KurtM
Member
General field shooting has all but died in this country! I know lots of good shooters on the bench and off their "crutches" that can't even begin to build a good shot without them. Point brought home! Took a good LRP shooter pig shooting. We were walking along and out saunters a nice sized pig at about 40 yards. Now the clearing it was wondering through was about 20 yards wide. I said shoot her! Kinda quietly and he proceeded to slowly put down his pack and start digging around to get his "NON shooting sticks" ready, braced up his rifle and got the safety off and started to fish around in his scope to find her, just in time for her to disappear into thr brush. Now I got to admit she was really hoofing it, and it took her just a bit over 20 seconds to cross the opening. WTF???? I asked him, gently, why the fuck he didn't shoot her. The answer was well I couldn't get steady enough in the little time I had! REALLY??? It was a simple offhand shot! At 40 yards it is easy to put one right in their ear! Oh yeah he was also hiking around on 15X.
Need more, sure! Took a local departments SWAT and precision marksman teams out to a reaction range. We were shooting out of a building, range of 80 yards or so. Building had lots of window frames and all sorts of doors and areas to take up a quick, and in my world, stable shooting platform. Told them that targets would start appearing as soon as they entered the building. 7 targets went by in the first minute while they deployed all sorts of bipods, spotting scopes and binoculars. Meanwhile the SWAT guys with their Scoped ARs were diligently calling out range and target descriptions to the precision marksman. I asked the SWAT Guys why they didn't engage and was told that at these ranges that they couldn't get steady enough for a good shot and at those extended ranges it was best to let the precision shooter do the shooting! Again!!! WTF??? not one of them knew reverse kneeling, not one knew how to brace off a window sill or a post. Not one had been introduced to position shooting. I asked the precision guys why no shots and found out they always practiced off the bench or prone off their bi-pod.
Moral of the story? Get off the bench, get off your bipod and start learning to shoot!!!
Need more, sure! Took a local departments SWAT and precision marksman teams out to a reaction range. We were shooting out of a building, range of 80 yards or so. Building had lots of window frames and all sorts of doors and areas to take up a quick, and in my world, stable shooting platform. Told them that targets would start appearing as soon as they entered the building. 7 targets went by in the first minute while they deployed all sorts of bipods, spotting scopes and binoculars. Meanwhile the SWAT guys with their Scoped ARs were diligently calling out range and target descriptions to the precision marksman. I asked the SWAT Guys why they didn't engage and was told that at these ranges that they couldn't get steady enough for a good shot and at those extended ranges it was best to let the precision shooter do the shooting! Again!!! WTF??? not one of them knew reverse kneeling, not one knew how to brace off a window sill or a post. Not one had been introduced to position shooting. I asked the precision guys why no shots and found out they always practiced off the bench or prone off their bi-pod.
Moral of the story? Get off the bench, get off your bipod and start learning to shoot!!!