I have been to a few USPSA matches and it surprises me that many people struggle with a Texas Star. I started shooting in NY and was forged in fire at the local shooting club USPSA matches. The match director usually had a Texas Star on one of his stages. Shooting a Texas Star is only frustrating when you don’t know how to do it properly. Watch any competent shooter and study how they shoot the star. Here Annette Evans walks you through how to shoot a Texas Star. It is fairly easy.

One aspect Annette did not mention is how to aim when shooting the Texas Star. There are two methods: Trapping or Chasing. Many beginner shooters gets frustrated and don’t have a good game plan to tackle the star when it is swinging. Often I see people try to chase the plate and often miss. Trapping works a bit better. You aim for the spot where the plate stops swinging before it swings back in the other direction. This would be the peak of its arc. The hangtime that the plate slows down to swing back gives you a stationary plate to shoot at with a little bit of time. Now you have eliminated the moving variable and can focus on sight alignment, grip and trigger control to take out that plate. Then just move on to the next plate.