Electronic Shooting trainers- get one? -which one?

joecoie

Anyone using or have used any of the electronic trainers? I'm looking at Scatt, Rika, & Noptel for training with 10m Air Pistol, .22 Pistol & .22 Rifle. From my research, seems like they will all do much the same job from a dry firing or home training position. The Noptel would seem to have some advantage for live firing & using distances greater than 10m, this advantage comes at a price though.
Have not actually seen any of these in use so don't have any first hand feel for the practicalities of their use. So would anyone be able to report their experiences in general or comparitivly across the models above.
Tks, Joe.

bigred

Go to the respective websites and download the software. IMHO, Scatt is probably the best to use. Noptel is good, but nearly twice the price (and the sensor is massive). I found the RIKA interface a nightmare to use.

When I win the lotto (next week I think ), I'll be getting a Scatt

I use SCATT - but what level of shooting are you at?

The electronic systems are good, but only as supplement.. I use the SCATT once every couple of weeks to check a couple of things..

DeVore

DeV.

Sparks

If you can afford it, Noptel is the rolls royce of trainers. Fast to set up, lots of optional extras (everything from heartbeat to foot pressure to trigger pressure). But, twice the cost too. SCATT is pretty decent, but like Rika, the setup can be a bit fiddly, and with Rika we've found that florescent lights can cause havoc with the system at times. Personally, if I had the money, I'd buy noptel. And if I didn't have the money (which I don't right now), I'd save up for the noptel Or invest in more coaching time...

End of the day, it's another tool in the toolbox, not a silver bullet. Unless you have a coach to help, you won't get the full benefit from it. And there are a host of other, cheaper things you can do first. For example, get yourself a digital camcorder thingy for a tenth the cost of a noptel, sit it on a tripod facing you as you shoot, and tape yourself shooting a full match or a hundred shots or more. Call the shot verbally before you bring back each card, then bring back the card and read off the score for the camera.

Now the fun bit. Sit down the next day, watch each shot, take notes. Look for the bits where stuff goes wrong and what causes it. Did your elbow go in the same place each time? If it didn't, what happened? And so on and so forth.

See, that's the thing about this stuff - it takes twice as much time to do the analysis as it does to do the actual shooting in the first place.

(ps DeV, that's more IPSC than ISSF )

DeVore

DeVore wrote: »

DeV.

BRING IT ON!

joecoie

Thanks, BigR

zaraba, creeping slowly up there, currently at low 550s(/600 AP)

Sparks, I'm thinking about getting a quantitive measurment of hold & how good my trigger release is.

Sparks

Joe, any of the systems above will do that, but all will need an optional extra for it (the trigger pressure sensor). You could try without it, but it wouldn't give the clearest picture of your release.

You can program the newer (USB) scatt software to highlight the fraction of second before and after the shot. That should give you an indication of your hold both pre and post shot is without having to adjust the pistol.

Sparks

Yes, but it won't show trigger release properly, because it's showing the effect of trigger pressure, not trigger pressure itself. And if you're just looking at effects, you may as well just shoot and look at scores

Not really - if you are snapping the trigger, you will see consistant postshot movement on the SCATT and can work with that.

You can fit extra things to your pistol, but if you aint gonna shoot with it like that....

bigred

Deleted User wrote: »

Not really - if you are snapping the trigger, you will see consistant postshot movement on the SCATT and can work with that.

You can fit extra things to your pistol, but if you aint gonna shoot with it like that....

Once you start hitting the mid-500s on pistol, snapping is something you'll have pretty much given up 50 points ago. While the Scatt will show the movement before shot release, it can only tell so much. Without the pressure sensor, you can't tell if it's due to chicken-finger or some other trigger-finger-pressure relationship. In pistol, good triggering is probably top of the list of technical things that need to be right. Trigger release needs to be linear all the way from 2nd stage take up to release (it's bloody hard to master, believe me!)

joecoie

Anyone know where it might be possible to try out any of the aforementioned systems or at least see one in operation? Joe.

Sparks

Geoff has the Rika setup in WTSC Joe. DURC has a SCATT but its pretty old and there are awkward insurance things about shooting on the DURC range if you're not a TCD student/alumni. Don't know of anyone with a noptel.

You can watch the one in DURC in action - just can't shoot i'm afraid!

However, it is very very old. I know that the NTSA have the new USB one, but I don't know where it is or who has it.