“Your Competition Ain’t Going to Like You!”

We’re returning from Ben Avery Shooting Center in Phoenix, sitting in the United club thinking of several things.

The animations were great and Dan Twitchell was very impressed with us and our way of teaching. He was double impressed with the reaction to our teaching from all clients. When he saw the animations and the monitor we now carry, his comment was “your competition ain’t gonna like you,” to which I said “They already don’t like us, so who cares? The smart ones are coming on board.”

He watched us many times and was beaming when we left. And he wants us to come back again. We will be back in April. And by the way, Dan has some great targets on three courses with 40-plus stations.

Lessons Learned

I’m still amazed at the number of shooters who are swinging through the target even though they can’t see what is going on when they pull the trigger. And they just keep doing it.

The dove shot that shows how you can slow the targets down is a real closer on the OSP technique, and the virtual shooter is killer for the kids. We had several “kids” this weekend, and when the animations came up in the preamble each day they were mesmerized and wanted to go shoot immediately. We got something here and can’t wait to present it to IHEA in April.

Jenifer Shelly from Montana and her boyfriend Doug each shot with us for two days. Man, what a live wire she is. But when she finally slowed down, things fell into place. Doug watched on her first day then they both shot on the second day and she watched Doug on the third day. The combination of watching and shooting was great for them both. I encountered a custom stock on her gun where the comb was raised and huge Monte Carlo with a huge radius (and of course too high) but the radius kept her from being able to know when the stock was in the right place, and on high tower shots, it just did not fit.

The left shape is of normal comb and the right shape is the huge radius on Jenifer’s gun, not unlike the stocks we see from Wenig made for trap. If you were shooting trap, it would be great because you are able to apply the exact amount of cheek pressure to line everything up. But when shooting sporting clays and going from a low mount and mounting in front of where you are looking, there is no way for the shooter to know whether the gun is mounted correctly.

Adding to the trouble this shooter had, there was way too much cheek pressure necessary for her to make the gun shoot flat and she was missing a lot of shots over. And she had difficulty hitting the tower due to the amount of pressure necessary.

The Concepts Are Coming Together

I’m also amazed at how the animations are getting questions now because everyone is understanding them better. The dots are beginning to make sense and the fact that they come from the retina and not the brain is helping with shooters trying to think about the lead while they shoot. We’re creating a series of dots on right-to-left shots with and without the eyes to illustrate looking away from the gun.

Also, the concept of looking behind the barrel is making more sense to people now, and I don’t know why. It could be that we are getting better at presenting it.

We used our PowerPoint on mindsets on the third day, and this one needs to go on the Knowledge Vault for all our associates.

I’m amazed at how many shooters don’t know, realize or understand that they are looking at the barrel. When they finally begin to look at the target behind the gun and slow down they are amazed.

Adjusting Kids’ Guns

I made a major adjustment on two kids. The reluctance of kids to not want to change anything does exist, and I think that it’s because they are afraid it will screw them up. I lengthened one kid’s stock 1 and 5/8ths of an inch, which his dad had been trying to get him to do for a year. He did it when I put the boot with Mario’s extension on his gun and he shot it.

The other kid was shooting with a 95 percent mounted gun. I got him to get the gun out of his face and he shot better. His father, too, had been trying to get him to change, but he was afraid.

I had an interview with Scott Robertson last week and it was a doozy. Not many people know he is cross-dominant. This is gonna put some people on their ear when they read this.

Off to catch reds and trout and maybe a flounder or two with Brian as a birthday present. More next week.