Costs are up! The end is nigh! Or is this more a problem of perception?

NationalMatch.us, a great forum discussing the Conventional Shooting discipline of High Power rifle, recently had a thread discussing the costs of shooting and, using the price of gasoline, better put this in perspective.

In 1942, gasoline was 19.9 cents a gallon and John Garand was making $3800 a year as a senior engineer at Springfield Armory. That works out to $1.90 an hour. So 10 gallons of gas was an upper middle class worker’s hourly wage.

Today an upper middle class wage may be $40/hr or $80K a year. At $4 a gallon, it has the same bite as it did in 1942, except we can get cars that make 30-40mpg, while a WW II car was likely to get 10mpg or worse.

When adjusted for inflation gas was about as expensive in 1981 as today.

Not trying to jusify inflation, just trying to put things in perspective.

Use Of Sight Shooting In Close Quarters Gunfights — Myth Or Fact?
An article by: John Veit

Sight Shooting has been taught for use in combat for the past 100+ years. So, to question whether or not it is used in close quarters gunfights at this late date, seems to be ridiculous.

Many say that they have used Sight Shooting, or that they know of others that have used Sight Shooting in armed encounters, and that they got hits.

And an NYPD study of over 6000 combat cases found that aiming was employed in 20% of the cases. As the distance between the officer and opponent increased beyond close proximity, the aiming or sighting ran from using the barrel as an aiming reference to picking up the front sight and utilizing fine sight alignment.

However, in 70% of the cases reviewed, officers reported that they used instinctive or point shooting. It was used for a variety of reasons: the close proximity of their adversary, rapid escalation of the incident, poor lighting, or the need for the swiftest possible reaction. No sight alignment was employed.

And in 10% of the cases, officers could not remember whether they had aimed or pointed and fired the weapon instinctively. NYPD officers were taught Sight Shooting. Also, officers, with an occasional exception, fired with the strong hand.

The study, which was published back in 1981, has been labeled old but relevant.

There is little hard evidence that Sight Shooting has been used successfully in gunfights. There should be hundreds to thousands of pictures and videos of it being used over the years, but they are as prevalent as hens’ teeth.

In a 2009 SureSight.com web article, this is what is said about the use of the sights in gunfights.

“It is an acknowledged fact that very few gunfight survivors ever remember seeing their sights at all during a life-threatening encounter. In other words, regardless of the amount of practice using the sights at the target range, the vast majority of shootout survivors are unable to see their sights when faced with life-threatening stress. One study found that when faced with stress, ‘93% of officers focused on the threat, not the weapon, and 88% of the officers resorted to binocular vision.”

And this is what the science says about our ability to see the sights.

In a close quarters life threat situation, our Fight or Flight response will kick in automatically to help us survive. And when it does, a number of involuntary and immediate physiological changes will occur. One is that the muscle that maintains the convex shape of the lens, which enables us to focus on near objects, relaxes and the lens changes to a flattened state. That allows us to focus at a distance, and things up close will be blurry.

Also, a deadly force threat drives the heart rate well above 200 BPM. So fine motor skills, which are necessary for precision shooting, and which deteriorate around 115 BMP, are lost to use and then some.

Point Shooting Used In Force Science Test.

In 2007, the Force Science Research Center published the results of a test designed to determine the shooting ability of 103 volunteers who were “new” to guns. Only a few had more than a passing exposure to sidearms, and over 1/3 had never fired a handgun.

After a brief safety review with red guns, they were given functional weapons with live ammunition. Those with no experience were allowed to fire half a dozen familiarization rounds to get the feel of sound and recoil but were not told how to hold the gun, except to grip it firmly and to avoid touching the trigger until the muzzle was safely down range.

Point Shooting Defaulted To.

An overwhelming majority of the test subjects used Point Shooting at all distances when firing rapidly, and almost all used 1-handed techniques at close ranges. At 5-7 yards and beyond, many shifted spontaneously to 2-hand stances, with an increase in hit probability.

Head Shots Made.

At close distances (1-3 yards), more than half shot at the head without being told to and had a very high hit probability with at least 1 of their shots. At 5 to 7 yards, many of the shooters directed fire at a bigger part of the body than the head. But still, a lot of shots hit in the head, neck, and upper chest.

Point Shooting = Speed.

A strong majority of the shooters fired all 3 rounds within 1.5 seconds. And an actual assailant could be expected to get a first round off even faster than the volunteers.

