How good of a shot are you at 100 yards?

[OlderThanMe]

A while back I went to a high power rifle shoot with my uncle and here is one of my targets at 100 yards. This is with an Ar-15 that weighs 13 pounds (pretty light) and had good sights. This was in the prone position.

This was my first time shooting any gun more powerful than a .22 caliber pop gun. I have shot a 12 guage but I'm not very good with skeet shooting.

I know the Doc is pretty good but I want to see targets!

 

oh btw..here is a picture of me and my ghillie suit for when I play paintball...this is in my back yard.

 

It's pretty fun to have someone walk within 10 feet of you and not see you. It's even better when they look stright at your eyes and stare for a few seconds and then keep going.

They never saw the paint rounds come in.

[auxilary]

i am going to take a bunch of old dead ibm hard drives tot he range with me next time, and i'll get pics

[jt1]

For a first timer, with iron sights, that is a really good target. The main thing is you're getting to the range, shooting, and having a good time. The three shots dropped low and to the right sorta indicate you need to work on your triggger squeeze, it appears you might have jerked those a little.

 

To give you a idea of what's possible, with a well tuned AR-15, good ammo, a 10 or so scope, shooting off bags, and no wind, you can drill that quarter 10 times in a row.

 

The best way to improve your trigger squeeze is to have a buddy load your mag with a mixture of live and dummy rounds, so you don't know if you have a live round chambered or not. Then shoot normally, when you get a dummy round you can tell if you jerk the trigger or not, without the noise and recoil to affect your perception. When the gun snaps on a dummy round, and you don't flinch or jerk, you're getting there.

 

Good shooting.

 

John

[JMortensen]

For a first timer, with iron sights, that is a really good target.

I agree, I think the iron sights is a SEVERE limiting factor in this case. I bet that just by adding a scope and doing nothing else that group gets 2x smaller, maybe more. Then you can start working on trigger squeeze and all that. That dummy round idea is a great one, that will really show you when you're flinching. It takes some self control to stop flinching, but it shouldn't be too hard when you're only shooting .223.

 

My dad was on the Army rifle and pistol team. His tips for trigger squeeze are:

1. Take a deep breath. Let 1/2 of it out and hold. Then squeeze steadily.

2. Squeeze with your whole hand, not just your trigger finger.

3. If you do it right, you shouldn't know when the gun is going to go off. It should surprise you every time.

[cygnusx1]

First time shooting a few years ago I shot a 30-06 scoped rifle 20 rounds in a 3" circle at 100yds. Using a sandbag and a dialed in scope. Sore shoulder too. Ouch!

[dr_hunt]

Well, it'll have to wait until I get home to take a picture and post it. But 5 shots in one bullet hole should suffice. It was done with my custom Sako 6.5 x 06 using 50 grains of Rx 22 powder, Rem 9-1/2 primer, win case, sierra 100 grain HP. The gun weighs 17lb, has custom laminated walnut stock, Douglas 26 inch barrel, Canjar single set trigger and is topped with an aged Leupold 16x scope that was used to sight in tanks by the military.

 

I've also got a 5 shot at 500 meters with the same gun and different load, that measures under 3.5 inches. I've shot several groups that are under 10 inches at 1000 yards with that gun and one group of 5 inches with the 6.5x300 weatherby mag built on a Rem 700 action with a 30 inch Hart SS barrel.

 

You can't beat the ballistic coefficient of the 6.5mm projectile until you get into the .338 and plus calibers, but then you can't sling a .338 bullet at the 3500fps velocity that the 6.5x300 can.

[Poundz9oh9]

My dad was on the Army rifle and pistol team. His tips for trigger squeeze are:

1. Take a deep breath. Let 1/2 of it out and hold. Then squeeze steadily.

2. Squeeze with your whole hand, not just your trigger finger.

3. If you do it right, you shouldn't know when the gun is going to go off. It should surprise you every time.

 

Good tips,

One of the things we teach our trainees as far as breathing techniques go is to use the "bottom" or "top" of your breath where there is a natural pause as opposed to holding your breath.

[dr_hunt]

Well, there is alot more to it than that, but you want to be comfortable, you want to hold the weapon the same way each time, body in same position each time. Have both feet planted firmly on the ground unless shooting kneeling or prone. Different guns like to be held differently, some like you to squeeze them to death, some like a firm hold, some don't want you to touch them at all. It just depends. Breathing should be slow and steady, indicating that your body is at rest for best results. The idea behind holding your breath is to minimize movement and pressure on the back of the rifle. If your shooting offhand you will find that a heavier rifle will be less affected by muscle contractions, breathing, etc. That's why mine all weigh 15lb or more. Recoil is a big issue for accuracy, can't have any IMO if you really want to be good on a consistent basis. If your shooting offhand you may find it alot easier to let the sights move onto the target rather than trying to hold it on the target. This allows your muscles to move, eliminating jerkiness. Try holding just above the target and allowing the sights to come down to the center and touch it off as they are at the bulls eye.

 

Pistol I always hold on the top of the breath, good trigger is paramount to good accuracy in either pistol or rifle. IMO any trigger pull in excess of 2 ounces will not yield you any accuracy especially at distance. I have jewell, canjar triggers on my rifles and on all my pistols, they are custom done very light.

