Practice tips

[Texastonk]

Hello All,
Recently I have gotten interested in long range shooting. I dont live close to a range that has targets out passed 100 yards. What are some things that I could work on at the 100 yard range that would help me at longer ranges? I'm shoot a Remington PSS 308. Any help would be great thanks.

[Suwannee Tim]

I would just try to get my groups small. You won't learn as much about wind, mirage and range estimation as you will from a longer range but shooting something is better than shooting nothing.

[mark5pt56]

Work on positional shooting also. Think of how you will use the rifle and practice those positions. Track your CCB(clean cold bore) and CB(cold bore) shots to see how YOU and your rifle performs on these. Read up on those two subjects, there's plenty of debate on them.

[SkiDevil]

Hello All,
Recently I have gotten interested in long range shooting. I dont live close to a range that has targets out passed 100 yards. What are some things that I could work on at the 100 yard range that would help me at longer ranges? I'm shoot a Remington PSS 308. Any help would be great thanks.

It is not the perfect solution, but some reduced sized targets may be of help. Also, I like to plink at shotgun hulls, golf-balls, tennis balls, and steel plates off-hand.

SkiDevil

Link: http://www.americantargetcompany.com...le_targets.asp

[Dirk Williams]

You can improve your skills and not leave the house dry firing is a legt tool.

Dryfire prone, standing, kneeling, in every ackward position you can think of.

Dryfire at least 1/2 hour a day. Learn the essentials breathing rythm, trigger press. Understand your equipment, understand yourself.

Most people practice what they are good at. I would like to suggest that you spend 1/4 of your time on your strengths and 3/4 of your time mastering off hand shooting shooting on both the right and left.

master shooting with both eyes open. Master shooting of your bypod, sticks poles rocks branchs.

Old saying which I find to be true. You can be a decent shooter with a littlepractice. it takes a life time of pratice to be a great shooter.

One a 100y square range I like to shoot one inch or two inch shooten glow stickers for instant feed back.

Little tiny groups don't mean shit, don't get hng up on them. Do strive to be a sub moa shooter.

Box drills circle drills and anything that will help you shoot straight and accurate are a must.

Perhaps the most important thing to learn is to read the wind. I used to spend a day a week racing sail boats and a couple of days a week practicing. Reading the wind is an art. Get good at it and you will excel.

Note the wind direction by suttle things like slight breeze on your face, or your hair grass trees water understand the difference between the wind in front of you and the wind at the target.

Long range shooting is one of the most challenging thins ive done. The truth is a bad day is really an oppertunity to learn if your paying attention.

Good luck to you.

D Williams

[Mo_Zam_Beek]

A) If you don't have access to a range greater than 100 yrds you really can not learn to shoot long range. Long doesn't even begin until after 500. Why? Wind. The only practice you can do - but it isn't the same - shoot a .22 LR at 100 -> 200 yrds.Slight winds will push that itty bitty projectile around quite a bit. However b/c it has virtually no recoil it can mask poor technique. Also while match .22 ammo is good it isn't as consistent as match centerfire.

B) Things you can do to make a you a better shooter - at any distance

- Stop shooting groups. The owner of Snipershide has been gracious enough to create some simple targets for drills. One of the favored is 15 1/2 MOA Dots - 1 round per dot. Your either really shooting 1/2 MOA or its all bullshit.

- If your going to shoot a group - shoot 10 rounds it is a far better reflection of the shooter's skill level

- Sign up for online training at Snipershide - its cheap, and it will definitely flatten the learning curve. Aside from that get your hands on Field Training Manuals. Start taking Precision Shooting Magazine. Read some of the publications from Precision Shooting Mag - esp their Reloading Guide and Shooting at 1,000 yards.

- Dry fire. I have 4 basic dry fire routines. Prone in front of a mirror - I angle the mirror slightly down and pick a color difference in the carpet fibers. When I break the shot if the cross hair moves even a fraction - it wasn't perfect. This will give you the absolute best feed back on your body alignment and the straightness of your trigger pull. More importantly it will teach you how to recognize the errors and correct them. Seated and slung - I do this in three different ways A) Seated on the couch (odd position), positional (classic), and sitting in one chair with the rifle in a cradle on a tripod or over the back of another chair. Kneeling - slung and unslung and lastly standing offhand - slung and unslung. In all of these I generally pick a 1/4 MOA aim point in the distance - you can use any size you want. You are concerned with position, trigger pull, calling your shot and the follow through.