Point Shooting Is Quick To Learn.

Within a very short time, at least half the volunteers had a very good grasp on the basic mechanics of shooting. Some people just have a natural ability to pick up a gun and be able to control it. It was amazing how well many of these people could shoot with no training at all.

A Life And Death Matter.

Some say that Point Shooting is an advanced shooting method that can be learned only after extensive shooting practice. However, the test results refute that.

Point Shooting is quick to learn. But waiting to learn it until one is in an armed encounter, could be terminal.

The NYPD statistics say that 75% of gunfights occur at less than 20 feet, and that if you are going to be shot and killed, there is an 81% chance that it will be at less than 6 feet, and a 90% chance that it will be at less than 15 feet.

The only savings grace is that the mis rate in armed encounters is more than 80%. That means that for every five bullets fired at a target, four+ go somewhere else. So, unless you are having a very unlucky day, chances are you will not be in a gunfight, and if you are, you will survive.

But, regardless of the statistics, to not train students to Point Shoot at close quarters, is to set them up for failure in situations where there is the greatest chance of them being shot and/or killed.

And Point Shooting is not a bar to using the sights. If you can see and focus on them, and your hand eye coordination skills have not been lost to use, and there is time to use them, Sight Shooting can still be used.

There are various types of Point Shooting: CAR, FAS, QK, Quick-Fire, P&S, and others. Each is contingent upon a variety of things such as: stance, body index, gun grip, positioning the gun on your centerline, canting the gun, using a stiff arm and sighting along it, placing the muzzle on an aim point, placing the index finger along the side of the gun to aim it by pointing, etc..

Bill Burroughs, in his paper: Components and Considerations for Combat Shooting, says that “combat shooting is actually quite simple and anyone can learn it. In a span of less than two hours and fewer than 100 rounds of ammunition an officer can be taught this method and can reproduce it during periods of stress. Marksmanship levels are high inside the distances where the method was designed to be used – close quarters.”

Quick-Fire.

The US Army in its Combat Pistol Manual (2003), says to use Quick-Fire Point Shooting for engaging an enemy at less than 5 yards and for night firing.

“Using a two-hand grip, the firer brings the weapon up close to the body until it reaches chin level. He then thrusts it forward until both arms are straight. The arms and body form a triangle, which can be aimed as a unit. In thrusting the weapon forward, the firer can imagine that there is a box between him and the enemy, and he is thrusting the weapon into the box. The trigger is smoothly squeezed to the rear as the elbows straighten.”

……….

More information on self defense, point shooting, and closely related subjects can be found on the author’s web site: www.pointshooting.com

Have you earned your Bronze Award for Shooting?

The Boy Scouts of America ( http://USScouts.org ) offer an Arts and Hobbies Awards at different levels for scouts who organize and host events. I extracted theses guidelines from the Boy Scouts of American Venturing Handbook (No. 33493), 1999 printing.

I pose the following question and challenge. Have you earned your “Bronze Award” for shooting and hunting? Please note to earn this award at the Bronze level a Boy Scout has to perform at least nine separate tasks in a variety of areas. Hunters and gun owners only have to focus on their one area of interest.

Here are the Boy Scout’s requirements to earn a bronze level Arts and Hobbies award:

1. Choose a new hobby such as … marksmanship.

2. Keep a log for at least 90 days of each time you participate in your hobby.

3. After participating in your hobby for at least 90 days, give a presentation on what you have learned for your crew or another group.

4. Develop a plan to assess the physical skill level of each member of a group.

5. Once you have determined your starting point or base, develop a plan with each member of your group to develop a training improvement program.

6. Test your group members on a regular basis over a 90-day period to see if there is improvement.

7. Share your results with the group and/or your crew.

8. Lead or participate in a discussion on the merits of choosing a sports hobby [like shooting]. Discuss health benefits, opportunity to associate with friends, costs, etc.

9. Ask an adult [or friend] who is not active in your crew and who has an active sports hobby to join your discussion to get his or her point of view.

10. Teach disadvantaged or disabled people a sport and organize suitable competitions, or help them develop an appreciation for an art or hobby new to them.

11. Organize a hobby meet (a place where people gather to display and share information about their hobbies) for your crew, [local community], or another group [like, say, the local media].

12. Organize a contest.

The Boy Scouts figured this much out. They expect kids to do the above in order to learn a new skill and to promote their hobby. Shouldn’t we expect grown adult hunters and gun owners to do the same to promote their hobby?

