Training – POV – The “tape” doesn’t lie!

 

Good news, bad news about a head-mounted POV camera.

Good news: You can see exactly what you are doing – right and wrong.

Bad News: You can see exactly what you are doing – right and wrong.

My first live range experiment was at our final steel shoot of the year. Great day, sunny, warm and the 2^nd day of Pheasant season. Result – 6 shooters. Heavy sigh. Rick said he didn’t want to shoot so for the first time this year I got to shoot the whole time – 2 hours. Very nice.

A couple things about our steel shoots. We only have 2 lanes to set up in. We don’t do the 5-rounds through each station and throw out the worst case, we just shoot either lane as much as we want. We do keep times and I post the lowest time for each shoot.

We also have smaller targets for our shoots – 8-inch rounds and 8x10 rectangles. And, we use only 4ft stands. Our intent was to just introduce our members to steel. Honestly, it’s been a great success with 20 shooters or so showing up twice a month. Great fun!

So, it was a great chance to try the Contour ROAM a bit more. I filmed all my rounds but I have selected 3 to chat about.

First – I run dry. Heavy sigh. 10 rounds, still not able to clean the plates. Why even show this? Well, it’s good to stay grounded. Everyone sucks at these things – perhaps more often than we care to admit. Second and Third - they let me watch myself “over my shoulder”. It lets me see what I do when it goes fairly smooth and when I can’t hit a darn thing. In other words, it’s a great learning tool and I’m learning to like it.

My first run was the one I ran dry on. Let’s see – mmmmmm – excuses; first run, I wasn’t “ready”. I was nervous because I was on camera. I haven’t shot much this year. . . . . and on it goes. Actually, my first round sucked – head wasn’t in the game, hurried shots and I became frustrated with my misses. Sadly, it’s all there to see . . . . enjoy!

 

Shoot it dry!

The next run up for your consideration – I cleaned the plates, emptied the gun to do it – all 10 rounds. Heavy sigh. The purpose for this video is to show the importance of follow through. You need to keep your weapon on the “threat” (plate) until it’s down (or you hear the “Ping”). You will notice that I get antsy and move off the plate and then I have to come back, reacquire and send another round down range. Heavy sigh. Follow through . . . follow through . . . . follow through . . . .

 

11:30

Finally, an OK run. 7.24 seconds with one repeat plate. Notice I stayed focused on each plate until the hit was confirmed. I slowed down a bit and kept my head in the game through the run. Could it be faster – oh yeah. There was a 14 year old kid there running his dad’s Benelli M96 for the first frickin’ time!!!!! 4.54!!!!!! Heavy sigh.

Anyway, here’s my run!

 

7:24

I am beginning to see the real value of a POV camera in training. Midland has a great starter kit for around $100. Shop around; consider adding it as a part of your training kit. You’ll be surprised what you’ll learn when you look over your own shoulder!