You’ll find in long range with supported guns that a sliding scale functions in matches something like this:
a) the nearer to dead calm the conditions are that the line faces, the greater the role that having the best performing gear (smallest shooting) plays in the outcome;
b) in the calm, you cannot score well no matter what your mindset is or has been, if your barrel is opening up, your loads are spotty, etc.;
c) with absolutely top notch gear in the calm, you could very likely squeeze the score it is capable of from it even when physically ill, sleep deprived, or upset about work, it just wouldn’t be quite as easy or fun to do so.
In extremely tough conditions, where the best shooters are all shedding many points, I think the right mindset flips the script on the smallest shooting equipment in these ways, and now it’s about grit:
d) when podium shooters are hitting 8’s and worse, aren’t exactly livid about 9’s, and are ecstatic with 10’s, that means guys are missing center X by more than a minute, so whether the gun holds a 3 inch vertical at 1,000 instead of a 4+ inch vertical will not make much difference;
e) if you can patiently lay there, knowing points remain to be saved, even after your hopes are already deflated by record shot 8, whether your fingers are cold, back hurts, nose is running or you should have walked to the portapotty but were too lazy, then you have the advantage of being able to watch for conditions to come that you can possibly finish in, better than just letting them fly will produce.
Last thought, have the mindset for purposes of self-improvement, that a liner 10 was probably a gift. Score shooting at bullseyes really does leave room for the possibility that 19-X’s and a liner 9 loses the match to a shotgun pattern 200 3-X, but none of us should be privately more satisfied with that “winning” target. No, don’t refuse the medal of course, but for purposes of trying to improve, consider that your liner 10 is, with a ruler, as close to an 8 as to center X.
