proper shooting form

Naymola

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Feb 11, 2005
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119
Hey guy's.Been shooting varmint rifles in .22 caliber with varmint weight barrels and am very inconsistent with shooting off the bench with work up loads.Using a snap cap for practice, I can see sometimes my poi does'nt move,but most of the time it will shift left.Is it best to keep firm shoulder,check contact on stock, rather than as little as possible?Dry firing does'nt seem to make much difference with either method.I use a Bull bag on the front end and rabbit ears for the rear bag.Pulling the trigger other than straight back might be the problem?Probably need to practice more dry firing?
Thanks for your time,Gary
 
From most any position, if the sights jump to the left when dry firing, the trigger finger is too far to the left when it's pulling the trigger. After the sear's released, some of that force moves the rifle to the left during trigger travel during backlash when it comes to a stop before the bullet leaves the barrel.

If you're right handed, try putting only the first finger pad (beneath your fingernail) on the trigger, then do some more dry firing. Note carefully where the sights jump when the firing pin falls. If it jumps to the right, you don't have enough finger on the trigger; to the left means still too much finger on the trigger. Southpaws have the reverse situation.

After you're able to snap an empty chamber without sideways jump, have someone help you go through a "ball and dummy" session. That's an old military term where someone loads your rifle then you shoot it. You don't know if it'll go "bang" with real ammo or "click" with a dummy round. This helps one learn that they do in fact flynch if they jump when it clicks. Once you're able to hold still through the "clicks," then you should be able to shoot well with live ammo.

If you're convinced you don't flynch with live ammo, then it's your finger position on the trigger that causes the sideways jump.

Oft times, folks subconciously flick their trigger finger forward when they feel the sear release. This will move the whole rifle away from where the shot was aimed. You gotta keep the trigger finger pulling back until you stop moving from recoil. It helps to hold the pistol grip firmly when trigger pull weight gets over 2 pounds. Have someone watch you and let you know if you're flickng your finger forward when the rifle shoots. Then learn to hold it back until you stop moving from recoil.
 
I can vouch for the bang or click trick Bart was telling you about. I was getting my girlfriend into hunting/shooting, and she shot a rifle that had too much recoil for her likes and started flinching and jerking on the trigger. I started putting dummy rounds in so she could see how ridiculous her reaction was when there wasn't a live round in the chamber. The groups came right back to where they need to be, and we havn't had any problems since. I snuck in a dummy round again later, the gun went click with no unnecessary movement except her eye brows when she glanced or sneered my way.
 
Flinching and finger flicking are more common than most folks realize. Here's what I did years ago coaching a military rifle team member who didn't believe his finger was flicking a bit when he fired a round. At 600 yards from prone, he was scattering shots into the 24-inch 8-ring and sometimes way out into the 36-inch 7-ring.

So I had him get into position, but put all four fingers around the 7.62mm NATO Garand's pistol grip. I layed down beside him and put my thumb behind the trigger guard and fore finger on the trigger. After he hyperventalated and held his breath with a good hold, I'd pinch the shot off and not move my hand until he stopped moving from recoil. With him holding and me pinching off the 4.5-pound trigger, he put 10 consecutive shots inside the 12-inch 10-ring. He didn't believe his finger flicking was causing the problems it did, but was pleased he could hold well enough to shoot tens and Xes. He finally learned to hold the trigger back until his movememt from recoil stopped and became one of our teams best scoring members.
 
Yep... what Bart said. Straight from... well... every position rifle manual ever published /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Well said.I am man enought to say I don't care for recoil and flinching may be playing into my groups at times.
My POI is moving when I know there is nothing in the chamber but a A-Zoom snap cap and still no consistent dry firings.I will practice on trigger control as you suggest Bart,that makes good sense to me.Thanks for the help guys!
 
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