A last comment on this, just so it'll be clearer where I'm coming from on this issue. The family and friends I grew up around were awfully good people, and I learned my attitude, and commitment to what REALLY matters in life from them. I was awfully lucky, and probably one of the luckiest people around these days.
My eldest uncle was "de shootin'est ginnamin" as Nash Buckingham termed it, in the family. Back during the depression, people would buy a box of shells and give them to him, asking him to shoot a "mess" of quail for them. Out of a box of 25, he's usually bring home about 30 birds by lining up two birds at a time with the old break open single barrel he used at that time. The last time I hunted with him, he was 81, and he never missed a shot the whole day long on doves!
My Dad was one of the old 3-war Marines, China/WWII/Korea, and taught me at a very early age how to shoot my BB gun, including how to use a sling. I guess it was inevitable that I'd become pretty good with a rifle, and then with a pistol, but I've NEVER been that good with a shotgun. I was shooting for FUN, and didn't learn to hit like my uncle did, so that's still a challenge.
The ethic they followed was one of simple "fair play" and judicious management of the game. Now that game is much more scarce, due to reduction in habitat (mostly taken over by homes these days), the whole game of hunting and shooting has changed, and we're no longer "a nation of riflemen."
The Japanese admiral that had lived here a good while warned the Japanese powers that be then, that if they wanted to invade the mainland of the USA, they'd find "a sniper behind every blade of grass" here, but that's no longer the case. Most people now CAN'T get good because they just don't have the opportunity, and with all the BAD info out there on the internet, there's an increasing trend toward "group think," and just getting quick sound-byte answers to specific problems without regard to any "technicalities," or desire, even, of understanding the principles involved. This is a disturbing trend, and the very people who need better info and understanding the most seem to obe the ones who will listen to it the least.
I have a friend who has some real talent, but being my son's age, he's absorbed the attitude of many of the "young lions" of today, and doesn't really want to hear anything that doesn't serve his pre-conceived notions. For instance, he bought a very expensive custom long range rife with very nice scope, and wanted me to help him with it, and teach him how to shoot better. We went to a nearby 1200 yd. range that we're very lucky to have around, and he set up at 600 yds. I had some loads to try in my sporters and set up at 200. After he'd shot a few groups, he asked me to tell him what I thought. He had generally 8-10" groups at 600, which isn't bad, but I knew that gun and load should be doing much better. When I told him that, he liked what he heard, and proceeded to shoot a group while I watched. I noticed he was shoving the forend hard against the side of the front rest, and told him he couldn't do that and get what the gun was capable of. He said, and I quote, "You're crazy! That couldn't possibly make that much difference!" I just shrugged and told him, "Well, if you're satisfied with the results you're getting, keep on doing it the same way, but if you want to see what your rifle can REALLY do, make sure you don't put any side pressure on it, and see what you get." Then I went back to my shooting, and he to his. A while later, as dusk was falling and my chrono had quit working, I was busily trying to get the remainder of my loads shot up for testing, and he called to me, "Dennis, go look through the spotting scope." I told him I was too busy, and needed to get my loads tested. He again said, "Dennis, go look through the spotter." His voice had a strange ring to it, so I looked over at him, and saw his face was red, and he had a sheepish smile on his face. This got my curiosity up enough that I got up and went to the spotter we'd set up, and there was a very small group on his target, MUCH smaller than he'd been shooting, and obviously a surprise to him. "Wow!" I said, "what did you do?" He responded, "Just what you told me to. You were right. It really DOES make a difference. I just had to see it to believe it." That group, BTW, was 2 1/4" at 600. Not bad for a budding long range shooter! He had the talent. He just didn't know how to use it, and that's the problem with many today. They have great equipkment, but little knowledge of how to use it effectively.
And that's much the same as the responses I now get from so many of the "young lions" who seem to think they can buy a good shot. I've told many how to get the potential their guns have, but few take it in, or even are willing to try it. It's really kind'a frustrating for us old curmudgeons, but it's a growing trend from what I can see. They buy the new glossy mags, and see what someone who can shoot can do with them with tailored loads, and they think if they just BUY one, they'll be able to shoot like that too. It's just not possible, but that's not what they want to hear.
I've tried to teach many how to shoot well whenever they've asked me to, but many if not the majority, after I've explained how to shoot well, will say something like "Well, I do it THIS way," and proceed to ignore every effort I'd just made to teach them what they'd asked for. It's frustratingI, and not being a very PC kind'a guy, I've made some rather mad at me. That's fair. They weren't exactly very pleasing toward me, either, so at least we were even, if a bit crosswise with each other. Sometimes that's as "fair" as one CAN be.
I just see shooting and shooters in decline, and would seriously like to see that trend reversed. t really DOES matter, STILL! And that's my primary motivation in posting what I did, NOT to condemn anyone, but to plea for whatever can be done to make things better. Not being very PC, I can say things sometimes in ways that offend some, and Heaven knows, we all seem to wear our feelings on our sleeves, including me sometimes, but at least I've come by it fairly honestly.
As a group, we shooters really NEED to do better than we have been doing, but that'll involve a whole lot of work, and some degree of risk. Whether we rise to that need will, I have a sense, determine what our future is going to be like. And again, a very sincere thanks to all who've taken my comments as intended.
