Shooting the Texas Star

A few weeks ago, I commented on another blog that there was a good way to shoot the Texas Star target array.


My preference is (assuming the Star is not moving) to shoot the top plate, then to shoot the top descending plate. That plate is descending because that side has more plates. It's heavier. Shooting that plate shifts the balance, so the OTHER side is then heavier. Consequently, the rotation slows, stops, and changes direction. Continue to shoot the top descending plate, and it slows down the movement of the arms so you don't have a difficult fast-moving target for your next shot. Finally, if you do it right (shoot fast, don't miss!), you finish by shooting a stationary plate at the bottom of the array.

I demonstrated this in my Dundee match article, and when you hit your targets consistently it makes it look easy. Well, it is.

* * *

Somewhere, I got hold of a rather large MPG-format file that shows a series of shooters shooting the Star in a completely opposite manner. That is, they shoot the lowest plate first, and then kind of catch whatever they can. The file is 10mb, and I link to it here even though it's not reasonable to download it unless you have high-speed broadband internet access.

(Thank you, Comcast!)

These guys make it look so easy. I sure wish I knew where it was filmed, and who the shooters are. They're much better shooters than I am.

Here's another MPG-format video, 1.4mb, showing someone shooting the star during an actual match. Crank the volume WAY up here.

Finally, for something COMPLETELY different, here's a video I mentioned several months ago. No stars here, but a Las Vegas LEO (Clark County Sheriff's Deputy?) has a little trouble with trigger control while supporting another LEO in the act of cuffing a suspect.

There's a lot of sirens involved, you'll want to turn the volume DOWN a bit.

UPDATE:
Originally I advised shooting the top RISING plate, instead of the top DESCENDING plate. That was clearly wrong, so I corrected the error and also added some more descriptive commentary. Also, I added the link to the referenced Dundee match article, for convenience.

By the way, the 'large' video showing several people shooting the star looks to me as if it were filmed in Texas. I make this assumption because of the design on several of the shirts, because one of the shooters looks very much like Penny Riggs, and because they all shoot so well!