A Syllabus: Learning Precision Rifle Shooting

[Jack Master]

This is an open question. What is the process or the steps in learning precision rifle shooting from beginner to expert?

How does a beginner shooter learn precision shooting? What information or skills should we learn, and in what order? Some shooters are trying learn how to account for Coriolis before they have learned the proper fundamentals to consistently shoot far enough to see the effect of Coriolis. We are getting the "cart in front of the horse". Some shooters have total "paralysis through analysis" when there is SO much information to take in and learn they stop learning what they needed to know first or worse, give up and stop trying to learn more. How do we break this down into areas of study? Developing a list of learning steps will help new shooters understand what is important for them to learn now, and, it will help advanced shooter understand what they need to keep learning, or what to study next. It can help an intermediate shooter get to the next level and off that plateau. I need the experts or high level shooters on this forum to help me with the more expert levels of the learning. I am by no means at that level and am also looking for what to learn next.

The learning curve a the beginning of long range shooting is steep. There is a lot to get under control and a Hungary, eager mind can absorb large parts of it in a hurry. This is where it can also become frustrating for others to get all the parts and pieces put together. Giving shooters the right direction to go can benefit shooters on every level. I am sure some areas will need to be studied at the same time to take in the large learning curve a the beginning so we'll need to break each section into thier parts. Consider this a syllabus for long range shooting. Please feel free to comment on sections you want to see added or moved, subcategories we might need to add. I'll try to re-arrange the first posting as we put this together.

