 points, climbing up from the eighth qualification spot by shooting today’s highest score in the final, 105.1 points. The Belarusian shooter had won a World Cup Bronze just a few weeks ago, at the first ISSF World Cup Stage of the season, in Sydney.

France’s Josselin Henry finished in fourth, followed by the second German finalist, Maik Eckhardt. The four-time Russian Olympian Artem Khadjibekov followed them in seventh, while Japan’s Toshikazu Yamashita closed the match in eighth place.

The first ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup of the year kicked-off in Sydney, Australia, today. Shooters from all around the world will compete here right to the 28th of March.

The 2010 ISSF World Cup in Rifle and Pistol events kicked-off today in Sydney, Australia, where more than 200 shooters will compete from the 21^st to the 28^th of March.

“I welcome the shooters to the first ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup stage of the year in behalf of the International Shooting Sport Federation” said the ISSF Technical Delegate for this event, Mr Woo Jae Lee from Korea, during the opening ceremony.

Mr Peter Sharp of the Australian Sport Commission, and the President of the Organizing Committee, Mr Nick Sullivan, welcomed the shooters to the 2000 Olympic Shooting Range of Sydney, where the athletes will compete in the ten Olympic events of Rifle and Pistol Shooting. A symbolic shot of cannon was then fired, and the competition officially opened.

Here, athletes coming from more than 25 countries will have a chance to obtain their Minimum Qualification Scores, a fundamental step on the path leading to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

The ‘ISSF 25 M Pistol Womens’ event is a Womens event that is identical to the ‘ISSF 25 M Center Fire Pistol Mens’ other than:

the pistol calibre requirements,
the gauge size for shot values, and
a 20-shot Finals round for the top scoring 8 women from the 60-shot Qualification round.

Course of Fire
The competition consistes of 60 shots fired in two 30-shot Stages.. There is:

Precision Stage (30 shots); consisting of six 5-shot series, each series fired in 5 minutes shooting time
Rapid Fire Stage (30 shots); consisting of six 5-shot series, each shot fired at a 3 seconds exposure of the target
Preparation Time
Before each stage commences the shooters have 5 minutes ‘Preparation Time’. During Preparation Time shooters may:

set up and prepare their equipment at the allocated firing point
dry fire
Preparation Time commences 5 minutes before the scheduled time for the relay.

Sighting series
Before each stage the shooters have a 5-shot sighting series in the same timing as for that stage.

Precision Stage
There are 6 series each of 5-shots fired in 5 minutes shooting time.
The ‘Ready Position’ does not apply for the Precision Stage
Rapid Fire Stage
There are 6 series each of 5-shots fired in the ‘duelling’ time: the targets face for 3 seconds, with an away time of 7 seconds before the next facing.
The shooter must have her arm no more than 45 degrees from the vertical for each ‘exposure’ (before the targets face – paper targets: or the green light comes on Electronically Scored Targets (EST)). This ‘Ready Position’ is specified in ISSF rule 8.6.1.3.1
Range Commands
5 minutes before the scheduled start time
“Preparation Time Begins Now”

After 5 minutes
“Sighting Series, Load”

After 1 minute to load
“Attention” – the targets are faced away (paper targets) or the red light comes on ( EST)

After 7 seconds, the targets face (paper targets) or the green light comes on ( EST)
After each 5-shot series
“Stop…Unload”

After the targets have been scored and patched (paper targets) or 1 minute ( EST)
“For the first series…Load”

After 1 minute to load
“Attention” – the targets are faced away (paper targets) or the red light comes on ( EST)

After 7 seconds, the targets face (paper targets) or the green light comes on ( EST)
After each series, the targets face away (paper targets) or the red light comes on ( EST)
“Stop…Unload”

This is repeated for 6 competition series for each stage

After the last series, the Range Officer must verify that all pistols are unloaded and all magazines are empty before pistols are cased for removal from the firing points.

