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Target Shooter

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Tim Finley

Field Target shooting or as it ismore commonly known FT is theoldest outdoor target shooting air

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Originating in the UK it hasevolved over thirty some yearsfrom a sport which was very muchlike today’s Hunter Field Target

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is the younger brother of FT andis actually more aligned to howFT started out. This began in the1980’s with four power scopesand even open sights, nowHFT has shooters using smaller

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times power or less. Nowadays

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are what are needed in FT to be

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to the targets. FT began with

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which moved out to 55 yardswith the event of precharged

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scopes. HFT has a maximumtarget range of 45 yards whichalso mirrors the longest rangeat quarry should be shot with a

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differences too, FT allows

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waterproof seat to sit upon and toplace under the back foot whentaking the forced positionalkneeling shots found in FTcourses. The now classic FTsitting position is always used onall FT shots other than the forcedkneeling and standing shots. Itis a very stable and comfortableshooting position which allows

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forward knee while the shooter

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the distance to the target. Thebasic position is the same for most shooters, the forward handcups the forward knee, with the

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the forward hand as well as the

FT RIFLE back HFT RIFLE frontFT rear bag support

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scopeClassic FT sitting positionin SFT

Target Shooter

top of the knee, this takes all

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peculiarities needed with

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shooters use a target glove ontheir forward hand. The rear or trigger arm then rests on the thighof the rear leg, I say rear leg asthe trunk of the shooter is not at90 degrees to the target, but at 45degrees. With the rear shoulder inline with the forward knee, in a linepointing directly at the

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shooters exclusively use themore normal “on the knee”

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rested directly on the knee, but iscradled be the forward hand,this hand is normally equippedwith a padded target glove. FT

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the sitting standing or kneelingpositions. A simple rule togovern which way you move thebutt hook is, if the target is higher than horizontal then lift therelative position of the hook onthe butt. If the target is lower, thendrop the butt hook. The greater the angle up or down to thetarget the more you need to a

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Anschutz type multi positionalbuttpads/hooks are extremely

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based upon indoor target gunshave the ability to alter the buttposition. There are no real tricksto FT shooting positions other than being able to alter the butthook, although it surprises megreatly that not all FT shooters

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suit the three shooting stances,sitting, kneeling and standing.Pull length of stock (butt totrigger), forend stock depth andcheek piece height should allbe different for each shootingposition. However, woodenstocks cannot be altered and tomove the forend and pull lengthfor each target even with amodern 10m style aluminiummodular stock can take sometime. The only practical optionis to move the butt hook/padposition up and down, it doeshelp to stabilise the shootingposition. The FT stockdimensions are then acompromise between standing,sitting and kneeling. My Steyr

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biased slightly towardsstanding, but is still usable for sitting and kneeling, althoughnot perfect. FT kneeling can beas stable as the sitting position if you take the time to master it. The

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be clear knee, the rule being if you can drop your hand downand it touches the knee, thenthe hand is not forward enough.The deep FT stock must not beresting upon the forearm either.The back foot must be verticaland the bean bag can be placed

Normal HFT prone peg shotFree standing elbow onhipFT sitting shot NOTE the bean bagFT kneeling shotFoot on the peg prone

Target Shooter

under the shin/ankle of the rear foot to transfer the weight of theshooter to the ground. I alsoalter the position of the butt hookfor kneeling, again moving iteven more if the targets are nothorizontal to the ground at thelane marker. The most stablestanding position is to have thefront elbow resting upon the fronthip and the front hand drawnback to right in front of the trigger guard. FT shooters do not use theshotgun type lock arm stance for standing shots, unless forced toby extreme angled shots high intrees.With HFT there are two main sshooting techniques used in FTthat are completely banned. Oneis the classic FT sitting positioneither on the ground, on a beanbag or on a turned foot whenkneeling and other is the use of a supporting bean bag under therear foot/ankle when kneeling. Also you are not allowed to alter any settings/positions of

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scope once you start shooting.

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using the parallax, no

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elevation changes, no eye bellchanges on the scope andno butt pad or stock depths

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the sitting shooting position theprone shot is the norm in HFTwith some lanes having posts or pegs driven into the ground to actas both lane markers which mustbe touched by the shooter or

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marker instead of a peg/post. Thismust be touched but provides nosupport to the shot. Animportant rule in HFT is that thetrigger must not be forward of or

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To start with the peg shot, a lotof shooters use a target shootingglove on their supporting hand,as is done in FT. If the peg is

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be placed on top of the peg andthe thumb held upright to form

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around gripping the peg. The

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is down the left hand side of thepeg. The variations on this aredown to the length of the peg, itsdiameter and if you need to shootdown one side or the other of thepeg to get a clear shot moving tothe other side of the peg meansyou have to grip the peg with the

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liked about HFT when I shot it in2004. Pegs soon took over onevery lane, but in the 2008season up to 5 “non peg” shotsare on each 30 shot course.This type of shot relies upon theshooting skill of the shooter,rather than hanging on to a solidpeg. Its this shooting position whichI feel the use of a target glove isessential, as is good trigger control and breathing technique.Now for a good prone positiontrick, some course designersplace pegs that do not have aclear sight on the target. Theseforce the clever shooter to moveoff the peg to clear obstructions

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“off the peg” shots have theHFT shooter adopting a uniqueshooting position where the footor knee touches the lane marker

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gloved hand on the ground. Lookfor other competitors using thisposition as a clue as to thebest way of taking on a target. Ihave even used this position lefthanded (I am normally righthanded) the ambidextrous stock

Allowed in HFTSat on turned footnot allowed in FT or HFTHFT supported standingshot

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HFT supported stander