I agree with Goalie in his OP & also what Mackay said later.
I've never competed with a rifle, other than just a few club shoots of various types, but I did compete with a pistol & traveled a 3 state area in the summer.
Competing, plus all the trigger time required for practice, makes most everyone who does it regularly, better, period. 500-1000 round of practice a week tend to have a positive effect on your shooting.
And it does it in a lot of ways: obviously speed & accuracy are 2 pieces that get better over time, at least until you hit a wall.
But other good things also happen; you get to a point where you are highly focused, but it's a kind of sub-conscious focus in that you are not having to think about every element any longer.
The gun comes up & almost on it's own, acquires the target & almost sub-consciously you squeeze off the shot...................it's not only muscle memory at play, but mental memory as well.
And that carries over into your more casual shooting & range practice experiences; I've never been in a situation on the street to test that, but I believe that the muscle & mental memory takes over you you can execute almost w/o thinking about it
When the gun comes up, everything goes more or less on autopilot, unless you get the brain signal to stop.
JME
MM
