How about Mental State and keeping it real for expectations ?If shooting with pellets in ANY caliber .. 100 yards or more is Way the He ll out there !!!If shooting Slugs in the common .177 / .22 / .25 calibers .. 150 is far and 200+ is way the He ll out there !!!If shooting .257 to .30 or larger then ones expectations at distance are improved somewhat. If one follows whats shared / bragged about on the web as being commonly practical or feasible your going to be disappointed. JMO ... nuttin more.
Quote from: Motorhead on November 27, 2022, 04:38:01 PMHow about Mental State and keeping it real for expectations ?If shooting with pellets in ANY caliber .. 100 yards or more is Way the He ll out there !!!If shooting Slugs in the common .177 / .22 / .25 calibers .. 150 is far and 200+ is way the He ll out there !!!If shooting .257 to .30 or larger then ones expectations at distance are improved somewhat. If one follows whats shared / bragged about on the web as being commonly practical or feasible your going to be disappointed. JMO ... nuttin more.WOW! Asking for advice on improving my techniques and my mental state is called into question! Thanks Scott.
Quote from: customcutter on November 27, 2022, 07:02:08 PMQuote from: Motorhead on November 27, 2022, 04:38:01 PMHow about Mental State and keeping it real for expectations ?If shooting with pellets in ANY caliber .. 100 yards or more is Way the He ll out there !!!If shooting Slugs in the common .177 / .22 / .25 calibers .. 150 is far and 200+ is way the He ll out there !!!If shooting .257 to .30 or larger then ones expectations at distance are improved somewhat. If one follows whats shared / bragged about on the web as being commonly practical or feasible your going to be disappointed. JMO ... nuttin more.WOW! Asking for advice on improving my techniques and my mental state is called into question! Thanks Scott.Was a general .. not directed at you personally Ken.Sorry if it sounded as such ... MY BAD
Here’s a few thoughts. I like the idea of this thread; especially if we keep it from cluttering up someone’s submission for NUAH. 1. Holding on target at 100 yards is no different for whatever you are shooting. Also really shouldn’t change much for your magnification and range. Training will tell here. I hold about 1/4 MOA prone, better on a bench, or rested, worse for other positions. 2. The difference in where you hit is your ability, plus the accuracy of the system you are using, plus external affects. For example the way I have my Marauder set up it shooting just under 2 MOA. This doesn’t change if I’m shooting at 50, 75, or 100 yards. What does change at those ranges is wind and other external affects on the projectile after it leaves the barrel. Most of my groups outside over 5 shots are shot around 2 MOA. 3. Most of the people that trained me taught me to use a rear bag to squeeze and move crosshairs only a small amount (less than 1 MOA) and when I relaxed my squeeze the crosshairs should stay very close to where I moved them (not move around a bunch). Basically when I relax my hold on the rifle, the crosshairs shouldn’t hardly move.
This is a longer post, hopefully not too rambly and somewhat helpful...One thing I've done to help when taking long shots is to get squared up behind the rifle. Sitting canted might be more comfortable for some, but it could cause issues if you have a jumpy rifle (you want the rifle to come straight back, being canted it can deflect some). Also, you don't want to strain in any way to be able to get on target, whether be it your neck/head or having to "steer" the rifle. I've been using a foam "x" block/front rest and a homemade rear bag (or a rifle mounted bipod if equipped and rear bag). What I'm using is lightweight but seems to do alright, I like to be able to shift position fairly quickly/easily but admittedly give up some steadiness. Another tip for shooting targets at distance is to put a few out at once, having to walk down and back a few times is great for getting steps in, but not great when trying to print tight groups, Lol. Try not to load up on stimulants (caffeine, nicotine, etc.) prior to shooting, or it'll get your heart rate up and makes it harder to shoot between heartbeats. Optic (scope) magnification is a personal choice, but I prefer not to over magnify as each movement is amplified. I'd rather give up some zoom in exchange for bit less twitchiness. Wind reading is important too, I like to have flags or streamers out around 20, 50 and 100 yards if possible just to see what's happening down range. Scott really nailed it with keeping expectations real (and mental state, Lol). I wish I could say every hundred yard group I've shot was 2" or less, but can't. I've had a few very good one's, but have had many not so great one's too. Windless days results are usually very good, but those days are few and far between. I usually hope for 2 to 3 MOA with pellets on any given day, if I can do better than that I'm always happy. I've come to the conclusion to shoot a few practice shots then shoot two official targets and call it quits at distance and/or switch to shooting steel, tin cans or whatever. Doing this keeps things fun. I figure I'll get what I get on any particular outing, no sense in driving myself mad trying to print tighter groups. Usually I do my best early on anyways. In short, I've shot my best "official" 100 yard group with a foam front rest, homemade rear bag and a fixed 10X optic. Winds were calm and a fair bit of luck was involved.As always, take this with a grain of salt, Lol. I'm definitely no pro
A couple more comments:1. Fit of your rifle is very important. I’m from the school that says you should put your system together. Barrel, trigger, scope, etc. and then fit the rest of the rifle to you. I think the cheek piece should exactly meet your face to allow your head and neck to naturally line up with the scope at a point that gives you full field of vision. at that exact point your shoulder should meet the the stock. And when you put your hand up it should naturally reach the trigger. 2. When I put my rifle down on my rest, bag or whatever, I make sure that it is going to be able to recoil freely - even if it is almost non-existent recoil - straight away from the target.
