4 basic markmanship

8/22/2019 4 Basic Markmanship

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Basic Rifle M arksm anship

By David Reed

Introduction

I f you can hit what you norm ally shoot at, w ith relative certainty, that may be good

enough for you. I however, have str ived over many years to develop my skills to t he

point that I am better than that. I w ant to know t hat I can make that shot at any range

within the effective range of the rifle. It does not m atter whether there is wind or not,

nor the direction from which it comes. Whether the wind is 5kts or 20kts, uphill or

downh ill, raining, humid, or dry -- I want t o know that I can make that shot, or, that Icannot. I f I cannot make it t hen I will not take it.

This site is going to focus on rif le marksmanship at a level above and beyond that used

for clay pit plinking. I created this material for those who w ant to learn t o shoot w ell,

and as a gathering place for those who do shoot well. There are many things that

influence accuracy and I am going to include all that come to mind. I will allow others to

contr ibute their own material.

This is a new site and I appreciate all germane comments. If you have a question I will

tr y to clear up m y text, reform at, or organize the thought s better. This is not a forum for

arguments about which cartridge is best, or which makes the ultimate dense brush, rainy

weather, waxing moon, wild boar rifle. You can find that garbage in any number of gun

magazines at your local drugstore or news stand. My philosophy is that some cartr idges

are better than ot hers for certain situations or t argets. However, bullet placement is far

more import ant than caliber when your shot m ust achieve an effect. I t w ill not allow you

to stalk dangerous game with a .22, but it does make the question of 30-06 or 7m m

Rem. Mag. academic within the effective range of a m edium size high velocity rif le --

about 900 m eters.

One final note, I had an acquaintance once respond with incredulity that I would have

the audacity t o suggest t hat anyone could see, let alone hit, a target at 90 0 meters. This

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was a guy who never shot his rifle except to check his scope at t he beginning of deer

season. I f you f all in th is category please do two (2) things before you send flames:

Talk to anyone who has graduated from the XVIIIth Airborne Corps Sniper School

at Fort Bragg North Carolina (or other similar service school)

Pick up any copy o f the NRA's American Rifleman that highlight s the annualpilgrimage to Camp Perry - - Read it.

Body Physiology

This section delves into the human body and the factors that must be considered before

one sits dow n behind a rif le.

Our heartbeat causes our body to move. Chest, shoulders, arms, neck, hands, and

fingers all move when our heart beats. Remember that these things are touching, or

connected to parts that are touching, our rifle. This can be seen through a very hi-power

scope. The cross hairs bump along the target as our heart beats. This is not really

evident through a 9X hunting scope. Change your body position slight ly, and the pattern

the cross hairs follows changes as well.

Now I f you t ry this experiment you w ill find something else out r eal quick, not only is

your pulse moving the rifle but it's probably hard to see clearly because your breathing is

moving it even more! I f you have a less than optimum grip and hold on the rifle, while

you are studying these phenomena, you will notice that it starts getting worse. This is

because your m uscles are start ing to fatigue, and w hen they fat igue they begin to

tremb le. Stop breath ing and the lack of oxygen to t hose muscles will cause them to

tremble even m ore!

You cannot m ake your heart stop, bu t you can slow it. Your pulse rises when you w ork

out or become excited. Your respiration increases in the same way. I will not belabor this

point, just think about it and use common sense. Think about the time you missed that

deer and blamed it on your rifle, load, scope or whatever. Think about it -- how did you

feel when you saw that buck? What were you experiencing w hen you raised your r ifle

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and took aim?

Chances are that the experience was quite different from the feeling you got when you

were sight ing in that r ifle at the range. Was it really the r ifle? Was it you? Buck fever is

an extreme case, the shooter is so overw helmed by t he experience that t hey cannot

even remember pulling the trigger while the gun was still pointing up in the air! Manypeople suf fer f rom increased pulse and respiration w hen they sight game. Th is will

reduce the maximum range that clean shots are possible. I f it 's buck fever, you are in

trouble.

Wha t to do about i t?

Relax!

Feel the targets presence.

Try to smellthe target.

Breathe normally, in, out, steady breaths. If the target is close just open your

mouth wide, your breathing w ill be silent.

Think of nothing -- Clear your mind - - Think only of w hat you must do.

Cont rol yourself, you will get t his shot only once

Fatigue

Yes, you can control this too. Conditioning is important, but it no matter what your

condition is, if you do not have good form you will shake. You m ust take advantage of

bone structure when supporting the rifle. This is easier when you are prone, I have

pictures in an army field manual for the prone shooting position that I will add when I

get t hem scanned. I f t hey are not here, use these tips as guides.