Original list 04-10-2020
Edited list 04-22-2020

1. Understanding what long range rifle shooting is.
   1. What is the goal of long range shooting?
   2. Distances for long range shooting
   3. What dialing a scope does to adjust your point of aim
   4. What are typical shooting positions and what is positional shooting
   5. Firearms safety
2. Weapon System
   1. Rifle
      1. Semi-auto vs bolt action.
      2. Actions
         1. Factory
         2. Custom
      3. Barrels
         1. Contours
         2. Rifling types
         3. Twist rates
         4. Custom Chambers
      4. Stocks
         1. Traditional stocks
         2. Chassis
      5. Triggers
         1. Single stage
         2. Two stage
      6. Muzzle breaks and Suppressors
      7. Magazines
   2. Scope
      1. Scope parts
         1. Magnification ranges
         2. Tube diameter
         3. Objective diameter
         4. Mils
         5. MOA
         6. First vs 2nd focal plane
         7. Reticles
            1. Duplex
            2. Bullet drop compensate (BDC)
            3. Graduated tree style
         8. Parallax & Ocular lens adjustments
      2. Scope mounting systems
         1. scope bases
         2. scope rings
         3. one piece mounts
      3. Scope testing and reliability
      4. Scope mounting
   3. Ammunition
      1. Factory Ammunition
      2. Hand-loaded Ammunition
   4. Bipod
      1. Bipod positioning in the rifle
      2. Bipod mounting
      3. Bipod shapes for stability
   5. Rear bags
3. Additional Gear (Recommended)
   1. Data Books
   2. Range Finders
   3. Ballistic Calculators
   4. Spotting scopes
   5. Wind meters and flags
   6. Barricade Bags
   7. Tripods
   8. Field tools
   9. Backpacks
   10. Eye protection
   11. Hearing protection
   12. Cleaning and maintaining your rifle and gear
   13. Range Bags
   14. Rifle Cases
   15. Shooting Mats
   16. Torque Wrenches and general care tools
4. Fundamentals of shooting
   1. Natural Point of Aim
   2. Rifle setup
      1. Length of pull
      2. Cheek Rest height
      3. Scope eye relief
      4. Trigger weight
   3. Body Position
   4. Cheek to stock weld
   5. Firing Hand Grip
   6. Rear bag Use
   7. Sight picture
   8. Sight alignment
      1. Parallax
      2. Cant
   9. Breathing
   10. Trigger control
   11. Recoil management and follow through
   12. Zeroing your rifle system
5. Ballistics
   1. Internal ballistics
      1. Velocities
      2. Twist rates
   2. External Ballistics
      1. Overview - The study of the bullet path and what effects it
      2. Cartridge selection
      3. Bullet selection
         1. Bullet shape
         2. Bullet weight
         3. Bullet length
      4. Bullet Efficiency
         1. Ballistic Coefficients
         2. G1
         3. G7
         4. Custom Drag models
      5. Velocity
         1. How velocity effects bullet efficiency
         2. Supersonic Flight
         3. Transonic Flight
         4. Subsonic Flight
      6. Environmental effects
         1. Air density
         2. Temperature
            1. Effects on Air density
            2. Effects on Muzzle velocity
         3. Humidity
         4. Elevation
         5. Air pressure
            1. Barometric pressure
            2. Station pressure
         6. Density Altitude
      7. Basic Understanding of 2nd order effects
         1. Spin Drift
         2. Coriolis
         3. Aerodynamic Jump
      8. Ballistic calculators
         1. Intended use of Calculators
         2. Truing ballistic Calculators
         3. Understanding ballistic calculator capabilities
   3. Terminal ballistics
      1. Bullet placement
      2. Wound cavity types
      3. Velocity effects
   4. Weather related issues
      1. Raining
      2. Water in chamber due to rain
6. Wind Reading and Calling
   1. Wind effects on your bullet
   2. understanding how air flows
   3. Terrain effects on wind
   4. Measuring wind
      1. Wind Direction
      2. Measuring wind Speed
         1. Wind Meters
         2. Felt Wind
         3. Vegetation
         4. Mirage
      3. Wind Sectors
         1. Vertical sectors
         2. Horizontal Sectors
   5. Wind Roses
   6. Wind Holds
      1. Ballistic solutions
      2. Gun Mile Per hour
   7. Wind Bracketing
7. Spotting
   1. Over view of spotting scopes
   2. Target impacts
   3. Target misses
      1. Calling corrections
   4. Spotting trace
   5. Spotter to shooter communication
8. On the Range Skills
   1. Finding Range to Target
      1. Understanding Danger Space
      2. Laser Range Finders
         1. Usage
         2. Limitation
      3. Reticle Ranging
         1. Milling
            1. Ranging Formulas
            2. Charts and Tools (Slide rules, Mildot Master)
            3. Understanding Limitations
               1. Practical Distances
               2. Mirage
               3. Target size estimation
         2. Speed Ranging Reticle
   2. DOPE-ing a Rifle
      1. Try Dope
         1. Ballistic Calculators
         2. Weaponized Math
      2. Recording Field Dope
         1. Truing Ballistic Calculators
   3. High Angle shooting
      1. Shooting uphill and downhill effects
      2. Cosine corrections
         1. cosine indicators
      3. Rifleman's rule
      4. Modified Rifleman's rule
   4. Reticle Hold over or hold under shooting
      1. Point-blank Ranges
      2. Battle Field Zero
   5. Moving Targets
      1. Target Leads
      2. Techniques
         1. Trapping/ambushing
         2. Leading
9. Classic Unsupported Shooting Positions
   1. Prone
   2. Sitting
   3. Kneeling
   4. Standing
10. Modern Positional Supported Shooting
    1. Elements of building a shooting position
    2. Natural point of aim in positional shooting
    3. Prone
    4. Barricades
       1. Standing
       2. Kneeling
       3. Sitting
    5. Awkward positions
    6. Tripods
11. Competition shooting
    1. Preparing for a competition
       1. Safety
    2. Practicing for a competition
    3. Time Management
    4. Mental control in competition
    5. Competition Etiquette
    6. Learning from Competing
    7. Traveling with Firearms for competition
12. Extreme long range shooting (ELR)
    1. Definition of Extreme long range shooting
    2. Gear for long ELR
       1. Rifles
       2. Scope accessories/mounts
       3. Caliber selection
    3. Wind reading for ELR
    4. Full understanding of 2nd order effects
       1. Spin Drift
       2. Coriolis
       3. Aerodynamic Jump
    5. Spotting for ELR
13. Reloading
    1. 1. Goals of Reloading
       1. Hunting
       2. Competition
    2. Components of a Cartridge
    3. Choosing Appropriate Components
    4. Die Setup
    5. Brass Preparation
    6. Powder Measuring
    7. Load Evaluation
       1. Pressure
       2. Chronographing
    8. Advanced Methods
       1. OCW
       2. Audette ladder
       3. Mean Radius
14. Field Craft
    1. Camouflage and Concealment
       1. Material Selections
       2. Construction
       3. Occupation on shooting Position
    2. Observation
       1. Target Detection
    3. Tracking
    4. Stalking ??
    5. Land Navigation ??
    6. ?? help needed here

I am more than open to suggestions on this list. Please help me develop this so everyone can have a direction to learn more.
Thanks

 

[TxWelder35]

fundamentals need to be #3. Can’t start shooting effectively until you have those down.

