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I have my very first Bullseye match tonight. I bought a Ruger Mark III Hunter less than a week ago and practiced this past weekend. Any tips or advice on shooting bullseye?
I have only been shooting for about 3 months now, I have a Springfield XD9 also.
Thanks in advance!!

xdshootergirl,
First off, RELAX!!
Its easier said than done, but take a few deep breaths and try to remember you are only there to compete against yourself.

I'm sure you're familiar with the sequence of a match. But refresh it in your mind so you don't lose track.

Try to concentrate on the range commands so you don't think you're in a timed fire (5 rds in 20 seconds) series, but are actually in Rapid fire (5 rds in 10 seconds). Been there... done that

Are you shooting your Ruger for the entire match? If you're not aware already, virtually every club match I've ever gone to allows a new shooter to shoot their 22 for the entire match if they don't have all the necessary pistols, so take enough ammo. When I started I had guys nearly shoving their "backup guns" and ammo in my hands so I would shoot the entire match.

Are you shooting a stock Ruger, or have you had a trigger job done?

Dot, or open sights?

I've found that most of the shooters in this "Sport of Gentlemen and Gentle Ladies" are really great people. They will help you avoid mistakes that you don't even know exist.

HAVE FUN!!!

FWIW

Stork,
Thanks for the advice. I am shooting my Ruger for the whole match, I don't think we change pistols at all. Someone said you can shoot a .380 (?) but if you do that, you have to keep with the same gun for the whole time of the league and you can't switch to a different gun.

I am shooting a stock Ruger. I bought it used. Open sights for now, but with a Hi-Viz optic sight. I tried using a red dot during a bullseye introductory night and now that I am using open sights, I think the red dot would be too distracting. I practiced this weekend and did fairly good, better than I thought I would considering I have only had the gun for less than a week. Everyone on the league is very nice and helpful. No matter what, I know I am only competing against myself and I am having fun!! When the introductory night was held by a local women's group, I instantly fell in love with bullseye shooting. The league held a practice last week with the turning targets and I got to see how a match was done from the commands to the timing. BTW, it is inside at 50 ft.

I "cleaned" my Ruger last night with some Brake Free and a bore snake because being used, I am not sure when the last time the gun was cleaned and I am scared to take it apart myself. I will have the gun shop clean it for me realy well after this match.

These guns are not hard to clean. Bullseye has a section on maintance/service http://www.guntalk-online.com/service.html. It will walk you through the steps. The first couple of times I had my gun in front of the computer as I did each steps. After a couple of times it's get easier. Being used someone may have done some work to it all ready. There is only one way to tell and that is to do detail cleaning. I would recommend the use of a dry lube, oil a tracks and hold the dirty powder residue and will gun the gun up. Use oil very sparingly. I only use oil on the pivot pins, dry lub every where else.

Enjoy your new found hobby,

Welcome to the forum.

blue68f100 gave you the "all you ever wanted to know about Ruger's" link. This one http://www.bullseyepistol.com/ has a wealth of information on Bullseye shooting. The link to the AMU pistol guide is good.

My guess is that you will want to eventually change the sights to target sights. The Hi-Viz is great for target acquisition but not as good, IMO, for target shooting, although with my eyes I sure can see them better.

Enjoy.

Welcome to the forum! Sounds like you are getting great advice. As mentioned before the Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU) pistol guidebook is a good read. It has a lot of fundamentals on shooting bullesye pistol. It may take a while to digest all the information found in that book.

Stork said it best - have fun! Don't worry about your scores, enjoy the shooting and the fellowship of the other competitors. Like anything, the more you practice/participate, the more comfortable you get, and the better your performance. It is good that you are starting out with the .22 pistol. Anything you do (marksmanship wise) with the .22 you'll do with a bigger bore pistol. The smaller bore pistol is a lot of fun and is more cost effective to shoot.

I agree with you that the red dot sight is very confusing for newer shooters. If your eyesight is good, then iron sights are best to start. The fiber optic sight is easier to pick up in lower light conditions, but as your skills improve, you'll likely find that they aren't as accurate - there's a trade off. The more seasoned shooters will likely assist you with any questions you may have. If you ask questions of them, you will find them very eager to help out a new shooter.

I understand your reluctance for taking apart your new (to you) pistol. Even if you decide to have someone else give it a good cleaning, you should take a look over at my maintenance pages, just to see how your pistol disassembles and interacts.

I hope your new found sport is rewarding to you. If you have any questions we all will be happy to assist. Have Fun!

R,
Bullseye

Thanks to everyone for all the advice and good wishes!
I did really bad at my first match. I have Hi-Viz sights that came with the Mark III and the front sight was very hard to see. We shoot inside, and the light was not great. Even when I turned on my light above me, the Hi-Viz still was hard to see. And, I relaized the sight was blocking all of the black on the target. I am now looking into a red dot sight. I have never shot so bad in my whole 3 months of shooting. But, I am not discouraged! I can only go up from here.

xdshootergirl,

First, I'm glad you had fun. This sport should never feel like work, although I find myself more exhausted after a one day 2700 with a leg match than I ever did as a kid hauling hay on our farm. Bullseye will tax your mental prowess. I figure I have to work to allow me to have fun and compete against myself.

When you are dot shopping make sure you check for parallax. Brace the dot against a display wall or door jamb and focus the dot on something 25-50 yards away. Then move your head from side to side and top to bottom. If the dot moves around on your point of aim the dot you will wind up with shots printing to a different point than where it is zeroed. Very frustrating when you call a 10 or x and wind up with an 8 or 7. I've examined dots that gave 2" of parallax at 50 feet. While I've not examined every brand by any means. Ultra Dot has given me the least amount of parallax of any brand so far. They have a very round crisp dot.

Keep at it and never stop asking questions.


FWIW

Look through Brownells.com, Midwayusa.com, or search for rimfire sports and custom for a different front sight/rear sight. i think ruger sells their target sight as well which I happen to like.http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?p ... ber=519188

it should be easy to switch the sights out...

Take your time. Especially in the timed fire stage. 20 seconds is WAYYYYYY longer than most people think.

Breathe. Relax. Slow, steady trigger squeeze.

Finally, have fun. You'll be addicted.