How much skill and public respect would hunters and gun owners garner if every range and sportsman’s club adhered to these simple guidelines; guidelines that children in the Boy Scouts are expected to follow?

If a Boy Scout looked at your shooting and hunting, would you earn your Bronze Award?

Gun Gremlins

by Hubert Townsend

What with the cost of ammunition escalating and my rather frugal nature, I am happy with the advice I was given long ago. When new members of the Wyoming Guard shooting team were first issued their M14 rifles (.308 caliber) we were told to plot and write down every shot that came out of the barrel.

Info in our shooting data books included ammunition lot, date, time, place, light conditions, wind velocity and direction, temperature, sight settings and shot locations. We were wisely instructed to study our results and look for trends. And see them we did; such things as how light intensity and direction affected our aim and group location. Going from Wyoming’s high altitude down to Arkansas’ necessitated a sight change up to compensate for the thicker air down south. And now that my blurry eyes have forced a change to using scopes, the discipline of data booking continues to pay monetary dividends. But sometimes this shooting business is just plain voodoo to me.

Last year I thought I had a gnat’s ass zero on my Reserve team’s M16 rifle with its four power scope. I had consistently pounded the center ring at 300 yards. The next day I came out bright and early at the exact same time (to avoid the wind and mirage issues), fired from the exact same spot wearing the exact same equipment along with a consistent position, trigger pull and all those other pesky consistent marksmanship fundamentals. And, of course, the same lot of ammo. But my group was a minute off to the side!

Note: a minute of angle, MOA, translates into a change of an inch at 100 yds, two inches at 200 yards etc.

I complained to an experienced marksman out at the range who has been doing this stuff since his Corps days during WWII. He just told me that we are different people every day, see things slightly differently and showed me something very similar with some of his old target data. But how can change in impact happen when I thought I had taken care of all the ballistic variables? Was this knowledgeable gentleman on to something?

Well, yesterday I went to the range to confirm my civilian rifle’s zero prior to varmint hunting. Previously, at 64 degrees F at 0900 at that shooting range, it would shoot a three shot group at 100yds that could be covered with a dime (1/2 MOA) and it was exactly in the center. But now it was shooting 1 MOA high, at 100,200 and 300 yards. But all the variables were the same, including the temperature. “What gives here?” I angrily said to myself, along with some unprintable exclamations.

I later took my wife, Leta, to a sporting goods store to buy some reloading stuff and was replaying my voodoo story to the counterman whose explanation I was hoping for, as he is very experienced. After hearing the tale of woe and waiting for some kind of logical explanation, Leta, who isn’t lost in the forest for the trees when it comes to shooting, just looked at us both with that “wise woman” look and said “It’s the gun gremlins.” Doggone it! That is the best explanation I have ever heard for such things and goes a long way to explain all kinds of weird stuff that happens in spite of our very best efforts to control and account for the myriad of variables that effect where a bullet goes. Simple as that. Oh, the wisdom that comes from raising four children.

The lesson of this gremlin story is that if you have accounted for all the variables you can and your small shot groups move a wee bit off center then don’t fret; it’s just the “gun gremlins.” But if your groups look like how we instructors poetically describe as “rat shit in a dresser drawer,” then that isn’t the gremlins fault. It is a failure of one or more of the four marksmanship fundamentals. Keeping a data book can go a long way toward improving your group size and placement, along with your pocketbook.

Originally published in the Casper Tribune

Alan Korwin, of Bloomfield Press, the “gun law guy”, has this to say about Tactics That Work:

Go for the Ink — in the Letters to the Editor Column
Even if they don’t run ‘em, the editors have to read ‘em, and they have some effect. If they’re not running ‘em, find out why, change your style, get better, get ink more. Try a one- or two-liner, very effective when you dream up good ones.

That first line is most poignant. I’ve lost track of the folks who never bother to submit letters or press releases because they believe (sometimes wrongly) that the editor is anti-gun and won’t run them and nobody will read them. Balderdash, on both counts! The main reason you don’t see more pro-gun content is because so few people bother to send anything in.

An excellent, common sense guide, also at Mr. Korwin’s site, http://www.gunlaws.com/FiveMinutesToFreedom-Haupt.htm is an exellent read.

Appleseed’s ‘Official’ Liberty Training Rifle (LTR/.22 sub-caliber trainer) statement

www.appleseedinfo.org

As the cost of military surplus and new-production ammunition rises, and while supplies of the same are (at best) unreliable, many Appleseed instructors and attendees have noted a need for a cost-effective means of practicing marksmanship, especially at 25 meters. To this end, we have conducted extensive research and testing of many currently available products. The following is a summarization of our findings and experiences in the development of the Ruger 10/22® Liberty Training Rifle.

The Appleseed Program promotes rifle safety and marksmanship, as well as knowledge of Revolutionary War history and grass-roots participation in the political process, especially as this relates to the preservation of the Second Amendment. Thousands of satisfied Appleseed attendees have proven that the marksmanship principles that the Appleseed Program teaches at 25m translate into accurate shooting at up to 500 yards.

Unfortunately, the rising cost of ammunition has hindered the participation of some Americans in marksmanship activities. Proficient marksmanship requires regular practice, though not necessarily at full-distance. Practice at 25 meters, fortunately, does not require a full-power centerfire battle rifle; for this distance, a .22LR rimfire rifle is all that is required. Moreover, many indoor ranges do not allow the use of full-power rifles, but .22LR rifles are permitted.

There are several accurate and durable .22LR rifles on the market today, but the Ruger 10/22 has proven one of the most successful. It is both affordable and accurate, and several aftermarket accessories have been shown to make it an ideal platform for a 25m training rifle. The components listed in this thread should not require any gunsmithing, and little mechanical aptitude is required to install them. In short, this is a true ‘do-it-yourself’ project.

This should help you build a rifle that can quickly be put into service at an Appleseed, be lent to someone at a local AQT shoot, and be used to practice at 25m (or even use in 25 & 50 yard CMP rifle competitions) – all with cheap .22LR ammunition. Also, it will give you a valuable tool to use to train new shooters, without subjecting them to the often-intimidating recoil of a full-power main battle rifle.

Disclaimer — RWVA, its members, the Appleseed Program, and the author have no financial interest in any of the companies listed in this post. Any product endorsement is purely the result of our own satisfaction as consumers.

Why the 10/22?

One Appleseed instructor speaks of his Liberty Training Rifle. He deliberately built this rifle just to practice the Army Qualification Target at 25 Meters. He writes “It is difficult to safely load (on a firing line while sitting or prone) a tube fed rifle quickly enough to finish within the time limits.

“Yes, the 10/22 when set up correctly closely mimics the M1A/M1 rifle. It’s close enough for me that I’ve gotten down in prone, inserted the mag., wrapped up in my hasty sling, laid my cheek on the stock, gotten my NPOA and then wasted time searching for my M1A/M1’s safety with my trigger finger. Only when I raised my head up off the rifle to try to see what was wrong with the safety did I realize it was my 10/22. When I related this story on the M14 Firing Line Public Forum it got some chuckles/laughs as others have done the same thing. It’s that close.

“Accessories (sights, stocks, butt extensions, magazines, bolt hold open/release, trigger/sear, etc.) are wide open for the 10/22. Not sure about the Marlin.

“As for accuracy? As bad as my up close eye sight is (can’t focus on the front sight – always has a blurry look that I can’t get rid of) my 10/22 will do 5/8″ shot groups at 25 yds.

Before you buy do some searching on the internet for availability of the accessories you’ll need to shoot the rifle (whether at Appleseeds, the rifle range or small game hunting) and pick what you feel will work best for you. Hopefully the folks that suggest the 10/22 are doing so based on their positive experience and not “something they heard/read”. I think you’ll find that this is a forum of shooters who talk about shooting. It’s not a forum of collectors who talk about shooting. There’s a difference. Hang around, attend an Appleseed and an RBC and you’ll see the difference between shooters who talk and talkers who (sometimes) shoot.

Because of the popularity of the Sturm-Ruger .22 caliber rifle there are several organizations who embrace its practicality and ease of use. Another Appleseed veteran instructor writes of his choice of the rifle and recalls the Liberty Training Rifle in its beginning stages.

“The 10/22 was chosen by a member who wanted a rifle that had (or could have added to it) sights that approximated the sight picture of his M1A and M1 Garand. At the time, the 10/22 with TechSights was the only choice. TechSights has noted that they are working on a set of aperture sights for the Marlin 60, but these are not yet available. The idea really took off when somebody (Junior Birdman?) found a stock with an adjustable length of pull for the 10/22. Someone pointed out the quick-reload advantage of the 10/22 vs tube-fed rifles, and this was also a factor.”

Let us quote a text from Appleseed’s founder. Fred states his response to the cost and availability of surplus and commercial ammo in the higher calibers. Here, in a post quoted from the Appleseed’s forum in Fred and this programs response.

“The Solution to the Ammo Shortage

“There’s always problems. And seems a current problem is the sudden high cost of good surplus ammo. What a few months back was 15 cents is now above 50 cents a round. That’s a more than 300% increase. Ouch! If you come to an Appleseed, and you go thru 300 rds in two days – or 800 rounds in six days of Boot Camp – your ammo costs have shot up from $45 to over $150 at the weekend Appleseed – and from $120 to over $400 at a Boot Camp.

“That’s gotta hurt. But there’s an easy solution. It’s called .22 rimfire. For most of us older guys, say “.22” and you only mean one thing – the lowly .22 rimfire cartridge, billions of which are fired every year in this country.

“I say ‘lowly’ because, being boys at heart, we all gravitate toward speed and power, so the .223 and other “.22s” of recent decades tend to grab the glory, at least among “the .22s”. Yet if any of us can reach back far enough in our memories, we’re likely to find the .22 lurking way back in the past as the cartridge on which we cut our teeth as marksmen. If you soak in those memories a bit, it all starts to come back. The importance with which you approached the clerk in the country store and asked for “a box of .22s. And not just “a box of .22s” – no sir – it was a box of “longs” or “long rifles” or – if you were “poor” that day, a box of “shorts”.

“Yep, even back then power was an aphrodisiac, and, if you had the 72 cents, you went for the big ones – the Long Rifles (and if you were really flush, you bought the “Long Rifle Hollow Points” and paid the 80 cents – this country is so rich today that nearly all .22s now sold are “LR” so the glory attached to those two words has probably faded considerably with the younger set.) If you were short in the coin department, if the most loose change you had was a couple of quarters (made of silver, too!) you were stuck with “shorts”.

“Bottom line, when you opened the box, and started dropping them down the mag tube, don’t know that, excitement-wise, it made much difference. It’s no secret the power and impact that cartridge has on marksmanship. In that field, the .22 rimfire packs muscle that dwarfs 7.62 X 39, for example. Real Marksmanship Muscle.

“Some of the most accomplished marksmen are the small bore shooters.

“It’s an old truth, often told: small bore shooters make great high power rifle shooters – but the reverse is not automatically true. A center-fire marksman has to work on his skills when he starts to shoot small bore, because you have to be sharper than with centerfire. Which means .22 rimfire is a heck of a maker of rifle-shooting skills. And no slouch in the Liberty department, either.

“Back in 1940, one .22 champion shooter in England explored the possibility of using .22 rimfire on the invading Hun. He made up dummy targets – wood ‘dressed’ in a wool uniform, leather cartridge belt, etc – just like an invading Nazi would wear – and found out that, at 300 yards, the ‘lowly’ .22 would penetrate ‘uniform’ and ‘gear’ to lodge an inch or more into the wood. He concluded the basic .22 cartridge would make nasty wounds.

“He concluded, based on his research that .22 rifles were a viable option in facing the Hun. Before you laugh, imagine being on the receiving end. Without warning, sizeable lead pellets penetrate an inch or more into your body. You can’t hear them coming. There’s no muzzle report – certainly, not amid vehicular or battlefield noise – to give away the location of the shooter. They may not kill you, but you will be something the military says is even more valuable: a casualty. Requiring 2-4 men to drag you to a first-aid station, then convalescence, etc.

“There’s an article in one of the gun magazines way back in the days when there was a flap over civil defense and bomb shelters – say, sometime in the 1950s or early 60s. It was a story about a man who appeared at his local gun shop once a month, and bought a .22 single-shot and a brick of .22s. (Back then, a twenty would get you both!) When finally asked why he was buying all those rifles, he responded that, when the time came, the rifles were for his neighbors, and he expected them to use ‘em – to get a battle rifle! Shades of the generations of riflemen who have guarded this country’s liberty and heritage for so long! Now we are in a time of shortages of cheap surplus ammo.

“Those of you who had the opportunity to ‘buy it cheap and stack it deep’ acted like the grasshoppers that most Americans are and instead of planning for the winter, you danced and sang and partied… But even those with a few cases stacked away are reluctant to freely spend that now 50-cent a round ammo. But .22 is still plentiful and cheap. So herewith, we draft that cartridge back into the Cause, once more.