2nd order effects need to be close to last. Probably right before ELR

 

[Lowlight]

The biggest thing we see is scopes, people have no clue how to use scopes and the units of adjustment.

Because I do the eval, which is prior to instruction, I think do the fundamentals first, and the basic in the beginning because you can zero and get people properly set up behind the rifle, and do proper zeroing as you don't need data. Then external ballistics comes into play when gathering dope. so you can explain that, once the data is collect, that runs into software and truing, which is key.

The big gear section you have, I feel takes place more during individual interactions because the gear is huge, gear can be discipline-specific and it's just all over the place. People will ask specific gear questions regardless.

When I included that much information the classroom was 6 hours, now we want to be out of the room in less than 4 hours for everything and on the range. It's tough to find the balance point, some classes will run one way, another will run completely different and the third will have 1/2 of both groups coming in even weirder

It's a good syllabus, to me, ignoring the drifts has been easier than entertaining the bs. if you are shooting inside 1000 yards does it really matter to talk about a 1% offset when most are using less than 10 mils to hit max distance? I used to have all kinds of Drift information in the presentation, I removed it all and nobody misses it.

More and more I am just falling back on WTF, give them the Wind, the Basic External Ballistics and the Fundamentals. Make sure everyone can communicate properly and adjust their scopes, so with Aiming goes sight adjustments, and drive on at the firing line

 

[Jack Master]

The biggest thing we see is scopes, people have no clue how to use scopes and the units of adjustment.

Because I do the eval, which is prior to instruction, I think do the fundamentals first, and the basic in the beginning because you can zero and get people properly set up behind the rifle, and do proper zeroing as you don't need data. Then external ballistics comes into play when gathering dope. so you can explain that, once the data is collect, that runs into software and truing, which is key.

The big gear section you have, I feel takes place more during individual interactions because the gear is huge, gear can be discipline-specific and it's just all over the place. People will ask specific gear questions regardless.

When I included that much information the classroom was 6 hours, now we want to be out of the room in less than 4 hours for everything and on the range. It's tough to find the balance point, some classes will run one way, another will run completely different and the third will have 1/2 of both groups coming in even weirder

It's a good syllabus, to me, ignoring the drifts has been easier than entertaining the bs. if you are shooting inside 1000 yards does it really matter to talk about a 1% offset when most are using less than 10 mils to hit max distance? I used to have all kinds of Drift information in the presentation, I removed it all and nobody misses it.

More and more I am just falling back on WTF, give them the Wind, the Basic External Ballistics and the Fundamentals. Make sure everyone can communicate properly and adjust their scopes, so with Aiming goes sight adjustments, and drive on at the firing line

I totally understand what you are saying for a class. This is way to much information for a class. Even a 3 day class. This outline is meant more as a journey over 3 to 5 or more years of learning everything.

I started this post because I feel like I have a good handle on item 1 thru 7 (Spotting), and 12, reloading. Its taken me 13 years to get this far. I am now working on 8, 9, and 10. The field skills or craft is a total unknown area for me. This has been my total leaning process.

Can you help suggest subcategories for 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13? What topics do we as students need to focus on?

 

[Lowlight]

Ah,

I get what you are saying, I was gonna say that is a lot for a weekend, but it's complete.

Let me see about the other sections

 

[seansmd]

I would say as someone who has just gone through a lot of this, reading, lots of reading just to learn the language. Then the biggest things for me.
1) rifle setup,
2) lop
3) scope setup, eye relief, diopter, paralax
4) then all the fundamentals Frank and other lay outt in training, npa, trigger press, breathing

I have found after tweaking these setup items caused me to go back through the fundamentals.

 

[Lowlight]

Looking at this,

To be honest, this is what Rex should use for his seminars, the fact he has two days of nothing but talking, this would be an awesome outline for someone doing that.

It's super complete, teaching it would be tough, you would need days, but it's hitting every mark. If I was just starting my book today it would be the perfect outline

 

[seansmd]

My

Looking at this,

To be honest, this is what Rex should use for his seminars, the fact he has two days of nothing but talking, this would be an awesome outline for someone doing that.

It's super complete, teaching it would be tough, you would need days, but it's hitting every mark. If I was just starting my book today it would be the perfect outline

My post it note, or Jack's book? ?

 

[HiDesertELR]

That's an incredible list, reminds me of how far I've come and far I still have to go. I showed it to my wife, and she just looked at me and I think she "got it" finally... Oh, this is why he spends that much time at the range, in the reloading room, reading, watching training videos, etc.

