Most shooters lose points before the first record shot is ever fired. They arrive late, discover a sight guard got knocked in the car, sprint through warm-up, and step to the line with their heart already racing. The fix is boring and effective: a fixed timeline for what to do before a shooting match, tested in training until it runs itself.
This post walks through the final hour before your relay, minute by minute, ISSF-style. It assumes you have already packed using a match day checklist and passed equipment control, which at bigger events opens one to two hours before the first relay. If you want the full picture of the day, read your first ISSF competition first; this is the zoomed-in version.
What should you do in the hour before a shooting match?
Work backwards from the start command. Split the hour into three blocks: 60 to 30 minutes out is for gear and setup, 30 to 15 is for physical warm-up, and the final 15, which on the line is the official preparation and sighting period, is for confirming zero and settling down. Each block has one job, and none of them is "rebuild your technique". Nothing new happens on match day.
T-60 to T-45: station setup and gear check
Claim your firing point early if the range allows it, or stage your gear in the preparation area. Then run a short checklist out of your case, in the same order every time:
- Air gun out, uncased, check for new dents or scratches on sights and muzzle.
- Cylinder pressure. You filled it at home, so this is a sanity check, not a fill session. If you need a top-up, check the queue at the fill station now, not at T-10. Caring for the cylinder is its own topic; we cover it in how to fill your air gun cylinder safely.
- Sights untouched? Look at your rear aperture and sight settings against the numbers in your training log. If they match what you wrote down, do not touch them.
- Pellets, glasses, ear protection, glove, timer notebook: count them, then leave the case half-open so you can see everything at a glance.
The point of this block is to surface problems while there is still time to fix them. A low cylinder found at T-60 is a non-event. The same discovery at T-5 costs you the match.
T-45 to T-30: dry-fire and position check
Find a quiet corner where dry firing is permitted and get into position, fully geared up, several times. Fire a dozen or so deliberate, empty shots with one goal: confirm your natural point of aim settles on the centre of a target-height object. Wobble the position, realign, settle again.
A few minutes of this does more than any amount of stretching. It wakes up the specific muscles and the specific balance your discipline demands, and it rehearses the exact movement chain you will repeat for the next hour. If you have trained a match simulation practice, this is the condensed version of its opening minutes.
Resist the urge to diagnose technique problems here. If your hold looks worse than usual, tightening up in response usually makes it worse still. Trust the work you did in training and move on.
T-30 to T-20: physical warm-up
Now do a compact version of your regular warm-up routine: shoulder rolls, spine and hip mobility, a couple of minutes of light balance work. Keep the heart rate mild. You are preparing to stand still and execute fine motor skills, not to run a 5K.
About two to three hours before this point you should have eaten a normal meal. In the final hour, keep it to water in small sips and maybe a banana. Heavy food, energy drinks, and a triple espresso are all friends of the wobble. We cover the full picture in nutrition and hydration for shooting competitions.
T-20: the call to the line
At ISSF events, athletes are called to the line roughly 20 minutes before the scheduled start. On the line, lay out your kit so nothing you need mid-match is more than one movement away: pellets open and positioned for your loading hand, spare cylinder or Allen keys within reach, glasses adjusted before, not after, the clock starts.
From this moment, your time is not fully your own. Commands will come: range safety brief, then preparation. Listen for them instead of rehearsing your shot plan on loop. Shooters who miss a command spend the first record shots catching up.
T-15 to start: preparation and sighting time
The Range Officer announces preparation and sighting, and 15 minutes go on the clock. Sighting shots do not count toward your score, and there is no limit on how many you fire. Use the period deliberately:
- Build your position at your assigned firing point, same as in training.
- Fire three to five sighters and check where they land relative to your call. Your goal is to confirm the zero you verified last session, not to chase a perfect group.
- If the shots confirm your zero, stop adjusting. Fire a few more smooth, full-process shots and finish with your hold feeling normal.
- If they genuinely do not confirm, adjust once, verify, and then leave it alone. An afternoon of sight-twiddling has never once fixed a match.
The trap here is treating sighters as a scorecard. A tight sighting cluster feels great, but it predicts nothing; plenty of shooters hammer tens in sighting and fall apart at "load". What you want from the 15 minutes is information (zero confirmed) and rhythm (process executed several times without pressure). When the clock runs out and the command for record fire comes, your only job is to run that same process 60 times.
The last two minutes: the mental reset
Somewhere in the final sighters, close the loop for a moment. One slow breath. Confirm your first-shot trigger word, the single word or phrase that starts your shot process. Nothing dramatic, just a small anchor that separates preparation from performance. If competition nerves are your weak point, the techniques in managing competition nerves slot in exactly here.
Then stop planning. Analysis ends when preparation ends. Shooters who carry a to-do list into record fire shoot their checklist instead of their target.
Common pre-match mistakes
- Arriving too late for equipment control. At events with control, build the queue into your plan; it can take a while at big matches.
- Fiddling with sights that were fine. If your log says your zero is good and sighters confirm it, the correct number of adjustments is zero.
- Using all 15 minutes to fix a bad hold. A rough hold at the line is usually nerves or fatigue. Adjusting the sight to chase it just corrupts a good zero.
- Warm-up that spikes the heart rate. Shooters need calm, precise movement. Save the burpees for another sport.
- Last-minute advice from well-meaning clubmates. Smile, thank them, file it for next training session. Match day is for executing what you already own.
Build your own timeline
Steal this one, then adapt it in training. Time yourself doing the setup block and the dry-fire block at your club range until you know, honestly, how long each takes you, and write the finished timeline in your training log. The exact minute splits matter less than the fact that they never change. A routine you can run on autopilot is worth more than a better routine you improvise.
When you are ready to test yours under real pressure, enter a match. The app logs every relay, so after a few competitions you can check whether your scores follow the routine or fight it, and adjust from evidence instead of feelings.
faq
How early should I arrive at a shooting competition? Plan for at least 90 minutes before your relay at events with equipment control, and 60 minutes at club matches. That covers collecting gear, setup, warm-up, and a margin for the things that always go sideways: a forgotten scorebook, a queue at the fill station, a relay running late.
Should I dry-fire before a match? Yes, when your discipline and venue allow it. Keep it short and positional: the goal is confirming natural point of aim and settling the trigger finger. Ten to fifteen deliberate shots beat fifty rushed ones.
What happens during preparation and sighting time? Fifteen minutes on the clock, unlimited sighting shots that do not count toward your score. Confirm zero, run your process a few times, and stop adjusting once the zero checks out.
How many sighting shots should I fire? Three to five is enough to confirm a zero you trust. Take more if the shots disagree with your call or your position feels unfamiliar, but treat every extra sighter as information gathering, not scoring practice.
