I gave some advice that panned out well.

A

aarondhgraham

New member
In early spring of this year one of the students I work with inherited a bolt-action .22 rifle,,,
He was roomed up with another young man who has access to a pasture,,,
They went out and set up a small rifle range,,,
From point blanc to 100 yards I believe.

So like everyone else who gets into a new thing,,,
He immediately started thinking about accessories "to make him shoot better".

So he started reading on-line and was soon swept up,,,
Scopes, trigger kits, slings, and such like,,,
They all promised him better accuracy.

After several questions I told him I had the best accessory there was,,,
And because he was such a fine young man,,,
I would sell it to him for $50.00 even.

So the next day he came to work,,,
I handed him a binder with 50 targets I had printed out,,,
And a box with a pair of safety glasses, ear plugs, and 2 bricks of Mil-Surp .22 LR ammo.

I also gave him this URL to the Boy Scout manual on rifle shooting.

He was a bit puzzled as there was on scope or magic aiming device,,,
But he did listen when I explained that practice was "The Way",,,
And the best accessory was a lot of ammunition.

He gave me the $50.00 cash.

Soon after the Spring semester was over,,,
He went home for the summer.

He came back to work at the lab this last week,,,
The first thing he did was show me a target,,,
It was the last of the 50 I printed for him,,,
And the last 20 rounds of that ammo.

He said that this was shot slow, standing at 50 yards,,,
I measured the holes with a compass,,,
20 rounds all in the 3" ring.

I was so danged happy for the kid,,,
He took what I thought was my best advice,,,
Then put it into literal practice and learned to shoot.

His family lives in the country so he shot 25 rounds a day,,,
5 rounds to warm up and 20 rounds in practice.

He started with a folding chair, a card table, and sandbags,,,
That was his routine until he could hit a 1" circle every shot at 25 yards.

I had suggested that to him saying it would eliminate lots of variables,,,
He said it was what proved to him that the rifle itself was accurate.

Then he started shooting standing at 25 yards,,,
He said he only put 20 rounds in the 1" ring one time,,,
But as soon as he did that he felt he was ready to move to 50 yards.

So we went shooting at my rifle-pistol club this past Saturday,,,
That little pri,,, eerrr,,, fine young man,,,
Spanked me at the 50 yard range. :o

All this with a 60's vintage Mossberg 340 and iron sights.

I feel like Yoda. ;)

"No better accessory to your gun there is,,,
Than 1,000 rounds of ammunition."

Aarond

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awesome!!

he's likely a better shot than i am. i practice when i can, i'm getting better. stock pistols and lots of ammo.
 
Hello 1-DAB

...i'm getting better. stock pistols and lots of ammo.
Click to expand...

My point exactly.

$110.00 for 500 rounds of 9mm practice ammo,,,
Did more for my shooting than $1,100.00 of accessories would have.

The only magic bullets are the ones you practice with.

Aarond

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$110.00 for 500 rounds of 9mm practice ammo,,,
Did more for my shooting than $1,100.00 of accessories would have.
Click to expand...

I hate to admit it, but it's true (largely because it undermines my justification for TA: Toy Acquisition).

I bought an AR about a year ago and so far I have put 1100 rds through it and let me tell you that alone makes my wallet sing an octave higher. I haven't put a floating handguard on it, nor a Timney trigger. It is still stock.

I have gone from about 6MOA at 50m to just under 3MOA at 300m in that time. Now I regrettably don't expect the same improvement over the next 1000rds, but I should see my shooting be more consistent and hopefully speed up as I am still only shooting that well slowly.

I now need to apply that logic to my 9mm pistol too and my competition scores should improve somewhat.
 
Aarond, you done good!

And your line, "The only magic bullets are the ones you practice with." is worth quoting, often.
 
Best to learn with open sights before moving to scopes. I was never a very good shot with open sights with a rifle.

I guess now he needs to start getting different brands of 22LR and trying them out with the rifle.
 
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