king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Hunting Illustrated April/May 2008 - Index

As you may have heard me
mention in previous articles,
I am a member of the Air
National Guard and, as such, have
had the opportunity to play with
their guns. Most recently, I have
had the opportunity to participate in
the National Guard Marksmanship
program. This program is designed to
enhance basic marksmanship skills in
both rifl e and pistol shooting through
training and competition - and that is
exactly what it does.
I spent a good deal of time
last summer practicing and competing
with some of the fi nest shooters in the
Utah Guard, both Army and Air Force,
and learned a great deal from them. I
would like to share some of the things
I learned, and some of the advice I
received, in the hopes of helping you
become a better shooter. Perhaps this
advice will help you get involved in
competition shooting.
From day one, the most
stressed themes of all the training
classes were the fundamentals.
They are the same for both rifl e and
pistol shooting. Stance, grip, sight
alignment and breath control. Lose
28 HUNTING ILLUSTRATED.com
SHOOTING
Back to Basics
Fundamentals, fun and friends make
competition shooting a blast!
any one of these fundamentals and your
shot isn’t going to go where you want it
to. Simple, right? Hah! We all know
that if it were that simple there wouldn’t
be a missed shot, ever. When you are
hunting, you have the added pressure of
buck fever, wind, cold, heat and gloves.
In competition, you have the pressure of
the dreaded clock. Suddenly, those basic
fundamentals aren’t so easy to reproduce.
That’s where practice comes in. A lot
of it. If you can make the fundamentals
second nature, all the other things will
have a smaller effect on your shooting.
So, let’s talk for a minute about the
fundamentals and what they are. While
the descriptions that follow are geared
toward pistol shooting, they apply to rifl e
shooting as well.
Stance. Your stance must
be steady and comfortable. There are
several popular styles including isosceles
and Weaver, but any stable, comfortable
position will do. I use a combination of
the two that is most comfortable for me.
Do a little experimenting and you’ll fi nd
what works best for you. Unless you are
competing in a bull’s-eye competition,
you should use both hands. In the
Weaver stance, you can use your weak
5GUNS/OPTICS5
Bry Buttars
hand to pull back while pushing
forward with your strong hand. This
is called isometric tension and greatly
aids in rapid shooting, shooting a
heavy-recoiling handgun, and proper
stability. A great, inexpensive way to
practice this is with a .22 pistol. Just
remember to do it the same way every
time! Practicing with a bad technique
just teaches you bad technique!
Grip. Believe it or not, many
people do not think about how to grip
a handgun. For auto pistols especially,
the grip makes a big difference. If
the gun is gripped differently each
time, the gun will shoot to a different
place. This is an easy fundamental to
lose when you are put under a time
constraint in competition. With your
fi ngers and thumb making an “L,”
place your strong hand as high up on
the grip as is comfortably possible. The
apex of the web of your hand should
be centered at the rearmost point of
the curve in the gun’s back strap. This
ensures that you are not gripping the
gun too far, or not far enough, around
the grip. The forefi nger should rest
naturally along the side of the frame
above the trigger and the other three
Regardless of where or what you are shooting, practicing key
fundamentals will make you a better shooter and successful hunter