Bullseye shooters, what's your breathing technique?

1
Bullseye shooters, what's your breathing technique to maximize precision? Personally, I hate holding my breath. After about 3 seconds, my steadiness degrades and I get anxious. So I have to keep breathing. I try to take deeper breaths between shots, and it seems that I'm doing better if I aim and take the shot while slowly breathing in. It gives me about 10 seconds. I'm wondering if this is typical, or if there are other ways.

Re: Bullseye shooters, what's your breathing technique?

2
For pistol shooting, either hold when full, or wait until just starting to exhale (usually hold for slow-fire, and on the exhale for more rapid)

For prone with a rifle, always at the bottom of the exhale, so that your ribs are touching the ground for stability. :)

Of course, my ribs have more padding than they did "back in the day" so my stability is compromised - but I do carry more ballast as well, so hopefully that evens things out. :)
"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo.
Image
Image
Image

Re: Bullseye shooters, what's your breathing technique?

3
I don't know that I've ever consciously thought about it. (Note: I'm not very good a bullseye shooting, so keep that in mind.)

I tend to have pretty shallow breathing as it is, and the only times I remember being conscious of my breathing while shooting is when I feel the need to take another breath, so I suppose I'm holding my breath at times without realizing it.
106+ recreational uses of firearms
1 defensive use
0 people injured
0 people killed

Re: Bullseye shooters, what's your breathing technique?

13
I hold my breath at the bottom of the exhale. In the yogic system, the mind, body and heart-rate is slower at when the breath is retained at the end of the exhale than the inhale but it can be unsettling for beginners so they should retain on an inhale until they are used to it. Also you should not hold the breath so long that you grasp for air at the end so it takes a little practice.
I find it very relaxing and it seems like everything slows down and becomes calm. Of course that works much better when sitting or laying down with a rifle not as well when standing with arms extended with a pistol.

Re: Bullseye shooters, what's your breathing technique?

14
Still working on it but I'm way steadier if I breath deep and slow and "feel" my blood enrich with oxygen, my heart rate slows down, the movement of the scope/rifle becomes slow, slight and rhythmic and then I break the shot at the bottom of the slow exhale. If I get my heart rate down to <40 beats per minutes with my blood well oxygenated that little break at the bottom of an exhale sequence is almost a full second long.

That's where I time breaking the shot. I concentrate on sight pix and loading my bipod with a slow squeeze and when it all settles at the bottom of that breathing/heartbeat the shot breaks. Holding my breath has been good but increases anxiety and heart rate/depth of the beat and movement for me especially at >18X magnification. I'd bet it's different for every shooter and experimentation and conditioning is working really well for me. Then again my mentor is a SWAT lead sniper so my techniques are tending to be tactically oriented and might not be the best for strict paper punching or shooting from an improvised position with say a sling or whatever.

VooDoo
Tyrants disarm the people they intend to oppress.

I am sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Re: Bullseye shooters, what's your breathing technique?

15
All good points in this thread that I have taken to heart, and which will help me improve my own shot process. I am still experimenting in all areas of shooting, and to be honest, I typically go to the range full of good intentions and mentally prepared to stick to a plan, but invariably, the plan goes out the window. The result is that, when I have a good string of shots, I have no real idea why, and I can't repeat it. I'm trying to break that cycle.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests