 Some of the greatest advice I can give you from a person who just loves to shoot and wants to grow as a marksman is...you have to avoid falling into the trap of just shooting what you are the best at. We all want to do well and show off our skills. We all want to leave the range fulfilled and feeling like we are actually good as something. But unfortunately, that is not where growth happens. You must make an effort to train what you are the weakest at in order to grow as a shooter! When I was younger and wanting to grow my skills and level of marksmanship, one of the biggest benefits to me was to come away from an event with a new position or stage that I have never done or seen before. And I blew it. And, although, int the moment, it felt awful to blow a stage of a match, that to me was always worth its wait in gold. As strange as it may sound, I was always excited to get home and face this new challenging shot or position to improve upon it. You see, when at a match I didn't care about the stages I did well on. I always looked for things I didn't do well on. I loved it when I came away from a stage scratching my head and saying "well that was something new." Mentally, it would go in a notebook for when I would get home as to something I wanted to practice, study, learn, then, improve on. I think for most shooters, shooting prone or off a bench is where they shine. But be wary of always getting into the habit of shooting that position all the time. In real world hunting or match shooting in the field, get ready for the brow beatings. Because you will be outside your comfort zone and your shooting and score will show it as will your results hunting. I think comfort is a good word to use because we don't want to do things as human beings we are not good at. If you are terrible at one sport but like to be considered an "athlete," you are going to drop that sport like a bad habit and be on the hunt for something that you will be more of a natural at or at least a competitor at. And for the record, although there are some who take the sport of shooting well, I do not believe most are just "naturally" good at it. To be at the top of their game, good shooters have to practice and practice a lot. And I am sure through the learning curve, they have had some losses and some embarrassing shots along the way.  A case in point and what led me to this blog. We had a Police Sniper team here training with us recently. And I cannot say how much I was impressed on their abilities to shoot off of a tri-pod. Their lead shooter said one of the wisest things I have heard in quite sometime. He said "we do not train prone as the likelihood of that shot being taken in a real world situation is little to none. So, we train at our weakest skill set and one that will probably have to be used in the field someday, and that is off a tripod. So, 90% of our training is off one." Well said, well done and for the record it showed. Probably one of the best groups I have even seen shooting from tripods bar none,
If you want to start placing and winning in matches or if you want your hunting trip to have a better chance of ending with success, then you merely need to become a well-rounded shooter. You do not have to be the best at any position. Work to be average or above in all positions and you will move up the ranks every time. You may be beaten with a sling by a world-class cross-the-course shooter, but just hold your own with him. Because the next timed stage or position he may just struggle with and you will make up lost ground like crazy. Most shooters shine at something, some position, some hold. Few can stay middle of the pack in every position. To do so, you simply have to constantly train on your weakest positions, not your strongest. Do this long enough and the results will amaze you.
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 Kahles SKMR3 Reticle in MilsLet us start at the beginning. You are a new shooter or hunter and want to shoot at distance. The allure of someone doing all the math and printing out your yardage on a turret or reticle sounds enticing. The thought that you don't have to learn MOA or Mils sounds appealing. The idea that someone will do all this work for you to bypass this learning process sounds like a win. Or is it? The thought of someone coming up with a "simple way" to put your D.O.P.E. on your rifle turns my stomach. They sell you on the fact that if you look behind the curtain, your brain may melt or you will be overwhelmed forever on the mystical and magical powers of the great and powerful Oz (insert fire, smoke and yelling here). Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! Just write the check and let us take all this burden off you. I hope by now you are seeing the humor. But on a serious side, if you fall for this trap in the long run it will hurt you on learning some core truths to running a rifle at distance. 1. You have to be able to modify your D.O.P.E. to current and constantly changing weather conditions, altitude and, more importantly, density altitude. And to be truthful, it is one of the simplest things you will ever have to learn in life. If you peak behind the curtain you will see, BDC is all a gimmick, nothing but noise, smoke and mirrors. A way to work you around just simply using your MOA or Mil adjustments with no end user control. BDC's are complicated, complicating, inaccurate and will hamstring you as a shooter and a marksman. 2. Once you learn Minutes and Mils, it frees you to simply learn to get your rifles D.O.P.E. and apply it to the rifle. More importantly, it allows you to true your trajectory for what your rifle really needs, not what someone or some ballistics calculator thinks you need. These are all 100% guaranteed to be wrong. Or more importantly, 100% impossible to be correct for your rifle. Why? Because they have no way of knowing the curvature to your bore (rifling), your true BC of your bullet as it is deformed in your rifle or lastly what your speed will be once your rifle has broken in. Because, after shooting 150 to 200 rounds it you will pick up speed and your dope will have to be corrected for it.  This is what your rifle looks like in your barrel! Surprised?3. It is hog wash of your BDC covering you 2000 feet plus or minus from where you will be hunting on the map. I could shoot so many holes through this that Swiss cheese would be embarrassed if we used it as an example. Airplanes do not land or find the ground according to the altitude on a map. They land on the altitude based on measured air pressure. Google and read more if you are interested. But the short version of this story is, it is not the map you have to worry about. It is the simulated altitude we call density altitude. As the DA rises, you are shooting in thinner air. As is lowers, you are being simulated shooting closer to sea level. And this moves up and down drastically based on heat, height and humidity. So you could be at 5000 feet on the map, but shooting at 3000, 5000 or 7500 feet on any given day. This is where you miss or put a bad shot down range. On average, a 1000 foot change in DA can move your point of impact up or down at 1000 yards 3.5" to 10" or more depending on your rifle and caliber. All is not lost. As a shooter choosing a BDC turret or reticle you are missing out on one of the most important learning processes you can go through, something that will put you in control of the shot without question or uncertainty. That is learning to use MOA or Mils to get your D.O.P.E. and then mastering the weather to fine tune the long range shots with confidence. When it comes to long range or precision at distance, it is weather first, ballistics and, then, fundamentals. That is how a shot should be made. With knowledge of all three and the know how to adjust the first two when changes are needed, you will grow with confidence. More importantly, you have now looked behind the curtain and realized that there is no wizard and this in not magic. It is knowledge that you too can learn and grow from and become the shooter you've always wanted to be.  |
Jamie DodsonPresident of Wolf Precision and inventor of the ACE. Archives
December 2024
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