breathing

[freebird63]

I hope this is the proper area for this question?
I have always had problems with breathing when it comes to shooting. It seems like just the minute I look through that scope my breathing becomes very errattic and next thing I know I am holding my breath and I either cracker the shot or have look away and catch my breath. What are some good techniques for breathing???

 

[royinidaho]

A double dose of celexa does wonders.

I find myself forgetting to breath from the time I get behind the rifle until I make the shot. I seem to concentrate on trigger pull so much that I exclude other important things.

Or maybe I'm just weird. Who would ever thing a fella would have to remember to breathe?

Proper practice, dry firing, paying attention to all aspects of the process may help.

 

[freebird63]

Its actually funny, when ever I take my wife shooting with me she will stand next to me and too many times she will say to me" honey breath". I am shooting a 300RUM and reloading for it and have come to realize how much I really don't know about reloading and shooting in general. I hate it when that happens.

 

[Eaglet]

Its actually funny, when ever I take my wife shooting with me she will stand next to me and too many times she will say to me" honey breath". I am shooting a 300RUM and reloading for it and have come to realize how much I really don't know about reloading and shooting in general. I hate it when that happens.

Be glad she loves you! Or she would not be saying "honey breath"!

 

[Willys46]

practice the breathing part.

With a 22 or 223 try this,

take 3 or four deep breaths, concentrate on In your nose out your mouth, (Got this from my wifes pilats )

On th fourth be ready to take the shot mid breath. you should be on target and in the middle hold your breath, no more than 5 sec to break the shot. If you cannot get it off in the 5 sec, just take another breath.

Break the shot and exhale, rack the bolt and be ready to take a follow up shot on the next breath in the middle.

I shoot about 5 shoots then break. If you practice the muscle memory will take over during stressfull times.

Just another trick, if your cross hairs get blurry during the breathing, on the breath you are going to shoot, right before the pause without breaking the check weld shoft your eyes off the scope and look back. Your eyes start starving for O2 when focused on one object to long. It should clear the cross hairs right up for when you break the shot.

Just the little things that have worked for me, Not an expert and do not claim to be!

Willys46

 

[SHRTSHTR]

All good advise. I however prefer to break the shot at the bottom of my breathing cycle. This procedure takes a little practice but works well for me.
Picture your lungs like a couple of Ballons, the less air the more stable they become. Whatever method you try, consistency is key gun)

 

[3fingervic]

I have been doing a lot of dry firing. I try to keep my breathing steady until I'm ready to shoot, then take a 1/4 of a breath, hold it and shoot. I would like to know how to slow my heart rate down.

 

[Boss Hoss]

This is good but also---"float/hover" per Speedy and do not lean on the bench or on the rifle. With light rifles this is very difficult to do and firm contact with the butt is required sometimes. Be consistent and do it correctly every time so you can be consistent. All of this is predicated on proper bag and rest placement and set up of course.

A little trick that I learned is to get Everything ready to take the shot which means making sure the bags are settled and the rifle is level and properly placed. Then when you think everything is 100% perfect dry fire and if the cross hair moves then you have not done your set up properly. This is a HUGE oversimplifacation but hopefully you will get the idea plus never leave the loaded round in the chamber for more than a couple of seconds as heat will transfer to the loaded round depending on how many shots have been fired.

During competition I do not touch the rifle except VERY lightly on the but and touch the trigger with the tip of my finger. Easy to do that with a 1 oz trigger but a light grip on a sporter it can still be done.