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January 8 - February 5, 2020
I argue that any particular piece of equipment doesn’t actually make a system more accurate. Instead, good equipment can just help minimize inaccuracy.
Quality equipment in rifle shooting isn’t necessarily about performance, it’s about consistency shot after shot
A good shooter won’t make the rifle more accurate. Instead, the good shooter just reduces the amount of inaccuracy that can be introduced by having the rifle operated by a human.
When it comes to shooting accurately, you should be focusing your attention primarily on your reticle.
“Focus on the reticle, steady pressure on the trigger.”9
For example, a Remington 700 in 308 Win. with a Leupold MkIV 3.5-10x scope with a 30mm tube (my recommended setup for beginners
If possible, adjust the rear sight to your eye and then the front sight to the target.
I encourage you to employ a practice we used in the military - only have one thing out of your bag at a time. If you do this, you won’t have gear strewn about you on the ground making it hard to pack up in a hurry and easy to lose.
Here is a list of things, at a minimum, that I keep in my shooting bag: □ Water □ Food □ Ammunition □ DOPE Book □ Sand Sock □ Calculator □ Range-finder □ Tools □ Mil-dot Master □ Binoculars □ Flashlight □ Rain Jacket □ Jacket for warmth
A “sand sock” is my favorite shooting crutch. I can shoot without one, but it sure makes it easier to shoot with one - especially while in the prone position.
Currently, my favorite material for making a sand sock is airsoft ammunition beads. They’re light, cheap, and conform well to the shape I need. I’ve found that opaque (not transparent) airsoft beads work best. In
I recommend tying your sand sock to your shooting pack with a cord long enough to use the sand sock while it’s still tied to your pack.
6.3 DOPE Book “DOPE” stands for Data On Previous Engagements.
My best solution for a DOPE book has always been to make my own. 3x5 index cards, a binder clip and a pencil have always served me well.
If I have a choice, I’ll install a two-stage trigger on my rifle over a single-stage trigger. My favorite Remington 700 style two-stage trigger is made by X-treme Triggers.
Magpul has really impressed me with their new Remington 700 stock. It seems to provide all the features a shooter like me would desire (standard stock profile, detachable and affordable magazines, aluminum bedding block, adjustable cheekpiece,
There are three things which must be aligned with iron sights: the rear sight, the front sight, and the target. Of the three, the front sight is the most important and it is where your eye should be focused.
When you get to the range, dry-fire a few times before you fire your first group. You might just find that your previously normal poor first group had nothing to do with a cold barrel, and instead was more a result of a cold shooter who hadn’t warmed up yet.
In military or hunting applications, the target often decides when it’s time to shoot. And, even with tactical style target shooting, there often isn’t enough time to get your breathing back to normal after you’ve just sprinted across a field to the next target.
Minute of Angle is 1/60th of a degree. See Figure 9.2-2. Figure 9.2-2 If we spread two laser pointers apart 1 MOA (1/60th of a degree), the dots would be about 1 inch apart at 100 yards, about 2 inches apart at 200 yards, about 3 inches apart at the 300 yards and so on. Simply stated, this means that 1 Minute of Angle is about 1 inch per 100 yards. I say “about” 1 inch since 1 MOA is truly 1.047 inches per 100 yards, but using 1 inch per 100 yards is close enough for our purposes.
Therefore, there are approximately 6.283 radians in a circle. And because there are 1000 Milliradians in every radian, there are approximately 6,283 Milliradians in a circle.
In the term Milliradian, the prefix “Milli-” means 1/1000th and the root “radian” is the metric unit of angular measurement. So, 1 Milliradian is 1/1000th of a radian. A radian is an angle based on a circle’s radius, or half of its diameter. When the length of a section of a circle equals the radius of that circle, the resulting angle is a radian.
1 Milliradian equals 1/1000th of any distance. It is 1 inch at 1000 inches and 1 mile at 1000 miles. It doesn’t matter what unit of measurement you are using as long as you keep using that unit of measurement.
For practical purposes, when converting from Mils to MOA, multiply the Mils by 3.5. To convert from MOA to Mils, divide the MOA by 3.5. As
It is helpful for you to understand that your bullet falls faster and faster the longer it takes to get to the target. It is one of the reasons you need to adjust more elevation the further away you shoot.
Section Quiz Answers
Momentum is calculated by multiplying the mass of an object by its velocity. Unlike with the calculation for energy, mass and velocity are of equal importance in the equation for momentum.
Of the three environmental factors affecting air density, air pressure has the greatest effect. For example, the change from a higher station pressure of 30 inches of mercury to a lower station pressure of 24 inches of mercury will cause our 175 grain 308 Win bullet to impact over 50 inches higher at 1,000 yards because it’s getting to the target faster in the thinner (less dense) air.
