Thread: Basic but not always known.

A couple of days ago I was wading through archery clips on Youtube and came upon a clip titled "three common mistakes."
Well I thought to myself I don't think this will help me, I've been bow hunting for quite a few years, anyway long story short, I was wrong.
This got me thinking of when I was working in the firearm retail sector and some experiences of simple things that people did not know, even though they had been shooting for years.
Father brings son in to buy his first rifle, and I watch the young fella struggling to shoulder the rifle and look through the scope. I suggest that his son may shoot left handed "no way my son is right handed" the dad says. So I asked the boy to point with his finger at a spot on the other side of the room and then close his right eye then his left eye and asked what I kept your finger on the spot? His left eye did.
Another story was a fella in his late teens came in with his dad to tell me there was something wrong with his new rifle I had sold him. He told me he shot at a pig three times and missed each time, I told him it was probably operator error, to which the Dad jumped in telling me that his son shoots good. So after some questioning, it turns out he was shooting up hill, I asked if he allowed for the up hill angle, to which he replied yeah I aimed a bit higher. It took some time to convince both father and son that you aim lower for uphill and downhill.

Hoping to hear some more useful hints from you guys, I'm sure there should be plenty.

with outstretched hands you make a small hole with both your hands together and look thru it at a small distant target

slowly bring them back to your face, It will show you your dominant eye

my dad is right handed and shoots right handed guns left handed, so there are some odd balls out there

@Bill999 I witnessed some odd ball behaviour over the weekend.
My Sister is Right handed, she was using my Right handed CZ, however, she was unable to shoot anything using her right eye, the minute she cocked her head over further and started using her left eye, she was shooting lids off bottles between 30-60m every time!

Originally Posted by kiwi-adam

@Bill999 I witnessed some odd ball behaviour over the weekend.
My Sister is Right handed, she was using my Right handed CZ, however, she was unable to shoot anything using her right eye, the minute she cocked her head over further and started using her left eye, she was shooting lids off bottles between 30-60m every time!

Yip cross eyed dominance, It's more common than you think.
I am and only found out for sure when I got lasik eye surgery. On of the tests they do is to find your dominant eye, I had this corrected for distance and my right eye left alone so I can read without glasses.
I always wondered why had had to tilt my head over a weird angle. Since having this done I have taught myself to shoot left-handed and have brought a LH rifle.
I see it quite often at the range with new shooters, the easiest way to get them shooting ok is to give them a pair of saftey glasses with the left eye blacked out forcing them to use the right eye.

Greetings All,
As far as shooting handedness and eye dominance goes I suspect that many, if not most can shoot of either shoulder and with either eye. I know that I can. Some however have a dominant hand or eye and with a few where the dominance is miss matched. The English stock makers have always catered to all types but rifle manufacturers in general not so much.
A couple of myths that will not die that come to mind are the idea that an animal shot in the heart dies instantly and that you can divine the pressure of a fired cartridge by examining the primer and cartridge case. Some will dispute the first myth and more the second but the fallacy of those two beliefs has been well demonstrated. The second myth is the most dangerous.
Regards Grandpamac.

Another myth I encounter a lot is that someone's pet rifle is "flat shooting"....it's difficult to defy physics!

Originally Posted by Ranger 888

Another myth I encounter a lot is that someone's pet rifle is "flat shooting"....it's difficult to defy physics!

Don't get me started on special or magic rifles.

I had on more than one occasion someone come into the shop to buy a new .22 because they wore out their old one. I would ask what makes them think it's worn out? The reply was always the same, it was always accurate but now it's not. When I would ask if they tried cleaning the barrel, the response would usually go like this,"You don't need to clean a .22" I would often lose a sale of a new .22 after they went home and gave it a clean.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Don't get me started on special or magic rifles.

And everyone has a rifle that shoots 1 hole (bug hole) groups. I challenged a guy on another forum on this claim. Asked him for the c to c measurement or post a picture. Came back with ah well, not exactly 1 hole but the the target paper tore between the 3 shots making one big hole.

Originally Posted by zimmer

And everyone has a rifle that shoots 1 hole (bug hole) groups. I challenged a guy on another forum on this claim. Asked him for the c to c measurement or post a picture. Came back with ah well, not exactly 1 hole but the the target paper tore between the 3 shots making one big hole.

I had a guy we took rabbit hunting. Told us every rabbit he shot he got in the head. We checked some of his rabbits, and they were. mostly after he had shot the back legs, chest or every other part.......

Learn how to calibrate the compass on your gps..helped a few people out in the bush when their units won’t work “properly “

I have a left master eye and shoot off my right shoulder (right handed). Often with both eyes open. Have shot the odd critter. Seems to work