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Teaching marskmanship

bowriter said:
Shooting targets is not the way to learn to shoot. Reason being, most people flich when shooting targets but do not when shooting live animals. I am a perfect example. I am a far better than average shot at live game. I flich like a madman when shooting a target.
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Interesting. I am a lot like that. I might flinch when shooting targets, especially the first few shots. But if I'm shooting at a live animal, I don't have time to flinch. A lot of it is that I probably don't practice with the rifle as much as I should.
 
IMO, flinching is the #1 cause of inacuracy, The only way to avoid it is to be surprised when the weapon goes off. The only way to do that is by slowly squeezing the trigger. All been said before here...

My 2 cents:

The best exercise to teach trigger control is to have the student shoot their weapon single shot with the teacher loading the chamber each time. Have the student look the other way and then put a round in the chamber (or leave it empty) and close the action. Load/don't load randomly. When the shooter expets it to go bang and it just goes click, you will see any trigger jerking and flinching. When they can consistently refrain from flinching on an empty chamber, then they will have learned the basics of trigger control.
 
Pursuit Hunter said:
IMO, flinching is the #1 cause of inacuracy, The only way to avoid it is to be surprised when the weapon goes off. The only way to do that is by slowly squeezing the trigger. All been said before here...

My 2 cents:

The best exercise to teach trigger control is to have the student shoot their weapon single shot with the teacher loading the chamber each time. Have the student look the other way and then put a round in the chamber (or leave it empty) and close the action. Load/don't load randomly. When the shooter expets it to go bang and it just goes click, you will see any trigger jerking and flinching. When they can consistently refrain from flinching on an empty chamber, then they will have learned the basics of trigger control.
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Thats great PH. I have done this before and it is by far the best way to quit flinching. My problem is, I am horrible at target shooting, and best at a live target. Thats tough learning at a young age, but it can be achieved.
 
Cooincidinc-Saw this thread yesterday and today, a lady I have never met called and asked me to teach her to shoot a handgun. Now the odd part...

She lives in FL.

She will be up here in late July and I told her to bring her gun and I work with her.
 
bowriter said:
Cooincidinc-Saw this thread yesterday and today, a lady I have never met called and asked me to teach her to shoot a handgun. Now the odd part...

She lives in FL.

She will be up here in late July and I told her to bring her gun and I work with her.
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Maybe BSK can help you ;)
 
smstone22 said:
Ill say another thing, these marksmanship problems among deer hunters are becoming more and more common. Due to the abundance of deer, alot of new hunters never start out squirrel hunting anymore, they just go right to deer hunting. Squirrel hunting with a .22 is how marksmanship is taught the country way but its just not being done alot anymore. Perhaps you could have a get together where everyone practices with .22's and heads out for a morning squirrel hunt every now and then.
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Very good post!
 
Some topics need to be covered before even picking up the firearm, such as proper body position, proper sight alignment (front, rear, and target), proper trigger pull (I used the squirt gun comparison - slowly pull the trigger to the rear just as if you were shooting a squirt gun and wanted a constant, steady stream), and knowing the dominant eye is pretty helpful, too. Helps to get the person comfortable with just handling a firearm and understanding how it functions - especially the safety.

Eye and ear protection (I've seen Dad's take their sons/daughters shooting for the first time using a large caliber/gauge firearm that'll kick like the dickens and no hearing protection - then wonder why the kid didn't like the experience.

I'd begin with iron sights at close range dry firing - lots of dry firing (as said about putting a coin on the firearm to check for trigger control). Then go to a small caliber/gauge firearm - hard to beat the ole .22 single shot rifle or single action pistol - again at close range (at least getting them to hit a target fairly consistently and build confidence). Using the method Pursuit Hunter describes is excellent training in the later stages of refining trigger control and keeping their eye focused on the front sight (some shooters try to see where their round hit as soon as it leaves the barrel - called chasing the bullet - causes most shots to go low, like flinching/jerking the trigger).

Stop shooting when they start getting tired or frustrated with shot "groups". Pouring thru boxes of ammo when tired just wastes the ammo and builds bad habits, IMO.
 
I am not a great shot by any means. But as s kid I wore a red rider out and grew up being very comfortable with a gun in my hand. I am with Stik a BB gun is great learning tool!
 
One thing to help my kids and this pertains to deer hunting in general, is give them some hunting magazines with pics of bucks standing in different positions and a pencil or ink pin and tell them to draw a circle with a crosshair in it were they would shoot that deer.

Man I have taken a few of those magazines with me to the tree and reminess over those years, man what memories.

To the subject of this post, time behind the sights or scope is very important, they need direction on how, and teach then saftey and teach them about the firearm they are shooting at that time. They themselves will have to shoot and control their inter demons so to speak! JMO
 

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