School me on good shooting technique

N

Noltz

CGN Regular
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Haldimand County
While I'm not brand new to shooting, I've only been using 'real' firearms for the past 6 months. I purchased a Rem 597 first, a 22 as recommended, to get the feel for it and practice safe handling, before moving on to a Tikka T3 in .223. Here's where it get's interesting.

I'm shooting from a bench & on blocks, starting at 50 yards. The .22, with it's cheap 3-9x40 Tasco optic, puts the holes in the 2" circle, but I just can't seem to tighten it up rom there. I used to be able to put a .22 pellet onto a 3/8 rope at about 60 yards with the same cheap scopes on break-action air rifles. (Practice was to cut the rope that held the reactive targets). I've read bulk .22 isn't the most accurate, but is 2" at 50 yards normal?

I move onto the T3, with its VX-1 3-9x40 Leupold, and try to steady myself. I'm shooting off blocks, and I still can't seem to tighten up the group any more than that 2" circle. I'm using American Eagle Tactical and MFS from CanAm. Both give about the same results, so I think it's me.

TL;DR - Can anyone recommend some recommendations, books or videos to watch to help me tighten up my game? I'd love to be doing 2" at 200 yards, but I'm struggling with even 50, regardless of the gun or ammo.
 
You might try reading here. There is a lot of good stuff about the fundamentals of shooting. Start at the beginning, and read it all. Practice what you learn, and I suspect you will find yourself shooting better. Someone wrote this blurb about it:

I cannot really do it justice in a short space, but let me just say that it is some really good reading. The fellow who writes it is very serious about becoming a better rifleman, and it shows. His focus is on techniques and practice, as opposed to equipment. We in the West have this bad thing going on where we must be the absolute best at anything, and so in our drive for this, we get all the gear. We buy into the advertising and the hype: “If you buy these air Jordans, you will play ball as good as (or better than) Michael Jordan himself!” Of course this is absolute poppycock. One of the main reasons Michael Jordan became a great ball player is that he practiced. A lot. Same for every other basketball player. And the same for every rifleman. Practice makes you a rifleman, not all the fancy tacti-cool stuff on your rifle. But more on that in another post. Give Rifleslinger’s blog a read. Start at the beginning, and read all of the posts. You will be glad you did.
Click to expand...

You could also have a look at this. It's a 9 part series covering fundamentals of shooting as well. The first articles touch on some of the things you might learn at an Appleseed event.
 
Are you flinching?

With either gun, can you keep your cheek on the stock and keep your eye/eyes on the target after the shot? Are you squeezing the trigger with intent or does it feel like you're waiting for the bang?
 
Leaving your shooting skills out of the equation for a moment, you're only going to be as good as the rifle and ammo you're shooting. The ammo you're shooting is a waste of your Tikka's accuracy potential. Garbage in = garbage out. American Eagle & MFS is great for general practice & plinking but you're expecting way too much of it if you think it's good enough for precision shooting. Either buy match quality ammunition or get into reloading your own.

As far as your Rem. 597 is concerned, if you're getting 2" groups with a bone-stock factory semi-auto using bulk ammo, I would think your groups are acceptable under the circumstances. Could it be better? Possibly. That depends on a lot of different factors.
 
If you have a chance to try WWB 45 gr, those been pretty good in all of my 223 and they dont break the bank, they should give you MOA... JP.
 
Tikka .223 should have a 1;7 TWIST meaning 55 gr is the minimum weight. you should peak out at around 70 gr. buy something better than AE tac, its high pressure, meant for spitting though AR;s., not precision bolt. (try Federal 69 or 77 gr. match.)
 
Contact the Ontario Rifle Association. They shoot at a range close to you, Winona. Look into one of the Introductory Day and go from there.
Your ammo is only one of the weak links in shooting tight groups. Shooting off blocks on a bench will add to the error. Get a good bipod, some sand bags or a good front rest.
 
Marksmanship principles. Use these as a benchmark and work off them.

