Am I doing something wrong here?

TheScout, if you don't know how the weapon shoots how could you possibly know if the hole positions in the target are a result of an inaccurate weapon your your own skill level?

ALWAYS confirm the ability of the weapon before you test/train your self with it.

I absolutely DESPISE the recommendations of dry firing and promoting it as practice or any thing else other than PLAYING GUNS like irresponsible kids. If you can't make it to a safe place to shoot a gun, then you can't safely practice shooting a gun. Period.

The Four Rules

All guns are always loaded. (Treat them so!)
Never point the gun at anything you are not willing to destroy.
Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target (and you have made the decision to shoot).
Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.

As for your eye sight, the BEST thing you can do to help/improve that situation is to WASH YOUR GLASSES and make sure they are perfectly clean every time you start a shooting session. Especially in that upper left corner of the right lens, for me any way. I shoot right handed.

I am a big proponent of quality air rifles as a cost efficient and space efficiency off hand practice and all field position practice. The better rifle you can attain, the more fun it is. BUT you still need to know what the gun is capable off before you can fairly judge your own shooting and if you are achieving improvement. If the gun can only shoot 3 inch groups and you are shooting 3.25 groups from field positions, you are doing pretty good. You need to back up.

To maximize accuracy with that Glenfield 25N you need to try it with a few different ammo types. I own one of those. This test target was done with my 10-22 and my Glenfield is no better but this will give an idea of the possibilities.

a10-22test13.jpg
 
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Proper sight alignment for field rifles. Front sight aligned flat with the top of the rear sight, equal space on each side if any visible and the visible flat line of the front and rear sight cutting the center of where you want the impact to be.

With young eyes you MAY be able to get all three in focuse as people age, they have to pick ONE. That one that is ALWAYS MOST IMPORTANT to keep in BEST focus is the front sight.

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Below is an example of what would be a competative bulls eye pistol shooter hold, with the black bulls eye sitting on top of the front sight other wise aligned as stated above. The REASON for this type of sight alignment is so they can SEE the target clearly AND it is always shot at the same distance. This is also why it is IMPROPER for a field gun. You point of impact would vary greatly with varying distances making it near impossible to predict in the field at un known distance.

Sight%20Alignment%209_zpsjujvjio8.jpg


For field and game shooting you ALWAYS ain for the center of the point you want to impact literally cutting the bullet hole you WANT TO MAKE in half with the CENTER of the top of the front sight.

"Aim for the center no matter what you are shooting at, a basketball, golf ball or a flying aspirin. Aim for the center, they are no different." Tom Knapp, profession exhibition shooter.

Examples of a few other Kentucky windage/elevation termonology you may hear depending on where and who you are hanging around. They are poor suggestions. "Taking a full bead." "A skinny bead" what ever other "My grampa taught me..." suggestions students have come up with over the years.

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Parallax should not be an issue so long as the scope is not over 9x power. No matter the distance. So long as the strongest power setting is not over 9x power it probably doesn't even have a parallax adjustment.

No reason you need a scope at all to learn the basics of properly handling and shooting a rifle of any kind at the distances you have been mentioning in this thread. All less than 50 yards if I remember correctly. What you do need is a proper sling.
 
I absolutely DESPISE the recommendations of dry firing and promoting it as practice or any thing else other than PLAYING GUNS like irresponsible kids. If you can't make it to a safe place to shoot a gun, then you can't safely practice shooting a gun. Period.
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It is certainly true that dryfire practice demands careful attention to safety and that carelessness while dryfiring can result, and has resulted, in many unintentional discharges.

That said, the idea that it's impossible to practice without shooting is not one that is commonly shared. In fact, just the reverse is true. I doubt that it would be possible to find even one professional shooter who would agree with the idea--I've certainly never heard one state anything along those lines.

And the value of dryfire goes beyond just allowing one to practice when shooting is not possible. Some trainers and professional shooters advise incorporating some dryfire practice into range trips rather than only live-firing at the range.
 
Dry fire at the range all you want.

If you want my advice. If you don't, then do what ever you want. I don't care. I'm not your mother. I am responding here ONLY to the ONE person who asked my advice and that is all the advice is for. I don't care what the rest of you do.

