Beginning Rifle - Ideal Setup?

Just an update. I'm holding up on shooting too much more until the replacement rear sight ramp arrives. Also looking in to doing a makeshift bench set up (per DPris' suggestion), but having trouble finding anything that will work. Hoping to get the repairs finished, a shooting sling installed, and some new groups posted within the week. Thank you to everyone who has posted and has continued to monitor the thread.

A couple new questions though:

*Are there any sources for good live-fire drill routines? I'm looking at 25 round every other day as a possible routine amount.

*Is there such a thing as dry fire drills for rifle, and if so what would they consist of?
 
Keep some empty cases to insert when dry-firing. .22 rifle firing pins can hammer against the barrel and deform.

Dry-firing is just like live fire--but quieter. The idea is to maintain consistency of sight picture while pressing the trigger the same way for each shot.

A couple of things to know and work toward as you gain experience: Olympic shooters press the trigger between heartbeats. Good health means a pulse rate down around 60 per minute, which is once per second. You can feel a heartbeat cause a very slight jiggle in the sight picture.

Another is the 0.2-second lag between the time your brain says, "Press," and your finger actually moves. Since nobody is a human bench rest, and there can be some very slight motion even with proper sandbags, you eventually develop the ability to forecast the perfect sight picture 0.2 seconds in advance.

Again, just something to keep in mind for "on down the road".
 
The biggest issue I was having was holding steady. The sight picture kept bobbing around and I couldn't quite lock it down.
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If you find the answer, let the rest of us in on it.

Everyone has that; the question is how large a zone within which your sight picture will "bob around" should you accept.

There is lots of fine specific advice here, but let me also suggest books and instruction manuals as well. The best thing these did for me was the confidence to work on technique rather than chasing an immediate result from shot to shot.

If you improve on a solid technique and print four inch groups all day, I would consider the time well spent.
 
Zr,
While I am still learning and re-learning, I will offer this to you: following the advice of DPris is absolutely essential first steps that other good advice can then be incorporated.

And concerning appleseed, which is a phenomenal experience- go after youve practiced much of what you read here. Yes, you can go and have a great experience; but as a person trying to learn how to proper shooting techniques, I found (in my one visit a couple years back), that the solid techniques taught were like an avalanche of new skills that one immediately had to employ under timed drills. And just to be straight up, it was frusrating to me sometimes. But, thats just me and I definitely plan to go back someday. But my 10/22 and I will be much better acquainted, not to mention a couple upgrades on the trigger and sites that have made shooting so much better.

Good luck.
John
 
I don't know where you shoot, but there are portable shooting "benches" & tables you can buy from Midway or Brownells that you can set up anywhere.

I use one for my handgun testing normally in an old stone quarry. I have used it for rifles in the past, but I'm lucky in living 20 miles from a state-owned rifle range with concrete tables, so that's where I do most rifle work nowdays.

You do genuinely need a solid platform that provides repeatable results.
If you're not solidly braced in learning, you can't reliably evaluate which parts of your target results were your fault & which parts were the gun's fault.

In zeroing the gun, it has to be steady, you have to be steady.
In working on technique, YOU have to be consistent, and you can't be if you & the gun are both wandering on target.

If you plan to seriously pursue shooting, you need to understand it'll cost money.
Spend some to get yourself a GOOD shooting platform.

I use a strong plastic-topped portable shooting table with folding legs from Brownells that isn't quite as stable as a concrete bench, but works adequately if all feet are firmly planted on the ground.
I also use a standard resin patio-type chair with a tall back, and I use a shooting rest for handguns set on the table.

Table & chair were both fairly cheap, both lightweight & easy to transport.

There are dedicated rifle shooting rests you can also buy from Brownells, or you can dummy something up yourself to rest the fore-end on.

Key is to make the table stable, make yourself stable, rest the rifle's fore-end on something, and eliminate as much movement as possible while you're lining up your sights and pulling the trigger.

Get this done before you waste ammunition in trying to figure out why groups are large & where the gun shoots.
Denis

Edited to add that you can find the MTM Predator Shooting Table I use on Amazon for $75.
Weighs 15 pounds, folds flat.
Looks like Brownells doesn't carry it.
 
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"Bowling pins OFTEN ricochet bullets, including right back at you. Do NOT use them..."

Yeah, when using slingshots...not real bullets, unless they're very LOW velocity.
 
Art Eastman: That's an astounding thought. Very VERY far down the road indeed. Wow.

zukiphile: Right now I'm studying Cooper's "Art Of The Rifle," and the "Complete Book Of Shooting." Are there any other books you suggest.

Jproaster: I'm aiming for one of the winter Appleseed shoots. Should offer plenty of time to (hopefully) gain some fundamentals.

DPris: Understood. I'll give renewed priority to a solid rest for zeroing. I live on an old farm so there should be something somewhere nearby that'll fit the bill.
 
zukiphile: Right now I'm studying Cooper's "Art Of The Rifle," and the "Complete Book Of Shooting." Are there any other books you suggest.
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I do not recall the titles of the books I read on the topic 30 years ago. Since then, I have seen an Army or Marine marksmanship manual that I thought covered the basics well. If memory serves, a lot of that basic advice is repeated in John Plaster's book.

