What is Accurate/Precise Offhand Shooting?

About the military marksmen, I really think that precision, offhand open sight shooting isn't really something they do much of. The best Olympic shooters in the world would probably have trouble with marksmanship tests for the military without some serious practice. From what I understand, it's a 40 round test firing from a variety of different positions at randomly appearing targets from 25 to 300 meters outside in the wind.
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Don't bet on it. I've taken Collage International Small bore shooters to the High Power Range and the 40 shot pop up range, letting them fire the course of fire with (then) M14s on the HP range and M16s on the qualification range. These kids smoke the average military shooter big time, and do quite well off hand.

When I ran the AK NG Marksmanship I always got these kids out hopping to recruit for the Guard and My Rifle team.

ISU shooters shoot 300 meters, where the target scoring rings are much smaller requiring precise wind est. The shot three position, Standing, Prone and Knelling. They have zero problems adjusting to the field conditions used in the Qualification Course.

Granted, some of the smaller kids had difficulty with the recoil of the M14, but that went out the window when people started using ARs in High Power.

When it comes to pure fundamentals its hard to beat International Shooting.
 
Off hand target practice is the best way to target shoot. I hate using rests. Off hand I shoot at a revolving steel target, I think it's 6 inches. With my .45 Colt rifle, without a scope, I shoot at it at around 75 yards. At 100 the sights start covering up too much and it's a bit of a guessing game. I haven't went to the range in awhile but I'm wanting to get better. I took the gun deer hunting 2 years ago, I missed by a couple of inches grazing a tree. If I had been to the left another inch I would've got a decent chest shot. It was around a 150 yard shot. I also have a .45-70 rifle, without a scope, I'm wanting to get better with. I'm not comfortable with more than a 100 yard shot at the moment. If I hand loaded, I would use a ret for testing, but as of this moment I only use a rest to sight in my scopes. But in my mind target shooting should simulate the real thing, much more fun off hand. There's a 200 yard range locally but it's always full every time I've tried going to that one. I'd like to try 10 inch at 200 yards with no scope.
I second using clays for rifle targets. I use my own for shotguns but when I find some on unbroken on the range I'll shoot them with my rifle. When I was a kid I shot one with a .22 at 100 yards with no scope first try. It was pure luck but I'll never forget it.
 
What is Accurate/Precise Offhand Shooting

Many years ago I read an article that stated if one can keep his shots on a 9" paper plate at 100 yards off hand only, he/she was a very good shot! That was over 20 years ago with a different type of accuracy in rifles/bullets/optics, etc. Try it sometime.
 
A really good offhand marksman can sight in a rifle with one shot; assuming an accurate rifle and ammo, naturally. And that bullet hole can be anywhere on the target. So could the call for it.
 
I don't know what the USMC currently uses for it's qual course (two methods that I know of over the years), but the one I'm most familiar with has an able target with a 12" bullseye that you try to hit standing at 200 yards. You get 5 shots standing, 5 kneeling, and 5 sitting. Most everyone hits all 5 sitting, most if not all kneeling, but standing is hit and miss. Hitting that 12" target at 200 yards is no joke. I went 5 of 5 one time, but still missed company high shooter. Then the last time I qualified, I was the company high shooter with a 239 and I only hit 3 of them (one miss in the three ring). I dropped a few points there, a few points at the 200 and 300 kneeling (kneeling was never my strong suit and that 12" able target gets small at 300), and one at the 500 from wind. Not all Marines are crack shots, but a Marine infantry company usually is a pretty decent concentration of competent shooters just because of the sheer number of training rounds fired through the course of a year. Not very many could hit a 12" bull 5 of 5 times at 200 yards. That would be my standard of very good off-hand shooting.
 
5whisky, I think that old able target you mentioned was the century old military "A" target that was used by USA armed forces as well as the NRA high power competitions since the early 1900's until 1966. It had a 12" five ring, 24" four ring and a 36" three ring. A 4" V ring was added to use as a tie-breaker. It was used at 200 yards for standing slow fire and sitting rapid fire and at 300 yards for.

There was also a "B" 'baker' target for use at 500 and 600 yards with a 12" V ring, 20" five ring, 40" four ring and a 60" 3 ring. The "C" or 'charlie' target was used at 800 to 1000 yards and had a 20" V ring, 36" 5 ring, a 54" four ring with the rest of the 72" square target scoring 3 points. Prior to the 1920's when the 172-gr. FMJBT bullet became the standard service round that bucked the wind a lot better, there were two 24" wide panels on each side worth 2 points. 150-gr. ball ammo needed that extra wide target in the wind.