More than anything you need to find a way to experience wind. You also need to experience weather. Why? Read about density altitude and consider how it effects your dope at a given distance (it changes it based on temp, baro pressure, and altitude and it can be a pretty big swing depending on conditions at zero vs conditions at your subject shooting position).

It's a big subject. Take it in bite size pieces as opposed to all at once. Start with proper mechanics, dry fire and small bore. Read as much as you can. Maybe even see if you can find a high power / full bore group to shoot with locally. Learn to reload. If you aren't shooting match ammo - how do you really know how well your doing? Reloading allows you to shoot a lot more for the same amount. You can also (without that much effort) create better / more consistent ammo than the match ammo on the shelf. Last thought - set a goal. Maybe it is cleaning that 15 dot target. Shoot one target and only one target per week at your 100 range. Keep a log book. Keep your targets. Track your zero, weather and lighting conditions, what you were thinking, what you are reading and working on, what you think you need to do the next time you go in order to improve, etc, etc.

It'll happen.


Good luck

[NavyDavy55]

- Sign up for online training at Snipershide - its cheap, and it will definitely flatten the learning curve.

I just recently joined SnipersHide but haven't seen the training you're referring to. Is it online or an actual class one attends?

Thanks, some real good advice there.

[Mo_Zam_Beek]

Go to the "S-3 Firearms Training" section or PM "Lowlight" - site owner.


Good luck

[Suwannee Tim]

However b/c it [22 LR] has virtually no recoil it can mask poor technique.

Wrong. Center fire rifles have a very short barrel time compared to rimfires. The long barrel time of the rimfires magnifies technique errors. I can't say I know much about long range shooting of firearms, what I've read is what I know, but I do know about "long range" shooting of precisions airguns which I have done a lot of. Few shooters take these guns seriously because they have little appreciation of their value for practice in suburban areas and little appreciation of the quality and accuracy of high end airguns. These guns have barrel times even longer than the rimfires and they are very demanding of good, consistent technique. An error that might cause an error of 1 MOA with a center fire rifle might cause a 5 MOA error with a rimfire and a 10 MOA error with an airgun (pulling numbers out of the air for illustration). The point here is don't discount the usefulness of 22s for training and practice for any kind of shooting, including long range rifle shooting. I know some folks who shoot 22 bench rest and they know as much about wind as anyone. When I get serious about improving my technique and I mean for any kind of shooting, pistol, rifle, combat, Bullseye, whatever, I shoot more 22. Unless you are reinforcing bad habits, a lot of shooting is better than a little shooting and the 22 provides opportunities for more shooting. They will also uncover hidden technique errors. Don't dry snap a 22. I think the 22 is a largely under used resource for improving marksmanship. Speaking of recoil, hard kicking rifles are not easily mastered by shooting hard kicking rifles. The best way to master a rifle that kicks hard is to first master a rifle that kicks less. I have had a Ruger 300 magnum for decades, I used to be afraid of it. Now I shoot it without a second thought, I shoot a 375 RUM without fear. This comes from shooting a bunch of 30-06.

[Dirk Williams]

Hi Tim. Are you saying to train with a .22 and an air rifle OR not to train with an air rifle?.

If your saying DO train with the rim fire Im in agreement. I think any shooting is better then none. I don't like shooting living things but Sqweek shooting is also great practice.

I don't know if you have sqweeks in Florida there little chipmonks that live in farmers fields and do mega damage to crops by digging and eating the crops.

Great unknown distance training, maybe two inchs tall by 1 inch wide and difficult to hit past 200y. I like to shoot them with a .22 bolt gun topped with a peep sight for practice. Only to about 90/100y

The golf ball thing sounds like fun, never done it but will give it a shake for fun. I just wonder how the golfers are gonna react!.

The Hide has alot of good stuff on it like MO ZAM BEEK suggests.

Haven't joined the training part, I would rather spend the money on powder, primers and bullets. For the 240.00 a year I can shoot around a 1000 rounds live fire.

There are less then a hand full of shooters here who have actually ever shot a barrel out and had to replace it. If your one of them, Im impressed you are truly a shooter with lots of bullets down range.

The disipline of long range shooting is rewarding when you get it right. Kinda like fly fishing is. I hope to master both in my life time.

Have fun and good luck to you.
Dirk