Shooter Tips Reno HS Rifle Team

Fundamentals Breathing Breathing should follow a pattern Take two normal breaths, hold your breath, then fire the shot Hold breath between 4-6 seconds If you don’t get the shot fired – go back to your regular breathing cycle and start over

Your Eyes Find your dominant eye Shoot with both eyes open The distance between your eye and the rear site is called “eye relief” That distance should be around two inches Focus – when you shoot, you should focus on the front sight

Head Position Keep your head “square to the sight” Your best and most relaxed vision is out of the center of your eye If you wear glasses the best vision is through the center of the corrective lens The most important thing is to get a repeatable sight picture, looking through the sight in the same way every time Move the rifle to your head, not vice versa

Before You Shoot Eat a good lunch with some protein Avoid caffeine, sugar, and carbonated beverages Eat fruit – apples/bananas are good Wear a close fitting thick sweater if possible Wear shoes with thin soles, ankle support, and flat bottoms Unload your pockets Set up quickly and find your “happy place”

Aiming To aim well, you need to watch two things: Sight Alignment Get the front and back sights lined up. To do it right, get the circle in the front sight exactly in the center of the rear sight circle. Sight Picture Once you get the sights aligned, take up a good sight picture. This means getting the bull’s-eye centered inside the front sight – all the time keeping your sights aligned

Running the Target Which bull’s eye do you shoot first? Make sure you use the same pattern EVERY time on EVERY target This firing order calls for the smallest number of adjustments

Balance/Natural Point of Aim Goal = reduce muscle tension = relaxed, “ragged doll” position To do it, aim and close your eyes. Relax. Let the rifle fall left or right where it wants to. You get your balance when the rifle sits steady. Open your eyes, look through your sights, and see what you are aiming at. If it isn’t a bulls eye – adjust, your position until you’re seeing the bull you want

Basic Adjustments Prone To move higher – flatten your abdomen down against the mat slightly To move lower, inchworm your abdomen up off the ground a little To move right, cock your right knee a little more To move left, straighten your right leg a little

Basic Adjustments Kneeling To move left and right, pivot around the heel of the foot you’re sitting on or your spine Move your whole position --- both your front foot and leg the knee is that’s down Some shooters can adjust the front foot very slightly to the left or right and get good results To move up and down, adjust the stock in your shoulder, up a little to move down a little to move your natural point of aim up Do not adjust your front elbow back and forth on your knee

Basic Adjustment Standing Left and right, just step to the left or right the required distance (this works well when moving between columns) Up and down, stop breathing with a different amount of air in your lungs --- more air for higher, less air for lower Up & Down Legs apart moves down Legs together moves up

Follow-Through This is important for every shot As you pull the trigger and the shot breaks, “hold” the rifle on target for a least one full second while your mentally calling the shot Go ahead and rebuild your position if it doesn’t feel right ---there’s no sense fighting a bad position for a whole target

Prone Position Once your zeroed in – don’t move If you must move your “loading” elbow, be sure to get back to the exact spot every time Your shoulders should be fairly level; adjust your elbows to achieve level shoulders Breathing is the key vertical adjustment in prone (breath naturally)

Prone Position Breath in and the sights go down; breath out and the sights go up; now breath in until the sights are dead on the ten then hold and break the shot Shoot rhythmically in the prone – once you are zeroed in, roll’em Key – eliminate movement and position change between shots. Elbow and eye should be in the same place for every shot. No wiggling around!

Standing Position Put your leading upper arm against the side of your rib cage (leading elbow is not on the hip) Shoot off a fist first – your forearm ought to be fairly vertical If your natural point of aim is low, use the finger technique to raise it Your weight should be evenly distributed between your feet

Standing Position The rifle should be as parallel as possible to your shoulders Remember the front upper arm is against your side ribs Your head should be erect – bring the gun to your head, not the other way around Don’t move at all from your hips down To eliminate sway, bend your knees forward about one degree

Standing Position Important checks while firing Make sure your back foot is fairly parallel to the line of fire Check to see if your feet are line up perpendicular to the line of fire Get your lead elbow against the side of your ribs Make sure feet are approx shoulder width apart Follow through

Kneeling Position Punch a depression in your kneeling roll before you get down on it Position your feet so you can squat and pivot into position with your front leg straight up and down Your back foot (which you are sitting on) should be straight up and down, toe pointing back (not curled under), centered on the kneeling roll, and heel should be in the center of the buttocks area. Sit on the top edge of your heel

Kneeling Position Your front elbow should be well forward over the knee – about an inch or an inch and a half (forward slump position) There should be about one hand width between the stock and the crook of the elbow on your knee Before each shot relax

Philosophy You must keep a shooting diary Jog or run at least three miles a week to keep your mind clear Forget bad shots (never sweat the last shot) Shot at each bull individually – keep positive Think 10’s – every shot!

Qualification How to fill the air tank? Try-outs on Monday, 12 Nov (1000-UTC) Positions (1 x each) Standing and Kneeling, you will get to shoot at least once. Twice if time allows. We will combine the scores for a total. The final team will be announced 13 Nov. Sign up now How to fill the air tank?