Well done @Jack Master

 

[GTOJOSH]

Jack Master, your list is wonderful. As you are talking about "beginner" shooters, I'd only add safety to the list. The rules of gun safety is always a great review. I've been recently teaching a group of kids beginning on this lifelong journey of enjoying firearms and it sets a tone for responsibility.
(Also, my wife is a teacher and she keeps poking me because the word original at the top of your list has an extra o in it.)
I had an adult about a year ago super excited to shoot for the first time. He Bought a Ruger 10/22 and was shooting 1 shot, pulling the action back and letting go, shooting another shot, pulling the action back and letting it go again...
At first I wondered what crap ammo he was using for all the FTF's, then realized he simply was a new shooter and must have only watched someone working a bolt action. I no longer assume a beginning shooter knows anything anymore, and that includes safety.
Truly, great and comprehensive list and I count all your work here as informative and top notch. Thanks for all you do.

 

[Jack Master]

Jack Master, your list is wonderful. As you are talking about "beginner" shooters, I'd only add safety to the list. The rules of gun safety is always a great review. I've been recently teaching a group of kids beginning on this lifelong journey of enjoying firearms and it sets a tone for responsibility.
(Also, my wife is a teacher and she keeps poking me because the word original at the top of your list has an extra o in it.)
I had an adult about a year ago super excited to shoot for the first time. He Bought a Ruger 10/22 and was shooting 1 shot, pulling the action back and letting go, shooting another shot, pulling the action back and letting it go again...
At first I wondered what crap ammo he was using for all the FTF's, then realized he simply was a new shooter and must have only watched someone working a bolt action. I no longer assume a beginning shooter knows anything anymore, and that includes safety.
Truly, great and comprehensive list and I count all your work here as informative and top notch. Thanks for all you do.

Thanks. I added 2 section. Firearms safety in section 1.5 and semi-auto vs bolt under rifles. 2.1.1.1. I also fixed my spelling for your wife. Now I'll have to mention her in the credits, if there where any.

 

[Bro Mo]

I used to do curriculum development and a model I found useful was a pie with the slices being the different topics (1-13 above) then the from the middle to the outer edge similar to a scoring target would be the levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced). The curriculum would follow a spiral around each of the topics and then progress through the levels. An individual would see beginner level information in all 13 topics before seeing intermediate information and so on.

Also, when I was an instructor, I found it useful to do a pre-test before any instruction. I would have students try to complete a somewhat difficult task before any training. This ended up increasing final scores dramatically because the students knew what the didn't know during the training portion. They could daydream during the areas they found to be intuitive and would know when a topic was critical to why they were unable to succeed during the pre-test.

Perhaps, for shooting, that looks like having student try to connect with the farthest target within a certain number of rounds first thing day one. Failure is powerful teacher. Then after each level of instruction, try again or complete a different practical exercise such as zero, 300yd target, 600yd target, moving target, etc. with the level of difficulty of the task escalating.

 

[Deleted member 113831]

Just for organization, I would label "2. GEAR" as "2. RIFLE"

I would begin the GEAR section at "2.4. bipod"

I would put ballistics calculators at the end of the ballistics section. It is more logical to explain the calculator after you have explained the ballistics. It makes better sense to introduce the tool AFTER they understance the need for the tool.

I would roll "10. 2ND ORDER EFFECTS" into the "11. ELR". You are likely going to mention the concept in the "4.3. External Ballistics" portion, and expound once it becomes relevant in the ELR section.

12. RELOADING
1. Goals of Reloading
a. Hunting
b. Competition
2. Components of a Cartridge
3. Choosing Appropriate Components
4. Die Setup
5. Brass Preparation
6. Powder Measuring
7. Load Evaluation
a. Pressure
b. Chronographing
8. Advanced Methods
a. OCW
b. Audette ladder
c. Mean Radius


For some reason, all my indents disappear when I save the post, but you get it.

 

[seansmd]

Clekner's book covered a lot of this but it was not as well organized, I think this would be a great sticky - wikipedia style where it can be edited and modified over time. links to videos, training section, etc.

 

[_Raining]

It might be a good idea to have a simplified version vs an in depth version. Depending on how people learn, some may get information overload and some may want to learn all the things before getting started. (Perhaps highlight the bits that you should or shouldn't skip on the first time through).

