So, I made post about what really matters for the beginner/novice shooter in centerfire matches. It was well received, so here is one for Rimfire.
Most beginner/novice and even intermediate shooters make the mistake of focusing on the wrong things. Things like reading wind. At this level, you should be focusing on very small, easy, and basic things. This will elevate you from a bottom or low/mid pack to upper/mid or top pack shooter without much complication. There are some very high level shooters who are not really good at things like reading wind. But they are excellent at fundamentals and making corrections after the first shot.
Here is my philosophy:
If you shoot 80% or better on every stage, you will place very high and sometimes win most any one day match you attend. And you’ll likely place pretty high at many 2 day matches depending on who else is attending.
Think about it this way, if you shoot a 10 stage match with and average of 9 rounds per stage (some 8, 10, 12 round stages), you can miss the first shot every stage, see it, make the correction, and hit the other 8 average......you’d only drop 10 shots and you’ll shoot 89% of the available points.
How many of you would be tickled to death shooting 89%?? Most everyone will.
So, here is my opinion what really matters and my advice how to streamline this.
1: Optic that will parallax down to (preferably below) the shortest target you will engage.
2: As perfect of a zero as possible. Absolute longest zero should be 50yds. I personally prefer less. Very important: do not zero closer than your optic can achieve a parallax free picture.
3: ammo your rifle likes. IMO, you need to be .5moa out to 50yds (you’ll see .25 and .50 kyl at 25 and 50 sometimes). And as close to or under and moa at 100yds. (The easy button is buying a vudoo and literally running sk standard or any lapua ammo. It’s very rare that any sk or lapua won’t shoot good enough to win a PRS or NRL Rimfire match. Not talking about BR or F class obviously).
4: perfect dope. There is zero excuse for missing vertically unless the prop is extremely unstable or mirage is extremely bad. If you’re missing vertically, you’re adding in another variable that should have been eliminated. The easy button here is anything running Applied Ballistics with the DSF function.
5: fundamentals fundamentals fundamentals. There’s almost no recoil in a Rimfire. Not spotting your shot (except for terrain like grass and such) is inexcusable with .22. Practice watching your actual bullet fly. It’s subsonic and easier to see than trace with a centerfire. You should have near perfect fundamentals in theory, and a .22 is much more forgiving than even a heavy 6mm rifle.
6: practice. Dot, barricade, and build and break drills at 25 and 50yds. You can sprinkle in some 100yds. But it’s not needed. If you can consistently 1moa dots are 25 and 50yds, you’ll be better than most shooters you’ll ever meet.
Nothing else matters at this point. Let me specifically talk about wind. Forget it except to come up with an initial call. And a lot of times you can get info from your squad. Obviously take note and work on it, but don’t emphasize wind over the above steps.
Always! When not sure over compensate for wind at this skill level. If you’re going .3 hold (edge of plate on a 2moa), then go .5. Always add .2-.3 if you’re not sure. For a couple reasons:
1: this gives you the “pro” side or the entire plate to take the error
2: if you do not see your shot, you MUST change something (if it was bad trigger press or unstable position, then change that and not wind hold). So, if you are always over compensating for wind, you ONLY have one direction to change. If you don’t over compensate, you may have to choose between two directions. This will often result in picking the wrong one and having to burn another shot to figure it out.
So, to recap. Your goal should be to never miss because of A: bad dope B: Bad position C: Bad fundamentals. Your next goal is to see every shot and only miss the 1st shot. Once you have your correction, you clean the rest of the stage.
Obviously on switchy wind days, you’ll miss more. But, once you master the above things and you’re placing in the top or winning matches in calm or consistent wind, you can start working on more advanced wind reading.
Rememeber. Ammo, dope, fundamentals, close distance practice, spot shot, win, become the Alpha of your shooting buddy text group.
Most beginner/novice and even intermediate shooters make the mistake of focusing on the wrong things. Things like reading wind. At this level, you should be focusing on very small, easy, and basic things. This will elevate you from a bottom or low/mid pack to upper/mid or top pack shooter without much complication. There are some very high level shooters who are not really good at things like reading wind. But they are excellent at fundamentals and making corrections after the first shot.
Here is my philosophy:
If you shoot 80% or better on every stage, you will place very high and sometimes win most any one day match you attend. And you’ll likely place pretty high at many 2 day matches depending on who else is attending.
Think about it this way, if you shoot a 10 stage match with and average of 9 rounds per stage (some 8, 10, 12 round stages), you can miss the first shot every stage, see it, make the correction, and hit the other 8 average......you’d only drop 10 shots and you’ll shoot 89% of the available points.
How many of you would be tickled to death shooting 89%?? Most everyone will.
So, here is my opinion what really matters and my advice how to streamline this.
1: Optic that will parallax down to (preferably below) the shortest target you will engage.
2: As perfect of a zero as possible. Absolute longest zero should be 50yds. I personally prefer less. Very important: do not zero closer than your optic can achieve a parallax free picture.
3: ammo your rifle likes. IMO, you need to be .5moa out to 50yds (you’ll see .25 and .50 kyl at 25 and 50 sometimes). And as close to or under and moa at 100yds. (The easy button is buying a vudoo and literally running sk standard or any lapua ammo. It’s very rare that any sk or lapua won’t shoot good enough to win a PRS or NRL Rimfire match. Not talking about BR or F class obviously).
4: perfect dope. There is zero excuse for missing vertically unless the prop is extremely unstable or mirage is extremely bad. If you’re missing vertically, you’re adding in another variable that should have been eliminated. The easy button here is anything running Applied Ballistics with the DSF function.
5: fundamentals fundamentals fundamentals. There’s almost no recoil in a Rimfire. Not spotting your shot (except for terrain like grass and such) is inexcusable with .22. Practice watching your actual bullet fly. It’s subsonic and easier to see than trace with a centerfire. You should have near perfect fundamentals in theory, and a .22 is much more forgiving than even a heavy 6mm rifle.
6: practice. Dot, barricade, and build and break drills at 25 and 50yds. You can sprinkle in some 100yds. But it’s not needed. If you can consistently 1moa dots are 25 and 50yds, you’ll be better than most shooters you’ll ever meet.
Nothing else matters at this point. Let me specifically talk about wind. Forget it except to come up with an initial call. And a lot of times you can get info from your squad. Obviously take note and work on it, but don’t emphasize wind over the above steps.
Always! When not sure over compensate for wind at this skill level. If you’re going .3 hold (edge of plate on a 2moa), then go .5. Always add .2-.3 if you’re not sure. For a couple reasons:
1: this gives you the “pro” side or the entire plate to take the error
2: if you do not see your shot, you MUST change something (if it was bad trigger press or unstable position, then change that and not wind hold). So, if you are always over compensating for wind, you ONLY have one direction to change. If you don’t over compensate, you may have to choose between two directions. This will often result in picking the wrong one and having to burn another shot to figure it out.
So, to recap. Your goal should be to never miss because of A: bad dope B: Bad position C: Bad fundamentals. Your next goal is to see every shot and only miss the 1st shot. Once you have your correction, you clean the rest of the stage.
Obviously on switchy wind days, you’ll miss more. But, once you master the above things and you’re placing in the top or winning matches in calm or consistent wind, you can start working on more advanced wind reading.
Rememeber. Ammo, dope, fundamentals, close distance practice, spot shot, win, become the Alpha of your shooting buddy text group.
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