Basic Marksmanship (Proper Sight Alignment)

Originally posted by havok
Great post. Very informative!

The only thing I want to add to this:

When aiming, try holding your breath as you aim. It helps with aquiring a steady aim towards the target.

[edit on 2-9-2009 by havok]

Holding your breath is acceptable, but better still is to exhale. Holding your breath adds to the natural tremors after a couple seconds.

reply to post by pteridine


I was taught to exhale and then pause.
Oh well. Either way you have to hold yourself steady for a tick.
For that matter, with practice, you could hold an inhale and achieve the same results.

From my experience, improper trigger squeeze is most likely to throw you off target.

reply to post by Griever0311


Correct.
Pausing after an exhale is the most effective way to control the fine motor movements.
Holding your breath will create shudders, like you said.
Because you are literally tensing yourself up.

I'd like to add a couple things I have learned.Firstly,I always shoot alternatively right and then left handedly.Especially at first,it helped to advance my skill level as it seemed one hand sort of teaches the other what not to do.I found no confusion with eyes and sight pictures and do it this way to this day.Gotta watch it with the Steyer AUG though,with the wrong bolt,I could get a mouth full of casings.Hot shells.

Which leads to another aspect which is how to shoot a semi auto in a slow full auto fashion.You place both trigger fingers in the trigger guard,with one touching the trigger and the other touching the inside of the guard while also lightly pressing the back of the trigger finger.You set up a tension and steady pull and a bit of adjustment in relative tension and you will start to get double taps then triples then a slow but full auto emptying of a full magazine.I can do it with a 1911 .45 but it's rough on the tension finger.Better with a Walther PPK which has s stout spring in the trigger guard as a takedown release.

Another thing for beginning shooters of semi-automatic or automatic weapons: only fire as rapidly as you can comfortably put rounds on target. You can work to improve your fundamentals and speed; spraying and praying will get you nowhere. Remember: it is not the smoke you make, nor the noise of your burst that count. IT IS THE HITS THAT COUNT.

it's important to be prepared for gun powder. When I shot a .44 taurus for the first time, the damn powder gave me a small cut on the inside of my nose. I wasn't expecting it and dropped the gun. luckily, it didn't go off but it was still nerve wracking.

reply to post by trueforger


I wouldn't suggest anyone to follow your advice.
Even for folks who are ambidexterous (I am), you are only dominate in one eye.
Mine is the right.
So, in order to be accurate, I must shoot right handed.

reply to post by Griever0311


Agreed. One shot, one kill.

Great post. First thing taught in U.S. Army AIT and every other service is sight alignment. The major mistake made is firing too fast. Don't try and pop off as many shots as possible in a short time. Even with a semiauto every shot after the first will be off that much more. Take if from someone who has been in a firefight. I watched a 20 year old with a M-5 empty an entire clip from 15 yards away and hit nothing but air. Keep your cool and take your time. A well trained bullet is better than 1000 untrained.

Also, in regard to the comment about holding your breath. I was on the range in Ft Hood and heard the worst skull cracking noise across the wall. I walked around and noticed a PFC laying on the floor with his rifle next to him. He had held his breath, passed out, hit the wall in front of him and the rifle fell on his head. That guy was taking motrin for 2 weeks.

Just remember, respect the gun.

Advice for picking out a handgun that fits you,

Pick up a weapon. Point it at something. Close your eyes while trying to hold it steady. If you open your eyes and you are still on target. You are okay.

If it has drifted, don't buy it.

Yeah, I always had the problem of double vision

So since im left handed I just close my right eye, because every time I go to look down the scope, I get 2 of the same image and it really throws me off.

It's a real pain in paintball too, bah.

reply to post by toast317


You shouldn't close your eye.
Try keeping both eyes open but just focusing through your dominate eye.

I shoot a .22 lr bolt action hand gun w/ 9x 30mm scope fixed at fifty feet and have cut the hanging target in half by connecting the bullet holes.

that said , take a deep breath , let half out , pull when I am on , relax when I am off .

1/3 weiver , weight even on both feet .

the key to precsion shooting is the trigger pull .
cut the pin off a thumb tack , tape it to your trigger .
if you draw blood , your a twit .
if you get good with the tack , try it with out it .
you lose 2 MOA with the tack in place , but you learn to pull evenly .

lose trigger pull with a hand gun , and you lose 50 feet of range .

frankly speaking , a very good hand gun is good only to about 200 feet .

learning to bench rest or sand bag first , will teach a great meny bad habits , but will teach trigger pull , and iron sights .

reply to post by Ragnarok691


I agree , more so if you get excited , scared or are active .

supporting the " strong " arm or dominate elbow , both eyes open , but mentaly blind in one .

sight seeing can be learned with a sun glass's... pop one lens out and learn to see with one eye .

also , never clean the weak eye lens . make sure the sight eye lens stays very clean .

trigger pull is however the greatest bane , or problem in accurate shooting of rifle for 1 moa

Dang! Someone's breaking into my home right now and I ... let's see, the front sight goes ... wait, wait, wait ... no, that's the rear sight. Hold on. What's that circle at the top again? Okay, so if that single thingy goes between the double thingy, it means .... YAUGHHHH!

reply to post by allgoodnamesaretaken


If you are faced with a confrontation in your home more than likely you are very close to the person.
Point and squeeze.

Good balance, good point, center mass.
He's down.
Most of this other stuff is about the finer points of hitting a target down range.

If you are within 20 feet of a target, you will hit him if you aim for the belly.

reply to post by readerone


The .22 is the most effective round out there.
Period.

reply to post by allgoodnamesaretaken


can we say shoot gun , find a dark corner , wrack a round loudly and call out... "honey , is that you " ....then stay in your corner till either the bad guy leaves , or you hear ... " its just me ..."

reply to post by readerone


After you have found a dark corner, the situation is entirely yours.
I would rather say: "You are dead where you stand."

Bad guy runs poste haste.

For that matter, if you have that kind of preparation, I'll kill a man where he stands with my sword.
Whether he has a piece or not.
He's done.

In the case of surprise visitation, just point and shoot. But be sure to run through the basics.


[edit on 2-9-2009 by JayinAR]

reply to post by JayinAR


.22 LR is fine for teaching , it is great for nearly every use a gun can be used for .

...but ...

if I have one cartrage , for hand gun and rifle .

.44 magnium

revolver , model 94 , and a single shot : harrington and richardson with a 24x 40mm .

and since this is a dream set , give the H&R a 30" heavy barrel .