[Yimmy]

On reflection, I think this is the worst factor of my shooting, and damages my groupings as a result.

Shooting in the prone position, but especially shooting in other non-supported positions such as standing, I have a devil of a job simply keeping the rifle steady.

Now, at first I thought it was because I lack strength in my arms; however I have been told several times that you don't need any strength to shoot well (although I realise haveing fat helps tame recoil). Indeed I know a few girls who shoot far better groups then me, with far less strength in their arms while shooting the same rifle.

Now, I should probably point out that I am one of those people who are addicted to coke (the drink... not the powder), and probably drink on average 2 liters a day, and that has to be a lot of sugar and caffine. i also drink a fair bit of tea and coffee. My hands however, although not steady as a rock are fairly steady nonetheless.

So - can any of you give me advise on how to hold the rifle steadier?
I know about breathing, how to pull the trigger, and about proper stances and holds...
Is it simply a case of giving up caffine?
Or am I mising something big?

 

[Zaitsev]

Yimmy,


It is very hard it the firstplace to shoot off hand. When i was at the range wednsday i shot one off hand and completely missed. So im not really 100% sure on this one. Just my 2 cents.




R.M.

 

[Jeff_850]

Yimmy:
have one of your friends watch your form while you shoot
and if you havnt been getting any practice, practice some more
it takes a little bit of practice but you eventually get better

 

[Nekekami]

Yimmy:

Practice, practice and more practice. And not just shooting. Anything that gives you good control of your entire body as well as the breathing, as well as build up your endurance. If your endurance is good, you need to breathe less often, introducing fewer motions etc. Oh, and you also need to learn how to focus, so you don't get distracted by minor aches, itches etc.

 

[Yimmy]

Hehe... using my air rifle I always get distracted.

You see, it is just a .22 air rifle, which I shoot to 30m's... however I have this novalty scope on it, a 25x50.


Ergo the target looks little more than a meter away, and the smallest movement causes the target to jump half way across the scope!

I'm getting myself a 4x30 scope for it now mind.... to be honest I wish I had kept my old air rifle which had iron sights.

 

[Nekekami]

Heh, air rifles.... A girl I dated used to compete in that... I visited her club, and tried it out. I had no preconceived notion of it being easy. However, I did not imagine that it would be so *beep* hard to hit those 5mm bullseyes from 10m away, using a diopter-equipped air rifle.

 

[Caban]

Now, I should probably point out that I am one of those people who are addicted to coke (the drink... not the powder), and probably drink on average 2 liters a day, and that has to be a lot of sugar and caffine. i also drink a fair bit of tea and coffee. My hands however, although not steady as a rock are fairly steady nonetheless.

Is it simply a case of giving up caffine?

As for Coke - my Moskow PE institute fellows participate in our shooting sports club, and instructor does discourage them to drink caffeine or something like that (Coke included?). In fact, Russian LE snipers are forbidden to drink coffee - thats 100%.
Practicing a lot is prolly one and only way to get really accurate... Right
As for strength - strength does affect your accuracy in almost any stance, except prone benchrest. Human body is kept in balance by constant work of muscles... just some of them may be not that strong, resulting some "body jitter", etc. From my experience, simple, but uneasy way of training in that case is just long (45+ minutes) dryfire training... and overall physical training too. Dryfire is effective, but really annoying :-(

 

[Jeffvn]

Three words of advice for bettering your offhand shooting accuracy (after you have a strong position and good trigger fundamentals) - Practice, Practice, Practice.

We dry fired 4 to 6 hours a day for two weeks before going to the range to qualify with the M16. It would put you in a coma with boredom, but your position was solid, your trigger fundamentals were equally solid.

When you finish with those do these - Practice, Practice, Practice. Its a pain, but your offhand WILL get better. I guarantee it.

 

[Yimmy]

re

We dry fired 4 to 6 hours a day for two weeks before going to the range to qualify with the M16.

Bloody Hell... you must have a hard weapons test!

That said, a little while ago I failed our weapons test. :?
We have to take it every year, and although I had already passed it for the year, I went on a shooting weekend where it was one of the shoots.
At said test, I did fine at 100m's, I did okay at 200m's (despite the target blending into the churned up background), I did well in the respirator shoot, but I failed the 300m's.
I felt like a right prat at the time, you see, I was scanning left and right but I never did see where the 300m target was, and it was the first time I had used that range. Turned out the target exposurs were at the top of the backdrop hill... I didnt know they could do that.
Hence why I felt like a prat. :shock:
That range catches a few people out like that apparantly though...