Keep forearm vertical under t he forearm of the rifle. Straight up and down. When you

angle your arms you are using muscles to hold th em still. Gravity w ill do this for you if

you keep your forearm vertical.

Your body m ust lie in a relaxed, flat position. Point your toes out so your feet lay

sideways, flat against the ground. Start with your feet and think about the position of all

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body parts, working up to your fingers. If you are using muscles to hold your position

you will shake.

Find the position you could hold for hours without tiring. Try every variation you can

think of with your rifle in your shoulder. You are looking for the combination that will

allow the least vibration, and the flexibility needed to work the action on your rifle. Whenshooting you do no t want to take your eyes off your t arget to reload or work the action.

You must be able to do this without your movement being seen.

When you have found it, take a mental snapshot of each part of your body and it's

position. Remember how each part feels in that position, look at your hands , arms

elbows, and where the rifle is resting in relation to your nose. What part of the rifle is

close to your nose? I will explain th is when I discuss sight alignment . Practice assuming

this position until you have it down pat. It may help to sequence the movements

necessary to assume this position and num ber them. Practice assum ing the position by

the numbers. Eventually it will become second nature. If you shoot infrequently you may

want t o wr ite this down so you will remember it if you forget.

If you are a hunter and you must use this process from a blind or tree stand, use the

same principles. What you do will be different from every tree you hunt and for every

game animal that walks out in front , behind, or t o the side of you. The position the

hunter m ust shoot from depends on the situation. This will give you something to t hink

about w hen the time comes. You w ill focus on a problem and the solution, not freak out

because you finally have that 8 point in front of you!

For the rest of you, I will try to stay away from hunting situations. You hunters can do as

I did. I took the principles I learned about shooting at long ranges and applied them

where the situation warranted.

Sight Alignment and Sight Picture

When shooting a rif le without a scope, it is impor tant t o align the front and rear sights

perfectly and consistent ly. There are four th ings in this equation - - your shooting eye,

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the rear sight, the front sight, and the target. The distance between the sights does not

change. The distance from your eye to t he rear sight can change and this must be

avoided.

The relationship between your eye and the rear sight is important. Once you find the

right position for your eye, note the relationship between your nose and the stock oraction of t he rifle. Each time you aim, put your nose in the same place. This will help you

get your sight picture consistent .

Peep sights are the best sight s for a rifle. For t hose of you unfamiliar with these, they

will take some gett ing used too. Hopefu lly you w ill be able to see that the rear sight in

each example (graphic missing) is fuzzy looking. That is because you should always focus

on the front sight post. You w ill have to align the front sight post in the center of the

rear sight aperture using your "peripheral" vision. The target will be fuzzy too.

The peep sight system is better because it allows you to get a bett er picture of sight

alignment. I t is very hard t o focus on the front sight post w ith leaf sights. The only part

of the front sight that is visible through leaf sights is the very top. When the leaf sight

blurs out of focus, it is very hard to tell whether the front post is centered in the rear

sight groove. Leaf sights work well out to 100 yds. The are adequate for hunting

purposes on a .22 rif le. But for serious target w ork, the peep sight is far superior.

When using a scope it is also important to note the relationship between the gun and

your nose. I n dim light, if your eye is not perfectly positioned, you will lose a great deal

of the field of view. Yes, you'll lose it when it's bright too, but in dim light this problem is

not readily apparent. Notice that when your eye is not in position that areas of the scope

view are black. In dim light the correct view is also very dark. If you don't know where

your eye should be wit hout "looking" through the scope to f ind it, you w ill find yourself

chasing a fleeting image th rough the scope.

Breathing

If you don't breath you will shake. There is a correct way to breath when shooting. Try

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this exercise --

Take a breathe.

Let it out .

While exhaling, notice that t here is a point du ring exhale where you do not f eel it

necessary to to continue exhaling, or to start breathing in again.Now t ry it again. This time when you get to that " place", stop breathing for a

second or two. It's easy!

That is the place in your breath cycle you want t o take your shot. Since you can only hold

it a second, two at most, you must time the rise and fall of the rifle, the sight alignment

& picture, and the trigger squeeze to coincide with that "place". Notice that when you

inhale the muzzle of t he rif le drops. I t rises again when you exhale. When your chest

expands your shoulder rises, your forearm that supports the rifle does not move so the

muzzle drops. You m ust t ime this rise and fall so that t he target is sighted at that

"place".

