Tag

Hi Broward,

Soon you'll want to attend your first match so we wrote the following article: 5 Tips for Attending Your First Precision Rifle Match

It's geared toward the beginner and is based on our personal experiences getting into the sport of precision long range shooting. Enjoy!

http://www.65guys.com/articles/5-tips-for-attending-your-first-precision-rifle-match/

Regards,


Ed

Tag

I would consider this one of the first periods of instruction you would need in precision shooting at-distance.
The rest of the video series is just as informative, Mr. Cleckner knows what he's talking about and explains in an easily-absorbed manner.
I can recommend the rest of the series to any new distance or precision shooter.

I think in terms of target size in inches rather than yards. Try this:

Target size (inches) / 3.6 (constant) / mils in scope = distance to target in hundreds of yards.
There are 3.6" per milliradian at 3600" (100 yards).

Example: 18" / 3.6 / 2.1 mils = 2.38 hundred yards (238 yards)
Example: 36" / 3.6 / 2.9 mils = 3.45 hundred yards (345 yards)
Example: 24" / 3.6 / 0.5 mils = 13.33 hundred yards (1333 yards)

In the above examples you just move the decimal mentally. No need to bang that extra step out on a calculator.

I don't use the classic equation with the 27.77 constant. It happens to come from the conversion factor of (1000 / 36 = 27.77) for converting target inches to range yards, and milliradians to radians, together. You'll remember the 3.6 constant much easier.

I'd like to read discussion of how to properly set up a rifle for the individual shooter's own physical make-up. At my 1000 yard class, the instructor (former Army) worked with me to set the length of pull, comb height, and eye relief. I learned that my butt had too many spacers and I was reaching forward with my face to look through the scope.

The comb was raised to the point where my cheek bone rested on it and gave me a relaxed view through the scope. I could just lay my face on the stock and it would be in the right spot. With a good cheek weld and the weight of my head pushing downward, and a squeeze of the bag upward, the stock was firmly held in place. I went from wobbling around at 450 yards, to tightening up and reaching out to 1000.

Do you have any tips on customizing the fit of a rifle to a person?

Thanks, Tweeter! Glad to hear that you found the videos I did with NSSF helpful. I'm thinking it's about time to dust off the topics and do some more videos. Let me know if you guys want any particular topics covered.

Link above made hot.

http://www.65guys.com/articles/5-tips-for-attending-your-first-precision-rifle-match/

Tag.

A great thread so far that needs continual input.

Some I have had pounded into my head by PMIs (and I beat into heads as a PMI as well)

First and foremost, there us a 5th safety rule (Treat, never, keep,keep), and it is "Be sure of your target, and aware of its background"

Dont hold your breath when pressing* off the shot. You starve your eyes and brain for oxygen and vision gets hazy
(*taught to press off the shot, not squeeze.  "Squeezing" mentality can subconsciously lead to grip tightening or non-linear rearward trigger manipulation)
each shot should be a surprise, and a mental picture taken at the moment of firing to be able to better call your shots.
Trigger face should be engaged with the topmost portion of the finger (the tip of the pad under the finger nail)
Before engaging the trigger, sight in and get what you think is a perfect position.Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Open your eyes. If your sights have shifted, adjust your body position, DON'T muscle the rifle.
At the conclusion of a natural exhale, there is a momentary pause before the inhale. This "natural respiratory pause" is when the shot should be fired.  
The benefit of a tight loop sling is hard to explain, it has to be experienced.
Rely on skeletal support to provide a stable foundation.

Get out and shoot, as much as you can, whenever you can, hot out, cold out, windy, calm, whatever,  keep at it you will only get better.

Admit to yourself when you buck a shot or pull a shot. When in doubt of your sight picture aim at your last bullet hole. This will tell you after a couple of shots if you need a correction. Always check your scopes turrets and shoot data at different distances and temperatures. Keep good records. Never completely rely on someone else's figures. Always ask questions and re verify your own data powder changes as does primer combinations.

Last but not least try to get as comfortable as you can. Learn to set your parallax it can give you a bad day as well as mirage. Thermals can also play a role with wind. That's another reason to keep good data if you need to shoot the same location.

After my first year doing PRS I'll add a couple of things, specific to shooting at matches, which may already have been said:

1. Go to local matches and find the guys in the top 20-30. Listen to what they say, and if you have the chance to go out and casually shoot with them jump on it. You'll learn more from these sessions than anything. Most of the guys I've met in the sport are happy to help new shooters get up to speed. Just remember, at the matches they are in a competitive mindset, as you should be as well.

2. There's a couple books and a new video series that will help. I'm not a book learner, but they have  a lot of good info:

Ryan Cleckner: Long Range Shooting Handbook for Beginners (This book is referenced in other threads and possibly this thread)

Marcus Blanchard: Practical Shooters Guide
(This definitely gives you the fundamentals)

Jake Vibbert: Precision Rifle Training for PRS & NRL Competition

3. Resist the temptation to buy more gear. There's a lot of cool accessories, and stuff you "think" will help you shoot better. For example, I bought way too many bags. Now I'm trying to get proficient w/as little gear as possible. I also upgraded my optic, and my rifle after I knew I was into the sport. In reality the rifle / optic combo I had was more than sufficient to progress. I love my new setup, and it definitely ended up being a want, not a need.....the first time out with the new rifle was like learning a whole new system. There will be lots of guys with better equipment, and more time behind the rifle. That doesn't mean you can't be the better shooter.