Things I would add:

Rain (even if the answer is you don't need to worry about this, or mention rain/fog/high likely hood for condensation to occur in your chamber -> higher than normal pressure).

Chamber stuff (Although mainly for reloading, some people like to get chambers for say FGMM 175 in 308 etc).

Light (There is that thread about light doing magic things with the F Class target and stationary spotting scope).

Tools to help with learning (Different phone scopes / cameras, recording ones self at certain angles to help others help them, list of training courses or recommended online materials).

 

[_Windrider_]

Data book not optional.

 

[Jack Master]

Okay, I've updated the list again.
1. Re-numbered the rifle and gear sections
2. Added Custom chambers to the rifle barrel section @_Raining
3. Moved the ballistic calculator section to the end of the exterior ballistics
4. Updated the reloading section @Skookum
5. Added "basic understanding of 2nd order effects" to the exterior ballistics and "full understanding of 2nd order effect" to the ELR section.
@TacticalDillhole - I changed the "Optional" for the gear section to "recommended" but left the data book in this section.
@_Raining - I like the idea of highlighting the areas beginners need to focus on. we'll see what I can come up with.

Where do we add "Gathering Dope" and "Weaponized Math" to the list above? Milling? Do we need a "practical application section"?

 

[_Raining]

Where do we add "Gathering Dope" and "Weaponized Math" to the list above? Milling? Do we need a "practical application section"?

Just a suggestion, but perhaps instead of 8. Ballistic calculators, you have 8. Adjusting for Distance or Fighting Gravity or something like that. And under it you can have

8. Adjusting For Distance/Gravity

1. Obtaining Distance to Target
   1. Danger Space
   2. Milling
      1. Formulas
      2. Tools (Slide rules like Mildot Master or Truemiller or feature of ballistic calc)
      3. Understanding Limitations
         1. Mirage
         2. Target size given vs estimation
   3. Laser Range Finder
      1. Usage
      2. Limitations
   4. GPS
   5. Maps?
2. Accounting for Up/Down Hill
3. Weaponized Math
4. Using/Gathering Dope
5. Ballistic Calculators
   1. Intended use of Calculators
   2. Truing ballistic Calculators
   3. Understanding ballistic calculator capabilities
6. Dial vs Hold (Unless this should go with reticles under scopes.

Or rearrange them, a lot of this stuff is intertwined

 

[The_Next_Generation]

Maybe I missed it, but I don’t see anything about moving targets on the list? Would fall under ballistics in my opinion.

 

[Jack Master]

Okay I updated the list again and added a whole new section titles On the Range Skills. This is where we can add the things we do at the range. Tools, techniques and situation that are encountered. I tried to start this section pretty basic with "ranging a target" then "Doping a rifle" (the first things we do) and then working into high angle and movers at the end. What do you thing? Does this section fit here? I am expecting this section to grow quite a bit.

 

[Bertoli888]

Great Syllabus and the first step toward a lifelong learning into Long range rifle precision shooting! Well done.

 

[Deleted member 113831]

This is all really good stuff Jack, I don't know that I've ever seen this complete of a list anywhere.

 

[USMC22]

Wow, lot of time went into that

 

[Jack Master]

Wow, lot of time went into that

Thanks.

Just added eye and ear protection to the gear list.

 

[Reverie Ranges]

I like the direction of your thinking; I'm sure you are trying to collect as much as you can for reference. Please consider:

Pick a standardized multilevel list for better referencing indexing.

Scope, please add eyepiece focus vs. parallax.

Additional Tools: Rifle Bags/Cases, Shooting Mats, Torque wrench.

On the Range Skills: Hold over/hold under (Battlefield Zero) engaging varied distance targets with 300, 400 , or 500m/y DOPE.

Modern Positional Supported Positions: Partner Assisted Platforms.

Fieldcraft: Camo and Concealment, Selection/Construction/Occupation of Shooting Position, Observation/Target Detection, Following Wounded Targets.

I am including a listing of Accuracy Reducers that I have been working on for your consideration.

 

[10ring'r]

All I can add is, Just ! All joking aside, nice list. Mac

 

[Det. John McClane]

Excellent list. Answered my own question.

 

[Eostech]

Thanks.

Just added eye and ear protection to the gear list.

Maybe a note about concussive hearing loss, What factors effect it and how a suppressor is a good idea if legal. Personally it is something I have only recently learnt about and the idea of damaging your hearing even if you double up on ear pro is unappealing.

 

[Milf Dots]

Another excellent thread filled with great info!