Basic Marksmanship (Proper Sight Alignment)

I've always felt I possessed an invisible Spear.

Strange feeling.

Never used it to draw blood.

Oh, it's past 3am

Time for a swim.

You comin?

reply to post by DaddyBare


1stSgt.
Good to go. It is a very good post, but you should have talked about all four fundamentals of marksmanship. 1) Sight alignment sight pitcher, 2) steady position, 3) Breathing control, 4) Trigger squeeze. I to spent some time at Quantico when I went thru SAWIC. (SMALL ARMS WEAPONS INSTRUCTOR COURSE) I spent all last year in Iraq teaching Marksmanship and CQM to the Iraq Army. I think it is funny how people get on here and try to talk about shooting when they really don’t know what they are talking about. Also I don’t think people relies that it is a lot different looking down your sights and seeing a man there shooting back at you, then it is when your shooting at a target.

Originally posted by namgrunt
reply to post by DaddyBare

 

great post
now
please do the same for GHOST RING type

I just got a Mossburg 590A1 and it shoots low as in 8 inches at 15 yards
help

Get a buddy to load a single shell in your gun a couple of times and pass it to you from behind, at some point he loads a fired shell without telling you which time.

You may find you are flinching, ie. pulling the gun down as you fire, when you pull the trigger on the fired round you will see for yourself how much you flinch.

If you are flinching don't get down about it, use lighter loads, practice on tin cans and things that jump, the more practice you do the better you get.

Originally posted by readerone

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 .

Sorry but I have shot Metallic silhouette for years, rimfire pistol, rams are at 100 yards, Full bore pistol (I used a 41 mag.) the rams are at 200 yards. I have plenty of dusty trophies. You should try it sometime.

Originally posted by readerone
reply to post by JayinAR

 

I was cleaning my dads handguns and rifles when I was 6 or 7 , I never fired a even a toy gun till I was 13 , when I got my first rifle .
when my dad gave my older brother his old 3o.3o model 94 .
my brother gave me his old 3o.3o.
so I got my older brothers model 94'...

my dad was very good at cleaning his guns about ever 100 shots.
it was his and my thinking that accuracy is the barrel , and a clean barrel is the key to accuracy .

Cleaning a .22 LR every 100 rounds is about right, a 30-30 is a center-fire cartridge, at 60+ rounds I'm not sure you would be able to chamber a round due to fouling, my advice is simple, you go out and shoot your rifles, you come home you clean them and put them away.

Originally posted by readerone
....for the advanced shooter ....
the art of shooting is the disipline of getting a hole to appear where you want it .

The art of shooting is hitting the target.

I meant to talk about care and cleaning in a separate post but since we've touched on it let me send you to the KleenBore Web Site they have a step by step on using their products on their page...

More detailed instructions can be found in your owners manual... that manual is always the best place to start learning your gun... Now I know some will say I didn't get one when I bought my used gun.. well guess what... most of them can be found for free on line... Recently I purchased a Dan Wesson without, and guess what Owners Manual Dan Wesson Revolver

Lastly it was brought up that the NRA has some fine training programs for people of every skill level where to find NRA courses by all means try to attend... if you cant find one or cant afford to go. try going down to the local shooting range. there you'll find lots of good people more than happy to give great advice and get you started the right way

In the following video many of the top shooters are paid full time professionals. Their firearms are top of the line modified "specials" never the less you can see what practice means in this form of shooting.






[edit on 3-9-2009 by prof-rabbit]

some solid advice, great thread.

a little on shot guns, learn to shoot with a calibre your use to, if you have a small frame and cant shoot the 12 try a 16 or a 20 bore,

when shooting shotgun pull the gun up nice and smooth with butt to shoulder through a straight arc of the body and make sure you have good contact with the shoulder before you fire or you will end up with a smack in the face off the butt,

for a moving target pull the gun up sight the target follow it threw and pull just ahead of it. the gun should feel like a part of your body an extension of the arm.

breathing is very important when shooting a rifle. learn how to breath and at the same time you should have the sights moving up and down in a true vertical motion over the target with no left to right movement, breath out and take the shot, never tensed up holding your breath.

a clean weapon is a safe shot no exuse here.

when squeezing the trigger, it should be that, a squeeze. the shot should come as a surprise. this will keep you from over compensating for the recoil.

I always take a breath and hold until I squeeze the trigger, I then exhale SLOWLY as I squeeze.
of course, every one has they're own methods. these work for me....and I'm not a bad shot( I haven't shot myself!! :lol

reply to post by lr308


daddybare you get an snf for a great thread .always thought this info should be more available to people. i've a redhawk 44, and though i can't see my self ever firing it like the revolver in the pic.man i cringe at the thought ofjust now hearing that about the thumb. people i let fire it too.
i thought i knew that weapon well too.i'd replace luck ,w/ knowledge anyday
thank you. and thank you again for your service.

i also like what this guy said

With that being said, from what I can tell DaddyBare is competent and has provided this thread with good basic information. But for some of the others making replies, if you are not an experienced instructor, keep your B***Sh** training advice to yourself. You are going to suggest something stupid that is going to get a newbie hurt or even killed. Like the D***A** who made the suggestion about "bump firing." That is really "cool" right up until you loose control of the weapon and you shoot yourself in the face

Originally posted by Perseus Apex
reply to post by DaddyBare

 

Personally, I despise violence.