[OlderThanMe]

Thanks guys! I had just learned the proper way to shoot prone the night before I went to that shoot.

That target is a 300 yard reduction for a 100 yard range FYI.

 

I have a little 3x-9x bushnell scope on my paintball gun under all that shag.

That gun shoot was mostly AR-15s and M1 garands. There was one WW2 Japanese rifle and a few cool Russian ones.

I had an M1 Garand clip come flying and bounce off my head right as I was about to fire on one of those. I think it is the one at the very bottom of the pic. lol

I hope to go again soon. I got the best first timer award and won $5. I think there were 5 or 6 first timers and 30-40 experienced guys. I just had a lot of fun that day even though it was freezing cold.

[Datsun350Z]

Nice... not bad for a first time.

 

My Ar-15 is broken... it decides itself whether it wants to shoot off 1 round, 3, 7, or empty the full clip. Fun, but then I realized how dangerous it actually is and stopped shooting it until I get it fixed.

[dr_hunt]

Nice... not bad for a first time.

 

My Ar-15 is broken... it decides itself whether it wants to shoot off 1 round, 3, 7, or empty the full clip. Fun, but then I realized how dangerous it actually is and stopped shooting it until I get it fixed.

 

That's not broke, it's called full auto!

[kuntry]

Well, it'll have to wait until I get home to take a picture and post it. But 5 shots in one bullet hole should suffice. It was done with my custom Sako 6.5 x 06 using 50 grains of Rx 22 powder, Rem 9-1/2 primer, win case, sierra 100 grain HP. The gun weighs 17lb, has custom laminated walnut stock, Douglas 26 inch barrel, Canjar single set trigger and is topped with an aged Leupold 16x scope that was used to sight in tanks by the military.

 

I've also got a 5 shot at 500 meters with the same gun and different load, that measures under 3.5 inches. I've shot several groups that are under 10 inches at 1000 yards with that gun and one group of 5 inches with the 6.5x300 weatherby mag built on a Rem 700 action with a 30 inch Hart SS barrel.

 

You can't beat the ballistic coefficient of the 6.5mm projectile until you get into the .338 and plus calibers, but then you can't sling a .338 bullet at the 3500fps velocity that the 6.5x300 can.

 

 

 

 

 

makes mental note not to pi$$ off the Doc

[auxilary]

 

my arsenal:

 

turkish mauser

mosin nagant m44

russian sks

[Corzette]

Prone is my favorite at 500 meters. Can put 10 out of 10 in the black everytime. We qualed at 200, 300 and 500 for basic rifle qual. My weakness is the off hand at 200 meters.

 

Terry

[dr_hunt]

Oh, that's another guy you don't want to piss off either.

[OlderThanMe]

If we are playing paintball...I can usually put one on your chest from a good 120 feet and it will burst...generally I use a 2 shot burst in case the first round hits a branch or is off-round and pulls to one side.

My sniper rig is a Tippmann 98 basic with a super long 20" barrel and a bushnell 3x-9x scope. I also use a little red dot HUD scope. I made the ghillie myself.

Also included in my arsenal are some weapons for psychological warfare...

 

Sonic Grenade (130db siren in a special military fire resistant grenade holder)

 

High gain listening device so that I can listen in on the opponets conversations and then radio back to my team their plans.

 

I am working on a camera system for my little electronic spyder so that I can poke it around a corner and look at a 1" camera style monitor mounted on my visor.

[Cruez]

For a first timer, with iron sights, that is a really good target. The main thing is you're getting to the range, shooting, and having a good time. The three shots dropped low and to the right sorta indicate you need to work on your triggger squeeze, it appears you might have jerked those a little.

 

That looks like you're right..

 

I did that when I first started shooting with anything with any real power to it.

 

They taught us to use the pad of our finger and to "press" instead of "pulling" the trigger under the finger joint..

 

It helped a lot.

[OlderThanMe]

For a first timer, with iron sights, that is a really good target. The main thing is you're getting to the range, shooting, and having a good time. The three shots dropped low and to the right sorta indicate you need to work on your triggger squeeze, it appears you might have jerked those a little.

 

Thanks John. I guess it is a bad habit that carried over from paintball which I have played much longer than I have been shooting the real stuff.

[jt1]

You're ahead of 80 or 90% of people aready. Just try to develop good habits from the beginning, and you want have to break a bad habit later.

 

The basics are:

 

Sight alignment, know what your sight picture should look like and acquiring it;

Holding the weapon steadily and consistently, to maintain sight alignment;

Trigger squeeze, firing the weapon without disturbing the sight picture;

Follow thru, managing the weapons recoil without affecting the bullets impact.

 

Shooting is a fascinating sport. Learn and enjoy. Always practice good firearm safety; treat every gun as if it's loaded, and always keep it pointed in a safe direction. Use hearing protection. As a younger man, I thought everybody who wore HP was a complete puss. As a middle aged guy, I have a 40% hearing loss in my left ear.

 

Nice ghille BTW.

 

John

[OlderThanMe]

Here is a picture from that shoot. I'm even wearing the funky safety glasses. If I had thought about it I would have brought my good safety glasses. I also got loaned the shooting jacket so that was cool. I was wearing ear plugs under the muffs...