Eight days have passed and we once again have over 120 recent topics with none about the act and process of shooting. Over 400 people have read the "Dryfire and the Rifleman" topic and that's pretty good. A few even posted questions and thoughts. But my experience tells me that of that 400 views, less than 10 actually tried to learn their trigger, 20 did some standing dryfire and the rest kept doing the things that they have done all along.
If you want to change your outcomes, you have to change yourself and your methods. Neither of those is easy because we all like to think that we are pretty good at who and what we are.
But, if you want to improve your Marksmanship, the number one thing that you can do is learn your trigger through dryfire. It's up to you. No one will do it for you and no one really cares whether you do or not. But if you learn that trigger and you learn how to dryfire good shots, you will be a better shooter and instructor.
Let's assume that you are one of those 10 people who have started the process of learning their trigger, and it is a process. What's next.
In Appleseed terms the test for all of this Marksmanship instruction is the Red Coat and the AQT. It takes an average of 42 per stage (doubled for 84 in Stage 4) to earn a rifleman's badge. That's an 84% average. But remember that is the minimum and it leaves NO room for any error if you are to qualify or re-qualify. No one wants to do the minimum, do they?
The next things that you can work on, and you can use dryfire for this as well is your positions. When you get to the rapids, you should be shooting better than 90% for sitting and rapid prone. There is plenty of time and the target is large. With practice, you should be able to clean these stages on a regular basis.
Earlier this year I was unhappy with my sitting position. Actually, I have been unhappy with my sitting position since I began shooting at an Appleseed in 2008. For years I shot sitting from a kneeling position. I did this for a couple of reasons. First. it was faster for me. Second, I was too fat to get a decent supported sitting position so, kneeling was the next best thing. I lacked the flexibility to get my elbows down. If my support elbow was planted, my trigger elbow was waving in the air. and my head was floating above the stock. Last year I decided that I wanted to change this. Since October 15, I have lost 38 lbs.
But even after losing the weight and getting a much improved sitting position. I was not happy with my outcomes. Sitting was easy, but I wasn't cleaning it. The problem was not physical. The problem was mental and I had to change it.
After 7 years of just trying to get through the sitting stage, I had come to the point where I took the shot if it was in the black. The problem is that the guys I competed against in High Power, took the shot if it was a 10 or an X. They shot 100's, I shot 93's. I had to learn to make myself take better shots.
Here's the process that I used as recommended by an excellent shooter on the VA Rifle Team.
Get some alone time at the range. This is not easy for busy people, but it really pays dividends. Start in the sitting position and concentrate on shooting X's (or in this case V's). The X is the goal and you will shoot each shot as if it is slowfire. By that I mean that you will bring the rifle down for each shot and shoot each shot as if you are single loading the rifle. What this does is build the muscle memory of the process of mounting the rifle, aligning the sights, and getting a good sight picture. If the sight picture is centered, take the shot. If not. dismount the rifle and start over. If you cannot clean the target one shot at a time taking the best shots you can, you have no hope of cleaning it firing 2 and 8 with a mag change in 55 seconds. If you do this drill and hopefully a few of you will. You will see your performance improve dramatically. Thats the drill. When you shoot this way, 50 shots in sitting is a full day and your concentration will be waning by that time. If that happens, STOP. Don't practice being careless.
The drill moved me from 93's in sitting to 97-98 in sitting, but a clean was still elusive. That was when I went outside the box and started talking to the best sitting shooters I could find. It turns out that my problem at that point wasn't positional or mental, but it was physical. My grip on the rifle was too light. Since I have been shooting pistol alot for the past couple of years, you would think that I would have a good grip, but it was too low and too light. I learned that from a former International Smallbore Shooter who has became an excellent highpower shooter in a very short time. What I learned from her was a high and tight grip with my trigger hand for the rapids, pulling the rifle into my shoulder to help with recoil recovery. The same grip can work in slow prone as well.
I upgraded to this grip and in my next match I shot a clean (100-5x). In the match after that I cleaned sitting as well. And I have come full circle from someone who just wanted to get sitting over to someone who expects to shoot as well as anyone in sitting.
Once you have a good position (and there are several to choose from, but all may need personal modification), your next step is to begin to work on the quality of your shots. Don't worry about the time. You can't do it fast if you can't do it slow. Learn to shoot the V one shot at a time and then speed up the process. If you do, you will find yourself not worrying about shooting the 42 and being able to succeed on the AQT with remarkable regularity.
Quote from: jmdavis on June 30, 2016, 12:20:39 PM
Since I have been shooting pistol alot for the past couple of years, you would think that I would have a good grip, but it was too low and too light. I learned that from a former International Smallbore Shooter who has became an excellent highpower shooter in a very short time. What I learned from her was a high and tight grip for the rapids, pulling the rifle into my shoulder to help with recoil recovery.
I am guessing you are tightening up your trigger hand not your support hand?
Dave
Trigger hand. I will edit the post to make that clear.
Great post! and so true.
Quote from: jmdavis on June 30, 2016, 12:20:39 PM
By that I mean that you will bring the rifle down for each shot and shoot each shot as if you are single loading the rifle. What this does is build the muscle memory of the process of mounting the rifle, aligning the sights, and getting a good sight picture. If the sight picture is centered, take the shot. If not. dismount the rifle and start over. If you cannot clean the target one shot at a time taking the best shots you can, you have no hope of cleaning it firing 2 and 8 with a mag change in 55 seconds.
I've been working on blank wall dryfire since your post last week, and this one is also gold. The times I've gotten a good sitting position are a fortunate accident that I can't reproduce at will, and this is a more economical use of ammo to practice it. Question: suppose I shoot AR and M1. Would you repeat the exercise for each?
Quote from: maxwell on June 30, 2016, 01:23:34 PM
I've been working on blank wall dryfire since your post last week, and this one is also gold. The times I've gotten a good sitting position are a fortunate accident that I can't reproduce at will, and this is a more economical use of ammo to practice it. Question: suppose I shoot AR and M1. Would you repeat the exercise for each?
It would be ok to repeat it. But personally, I would work on mastering one at a time and I would start with the AR.
When working on the mat with new or young shooters, it is often helpful to run the bolt for them as they practice holding the trigger back and only releasing the trigger enough to reset before squeezing again. It helps with concentrating on the trigger and with holding their trigger in follow through. With air rifles or bolt actions just open and close the bolt or raise and lower the bolt (no need to run rearward and forward) respectively. The results are invariably immediate.