afs 55-200 vr question

I need some input from more experienced photographers , I have a nikon D7000 , on sunny days I like to use my 55-200vr as a walk around lens and to shoot action shots, I take alot of photos of horses, at competions (jumping photos) I have had mixed results with this lens, sometimes super sharp focus , other times it grabs something near the subject and focuses on the wrong subject. I love the light weight aspect of this lens and would like to learn how to get the most out of it ,

I also have th 70-200 2.8 vr 1 this is a great lens and its ten times the cost, but its heavy and a lot to carry around all day. I have read Ken Rockwells reveiw of the afs 55-200 vr its why I purchased the lens . When I shoot the horse shots , I need to a fast shutter speed , a minium of 500th , I dont try to use this lens in low light situations . I have tried different focus settings, af-c , af-a , and af-s mixed results not sure what is best for a sports , moving subject.

Show Jumping shots require that you get the horse at the right moment , with the horses legs folded tight over the jump , timing is key ! I did read that its best not to go all the way to 200mm with this lens , so I go a little short of that .

Any tips or suggestions for me .

What setting do you have your AF set at?

auto foucus af-c most of the time and I have tried several of the different focus points , any suggestions

What do you have your a1 AF-C setting at - focus or release priority? Do you have your focus wrap around turned on or off? Also, have you fine tuned your lenses to your camera body?

Im not sure what that means really, what is focus or release priority ??? how do I figure that out ? is it in the settings ? same question for focus wrap around ? and fine tune my lenses again how do I do that. I think we are getting to my problem ,,,, I love this !

Go into your menu under "Custom Settings" and under the AF section (a1) see what you have AF-C set at. If you have not changed them, I suspect your camera is still set at it's default settings and your AF-C is set on "release" which means the camera will release the shutter when pushed rather than when focus is obtained. Change that from "release" to "focus" that way your camera will only release the shutter when you subject is in focus.

Btw - you might consider downloading this file and reading it thoroughly. You'd be amazed at how much information is contained in it -

http://www.nikonusa.com/pdf/manuals/kie88335f7869dfuejdl=-cww2/D7000_EN.pdf

Thanks for the responce Mojo Dave , I changed the setting in the custom setting to focus for both a1 and a2 I also turned on wrap around feature , I read what that does but it didnt really make sence , I need to read it a few more times ...... I read the manual again , the chapter on focus . I want to try some action shoots again . I will post a few of my pictures to show what my problem is . thank you