Accuracy of the Long Straight-in Shot

Jay,

It is a lot like a cue stick from a great maker. Folks can and do buy all the latest and greatest toys. They can't buy wins. A wealthy friend of mine got into benchrest. The best of everything from the best names in the business. Then on one of his first trips to the range he meets the greatest short range(100-300 yards) benchrest shooter that the world may ever see and the guy takes him under his wing. Most benchrest shooters would think they had died and gone to heaven but Ron still couldn't win, couldn't even shoot well. It takes a lot of knowledge and a lot of work. Once he figured out that he couldn't buy a win or have somebody hand him all the knowledge needed to win he quit.

Although the equipment means you can shoot very tiny groups it also means everyone else can too. One shot a few tenths of an inch from where it was supposed to be can mean a ruined event. The "x-ring" at 100 yards when shooting for score is a dot about the size of a #2 pencil lead and nobody is worried about the score or even how many x's they hit, they are keeping up with how many x's they have missed! That is why a dime at 100 yards seems like such a slam dunk, it is dozens of times larger than the x-ring.

Hu

Thanks Hu,
I thought I was a good shot when I could take out my Remington .22 rifle and hit a little circle on a piece of wood I set up in my backyard., from about 50'. :o
 
This shot is shot #1 in the PAT test. I play with it a bit. I think the best I have ever done is about 8 in a row. Then something gets in my mind or arm and I do something stupid. Usually I may make about 3 in a row then miss one then make 3. But my stroke is somewhat wobbly and it is a work in progress. It seems like I should be able to make this shot every time.

I just tried it again. 3 in a row , miss,5in a row, miss, 10 in a row, miss.
 
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seems we all should be able to make this shot every time

This shot is shot #1 in the PAT test. I play with it a bit. I think the best I have ever done is about 8 in a row. Then something gets in my mind or arm and I do something stupid. Usually I may make about 3 in a row then miss one then make 3. But my stroke is somewhat wobbly and it is a work in progress. It seems like I should be able to make this shot every time.

All this shot takes is a good aim, a straight stroke, and confidence. It doesn't require anything extra to make it. Something extra is almost always the reason we miss it. We second guess our stroke or aim and steer a little or we aren't quite comfortable and we half-heartedly stroke the cue.

Of course it is a lot like walking a four inch beam too. We can walk a four inch beam laying on the floor all day long. Raise it fifty feet in the air and most of us can't walk it. Trying that shot in practice after we are warmed up it isn't too hard. The same shot with advancing in the money rounds in a tournament on the line or a fair sized chunk of cash and it becomes much harder.

It ain't the shot I'd like to have on the money ball to win a tournament!

Hu
 
Like DngWalsh show up it is one of the shots from the *standard-shot-section* in PAT. Sure it s a hard shot- but in PAT it s more about to train your focus- the standard shots in PAT are heavy shots- all of em with 3 try s. Usualy you have perhaps one shot of these in a game-you just have to pocket it one time...and this would be enough^^. For me no sense to train such a ball 200 times in a row.
 
searcy, this is one of those things where... just cuz you personally can't do it... and nobody you know can do it... and nobody you've seen can do it...
doesn't mean it can't be done :)

I don't know what numbers an actual pro can put up, but the guys on here claiming 6/10 or better aren't lying just to look good, and they aren't unknown pros. They're regular GOOD pool players. B's and A's. There may only be one or two where you play but the world is full of 'em.

PS when people say they smack 'em in, the pocket isn't gonna spit it out unless you're talking warp speed. We're just talking hitting it crisp vs. rolling it in.

Its a cut. which ever corner.
 
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Its a cut. which ever corner.

It's not a cut. It's a long, straight-in shot.

It's hard because (1) it's long, and (2) totally straight shots are deceptive to aim. I'd expect a pro to be ~90% or better on these shots, though. It's us mere mortals who have trouble with them.
 
HU I know what you mean. I got a majic case of SK once. Wish I had kept it for matches. But I used it for practice as well. Oh well. I wish I could have had a go with that Suhl. I would give my left you know for a Suhl action. I too have kinda layed off the rifle for a while. I'm gonna get back into bullseye this fall. I'll dust of the Benelli Atlanta and go back at it.

Jay thanks for the Reds story. That was cool. Trust you to have a neat story to share. Thanks a lot.