“Yes sir, march onto the ‘battlefield of liberty” – the 25-meter marksmanship training range – with the goal of becoming riflemen, of becoming one with the tradition. It’s actually already happening.”

At Appleseeds, we already see nearly half the guys showing up with .22 rimfire rifles. In fact, at the recent New York Appleseed, BOTH Riflemen who qualified were firing .22s (one shot a 237!). Guess you could say that’s the beauty of Appleseed. That at 25m you can shift from centerfire to rimfire and the only difference you’ll notice, marksmanship-wise, is that your ammo dollar still buys a dollar’s worth of ammo. There’s really not much difference, otherwise.

Your shoulder is no sorer. You still have to ‘ride the bull’ of the Six Steps of Firing a Shot. NPOA is still mandatory. Position checkpoints? Absolutely the same, and absolutely as important. Plus, if you can master the lowly .22, you can master the big center fire.

No problem. Now, to stock up of some of that .22, before IT gets scarce!

At less than 20 bucks per thousand, it’s a deal – and a steal! And you never know when you’ll have to go ‘hunting the Hun’ – huh? Maybe the title for a future column: “Stalking the Hun with pipe and .22…” Or, “what will happen if we let this country go down the same road as England”, right? Meantime, .22 offers marksmanship training opportunities in your back yard and basement. With CB caps, you can be near as quiet as an air rifle.

Geez, I starting to not even miss centerfire!

So yes, the lowly .22 can be a lifesaver – if it allows you to acquire the marksmanship skills you need. And, as our English guy discovered (maybe to his surprise, and to the snorts of you machos out there), it may even have utility as a defender of Liberty , if and when it ever comes to that.

Buy some before everyone else finds out about it, and shortages begin to pop up…

Got some .22 already? Then come to an Appleseed! Bring your centerfire for Sunday, when we often switch to longer ranges, so you can see for yourself that what works at 25, works for 200 – or 300 – or 400. And by using .22 for 90+% of your training on the AQT, your costs to attend an Appleseed actually go down, not up.
Sweet deal.

And the same goes for the Boot Camp. By firing 2/3s of your shots with .22 rimfire – easily done – you ammo costs stay the same as when surplus ammo was cheap, but you get to shoot over 200 rounds of centerfire to polish off your training. Sweet deal!

So, in the spirit of Appleseed – adapt, improvise, overcome – and persevere – turn the current ammo shortage in your favor – and save money even more than before the shortage cropped up!
SWEET DEAL!

Dummies Steal Dummy Rounds, Smart Shooters Use Them

by Hubert Townsend

Technically, a bullet is the projectile that comes out the front of the firearm. The cartridge is the whole banana and consists of the primer on the bottom of the brass case which holds the powder inside and the bullet on top. A dummy round (cartridge) doesn’t have any powder or primer, absolutely nothing to propel the bullet anywhere. The government issued dummy rounds that I received to train troops on their 9mm pistols even had holes drilled into the sides of the cases so it was obvious that these were an inert system. Yet, despite my dummies being placed in a clear plastic container labeled in English “dummy ammo” some TSA hoonyat decided they were a threat to air travel in my well marked Army luggage. But that situation is another rant.

Dummy rounds have a great use in marksmanship instruction. They are used to load, unload and perform immediate action drills. If someone “gets stupid” while learning these unfamiliar motor skills, well, it is a dummy round in the firearm, a cheap lesson learned without endangering anyone.

These skills are normally learned very quickly and it is with actual live fire that dummy rounds have their most important usage. Even better than dummy rounds are commercially available snap caps. They are like dummy rounds except that the primer end will offer resistance to the firing pin when dry firing, which is easier on the guns mechanism and prevents the low possibility of firing pin breakage.

While practicing at Stuckenhoff range I have recently seen a lot of hunters sighting in their rifles. My old coach’s eye naturally goes to their trigger finger and watches its action during firing. If I see their finger bounce off the trigger during recoil, instead of keeping the trigger to the rear for a second or two ( termed “followthrough”), then I know that they have slightly jerked and thereby opened up their group.

This slight jerk is due to our inborn startle reflex. We don’t like loud bangs in front of our faces, so we naturally avoid that slight surprise psychological shock by giving the trigger a mild yank.

