why are the brits

[bartman007]

A team shooter needs to do the following:

Have a reliable rifle that shoots better than 1/2MOA.
Load the rifle on the mound
Hold good elevation
Shoot when the coach says so
Reload

What else is there to it??

Woody_Rod, you may want to consider some of these other attributes of a team shooter:

1. Have a consistent and developed process when loading and unloading. And knowing when to remove a round when it has been sitting in the chamber too long.
2. Have a developed process for setup, so as to deal with varying local conditions (mound shape / weather / lighting conditions / etc). This would be assessed by the selectors, when comparing team practices from various ranges.
3. Have a rapport with the assigned coach. Know how to communicate when on the mound (If you are having issues with equipment / environment / personal health).
4. The coach needs to be able to help you get into your shooting zone. If there are issues on the day (slow marking, tough conditions, challenges, etc), the coach may be able to settle the shooter down. This comes with knowing the shooter.
5. The shooter needs to communicate with the Captain, to gain relevant information related to when they will shoot. The course of fire, and other pertinent information.
6. The shooter needs to have a level head, and when the going gets tough, rise to the occasion. It is not OK to turn around and say, yeah the mound was spongy, and I couldn't see well, so that's why it went to crap. Or that the range officer didn't pull his finger out, or the marker was crap, or the food at the canteen was crap, so I was in a crap mood too.

While it is easy to fire shots, becoming a member of a team requires much more of the shooter. If one shooter performs below par at a range, we need to learn from it, and make adjustments to improve scores for the shooters to follow.

The first shooter of the range might be the sacrificial lamb, and if it is you, you need to accept that it is your job. This can be taken two ways, 1. they believe in my ability to reliably shoot in all conditions (pat on the back). Which will help the coach get a good understanding of the conditions, which will help the shooters that follow!
2. Oh crap, I'm going to lose points because the coach is using me to find out the conditions (shooter taking a negative look at the role)

And there is more

[DaveMc]

Correction, I will try a few different barrels etc during lead up, to see what is working well in local conditions, but during the main event, usualy just 2 barrels.

I never said just the Queens and actually meant the leadups as well. Either way you seem to be able to have the knack to drop everything into the middle from 22BR to 300WSM - my statement holds -you are a freak. Are you sure you don't want to coach Rod????

Bartman - on number 1 comment above. It was interesting that Emil Praslick wanted all shooters in his team to load a jumped bullet - in case of having to remove the case. As he said - a far bigger problem in a team shoot is to have a stuck projectile on the mound. Assuming Rod is correct and the team is made up of 7mm rifles - most that use the Berger 180's have to jam them for a good result. Here's hoping the new hybrids are more forgiving for jump or it could pose an interesting issue for an F class team or may have to be SMK 175's??

[AlanF]

Discussion on 180 hybrids moved to HERE