how good of a shooter are you?

My old man was a national-class Army competition shooter and he taught me to shoot. For the first several months he only allowed me to shoot off-hand.
That was good for me. When I was in boot camp I was amazed at how many guys couldn't shoot. I thought everybody grew up shooting, I guess.
Anyway, I don't punch paper anymore unless I'm developing a load or sighting in for hunting season.
I'm a good shot, I guess. The old man said don't stand if you can kneel, don't kneel if you can sit and don't sit if you can lay prone. But I like to shoot from all positions at various targets - gongs, pop cans, distant rocks, just because it is fun. I haven't missed a deer I've shot at in a long time, so I'm happy.
 
I'm a poor rifle shot. I have allways excelled at pistol.

When preparing for a hunt I go out to my range and start shooting Paper plates and full size archery game targets.

I establish the distance at which I can hit the vitals on my first shot every time. During the hunt I limit myself to that distance for that position. Off hand. Off hand supported, sitting and prone.

Until I moved to the steps of Eastern Arizona, I hunted wooded areas interspersed with open pasture and corn fields. I never encountered a shot in excess of 150 yards.

Now I am contemplating 400 yard shots. I have added imporved scopes, a bipod, prarie dogs and a lot more practice in preperation for my big game hunts.

A historical note: The Boers in the Transval (Zimbawa and South Africa) region of Africa warmed up before their Sunday matches by shooting eggs at 100 yds with their open sighted Mausers. This marksmanship and their excellent horsemanship allmost defeated the The entire British empire.
 
Good enough to shoot this:

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with this setup:

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I'd never really done position shooting before Appleseed, but they do a pretty good job of instructing. The event itself was free too, I did donate to the range they used.

The best I've managed on a Q&D AQT since then was about 230. I've still got a lot of practice to do.
 
Rifle, Shotgun & Pistol

Best with a rifle was my Yugo SKS @ about 100 +/- 10 yards 12" target I got 3 in the red and the remaining 7 all within the 1st ring out from the red. Rifles are not my favorite but I like to shoot them and I do ok.

12 Guage Shotgun slug or 00 buck I am not the guy you want to have that gun when your up to no good. Something about me and a shotgun we just get along. With my Mossberg 88 and Rifeled slugs I can hit pop cans @ almost any distance and with field shot I almost never miss a clay. Last november while I was at the range a Retired USMC Gunny told me that he would let me in any foxhole he dug so long as I brought my shotgun with me. I considered that very high praise.

Pistols I do ok, @ 15 yards useing my .40 S&W I can hit within the 1st ring out from the center with usually all 10 rounds. I usually get one sometimes 2 in the red but Im no sharp shooter. With the .45 im close to that but I have to admit the recoil is heavy on it and that makes me sloppy with it.
 
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I'm in my sixties and I've been shooting and hunting since I was ten years old. I got into competitive handgun shooting in my early thirties and became very proficient with a handgun. I shot silhouette for ten years and earned International Class in all five events and won seven consecutive state titles and two regional titles. I placed third at the IHMSA Internationals. That being said, I thought I'd mastered shooting. In the mid 1990's I decided I wanted to enter and compete in Sportsman's Team Challenge Matches and figured I'd be a shoo-in for winning based on my pistol shooting abilities. I had to compete using a rifle, handgun, and a shotgun. I was a AA shotgun shooter and the only thing I had to add to my bag of tricks was a little rifle practice. Everybody can shoot a rifle, right? Wrong!!! I'd always considered myself a good rifle shot based on how well I shot compared to my buddies and the guys at the clubs where I shot. I never shot rifle competition and my observations of people competing with rifles wasn't very impressing. They either shot off benches or prone or used a rest in some way. Team Challenge required you to stand up and shoot unsupported. You also had to shoot a lot of targets, some of them very small at some very long distances (for a rimfire). You were shooting against the clock also. The winners of the rifle event had to shoot fast, not miss very much, and be able to reload very quicky. I found out that shooting the rifle this way was more difficult than shooting the handgun. I put a lot of time and effort into developing my rifle shooting skills and did very well in this new discipline. Team Challenge is what it's called, a team event. My team and I either won or placed at every event we entered and won the Super Regional in Pennsylvania in 2002. I can't shoot like I could then since I no longer compete. Retirement curtailed my shooting at the level I shot at back then. I used to shoot 35,000 rimfire a year, 12,000 centerfire handgun, and about 15,000 shotgun a year. I just can't pay for that on a retirement income. I went to a couple of rimfire silhouette matches last year and shot my Savage rimfire and even though I hadn't shot at a silhouette in many years I shot a 38 and a 39 out of 40 off hand standing. I guess you don't lose it all.
 
offhand with my Win 32 spcl at 100 yds I expect to stay on paper (8 1/2" x 11") and with my H&R .308 to do that most of the time at 200 yards on a good day.

At 100 yards with every hand gun I own, (except the black powder and air guns), on the same 8 1/2" x 11" target. However at 200 yards my old age shows its ugly head and I have to sit to do what I could do off hand 10 years ago, (namely a 20" target). Apparently I have degraded from pretty darn accurate to mildly dangerous if the target is large enough.
 