One fellow had fired an entire box magnum cartridges ($25) and was complaining of his rifle unable to consistently group at 100yds and even miss completely. I asked to shoot two of his remaining ten rounds. Seeing those two shots were less than an inch apart he agreed that perhaps it might not be the rifle.

But how could it be the shooter and not the gun? After all, he had a very steady position shooting off a bench rest. To prove to him that he was subconsciously jerking the trigger I did the good ole’ ball-and-dummy drill. I had the fellow close his eyes and, not having a 7mm magnum dummy round or snap cap, I loaded the rifle’s chamber with an empty 7mm case instead and told him to really watch the cross hairs and tell me exactly where they were when the gun went bang.

At the sound of the ferocious “click” any bystander could see the front of the barrel perceptibly move, which, when shot at 100 yards would move the impact of a bullet considerably. He now knew the true source of the gun’s problem. After that it was just a matter of continuing the drill, him never knowing if he was about to shoot a live round or a dummy, until he achieved a good followthrough and, not surprisingly, a small group downrange.

Using dummy rounds or empty cases is a good and cheap way to determine if one is pulling the trigger properly and following through. If the shooter sees the sights still aligned and somewhere on the target, or the crosshairs of the scope still within its previous wobble area after he hears the “click” then he knows that he has achieved proper trigger control. If, after doing the dummy drills interspersed with occasional live rounds one finds that the shooter is still flinching it is time to go back to an air rifle or .22 and try to unlearn that bad, ingrained habit.

It helps to use double ear protection – securely inserted foam ear plugs along with ear muffs to lessen the sounds impact on our startle reflex. The flincher needs to overcome the desire to jerk the trigger or else s/he will forever be frustrated with the shooting results. If you can’t do it with a low recoiling .22, how will you ever do it with a much larger caliber rifle?

So, if you are having problems zeroing in that hunting rifle and you don’t know if the problem is you or the gun, then either do a ball and dummy drill to verify your fundamentals or else ask a good shooter to give it a go. The $$$ and frustration you save will be your own. Good shooting and happy hunting.

A competant rifleman with a decent rifle should be capable of establishing a fairly good zero after firing only one or two rounds and does not need a bench rest. Here’s how.

Zeroing any firearm is a simple process that seems to evade far too many gun owners. The idea is to bring the line of sight (as viewed through the sighting system) in coincidence with the line of bore as to make best use of the trajectory.

It is simple, that is, assuming you possess the following things:

• Enough marksmanship skill to accurately fire and call a good shot.
• Understanding of how the rifle and sights in question work.
• Enough math skill to use angular deviation (minutes, mils) and make accurate adjustments.
• Enough ballistics knowledge to understand the trajectory of the ammunition used and what constitutes a good zero given the firearm/ammo combo and its intended use.
• Enough marksmanship skill to accurately fire and call a good shot (so important I listed it twice!)

Sadly, most gun owners, even those military trained, have none of the above.

I’ll give you an example of how this is supposed to work.

The rifle was an unfired M1A. The owner brought it out to our KD (Known Distance) range with a box of M80 ball ammunition. He wanted to shoot it, but was concerned he wouldn’t be able to even hit the six foot target frame, much less the E-Type silhouette on the board, as we were shooting on the 500 yard line.

I mechanically centered the sights for windage and bottomed them out for elevation. I then came up ten minutes (M14/M1A rear sights are normally 8-12 minutes up for 200 yards) and added 11 more minutes (3+4+4) as a come-up to go from 200 to 500 yards. There was a gentle breeze quartering from my left rear at around five miles per hour so I hedged my bet with two minutes left.

After adjusting the web sling to give a tight loop, double checking my natural point of aim and dry firing two good “shots” I fired my first live round. Much to my own amazement, being unused to M1A’s, the shot broke clean and I was forced to call the shot as good. The target came back up out of the pit with a five-inch disk online with the waist and out in the white by about one disk diameter.

I put three minutes left and two minutes up on the sight, rechecked my NPA and the wind, and fired another shot. The target came back up disked in the chest just to the left of the sternum. I handed the rifle back to its owner and he was able to put his first shot on the silhouette. One click on the sights and they we all in the chest.

This doesn’t take the box(es) of ammo gun owners and hunters seem to expend during sight-in day and it only takes a few minutes. If the shooter isn’t ready to fire a group for confirmation after a few shots something is broken, be it equipment or skill.

Why do militaries around the world issue assault rifles?

