This is a practical guide for beginners. When I first started in Field Target (FT) competition, there wasn�t any beginner�s class or books available. I have to resort to watching other competitors and asking them questions. Some are willing to share, and even then you have to take what you see and hear and test them to see if they really work for you. Not all advises are good advises, and sometimes what you see in competition is only part of what�s visible. Due to lack of help and information available for FT, I became frustrated, discourage and finally, quit. A year later, an experience shooter named Doug M. found out that I quit and he shared some of his vast knowledge about FT and thus I was back into the game. We really need more people like Doug to grow this sport.
FT shooting is unique, because it requires that you determine the distance-to-target. All existing rifle and pistol shooting events have targets in fixed distances, and in most cases, only one distance! In this respect, it is easier to shoot the target, because you just need to sight-in your gun at this fixed distance before the start of the match. This is not practical to do in FT shooting, because you have so many distances to sight-in.
For a beginner, this game requires that you do two things really well. They are:
(1) Figure out the distance to the target.
(2) Read the wind.
The first is more important than the second. If you cannot figure out the actual distance to
target, you have little chance of hitting the target. As for wind, well in most situations you can wait until the wind dies down, than shoot. If you have an AR that shoots at near 20 ft-lb energy, wind is usually not a problem, except for the long distances or when is blowing hard. Beyond 35 yards I considered long distance for an AR. As for knowing how to read the wind, there is no substitute; you have to go out and shoot your gun and practice, lots of it. Reading the wind is more of an advance technique, thus will not be discussed here. There are a lot of well qualify shooters that you can learn how to read the wind from, just buy their books or CDs or video. Bear in mind, that wind affects an airgun pellet a lot more than a firearm bullet. In FT shooting you cannot ignore a 5mph breeze like you can in smallbore rifle competition.
As you can see above, I didn�t list �knowing how to shoot�, because from my experience in FT, I don�t think FT shooting requires the kind of shooting techniques that you have to
learn to compete in Olympic style smallbore or 10-meter air rifle shooting. You can apply your Olympic style shooting techniques to FT, but the execution need not be critical. I know I will be getting a lot of sh_t from the FT shooters for saying this, but hey, a person can voice his opinion. After all, our 1st Amendment says so, right? Later, I will talk more about the shooting techniques that you should know for FT.