The four (4) major principles of accurate rifle shooting.
Hiker
6/30/09 3:52pm
My good friend CJohnson shared this with me and thought it would be helpful to all of us.
The four (4) major principles of accurate rifle shooting:
1) Position & Hold. Is your hold firm, comfortable, stable, wide or low? Is the weight of the rifle
going through your bones to the ground with little use of muscle?
2) Natural Body Pointing. Try this: When lying prone, shut your eyes and rest. Get the rifle
comfortable. Then open your eyes. Where is the weapon pointing? Move your body not the rifle
to get the rifle pointing in the correct direction. Why? Because under recoil your body will move
and unless it is naturally aligned with where you want the rifle to point the rifle will shift, moving
your point of impact.
3) Sight alignment. You want to hold the same sight picture every time. Make sure the rifle is
not canted left or right.
4) Release and Follow Through.
a. Check position.
b. Check alignment.
c. Check sight picture.
d. Pause.
e. Address the Trigger.
f. Respiratory Pause. Take two breaths and release half way & hold or whatever works for you.
Just Don't be breathing in & out at that moment.
g. Stare Through the shot (focus).
h. Break the shot (clean firm pressure, don't jerk! Only the Pad or Tip of finger on the trigger,
gun should "surprise" you when it fires).
i. Wait! Maintain stock weld with your cheek and breath control continue looking through the
scope (this is all part of the follow through).
j. Breathe.
k. Release the trigger.
l. Then cycle the bolt (if it's a bolt action) without lifting your head to view target. Continue to
stare through the scope in case you need a follow up shot. This eliminates "losing the target"
and doing the "Turkey Bobble" with your head looking for it.
m. Now you have completed the shooting cycle. Safety the weapon and then you can move to
another position or prepare for your next shot.
The instructors emphasized the need to follow each step in all four principles exactly the same
every time. They called it "Cloning the Shot". Thus developing your own personal pattern for
consistency.
The four (4) major principles of accurate rifle shooting:
1) Position & Hold. Is your hold firm, comfortable, stable, wide or low? Is the weight of the rifle
going through your bones to the ground with little use of muscle?
2) Natural Body Pointing. Try this: When lying prone, shut your eyes and rest. Get the rifle
comfortable. Then open your eyes. Where is the weapon pointing? Move your body not the rifle
to get the rifle pointing in the correct direction. Why? Because under recoil your body will move
and unless it is naturally aligned with where you want the rifle to point the rifle will shift, moving
your point of impact.
3) Sight alignment. You want to hold the same sight picture every time. Make sure the rifle is
not canted left or right.
4) Release and Follow Through.
a. Check position.
b. Check alignment.
c. Check sight picture.
d. Pause.
e. Address the Trigger.
f. Respiratory Pause. Take two breaths and release half way & hold or whatever works for you.
Just Don't be breathing in & out at that moment.
g. Stare Through the shot (focus).
h. Break the shot (clean firm pressure, don't jerk! Only the Pad or Tip of finger on the trigger,
gun should "surprise" you when it fires).
i. Wait! Maintain stock weld with your cheek and breath control continue looking through the
scope (this is all part of the follow through).
j. Breathe.
k. Release the trigger.
l. Then cycle the bolt (if it's a bolt action) without lifting your head to view target. Continue to
stare through the scope in case you need a follow up shot. This eliminates "losing the target"
and doing the "Turkey Bobble" with your head looking for it.
m. Now you have completed the shooting cycle. Safety the weapon and then you can move to
another position or prepare for your next shot.
The instructors emphasized the need to follow each step in all four principles exactly the same
every time. They called it "Cloning the Shot". Thus developing your own personal pattern for
consistency.
2,105
mark
Oh yea! I forgot. They have Marines on their "boats". Hmmm. Wonder if the Navy instructors used fore and aft instead of muzzle and butt stock.
Just kidding Abert. Love what the Marines and Navy do.