The NRA suggested safety rules are pretty clear. Coopers rules. Just about anyone who has ever written any thing professionally has a pretty clear set of rules concerning gun handling.

All the buts, ifs, maybes, except fors... all come mostly from people who've shot people or been lucky so far.

Guns aren't toys. Don't play with guns. If it is not safe to shoot a gun, it's not safe to play shooting guns. Period.
 
I actually agree with the general theme of your assertion, namely that dryfiring carries significant risks and therefore an extra effort should be made to keep safe.

However, it can be done safely and given the benefits that it can provide, it's worth making the effort. Here's a good article on the topic.

https://www.corneredcat.com/article/practice-time/dry-fire-safety/

If a person isn't willing to go through the steps required to dryfire safely (as explained in the article) then they would do well to follow your advice and only dryfire at the range.
 
Hi all! Thank you so much for all of the advice. I’ve read it through and taken notes. I finally properly sat my air rifle on a proper bench at 10 yards and found what my rifle is shooting. I was running low on pellets unfortunately so I might get more data, since I had to do 3 shot groups instead of 5 shot groups. But, at 10 yards over 7 groups, the average group size was 0.6inches. I am yet to have tried different distances (15, 20, 25 yards etc...) and with different pellet types.
I did notice that all of my groups are about .5 inches on the left of the bullseye so that might mean I’m pulling my shots a lot (I’m left handed) or that my scope is off. But I wasn’t really worried about accuracy, only consistency.
On another note I got a sling for my .22 (no sling points on my air rifle) and tried different uses of the sling for a steadier hold that I found online, and it helps a lot. One of my best purchases. I will also be looking for a decent quality rimfire scope (maybe Walmart quality) But I’m not sure yet. And @Jack Ryan, thank you especially for the tips on sight alignment, safety, grouping expectations and point of aim. That helped a lot.
 
I actually agree with the general theme of your assertion, namely that dryfiring carries significant risks and therefore an extra effort should be made to keep safe.
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I've been thinking a lot about this lately to the point of bringing it up with the instructor of a firearms class I took in Nevada last weekend .

My conclusion is firearms are dangerous , If the four safety rules are applied as they ALWAYS should be regardless of what you are doing . There is no more inherent risk in dry firing then actually shooting the firearm therefore no EXTRA caution needs to be taken .

The above is not the same as people that don't follow proper safety should be ok to dryfire . If you are not practicing proper safety when handling a firearm . You should not be touching any firearm little lone dry firing or actually shooting them .

IMHO there is no difference in shooting a firearm or dry firing one . To say you should never dry fire really means you should never shoot guns period . Everything about both should be handled the same therefore there is no difference in either .
 
You are not pulling your shots that much.. adjust your scope to center.

Here is a tip about cheap scopes- they have “backlash.” In other words

If I click 10 left then 5 right, that’s not the same as 5 left.

Always adjust in one direction.

Suppose I reckon I need 10 clicks to the left but I miscalculated and only wanted 5... how do I do that?

I would click 10 clicks to the right. Then 20 more clicks to the right, then 22 clicks left, check and wiggle in traveling in one direction, not by “bracketing.”

You would think that 10 clicks left then 10 clicks right would get you back where you started, but on cheap scopes it isn’t true due to “backlash” in the mechanism.

Going back 10 then another 20 is hopefully enough to take the slop out of the mechanism. Then go the other 20 and creep on to target twisting the knobs in one direction only.

On an expensive scope, clicking 3 left and 3 right will have exactly the effect one would think (well, hopefully... or there is less backlash)

On a cheap scope, 3 left might not move the crosshairs at all, or if it does, 3 right afterwards might not move the crosshairs. So...

Take out the slack by twisting in the opposite direction, then twisting the way you want to go but just a few clicks more.

I probably made a hash of that explanation.

Half an inch at 10 yards isn’t trigger control for a benched rifle, the scope is off.
 
My conclusion is firearms are dangerous , If the four safety rules are applied as they ALWAYS should be regardless of what you are doing . There is no more inherent risk in dry firing then actually shooting the firearm therefore no EXTRA caution needs to be taken .

The above is not the same as people that don't follow proper safety should be ok to dryfire . If you are not practicing proper safety when handling a firearm . You should not be touching any firearm little lone dry firing or actually shooting them .

