Shooting for Score, Postal Shoot Help (LONG)

[skipper]

I’m writing this as a primmer for the upcoming 204 Ruger Postal Shoot. I’m not a famous competitive shooter but I can manage to shoot some pretty small groups, give the right conditions. I did shoot competitively in the Marines over thirty years ago and was a Primary Marksmanship Instructor during my tour of duty at MCRD Parris Island, SC. I learned a few things that I would like to share with the other members of this forum in the hopes that something I share here might help someone become a better shooter.

In the Marines we shot from the various established shooting positions using loop slings and open sights. While the things I share might be somewhat dated, especially for a competition using high power scopes, the principals for good marksmanship have not changed. The qualification course of shooting in the Marines started at the 200 yard line shooting in the standing off hand position and then moved back to the three and five hundred yard lines. If you have never tried this, it isn’t easy with a scope much less with the open sights we used. By teaching a number of marksmanship principals, the U.S. Marine Corps built a reputation for producing some fine shooters. I would like to share those with you.

Sight Alignment – When the clear tip of the front sight post is centered and half way up in the rear sight aperture.

The emphasis here was to get your front sight post in the same alignment every time. An even more important detail is the fact that the front sight should be “clear”. This means that your concentrated focus should be on the front sight and never the rear sight or target.

This philosophy can carry over to a scope very well. The point where the cross hairs actually meet must be centered up and down, left and right in the ocular lens. We know that if you move your eye too far left or right in the ocular, part of the field of view will be lost to the dreaded black crescent. It is important that you develop a ritual so that your eye is centered in the ocular every time. If the scope suffers from parallax the crosshairs will seem to float around on the target as your eye moves around the ocular. This movement of the crosshairs will cause you to correct your alignment by moving the rifle when in fact you are moving the rifle to a false aiming point that appears to be centered on the bull’s eye. Having a scope that allows you to correct for parallax with an adjustable objective is a plus but, you can compensate by concentrating on centering your crosshairs. A good spot weld can aid tremendously.

Sight Picture – When the clear tip of the front sight is centered and 6 o’clock on the fuzzy bull’s eye.

In the Marines, shooting with open sights, we were taught to balance the bull’s eye on top of the front sight post. This was easier than trying to center it on the middle of the bull’s eye while also trying to center the tip of the front sight on the middle of the rear sight aperture. Again the emphasis is on focusing on the front sight.

When I shoot with a scope, I center the crosshairs in the middle of the bull’s eye because it is easy to accomplish with the reticles available today. I also align the crosshairs with the horizontal and vertical lines on the targets completely hiding them from view. When shooting targets without the lines to align my crosshairs with, I use a scope level to reduce the chance of canting the rifle. The only problem with most scope levels is that you can’t concentrate on them once you start viewing through the scope. Hence, targets with horizontal and vertical lines running through the center of the bull’s eye make it easier for me to shoot groups.

Once I am satisfied with the alignment of the crosshairs on the target, I force myself to only focus on the crosshairs. This is not easy to do. If you force yourself to focus on the crosshairs you will quickly notice that the bull’s eye goes out of focus. This can be a little unnerving and seems all wrong but, focusing on the crosshairs will produce tighter groups. When you focus on the crosshairs you will start noticing the other little things that are happening like the fact that they are moving every time you twitch even the slightest. What will happen subconsciously is that you will be more aware of where they are and better able to tell when things are not right. When I was on the pistol team the coach told us that we should be aiming at an area and not at a point. To me, this seemed to contradict everything I knew. As it turns out, it did contradict everything I knew, because I didn’t know very much. When I listened to what the coach said and started practicing focusing just on the front sight, I started winning. All I can say is that it feels wrong when the target goes out of focus but, the results are dramatic. I practice this every time I shoot. It takes practice.

Breath Control – The Marines used an acronym to teach shooters breath control. BRASS - Breath, Relax, Aim, Stop Squeeze.

I have made more shooting errors by not controlling my breathing than any other mistake. Breathing is a subconscious act. Controlling your breathing seems unnatural to me. As you breathe, you are moving your weapon, period. Take a normal breath and exhale half of it. Relax your muscles so you are limp. Focus on the crosshairs. Stop exhaling and squeeze the trigger. This must not be forced. What I mean is that you should not hold your breath so long that you start to feel the need to breathe again. If you feel the need to breathe again, stop applying more pressure to the trigger but don’t let up on the pressure you have already applied. Hold what you have while taking another breath. Exhale again, stop and continue to squeeze. If you hold your breath so long that you start feeling an urgency to inhale, you will naturally tense up. Remember that muscle tension works against you. Your goal to remain completely relaxed.

