How to improve your airgun shooting

What do you do when it all goes wrong? You know, when targets you took for granted are missed, and even the basics seem too much to grasp. I’m not talking about a blip, here, but a full-on meltdown of your previous form, where your beloved sport seems to conspire against you. The “unfairness” of it all is confirmed when a check over the chronograph and some rested shots prove that the rifle is shooting as it should, so the problem really is down to you. It’s a hideous situation for a dedicated shooter, but we’ve all been there, and I assure you, there’s a method that will help extract you from the madness.

The first thing to do is to set aside some time. Any problem this serious won’t respond fully to a quick fix. Give yourself a clear day to start with, and work from there. The next step is a drastic one, but it’s entirely necessary, so bite your lip and go for it.

Strip down and clean your air rifle

Begin by removing your scope from the rifle, then close down all of your stock adjustments — cheekpiece, butt pad, trigger position, the lot — and return everything to where it was when you first took your rifle from its box. There’s no turning back now, so fully commit and reset every adjustment you’ve made to bring you in harmony with your hardware. This process not only resets your rifle and scope, it does the same for your mindset. The failures are in the past; it’s time to move forward.

Once you’ve given everything a good clean, start the rebuild by re-fitting the scope, but don’t fully tighten it to the mounting rail yet. Next, systematically reset those stock adjustments, but don’t just return them to their former positions. This is absolutely vital. Part of the reason your form went downhill could well be due to changes in your technique or posture, so make certain your stock, and the position of your scope, serves how you shoot now, not what you previously needed. I can’t over-stress the need to take your time and get this adjustment phase spot-on.

Rebuild your air rifle

Rebuild from the ground up, and keep tweaking those adjustments until you can settle into your ideal stance, with your eyes closed, and your scope will be in the perfect position when you open your eyes. Again, do not accept second-best at any stage.

When you’re totally happy with the major adjustments, work on the trigger position, and anything else needed to fine-tune the system. Once that’s done, check your rangefinding settings, and be prepared to recalibrate those if needed, then start shooting.

Zeroing

Establish that perfect zero, make sure each aimpoint corresponds exactly with your scope settings, and keep shooting to implant the confidence you’ll need to get back to your true level.

Resetting your hardware and yourself is a proven tactic when form takes a nosedive, but the real deal is that “no second-best” mindset. Apply that to your shooting — and you’ll be able to handle anything.