IMHO there is no difference in shooting a firearm or dry firing one . To say you should never dry fire really means you should never shoot guns period . Everything about both should be handled the same therefore there is no difference in either .
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I think that's a fair assessment. The same general precautions apply in either case. A safe backstop, etc.
 
About dry firing. I refer you to my post #87 concerning Lanny Bassham.
Also, I have been shooting Bullseye matches for quite a few decades. This has given me the opportunity to speak with and listen to some very accomplished shooters.
Dry firing is commonly recommended as a way to practice the finer points of trigger control and sight alignment.
Twelve time national pistol champion Brian Zins, in his shooting seminars, tells about his regimen of sitting with a 1911 while doing things like watching TV and cocking/squeezing the trigger time after time so as to learn when it is going to break...."I always know when the gun is going to shoot."
 
darkgael said:
Lanny Bassham....Olympic gold medal in 1976 and two time world champion smallbore (1974 and 1978) was in the military during the run up to the 1976 Olympics. During part of that time he was stationed where he had NO access to a range for practice.
How did he train? Dry firing every night.
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The phrase "Practice makes perfect" should really be: "perfect practice makes perfect".

Lanny Bassham had a lot of training before he was forced into his extensive dry firing regimen before the Olympics. He was practicing what he'd already perfected. For a new shooter, they would just be practicing bad habits. A new shooter needs to know what they're doing, right or wrong: they need some kind of feedback. If they don't have a coach, they need to see something come out the end of the barrel, whether it's a bullet, a pellet or a laser beam or a nickel balanced on their front sight, they need to see the effects of what they're doing.
 
I dry fire, but I never dry fire while doing something else, like watching TV. This sort of casual attitude in dealing with firearms is recipe for trouble; a bad habit as one well known voice on this forum likes to say.

-TL

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk
 
Could someone link a video on doing a hasty sling? I’m left handed and can do it perfectly left handed, but since I started shooting right handed because it’s a bolt action, I find I can’t do certain things as well, like setting up a hasty sling
 
TheScout said:
Could someone link a video on doing a hasty sling? I’m left handed and can do it perfectly left handed, but since I started shooting right handed because it’s a bolt action, I find I can’t do certain things as well, like setting up a hasty sling
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Same as doing it left handed, just swap the two hands. It took me about 10 minutes to convince my poor brain to do the left hand version of the maneuver. I'm right handed and seldom use the sling when I shoot.

Many left handed shooters shoot right handed bolt guns, working the bolt go-around-the-tree.

-TL

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk
 
Well, I’m doing the hasty sling exactly the way online tutorials have instructed, but the problem is that it doesn’t seem any more stable than it would be if I was just shooting off hand with no sling (this is all off hand by the way). Is using a sling intended for heavier rifles? I’m using it with my 6lb .22lr rifle
 
You need to adjust the length of the sling so that it tightens up when it is in position with your forearm. It basically straps the forearm of the rifle to your forearm. It should be more stable. But it will most likely change your POI though.

-TL

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk
 
OK, well I suppose there is less movement and it’s more stable but it seems harder to control, and the slight bodily movement takes me off target, especially breathing. And the tension of the sling strains my weak muscles which starts to wobble. What is the usage of a sling intended for?
 
It can help steady shooting, but it works best in sitting and prone positions.

The benefit from a sling in the standing position is more limited and some will even tell you not to use a sling in the standing position although I do find that it helps some.

Here are some resources for sling use. Note that there are two basic types of slings and two basic types of sling use. Competition slings are very tight, and the techniques used for slings in competition may not be particularly useful for practical shooting. The typical slings you see on hunting rifles are primarily carry straps which can be used, with different techniques, as shooting slings.

https://www.shootingillustrated.com/articles/2016/9/6/how-to-properly-use-a-sling/

https://www.luckygunner.com/lounge/how-to-use-a-rifle-sling/

https://www.everydaymarksman.co/equipment/shooting-sling/

This link has some information on simple slings and basic shooting positions.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/education/hunter-education/online-course/shooting-skills/rifle-positions

Before you get into that, have you worked on getting a good shooting position?

https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2014/12/5/ar-basics-shooting-positions/

https://welikeshooting.com/tips-how-to/four-basic-shooting-positions/
 
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