Specification
calibre .22 Long Rifle (LR)
fit in a box 300 x 150 x 50 mm
minimum trigger weight (pull) 1000 grams
maximum pistol weight 1400 grams, including a magazine
maximum 220 mm sight radius
no curvature of the grip around the hand (even partially)
open sights only (no scopes or mirror sights)
The grip cannot touch beyond the hand; i.e. the wrist must be visibly free when the pistol is held in the normal firing position.
Compensators, muzzle brakes, perforated barrels or any device(s) functioning in a similar manner are not allowed.
the rear part of the frame or grip which rests on top of the hand between the thumb and the forefinger, must not be longer than 30 mm. This distance is measured at a right angle to the extended center line of the bore.

Area Aim – the Concept

A few cold, hard facts:

• In the ISSF standing position for pistol, no human can hold the pistol perfectly motionless
• In the ISSF standing position for pistol, no human can align the sights perfectly
• Under competition conditions, few pistols can group all that much better than the size of the X-ring (many pistol/ammunition combinations can group better than this in a machine rest, but not in the human hand…)
• The harder you try to fire a ‘perfect’ shot, the greater your chances of flinching, snatching, forgetting about trigger control and follow through, or some other deadly sin.
• Worse, trying to aim at a ‘point’ on the target will definitely take your concentration off the front sight (and on to the target). This is a bad thing.

The GOOD NEWS is that these are not critical factors!

• The 10-ring on the precision target is 50 mm and any shot in or touching the 10-ring is scored as a ’10′ (For the Rapid Fire target this goes up, to 100 mm)
• Less than machine-like steadiness can still result in a ’10′ or a ’9′
• Minor misalignment of the sights can still result in a ’10′ or a ’9′
• Any pistol/ammunition combination capable of shooting groups around the size of the X-ring is capable of shooting ’10s’ all day long
• Get all the shots in the ’9′ ring and chances are that you will have a score of 550+ for a 60-shot match – not so bad, eh?

The REALLY GOOD NEWS is:

• ANYWHERE in or touching the 10-ring scores as a ’10′: ANYWHERE in or touching the 9-ring scores as a ’9′
• You do not have to fire ‘perfect’ shots to get a good score.
• You do not have to put pressure on yourself to fire ‘perfect’ shots
• With reduced pressure your performance will improve.
• If you follow the correct procedures for stance, grip, breathing, sighting, trigger control, and follow through, the ‘good’ shots will follow – to allow these procedures to become ‘routine’ (no matter if you call it subconscious, autonomous, or whatever) all it takes is practice.

Back to the concept of Area Aim Simply, accepting that if the sights are aligned SOMEWHERE in the appropriate part of the target is all you need – with sufficient practice (of the correct techniques) and reasonable fitness the amount of wobble within the area of aim will decrease, and your ability and scores will reflect this.

Advantages of Area Aim

• Once you accept that aiming at a particular point on the target is not the best approach, and that aiming at an area of the target will free you brain and hand/eye coordination to do what they do best, you are well on the way to firing ‘good’ shots.
• Concentrating on A/ the front sight, and B/ the alignment of the front sight in the rear-sight notch is far more important to the placement of the shot on the target than any fine-tuning of precisiely where the shot is aimed on the target.
  • Minor sight alignment errors will be magnified about 100:1 for 25m and about 159:1 for 50m, whereas
  • minor errors in alignment of the sights on the target will only be what they are (1:1)

Center Hold (Center Aim)

Aiming at the center area of the black aiming mark has its place, and is the usual and recommended aiming procedure for events and stages fired on the ISSF 25m Rapid Fire Pistol target (i.e. the Rapid Fire Pistol event and the Rapid Fire Stage of Womens/Juniors Pistol or Centre Fire Pistol)

Sub-6 Hold (Sub-6 Aim)

Aiming into the white area below the black aiming mark will at first seem counter-intuitive. However, almost all the world’s top pistol shooters use this technique for Precision events and Stages; and with good reason.

Advantages of Aiming Sub-6

• The sights (particularly the front sight) will stand out better against the white area of the target.
• There is no distracting ‘aiming point’ on the target – if you are (really) focussing on and at the front sight you will not be able to distinguish the scoring rings on a paper target.