Nightcrawler
Member
Glad I was by myself, too. Simply embarrasing. Had to readjust the sights on my FAL, but I was hitting center of mass on a human sillouette target at 200 yards (that's as far as the range goes). I tried firing at 100 and 200 yards offhand...yikes, you notice the weight then, don't you? Hard to keep the sights on target, with an 11lb rifle. It's funny, too, cause I remember a few battle drills in the Guards where I snapped my 20lb SAW to the shoudler and fired off a burst (blanks). Didn't notice the weight at all. But that's when the adrenaline's flowing; when you're calm, little things bug you.
Speaking of bugs, it's bug season here in Upper Michigan. I had a little fan club that followed me back and forth from the 200 yard line. The muzzle blast from my FAL's muzzle brake scattered the little suckers, but they always regrouped and came back.
With my CZ-97 I did especially bad. Was kind of shaky; was hitting the target, but wasn't getting "groups" as most High Roaders would consider them.
In my own defense, as I type this I have been awake for almost 24 hours, and that might have affected my performance a bit. But I've come to realize something.
I suck. With pistol, anyway. With rifle I'd put myself in the mediocre category.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, nor am I at all suprised. I've only been shooting handguns for a year now; according to my psychology book, it takes ten years of training to become an "expert" in anything, so I've got a ways to go. Rifle...well, I'm mostly rusty. I don't go shooting often enough. And I've only been doing THAT regularly for since last February.
Which is why my poor performance isn't a bad thing. It means I need practice. Practice means more shooting, and lots of shooting means lots of fun, right? Right.
One thing I should try is to shoot a "group" like everyone else likes too. I need different targets, though. I usually use dark-silouhette-on-light-background targets. I just align the front sight post where it naturally wants to fall, about center of mass, and squeeze the trigger. At least out to 200 yards, I almost always hit the target, but the holes are in a cluster around the center of mass, not nice 3" or 4" groups (at 200 yards) (I tend to fire in twenty round strings, too...).
I once had a scope on my FAL, and found it capable of about 2MOA if I did my part, off the bench, at 100 yards...but I no longer have that scope on there. For one, the mount adds another pound of weight, and for another, I consider it cheating. I'm not good enough with the irons, as I see it, and using a scope isn't going to make me any better with them.
So, it's not the rifle, it's me. That's good, because I can get better. I just need to hit the range more often, and set some goals for myself. I currently only have access to a 200 yard range, (that may change, there's another one around here I'm going to look in to) so I need to work within those perameters.
My goal? To be able to get 20 rounds (out of my FAL) into a sheet of notebook paper at 200 yards, offhand, with the iron sights. That's going to require some conditioning as well as practice. More arm strength will help me wield that beast a little better, no doubt.
For handguns, I mostly need to work on my form. I'm confident I can hit a human sized target out to 50 yards with my .45, out to 100 yards with my .41 Magnum, but my follow up shots are slow (or when they're fast, they're very inaccurate).
So, it looks like I've got some plans for this summer. Thanks for reading this long, rambling post! If you're mad at me that you had to read all of this, I have only one thing to say: you read it! You can't un-read it! [nelson]HA-ha![/nelson]
Speaking of bugs, it's bug season here in Upper Michigan. I had a little fan club that followed me back and forth from the 200 yard line. The muzzle blast from my FAL's muzzle brake scattered the little suckers, but they always regrouped and came back.
With my CZ-97 I did especially bad. Was kind of shaky; was hitting the target, but wasn't getting "groups" as most High Roaders would consider them.
In my own defense, as I type this I have been awake for almost 24 hours, and that might have affected my performance a bit. But I've come to realize something.
I suck. With pistol, anyway. With rifle I'd put myself in the mediocre category.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, nor am I at all suprised. I've only been shooting handguns for a year now; according to my psychology book, it takes ten years of training to become an "expert" in anything, so I've got a ways to go. Rifle...well, I'm mostly rusty. I don't go shooting often enough. And I've only been doing THAT regularly for since last February.
Which is why my poor performance isn't a bad thing. It means I need practice. Practice means more shooting, and lots of shooting means lots of fun, right? Right.
One thing I should try is to shoot a "group" like everyone else likes too. I need different targets, though. I usually use dark-silouhette-on-light-background targets. I just align the front sight post where it naturally wants to fall, about center of mass, and squeeze the trigger. At least out to 200 yards, I almost always hit the target, but the holes are in a cluster around the center of mass, not nice 3" or 4" groups (at 200 yards) (I tend to fire in twenty round strings, too...).
I once had a scope on my FAL, and found it capable of about 2MOA if I did my part, off the bench, at 100 yards...but I no longer have that scope on there. For one, the mount adds another pound of weight, and for another, I consider it cheating. I'm not good enough with the irons, as I see it, and using a scope isn't going to make me any better with them.
So, it's not the rifle, it's me. That's good, because I can get better. I just need to hit the range more often, and set some goals for myself. I currently only have access to a 200 yard range, (that may change, there's another one around here I'm going to look in to) so I need to work within those perameters.
My goal? To be able to get 20 rounds (out of my FAL) into a sheet of notebook paper at 200 yards, offhand, with the iron sights. That's going to require some conditioning as well as practice. More arm strength will help me wield that beast a little better, no doubt.
For handguns, I mostly need to work on my form. I'm confident I can hit a human sized target out to 50 yards with my .45, out to 100 yards with my .41 Magnum, but my follow up shots are slow (or when they're fast, they're very inaccurate).
So, it looks like I've got some plans for this summer. Thanks for reading this long, rambling post! If you're mad at me that you had to read all of this, I have only one thing to say: you read it! You can't un-read it! [nelson]HA-ha![/nelson]