Oh and HU I shoot a ton indoors. At 50' the A-36 & USA Shooting target has a 10 ring the size if a straight pin shaft. Try hitting it while shooting standing with iron sights:eek:. It'll drive you nuts with the near misses. BTW I'm a 3 position shooter primarily. But have shot a small amount of bench rest. Everyone assumes it's easy. Just plop the rifle down and shoot x's,,,,, NOT! It's tougher than it looks. 1 finger putting sligthly too much pressure in the wrong place, even an ounce or so and you lost the match. Gotta have your head in the game at all times. My hat's off to you my fine fellow.

And yes, finally, a thread I feel qualified to respond in:p. I may be a good shooter. But I'm a neophyte pool player and know my place.

Mark Shuman
 
my hat is off to you too

Mark,

The shooting sports are just like the cue sports. It isn't so much what you do that defines how hard it is but the level of the people you compete against. While I'm a little rusty at both I shoot a pistol fast pretty good and the benchrest rifle slow. Since I have competed against world class shooters in both types of shooting I'd say both are equally hard but totally different. I piddled with backyard offhand for awhile. I had a range on the back of my place but up front near the neighbors I had a set of windflags out that I watched for hours at a time and a prairie dog silhouette at 135 yards that I dry fired at offhand, no sling, no jacket. Made for good neighbors! When I went to live fire I shot pretty decent.

Jay's shooting in his back yard might have been great shooting too, you never know. If the gun and ammo only was accurate to 2" and he shot inside a two to three inch circle that was fantastic shooting. I passed by a man's place to buy a rifle, gave him a hundred more than he asked and then bought another rifle but while I was there he drug out an olympic 10 meter air pistol. I'm a two handed pistol shooter and holding that thing out with one hand was different and strange and was soon murder on muscles that weren't used to this foolishness. We shot it for thirty minutes or so and were too close to call to each other every shot. I wouldn't quit on him but I was very glad when he did, my arm was about to fall off! Good shooting with that BB gun was another hit the dot thing.

You will find that a surprising amount of the things you learned competing with a rifle does translate to pool. I take everything I have learned from earlier forms of competition and bring it to the next thing I try. The importance of stance and rhythm can't be over emphasized and setting up online properly to begin with is huge. Pool is far far easier with a good foundation. Of course the mental game is always the same.

A rainy day today. I think I hear the pool hall calling me . . . .

Hu





HU I know what you mean. I got a majic case of SK once. Wish I had kept it for matches. But I used it for practice as well. Oh well. I wish I could have had a go with that Suhl. I would give my left you know for a Suhl action. I too have kinda layed off the rifle for a while. I'm gonna get back into bullseye this fall. I'll dust of the Benelli Atlanta and go back at it.

Jay thanks for the Reds story. That was cool. Trust you to have a neat story to share. Thanks a lot.

Oh and HU I shoot a ton indoors. At 50' the A-36 & USA Shooting target has a 10 ring the size if a straight pin shaft. Try hitting it while shooting standing with iron sights:eek:. It'll drive you nuts with the near misses. BTW I'm a 3 position shooter primarily. But have shot a small amount of bench rest. Everyone assumes it's easy. Just plop the rifle down and shoot x's,,,,, NOT! It's tougher than it looks. 1 finger putting sligthly too much pressure in the wrong place, even an ounce or so and you lost the match. Gotta have your head in the game at all times. My hat's off to you my fine fellow.

And yes, finally, a thread I feel qualified to respond in:p. I may be a good shooter. But I'm a neophyte pool player and know my place.

Mark Shuman
 
Someone told me that making this shot is the accuracy equivalent of hitting a dime with a rifle bullet 100 yards away. I call BS. What do you think? ...
So, we've discovered that your friend needs to specify whether the marksman is using a bench rest or not. It would be interesting to see what Iron Willie could do with the shot on a pool table.

As for percentages... I used this shot -- with the cue ball moved a little to where I was bridging off normal rail and the object ball still straight in -- when I was working on straightening my stroke out. I think my percentages were helped by fairly generous pockets (National table) and relatively slow, napped cloth. My best series was 70 in a row. That was maybe twice as high as my next best run, and I gave up on the exercise at that point. If someone wants to bet they can do 100 on an easy table, don't expect to win. On the other hand, if they wanted to bet on 10 in a row on a table strange to them with tightish pockets, I'd bet against.
 
Tried twice today

So, we've discovered that your friend needs to specify whether the marksman is using a bench rest or not. It would be interesting to see what Iron Willie could do with the shot on a pool table.

As for percentages... I used this shot -- with the cue ball moved a little to where I was bridging off normal rail and the object ball still straight in -- when I was working on straightening my stroke out. I think my percentages were helped by fairly generous pockets (National table) and relatively slow, napped cloth. My best series was 70 in a row. That was maybe twice as high as my next best run, and I gave up on the exercise at that point. If someone wants to bet they can do 100 on an easy table, don't expect to win. On the other hand, if they wanted to bet on 10 in a row on a table strange to them with tightish pockets, I'd bet against.