I couldn't agree more but I thought I'd give my definition of violence.

Violence is a punch in the face to someone who didn't deserve it.

A well placed shot in self-defense is an act of mercy.

reply to post by prof-rabbit


great vid Prof rabbit! thanks for posting it. It's really great for showing sight acquistion and stance. invaluable.

Originally posted by DaddyBare
Sometimes we long time shooters get so caught up in the latest toys we forget not everyone has been taught the basics and the first and most important thing you need to learn is how to properly sight in a weapon be it rifle or handgun. As my brothers in arms will attest the mantra for that become "Sight Alignment and Sight Picture"! for this lesson we're only going to discuss open iron sights scopes and lasers fall in the cool toy category...


...Now I invite my fellow shooters to add to this thread... anyone want to try teaching the proper way to pull/squeeze the trigger? what about the right way top load a magazine or revolver? remember lets keep it basic and assume our student have never touched a firearm...

Great thread DaddyBare. I will humbly add the following video, as it is something I teach and personally feel it is an issue sometimes over-looked by even experienced shooters. Too many times have I seen people over engineer a simple problem and by doing so, endanger themselves or others...

May I suggest you participate in a Appleseed Project

www.appleseedinfo.org...If you want to learn how to become a rifleman(expert)



I've taken this course and it has improved my shooting capabilities to shooting 4 MOA.

1 inch at 25 yards
4 inches at 100 yards
8 inches at 200 yards
12 inches at 300 yards
16 inches at 400 yards
20 inches at 500 yards !

in the standing/seated and prone positions

reply to post by prof-rabbit


I clean my weapon after every session.
I only fire 100 rounds per year, and that is a good year.

As far as how to teach proper trigger squeeze, I have already posted that information. Dimewasher drills are the way to go.

Place a cleaning rod into the barrel with one end protruding, have a parner balance a dime on the rod while you steady the weapon. Dry fire the weapon and aim to keep the dime on the rod.

Unless you squeeze the trigger perfectly, the dime will fall off.
Shoot for 10 in a row.

Originally posted by DaddyBare
.............
If your right handed but left eyed or vise versa ...your going to have problems but they are fixable.. you'll have to retrain your brain...
to do that you'll need an eye patch... if your right handed cover your left eye and practice shooting... in time you wont need the eye patch, just save that for when you want to play pirate

I was thinking just about that. Good post, and good info. Starred and flagged.

Also, even though it is shown in the pictures you gave, one big error a lot of people make, even those who practice often at the range is that you have to sight your target with the top of your sights. A lot of people sight their target thinking they have to align with the center of the sight. (that the iron sight has to cover the target you want to shoot)

This is very important, more so when sighting a target that is far away (50 -100 yards) This is for iron sights.

Anyway, great job, and everyone else who added to this too.



[edit on 3-9-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

reply to post by JayinAR



OMG !

I tried it , the dime trick , I was thinking this is going to be so easy .

with a 17 pound rifle , not easy !

when in my full shooting seat , and totaly focus'd I did manage 9 dry fires , but this is not even close to easy .

my bolt locks down hard , and most of the time , nearly half the time I get one dry fire , pull the bolt and lose it on the first lock down .

frankly speaking , I get excited that I have managed 3 and it drops .

this is an excellant drill to learn proper balance and smoothness.
comfortable stance , but I would suggest respectfully ,

trigger pull and breath control on a target rifle is not as easy as the dime .

I have a 28 Oz. trigger ( a bit heavy for the kind of shooting I do ) so dry firing is not much of an issue .

on a good day I clean ever 15 minutes or so , and shoot 200 holes an hour for about 2 hours .

once in the zone , I can genaraly manage 2 inch patterns at 200 yards with the rifle sitting on my knee in a 30 degree to 45 degree sitting weiver .

standing , I am having a good day to manage 12 inch patterns at 100 yards .

thank you for this dime trick... I will let you know when I master 10 dry fires

I've used a few of these tips and tricks for when I'm out shooting and they've helped my accuracy a bit. I've passed on the knowledge too to some of my friends that needed a bit of help.

I also found that this target is pretty good help as well.

Army Marksmanship Correction Target

Originally posted by endofdays
May I suggest you participate in a Appleseed Project

www.appleseedinfo.org...If you want to learn how to become a rifleman(expert)



I've taken this course and it has improved my shooting capabilities to shooting 4 MOA.

1 inch at 25 yards
4 inches at 100 yards
8 inches at 200 yards
12 inches at 300 yards
16 inches at 400 yards
20 inches at 500 yards !

in the standing/seated and prone positions

Such measures as MOA (minute of angle) are part of our only universal language - mathematics.
(1 MOA = 1.047 inch @ 100 yards) but the expression using MOA is more concise since no distances are included in the expression.

It's good to hear your accuracy is improving. There is no substitute for practice and more practice.