OT: Gun Question

[kalos72]

Wow this thread went all over the place didnt it?

I think I will just stick with getting the .22 and start with that.

Another thing I seem to remember that was a problem for me was "seeing" the pop ups while looking down the sights.

I was thinking that once I got comfortable with shooting again I could practice sighting the target off the rifle and making a quick aimed shot.

I had problems with re-acquiring the target and getting a good shot off in time.

[Legbreaker]

You're better off ensuring your body is positioned properly and you're holding the rifle correctly. If you get that right, each time you fire a shot, the sights should return to the same aimpoint.

Our qualification shoots in the Australian army involved both deliberate, where we could take as long as we wanted between shots, and rapid, where we had a limited amount of time to fire a sent number of rounds. Once I'd set myself properly, I'd fire the deliberate just as fast as rapid - take too long and your arms get tired and your accuracy will suffer.

As long as you follow the "Principles of Marksmanship", your skill will continue to improve. They are:

1. Position and hold must be firm enough to support the weapon.
2. The rifle must point naturally at the target without any physical effort.
3. Sight alignment and aiming must be correct.
4. The shot must be released and followed through without any disturbance to the position.

Even before you fire the first shot you should "test and adjust". Line up on the target, close your eyes, open your hands so the rifle just sits loose and relaxed in them, then grasp the rifle firmly again, open your eyes and see where the sights are now lining up. Then, move your body around as you think to make the sights line up and repeat until you're happy with the result.

One of the methods of dry firing is simply an extention of the above, with your "shots" marked on paper a few feet away each time you open your eyes (obviously you need a friend to help).

[pmulcahy11b]

I go slightly off the Principles of Marksmanship in that my trigger finger is my middle finger. Always has been. I can't even hit a damned thing with my index finger as a trigger finger. But that's just a personal quirk.

[TiggerCCW UK]

In a similar fashion I struggled, particularly with the SA80 family being bullpup, because I'm right handed but left eye dominant. I was usually the guy in the range with a patch stuck to my shooting glasses

[chico20854]

What Kalos is referring to is the standard U.S. Army rifle qualification course, which has a number of targets from 50m to 300m scattered over an area about 25m wide and 300m deep. The targets pop up and only stay up for a little bit of time, depending on the distance - the 50m is only up for 1.5 seconds or so, the 300m for 5 seconds, and sometimes you'll have 2 up at the same time. They come up in random order, so you need to have your eyes actively searching the area for the targets (they are dark green but usually the area near them is fairly shot up, so you look around for the dirt areas in the vegetation) and then need to shift your eyesight and body to point the weapon at the correct target and get off an accurate shot before the target goes down. (There is an alternate paper-only qualification course, but the pop-ups are by far the preferred.) All qualification courses are timed, and require magazine changes. You fire 20 shots total (in 2 10-round loaded magazines) from a foxhole and 20 rounds (also in 2 magazines) from the prone unsupported. You need to hit (I think, somebody who's sure correct me if I'm wrong) 24 out of 40 at a minimum on the pop-ups, 28 out of 40 on the paper. (You can imagine the joy on my chief's face every time we called out "Bolo" after he hit 8 or 9 for each of 5 times in a row on a particularly unpleasant February day!)

To practice for this on a civilian range, I'd see if the range master will let you string up targets at multiple distances on the range. Have a friend stand/sit next to you and call out which target to engage next, and have him randomly assign times for you to engage (i.e. "Left 100m"... wait 4 seconds.... "Stop"). Or just hope that your new unit uses the paper targets a lot - many guard and reserve units don't have access to a pop-up range on a regular basis. (You can tweak the system/cheat on the paper targets by shooting all 20 rounds from the foxhole at the longer-range targets and fire the 20 from the prone unsupported at the shorter-range, larger targets. This would be morally wrong, however!)

[kalos72]

Chico is right on there...

But I will be going full time if I re-enlist so the unless they changed the qualifications, I will be dealing with the pop-ups again.

I know this may sound funny but, if the problems I have in FPS games are the same as the ones I will encounter on the range, then it might not be finding the target, but aiming. I play HALO alot and can find the target quickly but cant seem to get the target sighted in quickly if that makes sense.

[jester]

1 thing that has not been said with it comes to firing a known distance slow fire!

CONSISTANCY! Check to stock weld is the same place each time, trigger finger on the triger each and everytime, eye releif same same. Forehand gripping same place each time. That way your sight data is still good. If you hold your weapon differently each time it will afffect.

I mean, we were fanaticaly, right down to what we ate or drank the night before or even for breakfast.


As for the quick aquisition:

I would suggest you do one of 2 things then. Okay three,

Get a shotgun and take up skeet shooting. A single barrel to force you to be more accuate with that one shot, shooting a moving target on the fly and only having 1 shot will get you over the jitters and pause.

Timming yourself with multiple targets. Freinds and I would chrono one another going from the holster to hitting the target. Fastest time with most hits counted. My best time was about half a second, a freind was just under half a second.

Or, in the off hand, loading your weapon with 1 round, holding it at the low ready or another position I can't describe but we used alot. Then snapping it into the shoulder and firing on target. Again giving yourself say 5 seconds first and reducing the time as you get better.

I remember when I coached on the range and we did the rapid so many shooters would blow off all their rounds in under 10 seconds <10 rounds from 2 magazines> and miss their chance for what is called "A possible" which means all your rounds are on target and you get max points which is a good thing.

Start slow and build up, your skill and confidence.

I would also suggest practicing at ranging or gauging distance and wind direction and speed. And use natural things for this, grass, flags, clouds whatever is available.

And then you have the whole Kentucky windage which is something else.

Good luck!