Basic Marksmanship

[Jon Evans 14]

Do not know if this is even useful for any of you, you seem like seasoned shooters, but those that are new to hunting or competition shooting the below is the basic marksmanship principles that are taught in the UK Army and will greatly increase your accuracy on target if applied correctly. These very simple things got me to the point that i tryout for the Bisley shooting competition in the Army Cadet Force when i was like 14 (Before I Did My Year In The Army, Before Getting Medically Discharged )

 

 

Marksmanship Principles

 

a. The Position and hold must be firm enough to support the weapon.

This is you basics of weapon handling, the way i make sure i have a good grip to think of my arms as triangles, as long as i have two triangle shapes from my shoulders to the elbow and then back up to my hands that enables me to have a nice tight grip on the weapon and makes the stock naturally pull to my shoulder, meaning the muzzle should not wobble as much and limit the movement of the weapon as a whole.

b. The weapon must point naturally at the target without any undue physical effort.

A very vague example of this would be if you were to aim straight forward you should be looking at your target and not need to pull the sights onto the target, this would help with recoil not taking you off target as much.

c. Sight alignment and the sight picture must be correct.

Pretty self explanatory here is a picture example:

Iron Sights:

Scope:

To Close

To Far Away

Perfect

d. The shot must be released and followed through without undue disturbance to the position.

Once you have pulled the trigger with one smooth pull (Do not trigger snatch) you should hold the trigger have the round has been discharged count 1... 2... and then released the pressure. Also make sure not to bring your head straight up after the shot has been made also wait for the count before moving your head or any part of your body, this should stop your position being changed.

Like I said may be a waste of time but I hope some of you get use from this and good hunting.

Jon

[davyt63 1,845]

Think this will help many shooters getting into the sport, thanks for sharing!

[pianoman 3,587]

Hmm Okay. A tight firm grip is not how to best shoot an air rifle -ANY air rifle needs a lightly supportive, finesseful hold with no restrictive pressures from your hand and with no pressure on the butt at the shoulder but a light restive support. That's all you need to control it. A sweet, gentle press of the trigger with no pulling or jerking effort to pull the barrel off-target and a nice, easy follow through, observing where the shot lands on the target is all that is needed to finish off.

 

Shooting a full-on sniping weapon with extreme long range precision has nothing tight or grippy in the technique either; but how well you support the weapon and control the recoil by letting it play-out as naturally as possible.

 

For shooting with open sights the illustrations are fine but they should show how the composed fore and rear sights as shown is laid at the base of the target centre. Not over and obscuring it.

 

No good advice is wasted advice though, Jon

[Jon Evans 14]

Good points but thats when you get over the basics and start to get a feel for each rifle and caliber as you go, In my personal experience with shooting SA80's (5.56) and LSW (Light Support Weapon) in the British army these are the most basic starting points for someone who has never held or shot a rifle before or who has not got very good groups. This was just a way of helping those learning to shoot to start to get a feel for there weapon and then of course they would start to find there own grip and comfort for there shooting and groups to be nice and tight. So yeah to put it simple the above is a great way to start.

 

Also just a side note those who are after a good breathing technique for keeping your rifle steady when shooting, the breathing technique i use when not in to much of a rush to fire is: Breath in and out 3x... Take a half breath then squeeze the round off... count 1.... 2.... and release pressure form the trigger and continue normal breathing.