Reading material

kkelly77

Can anyone recommend some reading material for target shooting? Books or magazines. Can only find mags on Sporting and Clay Pigeon in Easons. Cheers.

K

I think that the Irish Shooters Digest usually has some target shooting articles in it...

It wasn't me!

Depending what you're into, Target Sports does a good range of articles on a lot of stuff, and a lot of interesting fundamental stuff that transcends the boundaries of individual disciplines. If you're into rifle shooting, Ways of the Rifle is very good. Not cheap, but good.

Sparks

Target Sports is pretty good and you'll find it in easons; Ways of the Rifle is one of the better textbooks out there for high-level stuff, but it's easier to find online (I don't think I've ever found a target shooting book off the shelf in Ireland). A lot of the better stuff on the mental aspect isn't written for shooting, it's mostly for golf (Every shot must have a purpose was good, but with mental stuff, it's very much a case of personal choice). The Wind Book was pretty good at reading wind, again it's an online buy. There are a range of beginner-to-mid-level books out there as well, Olympic Target Shooting was the one I read and it was pretty sound. There's also Rifle Shooting by Tubb if you're interested more in the fullbore end of things.

It wasn't me!

Perhaps a caveat on Ways of the Rifle: Personally, I got it a good while ago, and while it was useful, a lot of it was unintelligible. Since, I've read it again at intervals, and it's a book that becomes more and more useful as you improve, so if you get it and find it unhelpful, try get some time in practising and getting coaching, and then approach it again, and it should yield better results.

Sparks

It really is a high-level book. In fact, I've found it's - initially at least - better for coaching others than for learning yourself, because it doesn't show one way to do things, it shows examples of multiple different ways (using photos of different top-level shooters who have radically different styles of shooting) and shows how each variation in one aspect of a position induces comprimises in other aspects and also shows how each position can be built up to give a similarly solid result. For example, it shows several different ways of shooting in the kneeling position from the classical "textbook" form through to Debevec's unorthodox one, and why each of them works.

Very good for beginning coaches, reasonable for mid-to-high-level shooters. Wouldn't really give it to a beginner though, if someone's just starting it's easier to give them a single, albiet generic, way to do things and add variations as needed; showing them the range of "finished products" just hampers development.