The Rifleman Series (Part 4)

8/14/2019 The Rifleman Series (Part 4)

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The Rifleman Series -- Part Four: Firing the Shot

Congratulations.

If youre still with us, youve taken an important first step a baby step, but a vitalstep nonetheless -- towards becoming a Rifleman. Persistence, even from behindthat computer monitor, is one of the very few absolutely indispensable abilities thatone must have in order to shoot well.

Youll still have to get out to that 25m range in your backyard (What? You havent built one yet? Sheesh.) and actually shoot that rifle, but the fact that you are herereading this post means that you are sufficiently humble and educable so as to trysomething other than your way or the highway.

Believe ol Fred when he tells you your humility and teachability makes youvery much one of the chosen few. Good work at controlling your ego and beingwilling to learn.

Now, to work. Todays topic is the much neglected process of actually sighting andfiring the rifle.

Seems pretty easy, right? Load the darned thing, point it, take the safety off, aim it,and pull the trigger.

Dont get me wrong. You can do it that way and, at least some of the time, makethe bullet go where you want it to go.

Some of the time.

At pretty short distances.

But the difference between a Rifleman and an ordinary shooter is that the Riflemancan put his shots where he wants them to go from any position at any range from25 meters to 500 yards.


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To do that consistently, you have to be a bit more rigorous in how you fire the shot.

One other comment -- experience has shown that where a shooter memorizes the

steps below, and then repeats the steps quietly as he actually aims and shoots hisrifle, these steps become second nature. As they become second nature,improvements in your shooting will magically appear.

Magically, that is, if you think hard work, perseverance, and practice constitutemagic. Come to think of it, to most so -called Americans in these decadent times,maybe those virtues are magic, after all.

So what are the steps?

1. SIGHT ALIGNMENT -- Line up the front and rear sights: Simply center thefront sight in the rear sight. If you are shooting a rifle with a peep sight (morecorrectly, an rear aperture sight), youll make sure that you are holding the riflesuch that the top of the front sight post is in the center of the opening in the rearaperture sight. If you are shooting a rifle with traditional open sights, youll wantthe front sight post to be located in the center of the rear sight notch, with the topof the front sight post no higher or lower than the top of the rear sight.

Those of you with a scope (which is cheating at this point of the game, by the way)have your sights aligned for you by the scope. Take off that glass now and learn toshoot well without it. Once you know how to do that, you can use that scope, butnot be dependent on it. Its one thing to have a broken scope ruin a hunting trip.Its another thing to be fighting for Liberty and suddenly lose your effectivenesscuz your scopes front lens got crushed as you dove for cove r. Think Boris fromthat UN convoy will give you a do -over?

In the words of Clint Smith, owner of Thunder Ranch [one of the countryspremier practical shooting schools; see http://www.thunderranchinc.com/ ], Twoweeks after the balloon goes up, iron sights will rule the world.

Nuff said.
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2. SIGHT PICTURE -- Keeping the sights lined up, bring them onto the target:You have two basic choices in accomplishing this step. First way is to use yourmuscles and fight your bodys natural alignment so as to bring the sights onto the

target. Thatll work maybe as long as you can

a) use the same amount of muscle power to force your body into the exact sameposition for each shot (remembering, of course, that even the Quick and Dirtysingle-sheet Army Qualification Test will require 40 shots), and

b) keep your muscles from growing tired and starting to tremble as you fight yourbody in keeping your sights on target.

Being a bit stubborn himself, Fred knows that there are lots of you guys thatll tryit your way, fight your bodys natural position, and get frustrated at the difficultiesin shooting a good score. The smart ones out of that crowd will admit defeat earlyand join the really smart guys who were ready to learn the right way in the firstplace.

Your second choice the right way is to enlist your bodys help in holding thesights steady on target. Its called the natural point of aim (NPOA) technique andits the secret to rapid and consistent improvement in shooting. Well talk moreabout it next time, but for now, just understand that by moving your body positionso that your rifle points naturally at the target, you will eliminate muscle fatigueand improve accuracy dramatically.