Trigger Control – When the pad of the first joint of the index finger pulls the trigger straight to the rear so slowly that the hammer falls without the shooters knowledge.

If you put too much of your finger on the trigger and squeeze, you will apply a torque to the whole rifle because your finger wants to curl towards your palm instead of pulling the trigger straight to the rear. Anything on a hinge moves in an arc. Your finger moves in a natural arc because of the way it is jointed. That natural arc is actually applying pressure to the rifle, pulling it off target. This natural arcing movement has to be overcome. My rule of thumb is that if the first joint of my trigger finger is touching the trigger, I have too much finger on the trigger. Look at the first joint of your trigger finger. Directly between that joint and the tip of your finger is what you want touching the trigger. Right on the pad, not the joint. Then you need to make a conscious effort to pull the trigger straight to the rear.

Some shooters, like me, like to pinch the trigger. I put my trigger finger on the trigger and my thumb on the outside rear of the trigger guard. I can pull the trigger straight to the rear by pinching my finger and thumb together. If I wrap my thumb around the stock I have a tendency to torque the rifle. Some shooters lay their finger on the inside bottom of the trigger guard just in front of the trigger and roll their finger backwards pulling the trigger. This is just another way to pull the trigger straight to the rear. I much prefer to pinch the trigger when shooting from the bench. This trick usually doesn’t work when in the field except maybe while shooting off a bipod. You will just have to try each method and use the one that works well for you.

The trigger must be squeezed so slowly that the hammer falls without you knowing. The rifle should fire by surprise. If you are jerking the rifle, each shot is going to be launched down a different path. Trigger control, or rather lack of trigger control, can be seen if you are truly focusing on the crosshairs. You will actually notice every last little movement.

Follow through is the last step in good trigger control. Follow through is a conscious effort to resist the urge to look up from the scope while the rifle is recoiling. Hard recoiling rifles can add to this problem because the shooter is anticipating the recoil and tensing up. With the 204 Ruger, recoil isn’t a problem but you must continue to focus on the crosshairs while the rifle is recoiling. Stay relaxed and limp while the rifle is recoiling. There will be plenty of time to see where the shot went after a proper follow through. As a matter of fact, you will have the rest of your life to look at the hole in the target, so be patient.

The Marine Corps method of teaching a shooter to follow through came via the requirement to call the shot and log it in your range book. Calling your shot is nothing more than noticing where the last place your front sight post was when the rifle went off. We made a dot on the target in our range book where we last saw the front sight. The Drill Instructors and Primary Marksmanship Instructors would really get upset if you called a shot at three o’clock and the shot actually hit at 9 o’clock. They knew that you were flinching. They had a really effective way of teaching you not to flinch but, we won’t go into that here. Flinching should not be a problem with the 204 Ruger.

Body Alignment – I don’t recall if the Marines had some cute little saying to help remember body alignment. Oh well, you probably didn’t want to hear it anyway.

Go get a pistol, an unloaded and made safe pistol. Hold it up and point if at an aiming point. Continue to hold the pistol up, close your eyes and relax. Count to ten slowly with your eyes closed. Now, without moving, open your eyes and see where the pistol is aimed. It probably won’t be at the same point you were aiming before at but slightly off to the left or right. Now, move your feet (don’t twist your torso) so that the pistol is aimed at the aiming point again to corrected your body alignment. Try the experiment again and again until you can open your eyes and the pistol is still aimed at the same point. Congratulations, you have just learned body alignment. Tip: Once you get good body alignment, don’t move your fee again during the course of fire. While you have this body alignment, try something else. Try to notice how your muscles feel. Right now your muscles are only holding your arms up. They are not correcting for alignment while holding the pistol up. Now move your feet so that your body alignment is slightly off and aim again. Your muscles feel slightly different, less comfortable because they have to hold the pistol up and correct the alignment at the same time.

By now you should be asking what this has to do with shooting a rifle supported by rests and bags. Well, everything. Earlier, we talked about your body being limp when you shoot. Let’s discuss that a little farther. A lot of times you will correct your rifles alignment by subconsciously applying shoulder pressure or squeezing the rear bag. This means that you are exerting a force on the rifle and your muscles are tense. The trick is to get the crosshairs on target without using any muscle. The crosshairs should be on target with the rifle at rest in the bags, without any contact from you. Tip: Have a round in the chamber and ready to fire before you make your final adjustments. There is nothing worse than getting everything all lined up and then realizing that you have to load a round into the chamber. Remember not to tense up, tense muscles shake and move. Your body needs to be completely relaxed and limp when the hammer falls. You are not relaxed, if you’re throwing your shoulder into the butt or squeezing the rear bag trying to hold the crosshairs on target. This is why I shoot free recoil. Free recoil is nothing more than not having any contact with the rifle except the trigger. When I shoot this way I don’t exert any force on the rifle. Shooting this way does make me go through the motion of aligning my rifle so that it is centered while at rest in the bags. That isn’t so easy to do shot after shot. True free recoil means that my shoulder is about two inches behind the butt. There is absolutely no contact between my shoulder and the butt of the rifle. My cheek just barely touches the stock due to the fact that I need to see through the scope. There’s not nearly enough contact to move the rifle. The only part of my body that is in direct contact with the rifle is my trigger finger and thumb. Even then, the contact is very ginger, like pretending the trigger is red hot and I really don’t want to make firm contact with it.

