If you've been to an Appleseed, you've prob heard of this - the Rifleman Dance.
It's something every rifleman must do.
Key is the interaction of the rifleman-target relationship with the rifleman's goal of hitting the target.
The goal is to hit the target. More precisely, to increase the probability that the shot is going to hit the target.
We have a number of sayings in Appleseed. Every one of you has heard "the rifleman persists" one.
Others are "a rifleman fires every shot as if it were a sighter shot" and "a rifleman fires every shot rapid fire".
The first gets at the notion that you fire every shot like it's gonna provide valuable info for the next shot (which it will) - so you fire the shot as precisely as you can - BUT - and this is a big "BUT" - you also, after firing the shot, and calling it, look downrange to see what you can see. If you can see the impact of the bullet - whether hole in the paper, 'splash' in the form of dirt, dust, or mud being kicked up, or target reacting - then you integrate that info into the next shot, if one is needed.
To illustrate in a concrete and familiar setting: On the tough Stage 4 of the AQT, on those itty-bitty "400-yard" targets, a rifleman will do the Rifleman Dance. He HAS to, because the targets are small in relation to his 4 MOA group, and he can't afford to have the group off-center, even a little.
Which means 1. he fires that first shot carefully - like it's a sighter shot, which it is.
2. He calls the shot - because if he doesn't, he has to recycle and fire a 'good' shot. You do not adjust anything on a bad shot. You adjust on a good shot.
3. So you call the shot "good", then look downrange on the target. If you don't see any changes, any "flyspecks" that werent' there before, good. Your shot went into the silhouette, which is why you can't "spot" it. (A word here about vision: you will, if you keep at it - if you persist :) - soon develop acuteness of vision you never thought you'd have. The mind and body are wonderful in meeting demands you place on them. You never had the need to spot a .30 or .223 hole at 25m, so as a result, you can't do it now. But, if you start trying, you will find that, over time, you will start to see 'the flyspeck' of a shot out 'in the white'. And if you perist past that, you can start to see, not a flyspeck, but the hole itself. So if you try the Rifleman Dance, but can't spot the hole, KEEP AT IT - you'll develop the ability.)
4. If you spot a flyspeck/hole, say at 6 o'clock, and you called the shot 'good', you better do something. Like change your sight picture (since you're firing your shots rapid fire, you don't take time to make a sight adjustement - simply, in this case, put the front sight higher into the black. If you started aiming at 6 o'clock, move up to Center of the Target (COT) for the next shot).
Develop this pattern, and stick to it: Fire a good shot, call it good, look downrange to spot the shot, then adjust as needed to make the next shot a better one. Simple as '1 - 2 - 3 - 4'...
It's called the Rifleman Dance. If you do the dance, you hit the target.
So, you do the dance.
Because you want to hit the target.
That's the only reason you fire the shot...
Yes Sir, I have been explaining this to people and I want them to understand the Rifleman's Dance. I have been seeing more and more scoped shooters and I have been trying to get them to understand the Rifleman's Dance also because it is even more fixable by them.
If you have a scope you can even see the .22 holes when they are in the black, so you can certainly see them when they are out of the black. If you have a scope and you take your shot and you called it good, and it goes down below the black, if you know it was a good shot, raise your aim point the distance it takes to make the shot go black.
Don't sit there and put every shot low. When you are shooting the AQT, especially the fourth stage, you can hardly afford one shot out of the rings let alone the whole fourth stage.
So if you made the first shot and saw it was low left, raise your aiming point to high right enough to make the shot. But only if you called it good in the black!
That is the whole point in calling your shots. To make sure your shots are going where you aimed. If they are not, you can not waste any more shots by having them all go in the same place, low left, you have to move your aiming point.
Even if you think your sights are dead on, maybe it is wind, maybe you didn't get a good NPOA, maybe you knocked your sight or scope off in the last stage, whatever the case, do not waste more rounds by watching them all impact high right or low left after you made the shot, called it good and it went high right or low left.
Do the Rifleman"s Dance and get them in the black. ;)