I'll start this story with a review of an initially disappointing Slow Fire target that ended on an up note.
It was our weekly 50 foot Bullseye league and for the first Slow fire target, I was working on making sure the trigger was started above the final settle area. Things seemed to progress well as viewed through the red dot scope. However, as viewed from the perspective of results, they were a tad less favorable. They were actually somewhat disturbing. Although they progressed exactly as planned, with the trigger beginning above the black and the shot happening as I settled into the center, the hits were just... well, let's just say they weren't tens.
Seven shots surrounding the "cone of protection" later (some further than normal, I was still at a loss about my low (zero) success ratio for tens. I began to review the prior week which had gone quite well and remembered that for that last league, I had been concentrating on obliterating the writing in the center of the bull. Although much was still left after ten shots, the tens were well represented. I had successfully told my subconscious what I wanted and it had supplied me with good results.
I'll slide off temporarily to a game I often play when shooting. Depending on the target I'm using, I compare the X or the 10 in the middle to the star in the center of a popular (at least in the US) Carnival shooting game. In the Carnival game you are given 100 BB's and an appropriate ill-sighted BB machine gun, to fire at a target card trying to remove all portions of a star printed in the center. After you exhaust your supply of BB's, the operator then examines the target card for traces of the star. He is almost always able to locate the most minute piece of color, signifying your failure to remove it completely - you lose! In my game, I consider the writing (X or 10) to be that star and see if I can remove all traces.
The prior week I had been playing that game with much better results than I was achieving this week. In review, I determined that my current focus had been on the evolution of the shot without regard to the resulting placement. I resolved to tell my subconscious I wanted tens. I then visualized each shot being in the ten and finished the target with three tens. A victory in itself, but not the basis for this story.
I did some more visualization work, until at one point we were just getting ready to fire two strings of Timed Fire (each string, 5 shots in 20 seconds). The thought crossed my mind, "I want all X's," but it was immediately replaced by, "A smiley face would be neat." I fired the two strings and the following target presented itself. I'll leave the judgment to the reader as to whether it is a smiley or not. One of the league members described it as, "a smiley with a goatee."
OK, so I'm not a really good artist, but the components are there - two wide set eyes - a nose in between - and a smile. And, yes, all ten shots are there. (Where else would they be?
