Re: need advice on teaching son to shoot

Posted by MarkB_MI on July 16, 2012 at 02:39:01 from (66.87.0.8):

In Reply to: need advice on teaching son to shoot posted by Justin SE IOWA on July 15, 2012 at 19:45:14:

I'll second the recommendation to get rid of the scope for shooting offhand and prone. Peep sights are best for teaching marksmanship.

The thing to remember is that if you're not shooting off the bench, the sight picture is always changing; the tendency is for the front sight to make a circle around the target. This isn't so noticeable to an adult, but it's very frustrating to a young shooter, and the harder the shooter tries to get the sights to line up with the target, the worse the movement. So, in no particular order:

1. The rifle should be supported by the shooter's skeleton, not their muscles. In a proper position, the shooter should be able to relax and have a good sight picture: if they have to "force" the rifle to point at the target, the sight picture will never settle down. (This isn't possible with a normal offhand hold, which is why competitive shooters set their left elbow against their chest and hold the rifle by the magazine rather than forearm. So the prone position is the best position for learning marksmanship.)

2. With iron sights, it's not possible to focus on both the target and sights. The shooter has to focus on the sights, get them lined up and then shift focus to the target, line up on the target, then back to the sights, constantly switching focus until the trigger is pulled. This takes some practice, so start by focusing on good sight alignment, rather than the target.

3. Since the sight picture is always changing, the shooter should squeeze the trigger as the sight picture improves and slightly relax as it gets worse. The shooter should be surprised when the rifle goes off. In time, this becomes so reflexive that it can happen very quickly without the shooter thinking about it.

Another thing to be aware of is that many (if not all) factory rifles have a terrible trigger pull. This can usually be improved by lubricating the trigger sear. If you can adjust the trigger pull, keep it above three pounds, and too little pull is as bad as too much. Also, dry-fire practice is good, as it can reveal if the shooter is jerking the trigger, but some rimfire rifles can be damaged by dry-firing; check your manual to see if it's safe for your rifle.

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