Subconscious vs controlled actions

[WKR]

Something I've been thinking about lately is how many of my actions in shooting/hunting in the field are subconscious through years of hunting and practicing, versus when I'm training at my home range where everything is a thought controlled action.

What I mean is, when I'm at my range and training, every movement is controlled. From the trigger press, follow through, spot the impact cycle the bolt. The entire shot process is a mentally controlled step by step conscious effort.

Now compare that to a buck I killed last week, when time is of the essence, I go through the entire shot process subconsciously. Range, set up, break the shot, watch the impact, and cycle the bolt, all happening without me remembering my brain even giving the signal.

I was talking to a buddy , who's a very good shooter on the clock, and he said thats a good thing and if you are doing things right subconsciously thats positive result of training.

Maybe this is just a dumb post and I'm over analyzing but I'd like to know what other serious shooters think about the conscious vs subconscious actions in the field.

 

[Lawnboi]

Not sure if you’re a prs shooter or not but a lot of this has been discussed on some podcasts.

I think some things can be subconscious but always try to make the trigger pulll conscious effort, along with checking level.

 

[Nine Banger]

I shoot shotguns competitively.

I’ll step into a station and crush “hard” birds above my pay grade and then miss the next ones when I think about duplicating the success.

Same goes for long birds. If you shoot a LOT your subconscious can break clays at 100 yards but then try to do it again and waste a flat trying to recreate the success.

I look forward to getting this way with rifles over time.

 

[hereinaz]

It’s not so much “subconscious” you want, but execution of a series of programmed actions that don’t take intentional thought.

Think driving a car, a new driver has to consciously think, check mirrors, brake, turn, etc. An experienced driver is conscious of every act, but doesn’t have to “think” because the brain has established patterns of action that the driver is initiating. If you have to stop and “think” check my bubble level as a separate process you are carrying more mental load which distracts from the important acts like trigger press.

To some extent that can be considered “subconscious” because we can arrive home and not remember if the lights were green. We consciously were driving but many of the processes are automated giving us brain power to think of other things so that our brain doesn’t add “sub routines” it executes to our memory.

So, it is subconscious in that sense.

Look up ShotIQ with Joel Turner, he talks about open and closed processes and gets into the type of discussion. I have found his explanation very clear in ideas that I hadn’t put together like him.

 

[Jbehredt]

Precisely why repetitive training is important. So that when you don’t have time to think it just happens.

 

[Lawnboi]

Precisely why repetitive training is important. So that when you don’t have time to think it just happens.

* repetitive training under pressure

 

[35WhelenAI]

With practice the process of getting off a shot at the bench or in the field becomes muscle memory as much as anything, IMO. For me, the first deer I took over 30 years ago had my heart rate up, couldn't get comfortable behind the rifle like I had been when at the range, etc. Probably happens to most on their first animal.

Having that first animal in front of me was a variable that can't be practiced until it happens. Since that first animal and having that "variable" behind me, when I line up a shot in the field I tell myself "I'm going to get my (insert elk, deer, pronghorn) as long as I don't screw it up". Puts me in the frame of mind to focus and things go to autopilot.

 

[Rich M]

When I shoot my 30-06 it has to be a forced thought process. Force myself thru the process and shoot very small tight groupings. If I let my auto-pilot work, will jerk the trigger EVERY TIME.

It is really hard not to do auto-pilot when hunting. Last time I used it, missed 4 bucks in 2 days. Went and checked zero and put 5 shots into the bottom of a Mtn Dew bottle at 200 yards leaning on quad - just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom... Went and bought a 350 legend - don't jerk the trigger on that, just need to have some buck opportunities now.

Crazy how all that mental stuff works.

 

[Lawnboi]

With practice the process of getting off a shot at the bench or in the field becomes muscle memory as much as anything, IMO. For me, the first deer I took over 30 years ago had my heart rate up, couldn't get comfortable behind the rifle like I had been when at the range, etc. Probably happens to most on their first animal.

Having that first animal in front of me was a variable that can't be practiced until it happens. Since that first animal and having that "variable" behind me, when I line up a shot in the field I tell myself "I'm going to get my (insert elk, deer, pronghorn) as long as I don't screw it up". Puts me in the frame of mind to focus and things go to autopilot.

Maybe not a complete replication but practicing under pressure, be it time, competition, under someone else’s rules has more benefit than plain repetition.

When I started shooting competitively, my shots in the field became much more controlled.

 

[TaperPin]

I’ve been a firm believer in the effects of subconscious actions during the shot, for better or worse. The brain is going a million miles an hour when the time comes for a shot, especially a quick shot, and how someone trains comes out in unexpected ways. We all have shooting quirks that show on paper and the better we get at overcoming them, the better our odds in the field. Many times we don’t even know how we’ve overcome something, but with practice the issue just seems to fade away - subconsciously we’ve made the adjustment, even though we can’t say how or notice a difference, but the difference is there.

The past year I’ve learned a lot about myself during the half second or so before the rifle fires. I used to think the brain processes things faster than it really does, but we see the opportunity for the shot coming up, crosshairs are headed into position, and between the brain’s signal to fire the gun and the gun actually going off is around 1/3 of a second. A lot can happen in 1/3 of a second.

