How to improve MY accuracy?

[qajaq59]

You'll do fine eventually. Especially if you follow all the advice in here. Several, well really a lot of years ago, I wanted to get real good with my 30-30 lever and did just about everything that has been listed here. I found one of the best things was to have the range officer, who was a really good shot, watch me shoot occasionally. If I started to get into a bad habit he would spot it immediately and could correct me. It is very difficult to catch your own mistakes. However the best thing you have going for you is that you want to learn how to do it right. That usually breeds a winner!

 

[panrobercik]

Since nobody said this ,I'm going to add my 5 cents.
Breathing is best done through your nose, not mouth. Slow deep breath through your nose supplies lots of oxygen to your brain and forces you to relax your whole body.

 

[falldowngoboom]

I just have a few things to add, that I don't think were covered (or maybe just missed):

1. Figure out how accurate YOUR rife is. Not sure that's something you mentioned... How can you know if you're shooting poorly if you don't know what your rifle can or can't do? See if you can borrow a gun vise from someone and very carefully line up everything exactly the way you think it should be and do some 5-shot groups. (Make sure the vise doesn't clamp down too hard on the forend of the stock. Snug is plenty.) This is your baseline. If you're shooting 4 MOA, but the rifle shoots 3 MOA, you're not doing as bad as you think.

2. The trigger makes a HUGE difference. The difference between a 5-6lb. trigger pull and a 2lb. one is tremendous. That said, getting good at shooting a heavy trigger will make you better when you use a light one.

3. I found that shooting in various positions actually improved my ability to shoot from a bench. Similarly, shooting off-hand improved my ability to shoot while sitting. Basically, by making things harder on yourself, you get better when things are easier.

 

[wade rigsby]

i think that shooting a bb gun taught me a lot of the fundamentals for shooting. I still shoot pellet guns in the back yard. I learn a lot about what I am doing wrong when I shoot pellet.
A lever gun is not a great gun to be shooting off the block due to the fact that you have to lift the gun out of position to eject the spent round. now you have to get the gun back in the right position to aim and shoot again. You are starting all over at settling in. but if the lever gun is the way you want to go then plink away. You breathing will through you off. I agree with ROB. Do not hold you breath. You loose o2 to your muscles and eyes and then you start to shake. Remember small movements at the bench are large at the target. Keep you feet under you as to stabilize your position. I see that you are using a sand bag in the front, do you have one in the rear. If not, get one. Do not rely on your body to keep the rifle in position when you can prop it up. Maneuver the rear bag fore and aft to change the line of site of the barrel. Most newbies make the mistake of aiming at the X. aim under it and adjust the site for a bullet impact on the X. this will insure you are aiming at the same point vise aiming where the bullet hit. Your target can fool you when ironing at 100. take a paper bag to the range and just use a marker to color a 1 inch dot on it. Always aim at the bottom of the dot regardless of where the bullet impacts. There is nothing you can do about shots fired only about the shots coming up. This is just some basic stuff my dad taught me I hope it helps you. There are many different ways to shoot. When you find your way share it with us all, it will only make us all better shooters. Keep shooting. And teach others to shoot.