The standard course of fire when I went into the service in 1956 was 10 shots standing slow fire then 10 shot rapid fire in 50 seconds sitting all at 200 yards. 10 shots rapid fire prone at 300 yards then 20 shots slow fire at 500 or 600 yards. A perfect score (or 'clean' as it was called) was 250 points for those 50 shots. So your excellent score of 239 was way up at the top on the score board. Especially when the average service grade Garand shot about 4 to 5 inches at 200 yards.
 
Bart, that is the able target. Qualification (at least for USMC) also uses the half-man dog target and a "full man" target for the 500. Soo... 239 isn't shooting at the able target during the entire course of fire. I'm not that good ;). It is 239 out of 250, so I guess I'm not a chump either. The able target is still in use for qualification, or at least it was up until 7 years ago. I still insist that hitting the bull standing from 200 consistently is nothing to sneeze at. I was pretty decent at it but haven't shot that course of fire, or 200 yard targets standing period, in a while now.

I think the biggest improvement made over the years is the fact that a rack grade rifle these days are capable of near 1 moa. And Acogs are now allowed for qualification. I would have to assume that scores took a pretty good leap up in general when they allowed the use of the Acog.
 
If I can hit a jack rabbit taking off then I'm happy. I have shot them with my 10-22, 17hmr, 336 marlin , ar, and my 22-250 ( jack rabbits are considered varmint here) with the first 3 rifle it is easier because they are so light, where it us more of a chalenge is with my 22-250 because it is much heavier (about 14 lbs)
 
Hi ckpj,
Get ahold of a semi auto .22 for practice and head out to an Appleseed shoot. There is a lot of great info to be had there. Be prepared for an all day event and have plenty of ammo available. There are regular prep lists for Appleseed shoots. Check it out.
Best,
Rob
 
Inaccurate/Imprecise Rapid-Fire Offhand Shooting?

This is an example of the opposite of this thread's title......

One summer at the US Naval Station, Annapolis, MD's rifle range where the USN Rifle Team was prepping for the Interservice and National Matches, all 16 of us were on the 300 yard firing line waiting to shoot a rapid fire prone string. Our Garands were loaded with 2 rounds and 8 more clipped up ready to reload. As the Range Officer ended his commands with "All ready on the firing line" and we waited for the targets to appear then lay down in prone to shoot, things changed.

A rabbit walked onto the 200 yard firing line low end, 100 yards in front of us. The Range Officer, an ex 8" gun turret captain on a heavy cruiser voiced into his microphone:

"Check fire. Enemy target observed; standby for action"

"Surface action 4 points off the port bow, range 100 yards. All guns, two rounds, full charge, fuse quick; commence fire!!"

So we opened fire on that little bunny rabbit starting at the low end of the line. It took off towards the high end of the firing line as 32 rounds were fired. They struck the ground all around it as it hopped and jumped in all angles running as fast as it could to the other end of the firing line. As the last man at the high end fired his last shot and the rabbit disappeared into the tree line to the right, the Range Officer shouted:

"Cease fire. All gun captains report gun action." Then each man in turn sounded off: "Bore clear, two rounds expended, no casualties."

Then the Range Officer exclaimed: "All gun captains hang your heads in shame then report to the Commanding Officers cabin for your reprimand for the worst example off offhand marksmanship the Navy's ever produced!!!"
 
I don't often shoot targets offhand with my centerfires, but shoot 10" gongs at 200 meters once in a while, hitting 2 out of 3 on good days.

We shoot offhand indoors at 50 feet and I use 5/8" bulk mailing dots on light cardboard. Using my Rem 581 with the scope at 8X, I average 9 out of 10 hits on a good night, many of which are near dot-center. I'm not as steady as I was when younger, but am satisfied with that level of shooting at 70 yrs old.

People don't often document their misses, but remember the hits. My philosophy is that you can't hit if you don't shoot. Made some pretty incredible shots on varmints and game over the years, but can't seem to remember many misses. :)
 
ckpj99..that card is the best shot target I've seen, except for my own of course, a lovely thing done well. You have arrived.
 
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