Thread: Shooting training

Originally Posted by 10-Ring

Agreed, very difficult shooting discipline. Especially trying to hit those odd shaped turkeys at 77m. The top rimfire metallic silhouette shooter in NZ is a young lady from Auckland. She occasionally attends the MS shoot at our local range down here in middle earth. Remembering one day last year when she turned up and shot 70/80 silhouettes in the morning and 72/80 in the afternoon. It was a howling N.E. wind. The next highest score was 42/80 from a very experienced MS shooter. Even more amazing was that she hadn't shot competitively for five months and said she hadn't done any practice either. In last years Oceania Games with the Aussies she shot a perfect 40/40 in one round.

My God! you've found her.. 'The Perfect Woman' , does she like motorcycles too..by any chance ?

Originally Posted by Bagheera

Hi Joe,

Practice is good but you need to practice good technique.
Mimms is right - it starts with the feet and whatever part of you is on the ground.
Technique and specially position do vary depending on how long your arms legs and stuff are but there are fundamental principles.
I've outlined them in as rough and ready sort of way here on an old forum post.

I'd start by shooting on paper where you can see your misses. Steel gives little learning - its for fun and competition. Also, on paper you will be able to adjust your zero and know your trajectory, two things that are often left to guesswork by plinkers.

Rabbit shooting is very demanding of accurate shooting technique. A rabbit at 50m is equivalent to a chamois at 300m. No mean feat.

I've tried to quote the things from that thread but can't make it pretty.

Two comments slightly different from your recommend:
Shot should be released on a 2/3rds exhale. This is the point when the body has optimum balance of oxygen, and before you start to lose focus with the inhale reflex.

"Dry fire with the big gun" - I say, Practice with what you use. Easy to develop bad habits/ a flinch with recoil. I feel the difference between CCI minimags and Winchester Super-X (but I put either in the bullseye at 50 yards) but I also find the punch of a .308 comforting, and a .60 black powder fooomf can't be beat.
I deffo agree that dry fire will familiarise you with the trigger, but it's the effect-on-target that is what we're aiming for (terrible pun, sorry) which is everything from trigger till the slug leaves the tube.

Hi Mimms,

Thanks for reading and adding to my outline in the other post. It's by no means the last word and all recommendations are welcome !

You're right of course, you don't shoot from having forced all breath out of your lungs. I would have called it a comfortable 80-90% pretty much as when you're breathing normally.

Regarding dry firing, the difference with a centrefire is that you can practice hundreds of shots in your own home without making as racket. I usually set up a target at 20m and do 5x standing (deliberate), 5x kneeling, 5x sitting 5x prone and 5 x snap, starting with the rifle slung over my shoulder from standing in 4 different directions bringing the gun up and firing in 1 second.

Lead on paper gives the best feedback, although its not quite as good for checking sub parts of technique like trigger release, flinch and follow through. I try and do some positional shooting in live fire at the range when I get the chance if I'm sighting in or rifle testing. I also shoot 4 positions twice a month with the 22, indoor so don't do much dry fire with that. Its harder to arrange dry fire with a 22 because there aren't any durable snapcaps and rimfire mechanisms all hit the firing pin onto the chamber and the manufacturers don't recommend it. They don't recommend doing hundreds with a centrefire either but a dozens seems OK.

For sure, you need to practice with the gun you're going to use and its best not to have too many different ones as far as skills is concerned.

battlefield 3 , xbox 360 definitely improved my longer 2-3k shots .

Originally Posted by Boaraxa

battlefield 3 , xbox 360 definitely improved my longer 2-3k shots .

Originally Posted by Boaraxa

battlefield 3 , xbox 360 definitely improved my longer 2-3k shots .

Don't laugh.

I have an Oculus Quest VR headset, it is standalone (no PC attached, wireless). You can get a bracket ( https://www.protubevr.com/en/ ) to fit the hand controllers to give it a more rifle like feel, and force feedback (kicks when you shot).

It's great for lockdown practice. You can take your pick of weapons, and practice all your positions in the comfort of your loungeroom.

I found when I was young and shooting rabbits with an open sighted Norinco that instead of trying to hold on the target it was better to lift up through the target and learn when to fire. Usually if you fire as you reach the front foot of the rabbit the bullet will hit the chest. Hope that makes sense.

Originally Posted by RUMPY

I found when I was young and shooting rabbits with an open sighted Norinco that instead of trying to hold on the target it was better to lift up through the target and learn when to fire. Usually if you fire as you reach the front foot of the rabbit the bullet will hit the chest. Hope that makes sense.

thats only because your .22lr was so well trained by its previous owner LOL. but seriously RUMPY is right,learning to live with your wobble and fire as you pass through target is primo way to go.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

thats only because your .22lr was so well trained by its previous owner LOL. but seriously RUMPY is right,learning to live with your wobble and fire as you pass through target is primo way to go.

That got me five children LOL

The best shooters have a small wobble.
It's mostly genetic IMHO but they train for it too.

Here's a practice session I did tonight at home with the airgun.

These are 4 positions at 22m.
Its best to shoot for the numbers. I got 179, which is good-average for what I usually do with this gun.


Then the possum target.
Thank you @Gillie for posting these on the forum one time.
This is practical practice using a variety of techniques: unsupported prone sit kneel at the head; kneeling, sitting and standing using rests, soime snap shots at various ranges from 10 to 15m at the chest; then at the paw at ranges from 1 to 5m for those finisher shots under the hedge that are so difficult.