Here they are:

1. The position and hold must be firm enough to support the weapon:

The weapon should be firmly supported with elbows locked in place. The weapon should be relaxedly held, using the natural support of the body. For weaker shooters a sandbag may be used to provide added support, and some may choose to rest the weapon on top of the sandbag itself.

2. The weapon must be held upright and pointed naturally at the target without undue physical effort:

The weapon should point naturally towards the target being held into place by natural bone support, not by tension of the arm muscles. This will result in a poor and unsteady aim.

3. Sight alignment (aiming) must be correct

The foresight must be in the centre of rear sight aperture, with the target in the middle of the rear sight aperture, forming a straight line from the eye, through the sights, and onto the target.

4. The shot must be released and followed through without disturbing the position.

Breathing should be controlled, and can be held if necessary to prevent vertical movement of the body that results from inhalation and exhalation. When pulling the trigger, gentle pressure should slowly be increased until the final pressure is exerted to fire the weapon. Although the recoil caused by the firing will cause the weapon to move, it will return to point naturally at the target. Pause momentarily after firing before releasing pressure and reloading the weapon.
 
honestly if you want to learn good fundamentals and technique.. find your local smallbore range and see if you can get lessons from one of the older more experienced shooters..

i competed in small bore when i was 15-18 .. what i learned there has carried over to every type of shooting ive dabbled in, having that understanding also helps when you make mistakes to isolate what went wrong and work on fixing it.

LR comes with new sets of problems.. wind being the main one .. but the more of the fundamentals you already have as habit, the less you need to actively concentrate on.

thats my 2c
 
Thanks for the tips guys. It's truly appreciated. I know I'm shooting "white box" ammo, so the garbage analogy is quite possibly correct. I just expected given the quality firearm and quality optic and the fact that I was quite good with air guns, this would come back naturally. Perhaps because of the consistency from air rifles was allowing me to get closer back then. I'm introducing a variable; the powder. I'm not into reloading or handloading, and yes I'm using 55g bullets in the 223. The wind is a factor when I'm shooting out to 200 yards but my VX-1 isn't strong enough to overlap holes. I did peek through a China-Brand x25 optic on a fellas 700. That'll do :)

No, I'm not flinching. I did when buddy introduced me to shooting on a 30-06 Savage. I'd pull 3" right damn near every time. I'm doing 2 full breaths, third inhale, half out, hold, aim and squeeze. Seems to work best for me. My grip, I dunno. I'd like to try bags. I'm shooting off the carpeted wood blocks. Sometimes I grip under the stock (conventionally), othertimes I place my hand over the barrel as I've seen others do but that seems silly to me. I was planning to pick up a bipod, but bags seem steadier to me. Thoughts?

I'll try some other ammo soon. The $8/box makes me smile as I can ring off the gong quickly without blowing a bunch of money... but like you say Trotter it's not precision stuff.
 
stick with the .22 until you develop good habit, some times the noise is enough to throw some one, and have another shooter critique, preferably a competent one, you may be doing stuff you don't realize, and to shot high end you will need high end ammo. Become consistent, even consistently bad is better than all over.
If the undesirable grouping continues, setup on bags and bench and remove yourself from the equation, I've seen shooters just about lose their minds and find out their brand new scope couldn't maintain zero, or a loose barrel and action.
Happy Paper Punching
 
1. Try some different ammo to see if your rifle has a preference.
2. Get your rifle off the blocks and put something like a sandbag on top of them.Or even a backpack.
3. Get a rear bag for under the stock and keep your mits off the barrel when shooting.
 
I wonder if your scope parallax is set incorrectly? If you support the rifle with something so you don't touch it at all, and look through the scope moving your eye around, does the reticle seem to move in relation to the target?
 
You mentioned that you exhale half out, hold then squeeze. I was watching this the other day and thought it was pretty informative.
[youtube]IUEzzVi4YKA[/youtube]
Its the guys from snipers hide/rifles only talking about beath control. They have some other good videos on youtube as well.
 
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