4. This was the biggest "ah-ha" moment for me this season: While at the matches, focus, focus, focus! There is a lot going on that you need to concentrate on. Make sure you understand the course of fire 100%...I bombed some stages by making some assumptions and there isn't always time to adapt under the clock.

Double check distances and dope, and check & double check you have your gear ready before the stage (including your Mag, doh!).

Always, always, always make sure your rifle is zeroed (trust me, I learned the hard way) before the first stage.

Never try anything new in a match unless you have practiced it with both dry fire AND live fire. Also, don't automatically try to copy what the other guys are doing on that stage. Especially if you haven't practiced the technique. There are too many variables to consider, 80% of the time it just didn't work out for me. After gaining more experience, when I came up with my own game plan I was usually happy with the outcome IF i was 100% focused going into the stage.

Most important for me, is when I'm waiting to shoot, I'm going over my strategy, practicing target acquisition in my scope or binocs, double checking dope, running through mock elevation changes or studying my hold-overs, and building / breaking / visualizing impacts in my mind. Watch the other shooters (again, the top guys) to try and learn their style so you can develop what works for you. I don't mean to contradict my previous statement about "not copying" -  For example, I shot the 2 day finale with the guy that finished 2nd in the league, and he's short like me. Some of the things that works for taller shooters doesn't work for shorter ones, obviously. But shooting with him for 2 days gave me some insight into how he approaches a stage and helped me become more conscious of my strengths, limitations, and overall style. With that I'm able to more completely come up with a consistent strategy from stage to stage.

If the wind is blowing, watch and learn. Try to see if there's a pattern to where other shooters are missing. When in doubt, miss into the wind: for example, if you have a strong left to right wind then miss to the left, not the right, which means hold too much instead of too little. For me that makes it easier to make the correction in my scope and get on target. Again, I'm new to the sport and more experience shooters may not agree with this advice, but it was something that helped me personally. I may figure out something different as I progress! You'll have to try it yourself to decide.

5. Be safe and have fun! It's a great sport. I'm grateful for the more seasoned shooters on this particular forum that gave me great advice last year and helped me build confidence to start.

Attached File

If you are just building up a rifle combination, make sure you use Loctite on the scope mounts.   And check and re-check the torque.   Invest in a F.A.T.  torque wrench.    And don't forget the action screws.     Check them frequently.

When I was starting, I found the Sniper 101 series on Youtube to be helpful.    Some of the equipment shown there (like the scopes) are dated now, but the basics are still good.

If you want to get to 1,000 yards, that will take somewhere between 10 - 12 mrad (30 - 36 moa) of adjustment in your turrets.   Remember the manufacturers stated range of travel is max to min.  Your adjustment is half of that.  
 One inch diameter scopes will have less travel than bigger diameter tubes.

Accuracy is easier with bolt guns than autoloaders.

My suggestion is to start reloading.    You can get started for a couple hundred bucks invested in reloading equipment.   By reloading, you can select the bullet you will need with high ballistic coefficient and the powder and amount that works with YOUR rifle.  Your accuracy is highly dependent on harmonic characteristics of your barrel.      You can fine tune that to optimize accuracy by adjusting your powder load.  There are suggested load data found elsewhere here on Arfcom.

Start a log book to keep tract of what you shoot and results.

Ways to avoid heart beat pulse shake:

Shoot between heartbeats...

Or...

With a heavy benchrest rifle, while using front pedestal/bipod/bag and a rear bag:

Use your trigger finger as the only piece of human body that is touching the rifle --- And that includes spacing the buttstock one quarter of an inch from your shoulder pocket.

I was an leo sniper for 10 years and have taught at several sniper schools. These are some basics that make things much easier moving forward.

Lesson #1. I try to always have brand new students remove their scope and mounts and locktite and torque the base on day one. Then while the student is in a good prone supported position we mount the scope with me moving it forward and back until the perfect eye relief is achieved. With a natural point of aim and perfect eye relief there is less fatigue on the shooter's neck and eyes (see lesson 2). If these steps are skipped the scope will always come loose after a few hundred rounds and the sniper will show fatigue later in the day as the training becomes more difficult. Nothing worse than at the end of day one they are back at 100 yards zeroing because their scope mount came loose which is a huge waste of time and ammo.

Lesson #2. Many scopes are mounted by hunters who mount them for a standing position. You can shoot this prone but it's more fatigue to do so. Mount the scope for prone shooting.

Lesson #3. Get off the 100 yard line as soon as possible. 300+ is where the learning starts.

Lesson #4. A good shooting position is a comfortable shooting position. Fatigue can't be avoided but it can be delayed by being fit and using good techniques.

Lesson #5. Install a bubble level and try to always shoot with as little to no cant as possible. A lot of misses that get blamed on windage are actually caused by cant.

Thanks for all those posting tips

It is being read.

For my standing/offhand practice training at our outdoor range...has really been influenced for the better, with my use of the Zen regimen --- And I also freely admit that I am a novice, since I ain't no Zen master by a long shot.
.
Special thanks to Paul Schooch - Shooting Illustrated - "The Zen of Shooting"

https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/the-zen-of-shooting