It goes back in my own history of shooting. Probably like anyone else here.
I started shooting modern scoped rifles, Sav 340, Rem 700 and Win. 70's. For .22's my dad had a horrible Nylon 76. Then one day he decided he wanted a really good .22 so he could shoot jackrabbits consistently. Thus he purchased a Rem 580. It was single shot, but had the look and feel of a slightly reduced R700. Although considered modern, the scopes we used were barely newer than the WWII classics you see. But, they were, if only slightly, improved. They mounted up a lot more standard too. So, most of my shooting before I went into the Army in 1981, was with scopes. My cousins shot open sighted pump .22's, but I outshot them consistently.
Enter a whole new reality when it came to shooting open sights. My personal opinion, leaning towards dislike, of open sights is probably the reason I never got very good at them early on. Probably also the reason I struggled with shooting the M16 accurately. When the Army told me I wasn't making the grade as far as a shooter, something inside me said you better listen up and try to make it work. So, try I did, but not with great success. The two necessary qualifications to keep me in the Rangers were because of shooting long enough on the range to get a lucky score. I did that twice in six months. Then, luck intervened in the form of a former competitive shooter. Our S2 had been a former Marine, who spent a number of years on their competition shooting team. During a deployment to Puerto Rico, He gave us a half day of instruction and another day and a half of helping us implement what he taught. For the rest of my time in the Army, I never failed to max out on my qualification. That was three more years of 1-2 quals every six months.
When I got out, I returned to shooting mostly scoped rifles. But now, I could pick up one of my cousins pump .22's and shoot a 5" group with it at 100 yds., offhand. This isn't going to win any competitions, but it was certainly a lot better than how I shot open sights from before. My cousins also wanted to know how to do that. There's quite a difference between M16 peeps and old Remchester buckhorns. But, the basic premise is the same. After some instruction, we were all putting together 2"-3" groups from the prone or rest. About the same off the knee. Needless to say, our jackrabbit excursions got a lot more productive.
As time passed, I drew more back to scoped rifles. Mostly for hunting, but I also took up benchrest shooting. Shooting tight groups brought me back to one of the last things I did in the service and that was running the sniper training blocks we conducted in the 1st Ranger BN. Understand, I was not a sniper. More like waterboy. Working all the logistics behind the training and then doing the grading and giving feedback on the men going through that training. These were not sniper schools, just 'standardized' training we did to keep the men who did go through a school up to speed with that skill. Much like I went through 'scuba requals' every six months. In any case, I felt that training was very important. And, was quite fascinated by the ability it took to shoot long range accurately. Strange thing though, prior to us conducting that training, the 1st Ranger Bn, never consistently held that training. We may have been the first of the modern Ranger, sniper program. A dedicated training regimen to people who had gone through a higher level of training in long range precision shooting on the battlefield.
Fast forward to the early nineties. I got the bug (from a fellow aviation maintenance classmate) to sporterize old Mausers. They were all over the place and cheap. I started with a M1909 and made a .257 Rob. out of it. Later, I got an M48 BO. I learned at this point you shouldn't chop one up to make your own custom. While not really rare, they are unique. The list and types grew exponentially over the next few years. I didn't chop up whole or original rifles that I could add parts back to, to make original. In the meantime, my benchrest shooting had grown to include long range shooting. At some point shooting historical rifles at short range, I saw that they were mostly calibrated for 1200-2000m. It all kind of gelled then. I started shooting old sights and then shooting old scopes on those old rifles at long range. Some of these older rifles were fantastically accurate. Open or scoped sights.
One could say that's getting in touch with the soul of your shooting side. Going back to how you started then going full circle.
