Two Easy Ways To Improve Your Precision Rifle Game
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 6 months ago
The author focuses on the major unforced errors in precision shooting. Sports Shooting:
1) Poor wind calls
Mirage is the best indication of wind. Focus on the target and back off parallax until you start to pick up mirage. Mirage laying over at a 45 degree angle is about 5-7 mph. If it’s flowing more flat then that is 10-12 mph.
- If you can’t get on glass prior to your target engagement, then start with your parallax ring at 100. As you turn it to focus on the target at the correct yardage you will see mirage in front of the target. This is a good thing to do if you have time as a final check of conditions before breaking the shot.
- Be sure to have a wind plan. Use your Kestrel to determine wind deflection for each target and write it down. Take a mental note of what the wind feels like as you are taking readings. Wind felt light on your face is 3-5 mph. As speeds pick up during the Course of Fire, you can quickly adjust on the fly.
2) Shooting by the seat of your pants
- Run through the stage in your head. Set up, movements, when to dial, when to hold, and wind plan.
- Turn down the magnification. Typically, shooters will run the magnification much too high. There is no magic bullet for what to do here as conditions will drive this but the idea is to see every hit or miss. Practice recoil management.
Turn down your magnification? Well, this is something I have trouble doing. If I have more scope power, I tend to want to use it.
On May 1, 2018 at 9:41 pm, Ned said:
From a hunting perspective, I agree with turning down the magnification. I was always faster on target than anyone I hunted with. Kept my scope on the lowest setting. You can shoot a long way on 3x. If it’s a long shot you usually have time to dial up the magnification. It’s much harder to dial it down if the target is close and you are on 15x and can’t find it in your scope.
On May 2, 2018 at 8:47 am, Pat Hines said:
While I may not use the highest power setting when hunting, on a range I would most of the time.
I’ve found this essay on the use of .22lr rimfire out to 400 yards to be very interesting. Since I already own a Ruger 10-22 Target, I’ll get busy attempting to duplicate his results.
https://libertyandlead2.blogspot.com/2018/04/four-zero-zero-part-dux.html
Because .22lr is light on energy, precision is required for results.
http://www.blazer-ammo.com/rimfire.aspx
On May 2, 2018 at 11:37 am, soapweed said:
My hunting will be a patient, discriminate and unobtrusive effort for a deserving prey away from the masses. I will use the 24x for the coming endeavors.
On May 2, 2018 at 6:59 pm, rocketguy said:
Precisionrifleblog.com did some interesting stuff a while back looking at Monte Carlo simulations to determine which aspects of long range shooting have “most bang for buck”. I think he narrowed to knowing the range, doping the wind and trigger time. Small groups were surprisingly inconsequential if you didn’t focus on those three. He even made a decent argument for ditching handloads in favor of (likely less accurate) factory loads but more range time.