08July05

Comments on cheek weld:

"Your recent point about the necessity of a proper cheek weld as dri ven home today, at the sporting clays range:

I was shooting with a master-class sporting clays practitioner, and I was having problems with a particular pair of targets. After each miss, my shooting companion told me that I wasn't fully 'into the gun,=80 meaning that I hadn't completely brought the shotgun up to my cheek before the shot broke,

causing me to habitually miss below the target. Yet, I was sure that the g un was touching my cheek before touching the trigger. Confounding!

I was right, but he was more right! I was bringing the gun to my cheek, 95% . When I subsequently made sure that the stock was firmly WELDED to my cheek,

the problem disappeared, and consistent hits were effortless after that. I n wingshooting, proper technique requires no reference to sights. The entire

shotgun, mated to your body, IS the 'sight.' If your techni que is not consistently immaculate, you will miss, because there are no sights to fall back on.

With a serious rifle, even without a proper cheek weld, you can hit, so lon g as you align your sights. However, a sloppy, casual, and unstable cheek weld must still be avoided, because it will slow you down as you invariably 'fish ' for your sights. Anything less than a reproducibly solid cheek w eld will result in slow hits in rifle shooting, complete misses in shotgunning. But

in the latter case, you usually don't die when you're too slow!"

Lesson: It's not occasional "great shots" that separ ates the live professional from the dead amateur, the pretender from the virtuoso. It is rather all the "little mistakes," blindly committed by the former, skil lfully avoided by the later.

/John

08July05

Grand and gratifying comments from an LEO friend with the Capetown Traffic Police and one of my instructors. Perhaps the trips I've been takin g to South Africa for the last eight years are finally paying off:

"Today I took part in the shootout for a place on our team for the N ational Police Sports Day. Sixty officers took part, a majority of which were City

Police Officers. Significantly, by the end of the second round, just a handf ul remained. At the end of the final round, only Traffic Officers were still in contention. Extremely significant was the fact that the four officers finall y selected for the team are all Farnam students, myself and three of my officers. If ever I needed to see prove that the Farnam Method works, I sa w it clearly today!

Range officers all commented on the safety, accuracy and general gun competence of Traffic Officers who had passed through my, and, by extension, your hands. Officers who had not received training in the Farnam Method stuck o ut like sore thumbs. All failed to maintain any kind of convincing presence, ie: nonchalantly dropping the weapon after shooting (relaxing too soon), subsequently pointing it at their own feet and legs, guns casually pointed in other unsafe directions, indescribable permutations of incorrect reloading technique, 'unloading' with magazines still inserted, holste ring empty pistols, and more!

Although I am happy to have come in first, there is no doubt the next guy i n line would also have been one of your and my students. We're making progress here, my friend!"

Comment: Progress indeed. Good show, Mike!

/John