I think there is a substantial advantage to reading about technique over learning about it primarily from other shooters or the Internet.

1. I have asked some very accomplished marksman (in real life, not on this form) for tips and they generally relate such rudimentary advice that all I really learn is that these gentlemen have been doing it for so long that they have forgotten or assumed as an ordinary baseline a lot of what they do.

Reading an author's considered and edited text is bound (no pun) to give one a better top to bottom view of the basics.

2. I believe that if I were to go about learning rifle technique now, I would be confused by the variety of techniques advocated, many of which seem to pertain to three gun competition or room clearing than the three position target shooting that I have subsequently found more interesting. There are lots of texts that describe shooting in those conventional positions.
 
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Moderate update. I finally got ahold of some ammo for practicing. Enough for 25 practice rounds every other day for a little over a month (450 rounds). Everyone is still obsessively hoarding .22lr and major hunting calibers around here for reasons I can't rightly figure (I saw a legally blind man buy six boxes of 30-06 the day before yesterday for "prepping"...), so I'm probably stuck with that for a while.

I've worked out a good target design, planning to shoot five sets of five shot groups for practice. Slow fire, focusing on the fundamentals, working from a rest to start.

Just to get situated I burnt my daily allowance along with a few spare rounds I had lying around and shot eleven groups from a cinder-block-covered-with-towel rest and using a shooting sling for extra support. Already a modest improvement over my first attempt posted earlier in this thread.

50 Feet Rifle Practice Target

I should note that these are from 50 FEET with a competition small bore rifle target rated for that range. Still a hell of a long way to go. Is there any advice anyone could offer? Even at only 50 feet the irons are wider than the visible width of the target. #7 and #9 had bad fliers because of the wind blowing the target.
 
If you're sitting with yourself well supported & you've got the rifle well supported on a solid rest, as discussed previously, there's no reason to mess with a sling.

If you are not sitting, still trying some other non-rigid position, you're still not getting your maximum learning potential.
Denis
 
Appleseed will teach you how to use a sling.
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They'll teach you much more than that. Attend one of these if you can.

If you're sitting with yourself well supported & you've got the rifle well supported on a solid rest, as discussed previously, there's no reason to mess with a sling.
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Untill the rest is not there when you need it!

Use a bench to establish how accurate the gun/ammo/sighting system is. After that has been established, leave it, and work on how accurate YOU can be with the system, from field positions. At the point you can shoot up to your rifle, then move on to more difficult problems.
 
Jim,
We've discussed this with him previously.
It's necessary to learn the basics, including sights, trigger, breathing, and so on, from as stable a platform as possible, before moving on.

He's been talking about not even knowing where his gun was zeroed earlier.

He has little point of reference to know whether the gun's off, or he's off, and at this stage trying to learn more advanced shooting positions & sling work is not really advisable.
Denis
 
I could list articles to read, books to read, exercises to do. But none of that is a good replacement for honest instruction and coaching.

Buy or borrow an inexpensive 22 such as a Marlin 925 or Savage MkII (bolt action), Marlin 795 or Ruger 10/22 (semi auto) and put a cheap 4x scope on top. Buy a couple spare magazines. Buy a cotton web GI sling.

Find the nearest Appleseed even to you, pay your money, and get a good indoctrination into 3 position shooting.

Jimro
 
And yet my advice still stands. If money is an obstacle, then money isn't the problem. In this sport you have to pay to play, one way or another.

Save up, buy a sling, and a scope. Heck, use the borrowed rifle (you'll need at least two magazines, 10 round capacity). Factory irons generally suck, unless the factory happens to be "Anschutz."

Hell, a refurbed Daisy 853 from the CMP is a helluva deal for actual marksmanship training. I know air rifles aren't as "sexy" as tricked out Liberty Training Rifle, but if you can shoot an air rifle well, you can shoot a 22 well.

Jimro
 
First thing you need to do is get a good book on how to shoot a rifle. Next read it till you understand it. Now practice what you've read. I suspect you have a flinching problem. Have someone load the rifle for you without you knowing if he put a round in it or not. Then shoot it. When you squeeze the trigger and it doesn't go off see if you flinch! If you do you now know where the problem lies. Are you using ear protection? If not get some before you do anything else. Also dry firing is just as good as live practice and doesn't cost as much. Although the Ruger 10-22 is a fine rifle I don't think its what you need right now. An inexpensive single shot 22 with iron sights will work much better for you in learning the skills needed to learn basic shooting skills.Remember its a single well placed shot that is what your after not a bunch of inaccurate spray!!!! ALSO join the NRA IMMEDIATELY!!!!! Not only to protect the rights you are trying to exercise but because they have all the tools you need to become as good as you can. If you want to I'll give you my phone # via a PM and we can discuss your training regime on the phone.One last thing you should also be wearing eye protection also. Frank
 
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