Those of you that want to read ahead can read the section in the Riflemans Guideon NPOA. You do have a copy of the Guide(http://www.fredsm14stocks.com/catalog/acc.asp ), right?

3. RESPIRATORY PAUSE Deep breath, exhale, hold breath as front sighttouches bottom of target: Take a deep breath, let it out slowly, and watch how thefront sight dips, then rises as you exhale. Let the front sight rise as you exhale untilit barely touches the bottom of the bulls eye. Now, hold your breath. You have

just used a natural act - breathing - to establish your correct elevation.
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4A. FOCUS YOUR EYE -- Focus your eye on the front sight: It may be a littlehard to do at first, as you naturally want to look at the target. But overcome thetemptation and keep your eyes focused on the front sight, even if it means that the

target gets blurry. -

4B. FOCUS YOUR MIND Keep front sight on target: Your concentration should be on keeping that front sight on the target. It may help for you to consciouslyrepeat, front sight on target, front sight on target. This is the big one!

5. TRIGGER SQUEEZE Squeeze straight back while front sight stays on target:Here is the tricky part. Wh ile you are doing both parts of step 4, youll take up the

slack and squeeze the trigger straight back. At the same time, you MUST keepyour concentration on the front sight! Dont let the front sight off the target; if itdoes move off target, gently bring it back on target, while continuing to squeezethe trigger. Of course, just to keep it interesting, you are still holding your breathfrom step 3s Respiratory Pause.

You are trying to do three tasks at once. Its not gonna be natural for most people.However, if you want to be a Rifleman, you have to burn through what seemsunnatural until it becomes routine.

Of the three steps, the most important piece is to keep the front sight on the target!This is the part where practice really pays off, and practice is the only way that allthree steps [respiratory pause, front sight focus, and trigger squeeze] come togetherto produce a Rifleman.

Remember: there simply is no substitute for either actual shooting by thenumbers at the range, dry firing [more next time], or a combination thereof.

6. FOLLOW THROUGH -- Sighting eye open, take mental picture of where sightswere when rifle discharged, and follow through with trigger: When your rifle fires,you MUST keep your sighting eye open. Without that step, you cannot call theshot, or predict, via that mental picture, where the bullet will actually strike thetarget. If you cant call the shot, you wont ever be able to tell whether the shot was


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bad because you did something wrong, or whether the shot did not go to the aimingpoint because your sights need adjustment.

The final part of this step follow through is important, too. If you are

concentrating on keeping your front sight on the target, and you continue toconcentrate on following through with your trigger squeeze after the rifledischarges, you will greatly reduce the chance that you will move the rifle and duff the shot before the bullet leaves the muzzle. Believe it or not, it happens!

A few more suggestions here at the end:

Make a copy of this post and keep it where you do your reading. Read it slowly,

once a night. Think about the concepts, and the reasons behind the concepts.Write each step down on a 3 x 5 index card. Carry the card with you in your shirtpocket. Read it whenever you get the chance, thinking about the step and thereasons behind it.Memorize the steps until you can recite them without assistance. A Rifleman hasthese steps memorized not because he likes to memorize things, but because heknows that the six steps to firing the shot are the key to consistent accuracy.Finally, grab your rifle and some ammo, and get out to the range. Very slowly atfirst, put each step into action as you fire each shot at those 1 black squares at25m/82 feet. Talk to yourself. Be encouraging. Remember why you are doing allof this work. Be confident in your role as a student learning to defend yourself,your family, and your country from those who would oppress them. Have faith inyour ability, through methodical hard work and practice, to become a Rifleman.Most importantly, relax and enjoy the shooting. You CAN do it!Next time, Fred will talk about natural point of aim (NPOA) and common shootingerrors.

The Rifleman Series (Part 4)

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Transcript of The Rifleman Series (Part 4)