How to learn precision shooting?

[Thebelly]

Whether you use a set of iron sights, a Vortex PST, or a Premier with a parallax problem, fundamentals are fundamentals.

It will never be bad advice to have a second set of eyes evaluate you and your shooting processes. Make sure that the second person is qualified to give you constructive criticism about it. You can even take video of yourself and post it up here. There are more than enough folks that will help to evaluate what you're doing, right or wrong.

I'll start. This is a video of me shooting at a shooting school. The targets weren't small (they weren't exxactly big, either), but I was trying to get video of what my trigger finger was doing. The question that led to this video is: "Is my trigger finger pulling straight back and do I have a good follow through?"

PR 1 - YouTube






There, now EVERYONE ON HERE can actually provide advice as to what they see.

 

[digitalshooter]

The basic fundamentals of shooting are the basic fundamentals and don't change. What changes are the tools that you use to make your task easier whether those tools are sandbags or scopes. Now the question is how best to learn the fundamentals of shooting. Should you be using the tools that other more experienced shooter are using as your starting out or not use them and work your way up. Only the person learning can answer that question.

IMHO and you can take it for what it's worth because we all know what opinions are like, it's better to learn the fundamentals without the use of the tools that others more experienced shooters are using. When you find yourself in a situation where you can't use those tools for some reason then you may find yourself handicapped because that's how you learned. After all, if you've never shot a rifle with anything but a scope are you really going to know what the sight picture is supposed to look like if you find yourself having to use iron sights?

When my father taught me how to shoot I learned to shoot from a bench with my arms supporting the rifle and iron sights starting at 25 yards and working my way out to longer ranges. This was to learn sight picture, breath control and being able to support the rifle and some other fundamentals. Then I went to the prone, kneeling and standing positions with no aides. And learning this way served me well. I do feel that it made me a better shooter.

Some may agree and some may disagree with this. But in the end it's up to you in how you want to learn to shoot and if you want to use any of the tools that the more experienced shooters are using. You can take professionally taught classes, buy videos, read books and even look up material on the internet. No matter what be careful in whatever source you decide to use and do your research. Not all sources are created equal.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

In the Marine Corps, the core value of the training was/is in the synchronicity of nomenclature and skills between command and the rank and file. Essentially, everybody is singing out of the same hymn book. If you need to go where time for thought and explanation is limited, it's best that all the preliminaries get taken care of before the heat gets turned up. Working from differing frames of reference can get you and others killed.

There are probably as many ways to accuracy as there are shooters, but we all need to start from that common frame of reference and build on it from there.

I helped run a Marine Corps League Marksmanship program back in the 1990's. We had a few who had formal training and instructor certification. The task was to end up with all participants at the same level of knowledge. Formal training would be immediately followed by practical experience. Shooters were broken down into two shooter/peer teams, each taking turns between being shooter and coach. By watching, practicing, and reviewing, the overall outcome was reached in a minimum of time and expenditure.

Nobody reaches such goals on their own.

Greg