Controling Heartbeat

Daddy Justin · #1 10-03-2005, 02:05 PM

Last week I was shooting off of a bench rest and had no problems with my heartbeat bouncing the crosshairs around. This week, my heartbeat was a problem. Is there a technique to minimize the heartbeat affect....besides the obvious one of holding my breath until my heart stops.

Thanks for the info.

Justin

RBrowning · #2 10-03-2005, 05:16 PM

Timing is everything. Of course, the better condition you are in the less frequent your heart beat. But if you time your pulse and trigger squeeze carefully, even us old fat fellows can do OK. That old axiom that that the gun should go off as a surprise worked well in boot camp, but I doubt you will find anyone at Camp Perry preaching nor practicing it.
This is also where you find a light trigger pull coming in real handy too. It makes it much easier to get the gun to fire during that .3 sec dwell time between pulses. Also a good rear bag helps to stabilize the stock.

abinok · #3 10-03-2005, 10:17 PM

Justin,
Most likly, your heartbeat problem is due to a slightly different position, that conducts the pulse to the rifle better than a previous position. Shooting smallbore rifle some years ago, I became very aware of how a slight change in the placement of your cheek on the cheekpiece, or the location of the butt in your shoulder, or exact sling position can change the effects of your pulse. There are techniques to use mental techniques to supress heartbeat temporarily, but takes years, and much instruction to develop.

Daddy Justin · #4 10-03-2005, 10:28 PM

This is interesting. I should conciously pull the trigger between heartbeats. This is what the pros do? Granted, it needs to not be a "jerked" trigger.

Justin

D.P. · #5 10-04-2005, 07:52 AM

Daddy Justin

Diet and condition [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] I shot a lot of three position rimfire and food was a huge factor for me. No candy bars, coffee etc. Other factors I notice at the bench, is how much contact my chest has with the bench.
Some days are just better than others.

Brown Dog · #6 10-04-2005, 12:13 PM

Along the lines of Rimfire's post; 'Caffeine' was the word that popped into my mind.