Riflery: a lost art - Ranging Shots

Guns Magazine, Sept, 2003 by Clint Smith

At the beginning of each new rifle class here at the ranch, the staff and myself are awed at the amount of "stuff' people can hang on a rifle. Every imaginable light, sight, lighted-sight, laser-scoped-fiber-optic thing ever produced is mounted on top of what was supposed to be a lightweight rifle.

When queried, excuses range from "I have to use this," to "my eyes are bad," to "the sun, the moon, my wife my life:' etc. Rather than being negative and going on about this, let's try this approach: mount anything you want on the rifle but please have a set of zeroed iron sights.

All the high-tech stuff mounted up and on the rifles seems to point to a universal lack of understanding of what is truly essential -- the fundamentals of rifle marksmanship. What are these fundamentals you ask?

Aim or aiming of the sights is broken into two sections. First, sight alignment is the relationship of the front sight to the rear sight so that they are properly aligned with each other. For example, in an aperture type sight the front post is centered in the rear aperture.

The second section is sight picture, or the placement of the aligned sights onto or superimposed over the target itself. One should take into consideration range to the target, and because of the close ranges of many rifle fights, the mechanical offset of the sight. The height of the sight over the axis of the bore means the projectile may strike lower than the point of aim at close distances -- a very important point in hostage or precision placement scenarios.

Hold or holding is the second element of rifle marksmanship. This relates both to holding the sights of the rifle on the target (maintaining sight picture) and hold or holding of the rifle in the context of physical contact of the body to the rifle. The shot that is fired is only as good as the platform it comes from.

Squeeze or squeezing of the trigger is the third element of rifle marksmanship. Simply put this is compressing the trigger until the hammer falls without disrupting the sights on the target. As I grow older I'm convinced the squeeze of the trigger is more important than it is often given credit for. Many of the high-tech modem weapons have crappy triggers and many shooters are often in the hose 'em mode anyway. The concept seems to be fill the sky with lead and sooner or later we'll hit 'em.

To some degree that's possible, I mean even a blind hog will find a strawberry once in awhile. But here are some thoughts on the subject from the 1935 United States Marine Corps Pistol and Rifle Marksmanship booklet (page 23): "The secret of good shooting depends largely upon the good trigger squeeze. One of the principle differences between fair, good, and excellent rifle shots lies in their mastery of the trigger squeeze."

Okay, so that's one vote for good trigger control, but how about page 69 of the 1941 copy of Rifle Marksmanship: "The object is to let the shot off while the sights are in alignment with the target without disturbing such alignment by the pressure of the finger in squeezing the trigger."

The above are the documented elements of rifle marksmanship. They hold as true today as they did 100 years ago. There's one other little point worth mentioning. In reading Captain Edward C. Grossman's Small Bore Rifle Shooting (page 297), he mentions: "When you indulge in snapping practice or shoot with regular ammunition, make yourself hold for a full second after the hammer falls." The italics by the way were his.

I wonder if the good Captain has a point here? Could follow though be an issue of importance to rifle marksmanship? Are we sometimes so busy hosing the other guy with volley fire that we fail to realize if we would only look at the sight, hold on the target and follow though with the sight picture upon hammer fall we could get a hit? Don't hits help us win?

No matter how good the sights are or how good the hold is, if you yank or jerk on the trigger -- no matter what kind of whiz-bang optical/electronic sights you have on your rifle -- you'll probably miss. And on top of that if you don't follow though with the firing position -- sights and hold of the rifle as it fires -- you'll miss.

So do you really want to learn to shoot a rifle well? Good. Then go get yourself a single-shot muzzle loading flint or percussion rifle. With only one shot you'll learn to watch the sights, press the trigger and follow though with that baby or trust me, you'll hit zip! By the way the flintlock is the real test. No kidding, if you want to shoot your black AR, AK thing better -- practice with a black powder round ball gun. You might be surprised at what you learn.