Shooting Tips

Recently my oldest son and I went through a series of range sessions using several different rifles, a shotgun and a TC Omega muzzleloader attempting to make him feel comfortable for the upcoming hunting season.

Jeremy is not exactly new to the shooting game and has taken 4 deer with a 12 gauge previously in the state of New York.  He has been shooting off and on since he was a kid and over the years has gotten to play with almost every rifle or shotgun I've ever owned along with most of the pistols as well.  As far as rifles and shotguns go, for some reason unknown to me, we would always shoot them differently.  Something sighted in for me would group very different for him, and vise versa.  So once something was sighted in for him I would tend to leave it alone.

Well...The last several years, he has been out of the shooting / hunting arena because of school, traveling and work.  Over this time the closest he got to hunting was 2 weeks of archery a year ago, and as for shooting, only pistol at a range in Fl, that he stopped going to for a number of reasons.  However, having been away from it for a while, we both learned a few things along the road back.

We actually started out shooting my Ruger model 77 Mark II .270 off the bench. We started there as our upcoming rifle season here in NY is open in a couple of weeks. I knew the rifle was sighted in and picked the proper load and fired a two or three shot test group to confirm that indeed the rifle was sighted in and striking the 100 yard target in a tight cluster about 1.5 inches high and well centered.

When Jeremy sat down at the bench, it was a different story. His group was not just bigger, but all over the map. It did not take me long watching him from behind to realize he was flinching pretty badly. The easiest way to determine that is to close the bolt on an empty chamber and then coach him to align the scope and squeeze one off. Of course, you don't tell him the chamber is empty, so he thinks he is snapping the cap on a live round.

The standard protocol for this is to remove the centerfire rifle from the bench and replace it with a .22 of some sort or a .22 mag. We did not have one with us that day, so instead I had Jeremy dry fire 4 or 5 times between each shot until he settled down. Within a short period of time dry firing the identical rifle 5 times for every live round fired. the groups began to shrink, however we still had distinctly different points of impact for the center of our groups.I next observed that he was not letting the range bag do the work. The purpose of shooting off the bench in my opinion is to test the rifle and not the shooter. If set up properly on a solid range bag filled with sand or bird seed, or shotgun shot bags etc., one should have a forgiving but solid rest. The shooter should let the bag do the work and minimize any interference into the process other than holding the butt stock against his shoulder and squeezing the trigger. If you are pulling down hard on the front sling swivel, that is going to impact the shot placement. Ditto for the position of the forearm on the bags, undue pressure by placing your left hand (if right handed) over the top front of the scope while shooting etc.

Consistency is the key to accuracy and repeatability from one group to the next. First you need to understand that rifles in the .243 Win .270, .308. 30:06, .35 Rem Marlin lever action etc. are not going to hurt you. Then you need to condition yourself mentally by dry firing each gun several times at the bench and finding a position that you can repeat from rifle to rifle and be consistent at it. Dry firing helps your subconscious understand what your conscious mind keeps telling it.........................That is, this doesn't hurt. It also allows you to feel the trigger break, and begin to understand in your subconscious when the trigger breaks.

In about a three week time period, Jeremy learned how to and how not to operate a rifle bolt, (First 2 photos above are the incorrect way, and the 2 photos (Open hand) to the right are the correct way) how to shoot accurately offhand at least to 25 yards or so, (occasionally 50 yards),  proper use of shooting with a sling. how to shoot kneeling, prone  how to use a bipod, and how to adapt from a .243 Win to a 30:06 to a .35 Rem and back to a .308 and then on to his Ithaca Deerslayer II 12 ga with 1 ounce Barnes expander slugs. One of the most important aspects is mentally telling your subconscious that it's OKAY, I put the .243 Savage away, and I am now shooting the Ruger .270 Win etc. He dry fires the replacement rifle a few times, works the safety, shoulders it, looks through the scope etc. and his mind quickly begins to adapt to the new rifle.

Did we burn some ammo and pop some caps? YES, we did. We probably went through a couple of bricks of .22 rimfire, perhaps 300 rounds of .22 mag out of a Marlin Bolt Action, and maybe another 300 rounds of various centerfire ammo off the bench and offhand at 25 yards. In addition, a refresher course on the finer points of cleaning each gun, from swabbing between shots with the muzzle loader at the bench to taking each one apart for a thourough cleaning at the house, to the basic safety precautions of each type of firearm.

All in all we had a LOT OF FUN, and Jeremy's confidence level is light years ahead of where it was a month ago. The only problem is that he is now showing up the "Old Man" with some of his groups. Actually it really isn't a problem, as he is a good student and since he has 36 years on me, I would expect his vision, reflexes etc. to exceed my own.

He is as ready to go deer hunting as anyone I know right now. I could hand him any one of 5 or 6 different rifles, shotguns and muzzleloaders and both Jeremy and I would be confident in his ability to place the first shot where it is supposed to go.

Dan

Luke 12:40 KJV  "Be ye therefore ready also; for the Son of man cometh at an hour that ye think not"