David Bradshaw Aerial Shooting S&W 29, 44Mag, Nickel

[seancass]

Lots of video here, David should be along shortly to elaborate. There's a new video angle here that provides an interesting perspective.

[bradshaw]

Beaucoup thanks to Sean for hanging these pictures on Singleactions. The revolver is an exceedingly fine S&W M-29 nickel 8-3/8-inch. The revolver has worn many grips over the years, three different, whittled-on S&W stocks, the small size Pachmayr Signature, and the Pachmayr Gripper worn here. Most of these jugs were shot with the Sierra 180 JHC over 29.2/H110 in Federal .44 Mag brass with Federal 155 primer.
David Bradshaw

[cyberscout19]

Nice work David!

[oddshooter]

Hey David,

May I pick your brain on your technique?

It looks like you acquire and then follow the jug with your sights; and then fire when below the horizon.
As opposed to holding the sights still and waiting for the jug to come into the sights. Nice shooting. Do you ever miss or do you just edit the videos?


Don't laugh, but I was most impressed with your loading procedure grabbing two rounds at a time. I try to get my trainees to take pride in their loading technique without much success. One of the most impressive feats I've seen was a young lady grabbing 5 at a time and just dropping them in. Watching you do it so naturally without even thinking was an inspiration.

You surprised me with that spiffy looking attire. Your tone and attitude was a no-nonsense joy to watch. I always assumed a grizzly, fat, old fart like the rest of us.


Prescut

[bradshaw]

Prescut: It looks like you acquire and then follow the jug with your sights; and then fire when below the horizon.
As opposed to holding the sights still and waiting for the jug to come into the sights.

DB: Eye on target, never to leave. Sights come to eye. There is no time to hunt for sights. Either your sight picture arrives or it does not. No time to do anything but drive your gun. Drive it as hard as smoothly possible. To pick a spot in space and wait for the object to arrive requires extreme calculus, as no two shots are the same. That would be riskier than snap-shooting, which is the absence of patience, but works in skilled hands for limited applications such as slicing a shot between trees at a moving deer. I’m more of a powder monkey with a paintbrush. I work for each shot. You will see in some of the videos, most recently the old Kimber 1911 Gold Match, a frosty exhale as the pistol continues down after the shot. Follow through. Air is precious, the fuel we burn like nitroglycerine. Oxygen relaxes our nerves when we allow ourself to breathe. Some shooters hold their breath between shots and run out. The single shot takes a single breath. BREATHING and SQUEEZE are twins. So we move to the squeeze, which actuates follow through.

So there you have it. To shoot a kinetic target is a kinetic act. In fact, to shoot a static target is a kinetic act. Both require FOLLOW THROUGH.

Prescut: Do you ever miss or do you just edit the videos?

Yes. To drive a shot is to risk a miss. To never miss is to settle for banality. Banality is the greatest threat to life. And yes, we delete some misses as well as good shots, especially hits which lack contrast. (Which is why I put fabric dye in the water.) The M-29 nickel 8-3/8 video shows a miss. I try to call my shots. Dead nuts is dead nuts. Four o’clock should be four o’clock, our three to five. Call every shot you make and you live.

Precut: ....your loading procedure grabbing two rounds at a time.

Whatever I can put your fingers on. Hadn’t thought about it. Years of belt with cartridge loops, bullets come up one at a time. Loading a double action revolver with loose ammunition, when you can put the paw on em two is always better.
David Bradshaw

[oddshooter]

Thank you much,

I don't do much of that type shooting, but I am going to start. It looks like great fun bringing that hawgleg up and then down following the jug.

I still need to work on staying calm and breathing. I am a giant fan of "Air is precious, the fuel we burn like nitroglycerine." I try to pack my body with oxygen as a free energy source. Not only does the body calm down the tension, but the mind begins to search for that familiar "in the zone" sensation.

Seems to me all great atheletes are able to find the zone quicker and easier than the rest of us.

I love watching the golfer Jason Day as he takes a breath, exhales, and visualizes his next shot. There's a man who knows how to focus his calm.

Prescut

[bradshaw]

“... don't do much of that type shooting, but I am going to start.” ----Prescut

*****

Dry fire provides a free introduction. Any thrown object which provides the neutral sky background. Keep pushing for a sight picture. Pointing counts. Pointing buys time which is not for sale.

There is time on a rising target. A dropping target runs out of time. There may be time for lateral adjustment on a rising target. There may be time for a lateral on a dropping target. There is no time between horizon & earth, only timing.
David Bradshaw

[oddshooter]

Hey David,

Wow this is fascinating practice. 5 different skills:
Finding the target and setting your focus.
Including a sight picture as it comes up to the target.
Staying with a sight picture on target as it arcs and falls.
Staying with a sight picture on a target as the background changes.
Timing that squeeze after the horizon.

Great advice. I'm now hooked on dry firing that throwing technique. It's a hoot all by itself. I'm also able to stay calm and breathe. Great practice for the real thing. Pointing becomes easy pretty fast. Pushing for a real sight picture is gonna take me awhile.

I can't wait to see how these dry fire drills effect my actual shooting.


Prescut
PS I've gotten some great shots off once it hits the ground.

[bradshaw]

Precut.... borrowing from Japanese bow master Kanjuro Shibata, I call steps in aerial shooting COORDINATIONS. At variance with the sensei, the pistol or rifle technique is much less formal. “Formal” refers to form, and the Japanese martial disciplines are big on form. In martial practice, technique is broken down into motions with a beginning and an ending. Interestingly, following a Kyudo program, Shibata Sensei asked me to strap on my old brass grip-frame Super Blackhawk and demonstrate fast draw. Turns out the Zen master and friend of Tibetan Buddhist Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, was a big fan of Western movies and American civilian skill at arms.

Sharpshooting is mostly a static practice. The static practice submits well to a series of coordinations. However, a sharpshooter should be able to dispatch a moving target. Comes in handy. Kyudo, Japanese bowmanship, evolved to include shooting at a moving target and shooting from a moving mount. The asymmetric bow with extended upper limb is designed to be shot from horseback.

Fortunately, the handgunner needn’t go through the formality of Kyudo, which rewards form. The handgunner should start with dry fire on thrown objects. This trains the mind to bring the gun to the DOTTED LINE between eye and target. A sight picture is a good thing but it is not possible to see the sights every time. The action is over in an instant.

Static target: focus on front sight.

Moving target: focus on target. Here’s the rub: simultaneous FINE FOCUS & PERIPHERAL VISION are attributes of ravens & crows, hawks & eagles (probably many other birds), not humans. Humans must work to balance fine focus and peripheral vision.

Speaking of balance, all marksmanship begins with balance. To throw a weighty object pitches you off balance. By making all movement circular one regains balance in time to shoot.
David Bradshaw