Why the switch from .30 caliber-range cartridges to the .22 caliber range? The media, including the pro-gun media, has done a good job brainwashing the average public about “assault weapons” and such garbage.

The concept was developed in WWII by the Germans, who pioneered many new weapon designs to support their “Blitzkreig” offensive tactics. Instead of holing up in some muddy trench, the Germans were mobile, and effectively integrated artillery, armor and infantry.

To make the troops more nimble, the relatively new small arms designs from WWI were made lighter and faster to use. Medium machine guns were used to defend trenches and were water-cooled to fulfill a SF (sustained fire) role. German designers improved on the concept by utilizing a quick change barrel (e.g., MG34 and MG42) to eliminate the overly heavy water jacket and condenser can.

Several designers noted that troops couldn’t make use of full-powered, bolt-action rifles and submachine guns with pistol ammo weren’t effective at long range, so it was decided to mutate a rifle with a subgun. The result was the Sturmgewehr, or “storm gun.” It fired an intermediate cartridge and bridged the gap between true rifles and submachine guns. This was the first assault rifle.

So, why does the military prefer assault rilfes? People make a big deal about “high powered, military designed, killing machines”, but don’t understand what the military needs in small arms.

Infantry engagements are usually in poor visibility with an undefined enemy force. Troops fire in the vicinity of a poorly defined “objective”, located “over there.” For instance, the immediate action drill for a sniper is to drop, yell the rough direction, (”SNIPER, 3 O’CLOCK!”) and either close in or fall back.

An individual trooper probably won’t be able to find a clear target to engage so he engages with “suppressive fire.” That is, shooting about one round every two seconds at the “objective”, which is a target may not be visible. The idea is to (hopefully) pin down the enemy while another element maneuvers. Then the roles are switched and another element shoots. This fire storm is basically a ruse, but it is effective. You might not have a target but you lay down lead and hope your enemy doesn’t realize this!

Also, add in the fact that your typical troop is a lousy shot. Sorry to have to say this, but military trained personnel rarely receive enough quality instruction and training time to match the skill level of competitive shooters. Add this lackluster skill set to the speed, stress, and unstable shooting conditions of combat and dependable hits to individual targets become iffy beyond hand grenade range so we compensate by shooting more.

That is why you read reports such as 20,000 rounds fired per enemy killed. But this “fire storm” works. Military small arms are designed to be bullet hoses even though the equipment is capable of shooting with reasonable precision. That’s why military rifles and carbines are chambered in intermediate cartridges. The trooper can carry more! Basic load for an infantryman is 7 30-round magazines, or 210 rounds and most carry more.

This tactic only works in large groups. Typically, infantry attacks on the company level (over 100 men) and has lots of support. They need it to provide all that ammo they are going to spray!

Assault rifles can shoot fast. But shooting fast isn’t lethal. Hitting fast is lethal.

For the individual, who has to provide his own ammo, the goal is one shot, one hit. With a rifle past 25 yards fast HITS are more dependant on quality of sights, trigger and shooter SKILL.

A skilled rifleman with a lever action .30-30 will beat an unskilled shooter with an “assault rifle” every time. The assault rifle can lay down alot of lead, but you that doesn’t matter if you want fast HITS.

Skill wins. Your rifle will do if you will.

Most hunters rarely hit their animal perfectly and kill it instantly on the first shot. You need to Follow Up!

While we all should strive for first-shot kills, this is the real world with wind, brush, moving animals and excited/tired hunters. A second shot needs to be instantly available, and an an accurate one if fired.

Preparing for a follow-up shot, even if it isn’t needed, is just good gun handling. No matter how you called that shot, you should immediately snick the action and stay on target. If the animal stays down, fine. If not, you’re prepared.

This prevents that incredibly annoying habit of “shoot and gawk” where the shooter, after touching off a shot, takes the butt out of their shoulder, leaving the empty case chambered, and looks downrange to figure out what just happened. Watch nearly any hunting show for a demonstration of this novice mistake.

In practice, a hunting firearm should normally be fired in both singles and controlled pairs, with the exception of group shooting and zeroing. By firing pairs, on the clock, the hunter-shooter will eventually master their chosen action. Even when firing singles, you should develop the habit of bolting/levering/pumping before the butt leaves your shoulder and the chamber should be loaded before the empty hits the ground.

This is so important that it is incorporated into the HunterShooter rules, with Procedurals assessed for those that forget.