The big problem here is that it’s much easier to get my scope lined up if I just help it with my shoulder a little or give the bag a squeeze. It’s too much trouble to move the bags around every time I pull the trigger. It takes significant effort to get the crosshairs lined up without contact with the rifle. Sometimes I get anxious and think to myself that I can hold still long enough while I modulate the trigger. It doesn’t ever work out like that for me. My groups just get bigger.

What I have found that works well is getting a good rest and rear bag that fits the rifle well. If your front rest and rear bag are set up right, the rifle should recoil straight to the rear. If I push the rifle forward to the front rest stop after every shot, it should be right back on target. This theory has never completely worked out for me. The crosshairs are usually close but off a little left or right, up or down. This is where perseverance pays off. I must take the time to do whatever it takes to realign the crosshairs perfectly again while the rifle is at rest in the bags.

There are ways that I have found to improve the odds that my rifle will be back on target after each shot or at least need very little adjustment. First, the rifle needs to be able to slide back and forth easily. If the rifle doesn’t slide in the bags it jumps up instead of recoiling straight backwards. This usually causes each round to go flying off in a different direction because the rifle doesn’t jump the same every time. To help my rifle glide straight to the rear, I remove the front sling stud so it doesn’t run into the front bag and apply baby powder to both bags. This produces a set up where the rifle will freely glide back and forth in the bags. The bags don’t move and the rifle doesn’t jump. I have found a new trick these days that lets me ditch the baby powder mess. Most arts and crafts stores sell one foot squares of felt with an adhesive backing. I cut out some pads to apply to the top of my front and rear bags. This has worked exceptionally well for me. The rifle recoils straight backwards and returns to battery with an easy push forward.

The second consideration is to buy a front rest with windage and elevation adjustments. The rifle is never going to return to the exact same place every time. At least that has been my experience. The other bad news is that even with windage and elevation adjustments on my front rest I still struggle. The adjustments on my current rest and very coarse, to put it mildly. When I turn the elevation wheel, the crosshairs move both horizontally and vertically. Well, of course they wouldn’t put controls on a rest that actually worked right. I will have to pay some more money to get the top to my rest that actually works like it should. O.K., now I’m digressing. I think you get the picture. Without spending as much for a good front rest as a new rifle, you’re going to be handicapped here. Even after you get your front and rear bags and rests set up and get your rifle recoiling in them correctly, you’re still going to have to make some minor adjustments to your rifle after every shot. The best I can do is make the adjustments without taking shortcuts. The rifle needs to be on target without any intervention on my part.

There are other philosophies and shooting techniques. Some like a hard hold on the rifle while others like to shoot free recoil. Some squeeze the trigger while others prefer to slap it. There does seem to be some flexibility in shooting technique but the principals of good marksmanship haven’t changed much over the years. The rifle needs to be perfectly aligned with the target and resting in the same position in the bags every shot. The hammer needs to fall without disturbing the alignment and the rifle needs to recoil the same every shot. See, it’s easy.

There are more considerations when shooting such as reading the wind, load development, etc. I just wanted to cover the basics here. By incorporating some or all of the principals outlined here, your groups should shrink and you will be more pleased with your efforts. I wish everyone good luck in the competition. God bless.

[Vartarg]

Skipper: Thanks for your dissertation on shooting. I knew some of it, had forgotten much of it, and some of it was completely new....but all good food for thought in evaluating and improving my shooting. George

[WrzWaldo]

Dang it to heck skipper, you let out all my secrets!

Another excellent post!

[Lyn]

Skipper,, Wow! That is some very interesting stuff. Thanks for all the tips. That would have taken me about a month to write.

[Lee C.]

Well done Skipper, some pretty good advice you put out there.

[Hawkeye Joe]

Good post again Skipper!! I would like to add on thing that most people overlook.Target LEVELING. Even targets with horizontal and vertial lines need to be level for best results. A lazer or .005 increment machinist level work great