1. Shooting from the prone
Sergeant First Class
Mark Mebes

2. Shooting from the Prone
The Prone Position is the most stable firing position.
Most people are the most accurate firing from the prone.

3. Shooting prone Getting into the prone position without a gun
Lay on your stomach
Draw up your right knee
Body should rest on your left side
Rest on your elbows, left elbow forward

4. Shooting Prone Using a shooting sling
Shooting with a sling improves your stability and accuracy
Remove sling from rifle
Put left arm through sling loop and tighten
Reattach sling to rifle
Put shooting glove on left hand
Get into prone position
Place hand through sling so that it rests on the back of your hand
Tighten sling until the weight of the rifle is resting on the sling, not your muscles

5. Shooting Prone Firing Hand Firing hand placed on the gun’s pistol grip
Thumb rests on top of rifle without gripping
Ring and middle finger “pull” rifle back into shoulder
Pinkie finger lies “dead”
Trigger finger is placed on trigger AFTER the safety is released
Use the last pad on your finger to fire
“Squeeze”, don’t “pull” the trigger
Gun should “surprise” you when it goes off
Squeeze directly to the rear

6. Shooting Prone Breathing
Breathing while you are shooting will cause you to hit in a different place every time, destroying your accuracy.
However, holding your breath too long will cause you to shake, also destroying your accuracy.
To shoot accurately, you must learn to control your breathing, and squeeze the trigger ONLY when your breath is controlled.

7. Shooting Prone Breathing Cont…
Before your shot, relax and breath normally until you are ready to shoot
Get into position, find your natural point of aim
Take a deep breath, let it out
Stop breathing
You can hold this position for 5-7 seconds before it starts to affect you physically (shaking, blurred vision etc..)
Squeeze trigger
If you cannot fire within 5-7 seconds, let your breath out, relax, and go through the steps again.

8. Shooting Prone Sight Picture
1. The human eye is an amazing piece of equipment. Trained properly, it will put a shot right into the center of the bulls-eye every time.
Your eye automatically centers things.
2. Competition air rifles are equipped with rear and front sight apertures. This device “forces” your eye to center the sight on the bulls-eye
3. Do not try to hit the target, try to hit the center of the center of the target

9. Shooting Prone
By putting together all of the following fundamentals you will find your self shooting more accurately than you ever thought you could.
Proper equipment use
Body position
Sight alignment
Breath control
Trigger squeeze

10. Questions?