Setting the Baseline for Performance

[ChrisWay]

The relationship between a shooter and their equipment creates a never-ending debate among people looking to improve as marksmen. At RifleKraft we have been studying the relationship between the shooter and their equipment as analytically as possible at unconventional skill assessments, training courses, coaching, and private lessons. Alongside Frank Galli, we have studied the effects and found patterns and effects that directly contribute to shooters lowered hit percentage on target.



This article series aims to discuss those effects and help you better understand your own shooting in the process. Throughout the series, we will isolate factors as discussion points and then recombine them at the end for a more holistic picture of those relationships playing out in a real scenario. The larger concept is that the shooter and the rifle system add to each other cumulatively in terms of their effectiveness; put another way, the rifle has a...

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[JAS-SH]

HI Chris,

I watched the episode you did with Erik a while back. Being an analyst (pseudo retired) I found it Interesting, I can see where you're coming from.
That said, I'm not only an analyst, I've been shooting for 60 years! Some of that in competition. So figure this, being anal(yst) about pretty much everything I do you would think I have shooting down pat. That's not the case. It is definitely one of the most perishable skills ever - it takes a LOT of practice. Not just lots of shots down range, that's not practice.

We humans are amazing creatures. We can take a rifle, put a scope on it and with some coaching or the right practice start getting close or under 1 MOA at 100 consistently. That is an incredible thing. Why? because any movement produced by the human behind the rifle/pistol, whatever translates to a change in the point of impact, but it is just amazing that it is SO slight.

How slight?? Do you have a cheap plastic protractor laying around? If you do, pull it out and look at the spacing for the one degree lines. It's tiny. How tiny? How about adding 6000 more lines between those?

Now some simple math. I aim with mils so I'll use that. Mil scopes have mostly .1 clicks. And we humans can see the impact change of a .1 click -.36 inches at 100. How big is that in the world? Well, .1 mil at 100 yards is exactly 0.005729578 of a degree! That is super tiny and a testament of what we humans can see, and do.

But, it doesn't take much to get off by 0.005729578 degrees from Point of Aim by human induced motion. All firearms today are pretty much more precise than most of us. And, I have a drill for that. And it starts at 50 yards. That's how I practice when I lose it. With a .22 magnum rimfire (the trainer). I hold aim for no less than 4-6 seconds on a dot a little less than 1/16 of and inch. This is critical. I wont shoot unless I can do that hold. The rifle is asleep, so to speak. All this time I'm applying more and more pressure on the trigger until it goes off. If the rifle was sentient it would say: WHAT the hell just happened!! And that is called accuracy.

And it works.... The point is that people can see what can actually happens when it all goes right and that IS the foundation. And it is repeatable With results like this - 5-shots on each target with not the most accurate cartridge in the world by a far shot (1-inch targets):

These were from today, and I have more. The point is, we need to see not only what we are are capable of, but how to identify it when we see it, and how to make that repeatable... Then, and only then can we get going on positional shooting. Frank is 100 percent right. Fundamentals!

This was so long but I could not make it shorter. Send me a PM if you want to discuss this. I have a lot more information, including the setup (important) and how it builds psychological confidence.

All the best,

Jose