.22 BPCR observations

I missed the regularly scheduled match earlier this month but got to make it up today. Went in fairly cold, with no preparation. So just decided to enjoy the day and do what I could. Focus, work on my focus. That's what I'll do. So, my squad started on the fifth station, separate from the silhouette match but fun nonetheless. This was a bust. Couldn't get on target and with no berm behind the targets it either seems to work or not. Today was not. On to the pigs. These went easy enough. Being only 100 meters and large for the distance they went well, cleaned all 10. Now the dreaded turkeys. Wow. Cleaned them also. The God's favor me today. Rams are next and I vapor locked and dropped one for it. Still, 9 rams is okay. Lastly is the chickens. The dinky little chickens. Take a deep breath and away we go. At this point the world went away. Nows the time for that focus. Politics took a break. Finances were a non issue. The weather was rather pleasant, so with a couple minutes of wind taken out from the ram setting it's off to the races. Frankly I've no idea what happened then. I remember missing the first one. From there however is a blur till the last bird. It escaped my best efforts. At that point I felt disgusted. It should have been a hit and so should have others. Damn. I wanted do overs. Then I hear the score keeper say, "looks like 35". Wait, what did he say? Innocently I ask "did I hit 6?" Fact is I did. Ok, that sort of works. To most it would seem obvious but I avoid the score board like it's the plague. In my mind I sort of know what my score is but no one elses and as such have no idea where I fit in the bigger picture. So it takes awhile for me to process all this information. Somehow my focus doesn't allow me to keep score and shoot. Just shoot. One shot at a time. Just shoot. One bird, the crosshairs were perfect on two occasions but I was asking for a better sight picture. Finally the third time I was on the bird I convinced myself to pull the trigger dummy. The point of all this you ask? I'm not sure but maybe it's me trying to encourage somebody with offhand shooting. There was a time that my buddy had to listen to me go on and on about shooting offhand. How this or that was the answer to knocking them over. Just how or when things sort of rounded the corner I can't say. What methodology made connecting a possibility, can't be said. You see, it escapes my ability to tell you. What I can say is I became a huge believer in the mental aspect of shooting. After attending a Mental Management class by a certified instructor from Lanny Basham my thougts changed. Before I shoot chickens especially, I need to get away from distractions and remind myself that I can do this. I can and have done well on chickens. Focus on each shot, make perfect shots and don't wish a shot to hit. Just focus, and break good shots. Ignore the world, ignore the "friend" givng advice while I'm shooting. Ignore the eyes behind me, ignore what another shooting is doing. Just make my world the chicken. One at a time. The last shot isn't very important, the shot at hand is the only care in the entire world. Hope some of this helps, good luck!