 

[muzzleblast]

Hey Yimmy,

Do you have a sling on your rifle? I find a proper sling tighened over the bicep of my non-shooting arm works wonders. The sling supports the bulk of the rifle's weight and your arms barely have to hold it up, works great for me in all positions.

just the other day I was embarrassing myself at 200 m sitting and remembered that strap hanging off my gun...

I hear ya on the coke, dude...cigarettes are enough to make a noticable difference in shooting too, I find.

Hey, ever see any Canadians in the miliary over there? I know we're allowed to join. I have a buddy in our army who wants to be a royal marine lol

 

[subThermal]

Relax. If you are all hyped up and "tight" when holding the weapon your not going to do as well as someone who is calm and collected. You do not need to use all of your strength shoving the butt of the rifle into your shoulder.

Proper use of a sling can turn your rifle into a piece of concrete attached to your arm, it won't move. Especially a .22.

We rarely dry fired in basic, if ever.

Caffine? Are you kidding me? Some people can do it, some cant. If you expect me to be up at 3-4am every morning, you better have a cup of coffee for my F.O.B. butt or I won't be very plesant.

My biggest recommendation is relaxing. Let the rifle sit on the pocket, put your sight on target, your *fingertip* on the trigger and squeeze. If you are tense, you won't do no good.

 

[Yimmy]

re

Hey Yimmy,

Hey, ever see any Canadians in the miliary over there? I know we're allowed to join. I have a buddy in our army who wants to be a royal marine lol

Your friend has good taste.
Can't say I have ever seen any Canadians mind on the bases I have been to.
I thought about the Royal Marines for a while...

Unfortunately the issue sling isn't too great, I just have it slack when shooting.

 

[muzzleblast]

A cup of coffee in the morning doesn't seem so bad compared to our "coke fiend"! Joking, joking...Need to join "pepsi-holics anonymous" myself.

Even with a crappy sling, it can still help some, a lot of my surplus rifles only came with a cheap green "web sling"...A strip of canvas. But its just like Subthermal said, really. When the weight of the rifle is on the sling your arms are relaxed and the weapon doesn't move so much. With bigger rifles it will absorb some of the recoil too. I'll be practicing standing unsupported a lot myself, I've neglected it too long and it's atrophied.

Will you get a chance to qualify again?

And as for Canadians in the British forces, y'all would probably tease us a lot cause we "talk funny"

 

[Yimmy]

Will you get a chance to qualify again?

For my annual personal weapons test you mean?
I had already passed the test for the year, the time I failed it was just an extra weekend I put my name down for.
I was actually told by the range NCO that I passed (the time I failed), however I am certain I failed it, unless by fluke my shots down range all landed on the target I didnt see!
I would have scanned the top of the backdrop hill to see if the target was there, but I was so focused looking for the target where they normally appear... I thought they had to let the rounds hit the backdrop.

As for Canadians over here, as far as I know any citizen of a nation in the Commonwealth can join.
I don't know if it works the other way around mind; I once gave a quick thought to the Australian armed forces, exchanging my small foggy island for their large sunny one as it were, but I never looked into it seriously... just seemed a noval idea.

 

[jc71corvette]

I only shoot pellet rifle but I still need a good shot. What I do depends on my shooting pos. I get the target in my scope, then after estimating for wind and distance I get ready to squeeze. I lok in the scope, breathe in, breathe out, hold, slowly squeeze and thats it. Before you get in shooting pos, have a confident mind set.

 

[madgunsmith]

Once during really bad weather, I was inside the clubhouse at my local range. I saw my friend, Thomas, and he was standing there just holding his rifle in a firing position.

I watched him for some 5 minutes or so. When I asked him what he was doing, he looked at me as if I were nuts and said, "I'm shooting the rifle in my mind"

And this guy is the finest marksman that I've ever seen. And he got that way from holding the rifle for hours on end. And he visualizes sight picture etc. for hours at a time.

Mad

 

[mele]

Yes, this is a very common technique and is very worth while. Its even better if you can dry fire at the same time....

MEL