How well can I shoot offhand? Well enough to be comfortable taking any bet against many "great shooters", but smart enough to know which shooters not to take that bet from... ;)

To use emcon's reference from page one, my personal bests are: 200 yds offhand, 192-some (I've fired a couple of 96-98s in 10-shot strings), 200-yds sitting, 199-bunch, 300-yds prone rapid, 199-bunch (shot a few cleans this past season, but haven't done it back-to-back yet) and from 600-yds prone, a 196-10x.
 
Then there's Gary Anderson's (NRA Exec., Olympic rifle shooter) who set the record for offhand at 200 yards at the Nationals back in 1971. 200-15X with a Win. 70 in .308 Win. and Redfield Int'l metallic aperture sights. 15 shots in the 3" X-ring and the other 5 no more than half an inch or so out. That record still stands. I heard about it as I was there, too, so I looked him up that evening and congratulated him.

25 years later, I watched Corky Tyson set the 600 yard prone record at the Nationals with his M70 shooting .308 Remington cases with small rifle magnum primers starting 48 grains of IMR4350 under a Sierra 200-gr. HPMK. 200-19X in a group about 4 inches in diameter with one shot barely out of the X-ring; a 2/3 MOA group. He was lucky. When he got home and shot his next match, that barrel finally wore out and both it and he shot pretty bad.
 
good

I used to shoot 35,000 rimfire a year, 12,000 centerfire handgun, and about 15,000 shotgun a year.
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That is a lot of shooting. When did you sleep?

How good? Not nearly as good as a number of you - though hope springs eternal - and not nearly as good as I'd like to be. I generally shoot in the middle 80's offhand at 100 yards (I don't compete at HP....I keep planning.). I like smallbore prone and shoot that a lot a 100 yards - if I am careful and the wind gods are kind, I can shoot about two inches though a clean target has evaded me thus far.
With a hunting rifle and irons, I can usually put the first shot right where I am aiming.
Pete
 
Usually try to get close to the paper at 100 yards with all my guns off hand.

.44 Mag:

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Usually a little tighter when I use a longer barrel rifle or something.....usually can lay 'em under a dime with the 6.5 X 55 Swede rifle, but not with an original '73 Trapdoor...just hope to cover them with a dollar bill @ 100.
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Well, it's a fair question...

But, I don't think it is an accurate assessment to call someone a "GOOD" shooter because they do/do not meet your definition of that being limited to shooting offhand.

I would argue that a guy that can dope the wind, and hit an 8" gong at 1000 yards- off a bench or bipod- is every bit as "GOOD" a "shooter" as the guy that brags about his offhand shooting.

Different skill sets. One is not "better" than the other.
 
tobnpr:

I see a lot of guys discussing shooting off benches with bags, sleds, bipods, or some combination thereof. What happens when you take all that stuff away?
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That was the question, was it not? So take it all away and what do you have? Some use a fence post, some their knee, and some just stand and hold it to their shoulder. He also stated 100 yards too.
 
I'm re-answering the question. How good of a shooter am I?

Not good enough because there is always room for improvement
 
Quote:
I used to shoot 35,000 rimfire a year, 12,000 centerfire handgun, and about 15,000 shotgun a year.

That is a lot of shooting. When did you sleep?
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, there are quite a few shooters who shoot much more than that (paid professionals). The rimfire number is accurate, that's seven cases which equals 70 bricks of ammo. I shot around three fourths of a brick every other day and alternated with centerfire. The shotgun number is a little high. I checked back and the actual number is around 13,000 a year (sporting clays on Sat, Sun, and one week day year round). I was sponsored by a powder company and this helped pay for the cost. We had our own set of steel targets for Team Challenge on our own range. It was close to where I lived and I shot every day except from mid-Dec to the end of Jan.
 
The first post you asked what we used to hit the target, and then you eliminated everything except position. I suppose that it did not matter to you, you just wanted a post. A steady rest helps no matter what we use.
 
While I wholeheartedly agree with getting off the bench and learning to shoot, the OP leaves me a little put off. If you shoot benchrest, use a bench. If you are a varmint hunter or tactical marksman, you are likely to employ a bipod in the real world. Shoot 3P or Highpower, you probably find a sling essential. Hump everywhere? Chances are there is a pack with you, use it. Why is there a desire to handicap the shooter based on what ancillary equipment they use? Is that not as arbitrary as specifying what scope or sights they can use? What if they don't like your scope?

I've shot 185/200 at 1000 yards with iron sight, so while I don't suck, I'm not great.

I've shot a little 5 shot bug hole off a bipod at 100 yards, proving in my mind exactly nothing except that my scope wasn't loose.

I realize re-reading that Bart B. was/is great. Holy hell!
 
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No, igloo, i did not ask what you used to hit the target. I mentioned what is generally used and then eliminated it as relevant to my question. This is a quote from my first post:

I see a lot of guys discussing shooting off benches with bags, sleds, bipods, or some combination thereof. What happens when you take all that stuff away? Whatever position works best for you but just you, your rifle, a target at 100 yards, and five shots.

Of course its an arbitrary set of guidelines. Its an arbitrary thread but I wasn't ambiguous when asking. If you can't or don't shoot without those things that's fine but no need to become defensive about it. I can't shoot like many of these guys but its fun to try to improve. I drink too much coffee and chew too much Copenhagen to shoot much less than moa from any position.
My only intent with this thread was to see how well real people shoot. All we ever discuss is how well this gun or that gun shoots. I wasn't trying to stir up a hornets nest so i guess you may have read too deeply into what I was asking.
 
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