"Mental state" is a good one. "Sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes you don't". In other words, if you are super pumped to go out and lay down some nice groups or maybe have a new barrel, ammo, tune or pending comp or video you are working on you will likely be very focused on your goals. If you are just going out to fart around and lay down some groups because that is just what you do you may not have the same drive that day and groups may suffer.Another thing that helps is trigger setup and angle along with follow through. You should know how the trigger will behave and exactly when it will break and should not be fighting with it. On the follow through, it takes a microsecond or two before Elvis leaves the building (borrowed from Bob Rsterne). You want to stay focused on the trigger release another second and not jerk or change anything at this critical moment. It helps to stay focused on the crosshairs and try and keep it on the intended POI during this critical moment. A steady rest helps to do this along with practice.
Ken, et Al,I disagree with raising your scope for any other reason than clearance (lens, bolt, magazine, or whatever). Mount the scope as close to the barrel as possible and then make your attachment (cheek, shoulder, etc. meet that line. This may mean a new stock or that the rifle is too big or small for you, but if you are chasing extremes In accuracy fit will help.
I agree that proper fit, natural point of aim/body positioning, and follow-through are very much a great percentage of good to excellent shooting. Position can have a great effect on your shooting, as someone with a back issue I can test that prone may not be the most comfortable, but if I do it properly I can reduce or even eliminate the pain, and maintain the correct natural POA. As a trained instructor for junior shooters, I learned the newer method of prone positioning which uses one bent knee and the other leg straight, this relieves the pressure on the lower back and provides that elusive natural point of aim when prone. The use of either a from bag or bipod and a proper rear bag with the squeeze method is a solid know great way to get a solid rest and perfect your adjustments. With the addition of Air Rifle/Guns to the NRL/ PRS style shooting they are seeing more longer-range shooters that are not competing in the widely expensive powder matches, but we are aging access to some of the nice components like the ARCA rails for say tripod shooting if standing or maybe sitting is your thing. Not to mention if you just want to practice some more difficult positional shooting. I try to use a solid bench, and defiantly limit the caffeine, don't try for accuracy when you're tired, or haven't gotten a decent night's sleep. The mental game affects all of us, I have thought many kids and have seen this aspect proven time and time again. Once they get past the I don't know if I can and have all the fundamentals down, they go from Ok to excellent shooters very quickly. As far as accuracy, if your gun will shoot MOA, 1.5 MOA, or 2MOA, as long as you know what it is capable of, then as noted above, external factors can be overcome. Keep a log, yep, bust out those good old DOPE sheets and track wind, temps, altitude, gun, fill, (especially if not regulated), pellet or slug used, and distance. Take your notebook and refer to it. This is no different than our counterparts on the powder burner side, we just do it with air. I also like the realistic expectations, I too like proving that we can shoot beyond distance X and print a solid group, but we do have to know our limits, then work toward breaking them. The last bit of this long post is about repeatability, being consistent, and trying to not change things unless you make a specific change, document it, then track the results. If you get an improvement, then you know what changed.Good luck to everyone, and let's keep the exchange of information and ideas going, this is what keeps us all on top of our game.Casey