Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Competitive Shooting what you wish you'd learned sooner?

Learn the difference between “ practice” and “ training.”

“Practice” is reinforcement of a technique. Repetition.

“Training.” Is learning/ experimenting with a new technique.

Competitive shooting is a journey. Be patient. You keep on learning. Things you struggle with in year “1” are things you do automatically in year “2.” Etc. Keep a log/journal of your journey. Score results, practice times/dates, things worked on, things tried, failures, successes, equipment adjustments/ and why, etc. Again, what your write about in year “1” are different from each following year.

I love this thread. No smart azzes. One thing that our club did was to load up on NM AR15's. They are much easier for the youngsters to shoot well with rather than the M1. We put on clinics like the ones taught at Camp Perry in the early 80's. I was at them, and the instructors were all HM shooters. One thing that I saw with our club was the willingness of our top shooters to work with individuals on a one to one basis. Like having a mentor. Get your top shooters to pair up with a new shooter and go to the range and practice. Like Jeff said; NPA is so important. Work on each position. The body type of each shooter will dictate the best position to work on. There used to be three sitting positions, but D.I.Boyd told me that no one should shoot the open leg position. G. David Tubb used what he called the approach method for shooting standing. He spent a lot of time teaching himself how to do that. It works for him. Ron Fleishhacker used the cross legged sitting position. David used a modified cross ankle. That is where a coach comes in. Working with each shooter will solve a lot of problems before they become habits and it will instill good fundamentals. You know that there is no secret to shooting? It's all fundamentals.
Watch the front sight and favor center.

The point Craig makes about the position needs to fit you is SO important too. I remember a coach somewhere along the lines stepping on one of our JR shooters prone legs to get her foot flat, and I pulled him off to the side and said, lets just let her shoot the prone position FIRST and then worry about that foot.... after the 15 year old gal came off the 600 with a 197, he never stepped on her foot again....

And Craig had that same Small arms school I had on standing... LOL... put the rifle up, wait until the sight is center, activate trigger without moving sight, thats all there is to standing. Very simple. ROTFLMAO I did....

First thing I`d do is show your class how well that rifle shoots. And while you`re doing so, call each shot. Tell them why.
When I first started HP, I shot a $65 M-1, CMP rifle, for the first 3 years.
I then had the good luck to buy a 40-x, found my rifle printed exactly where the sights were when the gun went off. Improved my confidence in my equipment 200%, and showed me where I needed improvement. No more quessing...was it me or the gun?

Somehow I missed this important point when reading this the first time.... you didn't say it out loud, but what you have said, along with NPA, is that a DATA book is SUPER important. SUPER important once you get moving along. And IMHO even when starting. Doesn't matter if you are noticing that you start shooting high Xs at 600 along about the 12-13th shot for some reason( hint, come down 1/4 moa right quick at that point in the string) or if you are shooting 9 ring size rapid groups, just noticing that those groups are all a bit high or a bit left on this range at Lake Jackson( due to early morning lighting for me) etc... can allow you to adjust a bit and up the score, while you are still learning.

Great post. Keep an accurate data book. But you have no need for a score book. They are useless mostly. Read that again closely and understand it please.

Who is Alec? How do we know whether he’s smart or not?

Follow thru, Follow thru, Follow thru.