Trigger Squeeze

Look at your finger. bend it t o a hook shape like you w ould w hen pulling a trigger. Now

simulate trigger pull and watch your finger. Notice that at no point on your finger, does

your finger move straight back. The movement of your finger is to the side and back. No

matter where you touch the tr igger, pulling like th is will exert a sideways pressure on the

trigger. What do you think the muzzle will do?

If you are right-handed, the muzzle will move to the right because you are pushing the

portion of the rifle behind your forearm to t he left. The place on your finger t hat moves

the t he LEAST to the side is the very t ip. You w ant to pu t t he very end of your f inger on

the t rigger. Do not use the tip by the nail, but the soft part betw een t he tip and the f irst

joint. When squeezing the t rigger be conscious of this, and try your best to eliminate all

lateral pressure.

When you pull the tr igger you must apply steadily increasing pressure unt il the gun f ires.

The shot should come as a surprise every time. I f you ant icipate, and flinch, you will

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never be able to shoot well.

The biggest mistake a shooter can make is to start off with a loud, powerful, hard kicking

rifle and not w ear hearing protection. Not only can you damage your hearing, but the

noise will be most unpleasant. You w ill begin to associate the noise with the recoil, and

in your mind they will be one and the same -- a big unpleasant event.

Isolating recoil and noise is very impor tant when tr ying to overcome a flinch. Once you

realize that the kick is not that bad, and it cert ainly will not hur t you, you will be able to

focus on sight picture, breathing, and squeezing.

A .300 Win. Mag. kicks hard. I t is something you will have to get used to. Many gun

writers recommend that people of slight build stick to lighter weapons for this reason.

Bullshit, size has little t o do wit h it. Carlos Hathcock, all 140 lbs. of him, killed most of his

93 confirmed people with a 30-06, and w on the 1965 Wimbledon Cup w ith a .300

Winchester Magnum. But if you think you are too t ough t o wear hearing protectors, or

wear cheapies, you m ay have problems with a big rifle.

Shooting Fundamentals Summary

Solid, comfortable body position

Breathe

Sight Picture

Squeeze

Bullet Flight

Ballistics w ill be covered in detail in a section devoted t o t he subject. For now I 'll only

discuss a few fundam entals. The m oment a bullet leaves the barrel it begins to fall. I

have been to the range and heard people talking about how their [insert bullet here]

climbs for the first 50 yds. or so. The laws of physics do not work differently for these

people or their guns. They just don't understand the relationship between the line of

sight (LOS) and the bullet path (BP).

The LOS is perfectly straight . The sights on a rifle are on top of the rifle. I f t hey are

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straight, and the bullet is always dropping, then the only way the two paths will ever

intersect is if the LOS is adjusted to cross the BP at some point . That is exactly w hat we

do. I f the rear sight post is raised then t he LOS will cross the bu llet path. I n fact, it

crosses the bullet path twice. The bullet will steadily drop until it crosses the LOS again.

I 'll include a pictu re when I can get it scanned. I f any of you have one scanned feel free

to donate it!

Between sights and the first intersection, bullet is BELOW LOS.

LOS crosses BP, af ter f irst intersection bullet is ABOVE LOS.

Bullet drops more and crosses the LOS. After this the bullet is below LOS again.

The point at which the two paths cross the first time is referred to as "battle sight zero"

in the US Army. If an M16's sight's are adjusted until they are "zeroed" at 25 meters,

they will also be zeroed at 250 meters (where the two cross again). This means that out

to 25 m eters the rifle will shoot low, between 25 and 250 m eters the rifle w ill shoot high,

and after 250m the rifle will shoot low again. This is what people are referring to when

the say that their "bullet climbs after so many feet". Their sights are pointed down at an

angle like everyone else's.

Bullets do not drop at a constant rate. As soon as a bullet leaves the barrel it is a

prisoner of gravity and drag. The longer a bullet f lies, the longer it is exposed to gravity,

and the farther it will drop. When a bullet leaves the barrel it is moving very fast. It

covers the f irst 30% of it's maximum range very quickly. Accordingly, th e effect of g ravity

is very small during this period. In proportion, the drag effect is quite high. As the bullet

slows the proport ional effects of drag and gravity swap places. Once a bullet has flown

60% of it's maximum range, drag is very small, and gravity is causing the bullet to drop

very fast. These topics will be discussed in g reater detail in the section t itled "Exterior

Ballistics".

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