marksmanship

[Gunlaker]

I've been working more on my shooting skills rather than load development these days. I'm 100% sure that I can gain more by improving my skills than my loads at the moment.

I've been reading some books by Jim Owens and they are full of good information for guys like me who are self taught. When shooting my highwalls I've decided to only use the set triggers for off hand. Not because I think I can shoot better that way, but I think the set triggers have helped my hide some bad technique.

I've been playing with how much tension I should keep in my shoulder muscles and I've found that at 200m, if my shoulder muscles are completely relaxed the shot will go about an inch higher compared to if I tense them up. I'm definitely more consistent if I keep my shoulder muscles tight.

I think my biggest problem at the moment is trigger control. This is where shooting heavier triggers can teach me something I think. My Browning BPCR is the perfect rifle to get me over this as it has a good trigger with only a tiny bit of creep and it's around 3 lbs IIRC. What do you guys think of this idea?

As a side note, when my dad got sick with cancer a few years back I didn't have the time to cast so I bought some Saeco #745's and they were damaged in shipping. The bases were all nicked and dented as though they were put into a box and shaken for 5 minutes. They've been sitting on my bench for a few years as I didn't think they were worth shooting. They shot surprisingly well out of the Browning at 200m. Perhaps a good wad makes a dented base less bad. Of twelve shots ten of them went into about 2.2" of vertical.

   

Chris.

[Rick Mulhern]

To become a GREAT offhand/standing shooter literally takes thousands of hours of training time! Hundreds and then thousands of hours of dry firing to develop a trained reflexive action whereby when your eye sees excellent sight picture....the rifle fires...automatically! This does not come about with 30 minutes of dry firing at night at a spot on the wall; rather it comes about by as already mentioned...THOUSANDS of hours spent dry firing accompanied by untold numbers of rounds fired in actual training conditions. Ball and dummy exercises help along the way for those that have that built in reflex action to flinch....and when you get tired of poking the rifle barrel into the dirt and making an azz of yourself...you'll finally break yourself of the habit! Many years ago when I was exposed to heavily intensified marksmanship training through the USAAMU I had developed this skill about which I am talking about and I was able to shoot many 'cleans' from 200 yards during the standing phase of the NRA HP course. It's a skill that must constantly be practiced and maintained because even though one retains the 'know how' of how to do something....a long lay off is akin to starting all over! If you wish to learn how to shoot offhand....my suggestion is to buy a book by David Tubb entitled "All I know about High Power Rifle" and adhere to what he writes about! I have never known a better natural born shooter than David Tubb!

[Gunlaker]

I've definitely got a lot to learn, but I've made some improvements in the last year. I have to admit that I'm one of those guys who has practice "aiming points" set up in the basement. :-). The aiming points did help me improve the stability of my prone position and I think they've helped my offhand stability. I imagine that, as you say, it's no substitute for the type and amount of practicing you are talking about :-)

I'll pick up that book and see what I can get out of it.

Thanks,

Chris.