Not the best day to try it since I was also trying a new stance and new stroke rhythm but on a fairly tight Diamond when I was soaking wet with sweat I hit six of ten the first time, seven of ten the second time. Was definitely hitting them better towards the end but got sidetracked with a One Pocket game. I'm sure I could do eight or nine out of ten, maybe even ten of ten without any pressure but I wouldn't bet on me making more than seven out of ten.

Think my alignment of the balls was an issue because I missed a bunch early just to the right focusing entirely on the object ball. For the second effort I put on some of Nancy's(Cue-Z's) finger slides. Definitely a big help with temp's in the eighties inside and air you could grab a handful and wring a cup of water out of it. About halfway through this attempt I raised up just a little to see the pocket better too. When the shot felt right it dropped. It's tough but not that tough.

I don't know about the new stance and stroke changes. I have a spot under my shoulder blade that feels like somebody held a blow torch to it and a stitch in my side like I have just ran ten miles!

Hu
 
I don't know what numbers an actual pro can put up, but the guys on here claiming 6/10 or better aren't lying just to look good, and they aren't unknown pros. They're regular GOOD pool players. B's and A's. There may only be one or two where you play but the world is full of 'em.

What percentage do you think a standard C player would make ?
 
Going 6/10 is decent. Actually really good. It's not a number to set on paper in my opinion because you can make more or less...it dosen't matter.

When I walk up to this shot....I see a bear.
 
It's not a cut. It's a long, straight-in shot.

It's hard because (1) it's long, and (2) totally straight shots are deceptive to aim. I'd expect a pro to be ~90% or better on these shots, though. It's us mere mortals who have trouble with them.

So I guess you see a str8 in shot and he dosen't. There must be something wrong with him.
 
1 moa

This is an ideal question for ShootingArts (aka Hu) who does competitive shooting from what I remember.

I googled the size of a dime (about .7 in.) and then for "accuracy grouping 100 yards" and found several people making reference to successfully grouping several shots into a .5" - 1" circle at 100 yards.

In a forum, one guy said something to the effect of "I've made a .6" grouping at 100 yards with 5 shots... never bragged about it on the internet, I thought it was fairly common." Another poster replied to agree. It sounds like it's great shooting but not uncommonly great.

And I think that's a fair description of hitting a shot like this 5 times in a row. Actually, I may wonder if this shot is harder to hit 5x in a row than the rifle shot. It really is quite difficult even for those with great fundamentals.

My initial reaction was "BS" when I read the title too, then I wanted to say it's apples to oranges... but both shooting situations require careful aim and perfect muscle control to execute. I don't know if holding something perfectly still is more or less difficult than the muscle control needed to repeat a motion with perfect consistency.

I think your buddy made a pretty interesting and accurate comparison. If anyone thinks this shot is not a ballbreaker, get down on a 9 footer and try it sometime.

At 100 yards, a one inch grouping is 1 MOA. There are rifles out of the box with match grade ammo that are capable of sub half MOA which would be .5 inch groupings.

Now actually shooting a 3/4 MOA is a different story. That is fairly difficult.

Those who can do it however are capable of repeating it. I would say that the top pros are capable of making that shot fairly consistently, it may very well be a shot that is the equivalent to shooting a dime at 100 yards, with a sub half MOA capable rifle and good optics.

Jaden
 
Easy shot to master

Get a hold of Bert Kinisters tape called the mighty X and a week of practicing and you love this shot like no other.
 
Your so right again Jay.......

You can throw the Physics out the window! I'm here to tell you that for a POOL PLAYER, the long straight in is more difficult than the long, angled cut shot. Now when you're talking about a very thin cut shot from distance, of course that's a harder shot.

I think it has more to do with the way we sight the balls and the steadiness/solidness of our stroke. You need a perfect stroke to execute the long straight in shot. For whatever reason, the cut shot is easier to see and execute. Don't believe me, ask a pool player. A good one!

How did you get so smart.

And I mean this as a compliment. You have more of the down to earth right answers on here than anyone. You hit this right on the head.

It's a pleasure to read anything you post on here.

Great wisdom here, geno..........
 
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It is a hard shot. Players will bank it rather than cut if it is bankable...and yet, some think it's easy. You couldn't get a real player to pose for that shot.

If it's the nine you have to take it. Any other ball is a bank if it does not kiss.
 
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