Better ammo,lower mounts,better trigger will all help.We all gotta start somewhere,and trying to improve is something that never ends.Maybe buddy up with somebody who has some more experience.My ego used to keep me from asking for help,but I've found it's good to keep learning no matter what the endeavor.
Do I suck at shooting?
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plexreticle
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Shooting off a rest is more of a test of the equipment than the shooter.
Decent ammo makes a huge difference. Someone suggested Black Hills, that's where I would start.
Decent ammo makes a huge difference. Someone suggested Black Hills, that's where I would start.
Lincoln4
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The least expensive route, and one that will rapidly point the finger of blame at either you, or your equipment or ammo is to get a good rest (and keep the barrel off of it) and then....
Have someone else load Snap-Caps into your weapon (or maybe not!), alternated with live rounds. Concentrate on your sight picture, not knowing if the gun will go bang, or not. Press the trigger, until you either get a bang, or a click. If it's a click, you will see if you are moving the point of impact with your trigger press or a flinch. If your sight picture stays dead on consistently, you know you are ok. And that will answer your question of "Do I suck at shooting".
If you do suck, practice using the snap caps should pull you out of the suckage zone! Worked wonders for me when I was a new shooter, and I now use them with my kids. Good luck!
Have someone else load Snap-Caps into your weapon (or maybe not!), alternated with live rounds. Concentrate on your sight picture, not knowing if the gun will go bang, or not. Press the trigger, until you either get a bang, or a click. If it's a click, you will see if you are moving the point of impact with your trigger press or a flinch. If your sight picture stays dead on consistently, you know you are ok. And that will answer your question of "Do I suck at shooting".
If you do suck, practice using the snap caps should pull you out of the suckage zone! Worked wonders for me when I was a new shooter, and I now use them with my kids. Good luck!
Letting another person shoot it is a good start.
Also to make a snap cap. Take a spent casing, and knock out the primer with a screwdriver, ice pick, or something like that. Then put an erasure from a pencil into the primer pocket.
As far as practice goes, well, a penny on the end of a barrel is better than a laser for trigger control. Also, it is a lot cheaper.
Skip the Remington fodder, and get the Black Hills 55 grain soft points (Blue box or Red box). I am telling you the stuff shoots like a laser in every rifle I have shot it out of.
Also to make a snap cap. Take a spent casing, and knock out the primer with a screwdriver, ice pick, or something like that. Then put an erasure from a pencil into the primer pocket.
As far as practice goes, well, a penny on the end of a barrel is better than a laser for trigger control. Also, it is a lot cheaper.
Skip the Remington fodder, and get the Black Hills 55 grain soft points (Blue box or Red box). I am telling you the stuff shoots like a laser in every rifle I have shot it out of.
The Stevens that I had would only shoot about 1.5" at 100 yards with it's favorite handloads. I tried a bunch and even with a better stock it simply wouldn't shoot anything better. I would put a bit of the group size as issue of the ammo used. I'd say how the rifle is being set on the rest is part of the issue and the trigger could play a part. There may be some of it to blame on the shooter, but it's hard to say without having a shooter of known quality try the setup out. If we knew what a good shooter could do with the same setup/ammo then you can quickly see the difference that is shooter induced rather than question the setup.
sixgunner455
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What Bushnell scope? Even if it's a cheap one that came with the rifle, it should work, but if it came with the rifle, it should have come in rings low enough to use. If not, your sighting system could could make getting a consistent sight picture difficult enough to contribute any number of fliers.
I haven't shot any of the Hornady Steel Match, but from what I understand, it's intended for the volume shooter using a semi auto, not the precision shooter wanting little groups, so try some ammo that's loaded for precision.
Can you try it at longer ranges? Issues are magnified by distance, so taking it out to 100 yards or more can help show what the problems, if any, might be.
I haven't shot any of the Hornady Steel Match, but from what I understand, it's intended for the volume shooter using a semi auto, not the precision shooter wanting little groups, so try some ammo that's loaded for precision.
Can you try it at longer ranges? Issues are magnified by distance, so taking it out to 100 yards or more can help show what the problems, if any, might be.
BCRider
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On the laser option.
A while back I found a small flex head LED flashight that came with a red spot laser "cat toy" in the other end. Price was a whopping great $1.89 or something like that. I bought two.
The flex head is superb for lighting up barrels for inspections and the laser, when not amusing the cat, would be easy to set up for this sort of trigger pull dry fire practice. The whole thing is not much bigger than a basic ball point. So it does double duty by coming along to gun shows with me to act as a bore inspection light.
Balancing a penny on the end of the barrel would be good too. But if you're alone then just trying to put the penny out there and then get your hold and all without it falling off would likely try the patience of Job hisself.... For this sort of dry fire trigger control practice I like the idea of the laser far better.
Note that the best results will be seen when the laser spot it out a good 5 yards or more away to magnify any shudder or pulling. Down in the basement aimed across the whole length of the house at one of the concrete foundations is perfect.
As for your shooting given the description of what you've got, how it's set up and the ammo you're shooting I'd say you're actually doing better than what I'd expect. You've got so many things working against you with that overall setup that it's not funny. Correcting all the aspects you've already read about will make for a huge change. Just using a soft rice or barley bag up front will help a lot. And some rear support of some form is another key along with modifying something to attain a better cheek weld.
A trick I was taught for bench shooting with only a forearm bag is to set up the forearm bag such that you can put your weak hand back under your arm pit of the strong hand. Making a fist with the weak hand and using that as a sort of variable rear support works not too badly.
A while back I found a small flex head LED flashight that came with a red spot laser "cat toy" in the other end. Price was a whopping great $1.89 or something like that. I bought two.
The flex head is superb for lighting up barrels for inspections and the laser, when not amusing the cat, would be easy to set up for this sort of trigger pull dry fire practice. The whole thing is not much bigger than a basic ball point. So it does double duty by coming along to gun shows with me to act as a bore inspection light.
Balancing a penny on the end of the barrel would be good too. But if you're alone then just trying to put the penny out there and then get your hold and all without it falling off would likely try the patience of Job hisself....
For this sort of dry fire trigger control practice I like the idea of the laser far better.Note that the best results will be seen when the laser spot it out a good 5 yards or more away to magnify any shudder or pulling. Down in the basement aimed across the whole length of the house at one of the concrete foundations is perfect.
As for your shooting given the description of what you've got, how it's set up and the ammo you're shooting I'd say you're actually doing better than what I'd expect. You've got so many things working against you with that overall setup that it's not funny. Correcting all the aspects you've already read about will make for a huge change. Just using a soft rice or barley bag up front will help a lot. And some rear support of some form is another key along with modifying something to attain a better cheek weld.
A trick I was taught for bench shooting with only a forearm bag is to set up the forearm bag such that you can put your weak hand back under your arm pit of the strong hand. Making a fist with the weak hand and using that as a sort of variable rear support works not too badly.
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