The laser training system used by a number of competitive shooters can map rifle movement before, during, and after the moment the rifle fires. You could identify an individual shooter by the barrel path the half second before the brain says shoot, the 1/3 second it takes for the finger to actually squeeze the trigger, and half second after the rifle fires. The more deliberate we are about coming onto a target and getting the shot off, the better off we’ll be. Holding over the target while the crosshairs are all over the place and randomly having the rifle go off somewhere in all that movement is ancient history, or should be, and there is real world data to back it up.

What we’ve always called follow through isn’t really effecting the shot after the bullet leaves the barrel, but impacts barrel movement a lot that last 1/3 of second which we don’t have much control over - calling it follow through after the shot is just trying to trick the brain into being consistent before the shot.

Without knowing any of this I’ve missed some silhouettes in competition that felt great, but the reticle came in from a different direction. Today I wouldn’t have pulled the trigger until the reticle entered onto the target from my customary side - making a deliberate choice to avoid unpredictable subconscious movements.

Being human is interesting.

Breathing or paying attention to heart beats during the trigger pull is something I’ve never understood, because for some reason it just happens naturally, at least naturally enough for any shooting I’m doing. I think that’s one of those things that eventually worked itself out with practice, even though I wasn’t aware of it. The crazy thing about timing heart beats is a person can’t wait for the time between beats to pull the trigger, but it has to be 1/3 second before that moment, and be on target at the exact same time.

All this makes me more convinced than ever that the added mental excitement, and need for accuracy, of varmint hunting is one of the best ways to prepare for big game.

 

[rifletuner]

When you are doing repetitive training, you are programming the subconscious. Also, the subconscious can actually multitask, unlike the conscious thought process which can only deal with one thing at a time. For example how many times have you driven through an intersection and then immediately afterwards you cant remember whether the traffic lights were red or green? You subconscious knows what its supposed to do in that situation.

I shot benchrest competitively for 20 years, and in that time I represented Australia at 6 world championships. I shot a lot of matches in that time. Early on I would be shooting my group and all of a sudden a voice in my head would tell me "the wind has changed". I would think "what the hell do you know" and would let a shot go, only to have it go out of the group. I realised my subconscious was picking up on changes while I was consciously doing other tasks. Once I started acting on the information, my results improved. I realised the driiling and repetition was a very important part of my training

Same on a PRS stage. When you are running a stage of say 10 shots in 90 seconds, you dont have time to use conscious thought for everything. Most of it has to be programmed into the subconscious through repetitive training. The same thing plays out in a hunting situation. The more you have practice the shot process, the better you will handle it under stress.

 

[WKR]

Ok good so I'm not crazy for thinking about this then haha

As far as the difference between competitive shooting and hunting, for me atleast, is i just started shooting comps last year, so its not as ingrained into my subconscious is as hunting and killing game animals is. I make way more mistakes on the clock at a match then I do when I'm in the field getting on game. I can only surmise that is because of my experience level in hunting versus competitive shooting. also an actual clock and a designated course of fire are completely different than being in the field where I make all the rules.

I mean don't get me wrong, I don't think its a bad thing that I can go into "autopilot" when killing game, im just analyzing whether or not there is a higher chance of error if its totally subconscious.

@Lawnboi mentioned check level and trigger press, I know that in this last instance, the trigger press was a conscious effort. But if you put a gun to my head I couldn't say without a doubt that I checked my level or not. I believe I did but im not 100% sure.

 

[ozyclint]

While the subconcious is good at multi tasking it also likes to take short cuts to get the job done faster which gives rise to other problems.

 

[Dave0317]

Brian Enos book “Practical Shooting, Beyond Fundamentals” explores this a bit.

I think for simple engagements, like most IPSC type pistol shooting, the subconscious will usually be faster and more efficient, provided the conscious fundamental groundwork has been laid.

For more complex engagements, meaning anything where you hold over or dial turrets, I think you will be much better off being consciously present throughout the shot process. You may need to break your feedback loop at any time due to animal moving, changes in wind, other changes in yourself or your environment, etc.

The third part to this is as hunters, you may blend the two for best results.

A fully conscious process to aim and break the shot, but a subconscious racking of the bolt, reload, clear malfunction, whatever may be needed to keep the gun running for the next shot(s).

There are some great lessons to be learned from Joel Turners stuff for sure. What a lot of the archery side believes about this is that you should drill certain positions until it is subconscious, so that you can focus more fully on the stuff that matters the most. For example an archer might be subconsciously getting a good grip, drawing, and anchoring, but then his conscious attention is focused on aiming, tension & direction, then follow through (better off not thinking about the actual release for me).

I think a good shooter could make getting into position, finding NPOA, grip, etc. subconscious. Applying DOPE, aiming, pressing trigger, would be a conscious focus, then back to a subconscious rack/reload to set up for next shot.

This has been a snag for me lately, running a Tikka dry doesn’t allow me to simply drop a round in the ejection port like a Remington action does. That’s a muscle memory action I need to get away from.