Move your cheekrest up or down and the scope forward or back until you have a perfect sight picture through the scope. Perfect sight picture is a completely clear view through the scope. If you see any black fuzzy ring around the edge, then you are not properly aligned – this ring is called “scope shadow.”
To adjust the ocular focus, you should look through the scope at a blank white image. This ensures that you are not mistakenly focusing on the image through the scope. It is very useful to have a friend help you with this. The friend, or hired person if you don’t have friends, can hold a blank sheet of paper about one foot in front of the scope for you. Your job as the shooter is to lay behind the rifle with your eyes closed. Once in position, open your shooting eye for a couple of seconds and then close it again. Take a mental snapshot of what the reticle looked like. Next, have your friend
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My current technique is to lay straight behind the rifle with both legs straight, toes pointed outward, and heels laying relaxed. The frog-leg knee to the side position looks like it would work better (well, it surely looks cooler), but it doesn’t allow me to practice what I preach - let your body completely relax.
Once the rifle is in the shooter’s shoulder, the shooter raises their head and rests the full weight of their head on their cheek on the stock. At this point, I will touch the shooter’s neck and shoulders to confirm that they aren’t supporting their head with muscle and are, in fact, resting it completely on the rifle’s stock.
A natural point of aim is where the rifle points when you relax your body and let it rest naturally. Notice a trend here? Less control by you equals better results. Ironically, the best shooter may be the one that does the least to the rifle.
On bolt-action rifles, keeping your thumb on the same side as your fingers generally puts it in a good position to manipulate the safety.
The shooter’s support hand is generally placed under the rear of the buttstock. Ideally, the support hand is also holding a sand-sock.
The position of the front support has an effect on the rifle’s stability and mobility. The further forward the front rest is, the more stable the rifle will be. The closer towards the middle of the rifle the front support is, the easier the rifle is to maneuver.
Long range shooting should be ritualistic. If consistency is the key to accuracy (it is), then you should make it a habit to be consistent in how you shoot. When the circumstance allows, you should get into the same position and mount the rifle the same way each and every time.
13.3.4 Clearing a Malfunction When you experience a malfunction on a bolt action rifle, such as a failure to eject, extract, or feed, there is an immediate action solution I recommend: Pull the bolt to the rear Remove the source of ammunition For internal magazines with hinged floorplates, open the floor plate and let the rounds spill out. If you cannot get the rounds out of your gun without cycling the action for each round, upgrade your system to one that can. For detachable magazines, remove the magazine Run the bolt through its full cycle twice and leave the bolt in the open position
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13.4.4 Windage Turret Unless I am adjusting for spin drift or Coriolis (and even then, it’s rare), I don’t generally touch my windage turret after my rifle is zeroed.
Spotting is more difficult than shooting. This is why the senior member on a sniper team is usually the spotter.
Trace is a wonderful thing because it not only lets you know where the bullet ended up, it also helps you to see how it got there. In the right conditions, I’ve seen the trace of a bullet move with the wind one direction and then back the other way. It is nice to get real feedback of the wind’s effect on a bullet.
It is up to the spotter to determine if the bullet’s impact can be trusted. If an impact doesn’t make sense, don’t be afraid to have the shooter do the exact same thing again.
Make the shooter call their shots. After all, you need to know if the shot went left because they pulled it left or because the wind blew it over there. As discussed above, it is up to the spotter to decide whether they believe the shooter. All “good” shots aren’t really good. However, if the shooter says “I don’t know” or they tell the spotter that the shot was bad, the bullet impact can’t be trusted and the spotter should have the shooter shoot again.
When making adjustments, always adjust to the center of the target. It is a common mistake to adjust only to the target’s edge.
Don’t be afraid of overcorrecting, especially while you are learning. If you over correct and miss on the other side of the target, at least you know exactly how much to come back for a hit.
If a shooter misses and it seems as though it was an error on their part, I will refuse to tell them where they missed. After all, that round is down-range and there’s nothing they can do to bring it back. Instead they should focus only on making the next shot a good one. As a note, this is a good life motto: “That round is down range, forget it and make the next one count.”
With quality scopes, there is no change in the scope’s zero throughout the magnification range. On cheaper scopes, however, you should zero at the highest power setting.
The sling is available directly from the manufacturer at www.TheWilderness.com and also through this book’s website.
The kneeling position is the best mix of speed and stability. It is definitely not as stable as either the prone or seated positions, because it’s higher off the ground and it has less contact with mother earth for stability. However, it is extremely quick to shoot from the kneeling position and it offers much more stability than the slightly quicker standing position.
By laying your foot flat on the ground and then lowering down to sit directly on the side of your foot, you are able to get a few inches lower and, in my experience, you can gain stability.
