Which piece of gear has most helped you to become a better shooter?

I am mostly thinking of shooting gear or training aids or... stuff you have used which most positively improved your skill level.  Examples might be a Noptel, a Shot Marker, a better spotting scope,... you know, stuff.

Feel free to factor cost into the assessment - bang for the buck.

Ammo, range time and planning on what to train for....then focusing everything during that trip on that task.

Am I focused on doing reloads, target transitions, long range,  transition to sidearm?

Whatever that trip is about, I focus on that.

Gear has little to do with it.  Focusing on what makes me do the task better is what made me better.  The gear is less important than is experience with it.

You cannot buy your way out of range time.

A spotting scope that let's you check hits at range is indispensable, I will admit.....but only at telling you where your sights are aimed, and if you fucked up your position/trigger actuation.

Ammo

Without a doubt, owning my own wind flags and having my own ShotMarker has really sped up the learning curve.

If you don't have a helper in the pits, and electronic target is the only way to make practice efficient and it is still far better to have both people on the line than one in the pits.

The wind flags means you are also spending time learning to dope wind.

Maybe I am spoiled, but before the SM came along, practice was very inefficient unless I had a helper, which I almost never did....

Kimber 82G. Ruger MkI.

The aggressive rubber on Champion Shooters Supply coats mated with A2 butts well. I think that helped teach position repeatability and the X-ring feel.

This seems pretty profound.  It really is simple, isn't it.

Range time is so precious.  It's a full day when I can get it, what with the drive and all.  It's very precious.

I already have a lot of gear.  I have a rimfire trainer which allows me to shoot offhand at local indoor range (I surely do wish they'd allow shooting from positions.)  I have a decent spotting scope allowing me to shoot at 200 yards outdoors.  I have both inert (dummy) rounds for practice reloading and live ammo

I do a little dry fire training in the back yard.  That seems to really help, if for no other reason than it gets my body accustomed to the weird shooting positions.

How about Shot Marker for live fire or Noptel for dry fire training?

Can gear make more efficient use of the available range time?


One thing that is in short supply is time.

It's a toss-up.  Either the SCATT or the Nightforce scope with SR2 reticle.

Rifle/ammo you trust
Trigger time

Nothing can replace actual range time on the KD range for the purpose of reading the wind. Other than that my CLE 22lr upper is probably the most helpful piece of equipment I use. For $50 I get 500 rounds of feed back, and 22lr never lies.

Yup, you have to do the work. Some type of .22 or airgun is really helpful to get in the range time.

B

a good shooting jacket helped,  a lot,

a good spotting scope helped , a bit,

a few good books helped immensely,  (Jim Owen's book,  Tubb's high power,  Zedikers Mouse that roared)

best of all was time on the range, and a few good mentors to help out,

but all that only helps if you concentrate and pay attention to what is going on, what you are reading,  and what you are told, and work (practice) so that info works for you

Dry Fire.  Time spent building muscle memory to do certain steps automatically.  Repping things like presentation, reloads, sight picture, reloads etc

Dedicated Range Time, going with a plan for the skill you want to work.

If we have to name a piece of gear, shot timer

For me a good solid 2 piece dedicated belt really helped. Instead of just carrying my holster/mag carriers on my normal belt (which is a still CCW type belt) having an even more rigid belt setup really keeps things in place and makes drawing/holstering etc much more fluid.