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Re: How did use get so good?
First off, good, ok, excellent are relative terms concerning ability and guns ability and purpose.
Here is what I was taught and what I taught my son and my daugther.
At about 6 years old take a 22 rifle with iron sights or pellet gun. Get a rest/ saw horse / chair because the gun will be too heavy. Shoot at about 20 feet. First shot is to create a target. All subsequent shots are to hit the first bullet hole. This teaches concentration on a small target. Shooting should occur weekly this reinforces mechanics. No safety infraction is ever allowed to go without discussion.
For hunting, all rabbits, squirrels are to be shot in the head by aiming at the eyes.
Shooting should be a "fun" session with the "adults". Go over to the "new hunter" thread and see all of the little gongs and dangles that 4ed Horn has built. He mentions in passing about the need for challenge (without getting the child frustrated). Be very careful about making hunting or shooting a torture session. See Shawn Carlock's bearhunt, children have short attention spans and are very intelligent about what they find to be fun.
For me after all these years, to resharpen skills, I mostly rely on small caliber guns and I don't really care which. Shooting doves with a 20ga will really sharpen swing mechanics with any type of gun. Shooting a 17 rem bolt gun will get you used to a lot of racket and when you short stroke that Rem 700 action you will know if you have a flinch problem. 22 rifles are good for shooting beer cans rock and just about anyting and once again trigger control, follow through etc becomes obvious because of the low recoil.
My main point is that low recoil guns help you identify bad shooting habits and reinforce good ones.
You must shoot your primary gun in real life hunting type situations so your are comfortable with the stock weld, sight picture, etc. You msut practice getting quickly into a stable shooting psoition - prone, sitting, kneeling, standing. When it is time to make the big shot you must know by rote habit what is stable for you and what is not. There is no way I will ever make a 400/500 yard shot offhand. I just know my ability from years of missing and it is beyond me. I still like to use low recoil light bullets for practice with teh hunting gun and not beat myself into bad habits with heavy recoiling hunting bullets. Of course you have to shoot some practice with them in the field at things that are alive and at different distances, light and wind.
I do not have much patience and concentration for paper shooting and am always amazed at the people who can focus and concentrate while at the bench, mostly I just want to test my bullets and go home.
When I was where I could do a significant amount of long range shooting (or medium range shooting) I would create certain "rules" which prohibited "easy" shots such as no wood chucks under 200 yds, No jackrabbits that were sitting still and / or under 100yds. If a jack rabbit stopped at too close of a range the "rules" mandated shooting him in one ear to get him going agian. These games and rules varied with gun and animal but they tended to create a challenge so I would miss enough to strive harder.
All of this said I am not a great shot, I have seen great shoots and shooters. With most of my hunting guns when I am shooting regularly I can shoot somewhere around 0.7 -0.5MOA but I warn you that you do not want to be anywhere close to me in a dove field unless you want to spend your afternoon dodging falling birds. After all of these years, the act of killing something has gone way down on my list of priorities and just enjoying a peaceful day in the woods has gone way up to the top. There are so many foxes where I hunt and I have gotten to know them and most of their children and to shoot one at 30-50 yards would be just a sad and pointless thing.
One road through the maze we call life.
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The Smokin Fur Rifle Club
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