OAUSA Net - July 29, 2021 - Improve Your Shooting Skills

[Geoff]

Please check me in.

[KM6OJB]

This is KM6OJB please check me in
Thanks
Joe

[AK6DH]

Please check in: David - AK6DH.

[ag6if]

Highly recommend Mantis..it has helped me alot. 73 AG6IF
From low-ready, blue line, shows bringing firearm up to target, yellow line
shows beginning of trigger press, and X shows the where the shot breaks, and
the red shows what the muzzle does after the break,.

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Im right handed, too much trigger finger pulls shots left.
This software knows all of my faults and gives alot of information
on what to do to fix it.

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[lrsrngr]

KK6CTT requesting an online check-in for the 08/05/21 net. Thank you.

How about America's Rifle; commonly referred to the AR platform? There was a program that the NRA started and it was running really strong until several issues surfaced this past 1+ year.

If you are interested in the published guidebook: https://arc.nra.org/media/4093/ar-chall ... lowres.pdf

Ken Takahashi from Forward Assist said, "We're looking to see what comes out the NRA Convention this year [2021]. There should be new material relating to modified courses and round counts based on the ammunition shortage." https://forwardassistt.com/nra-arc-l1-match

This is a great way to familiarize yourself with the world of "defensive rifle" techniques. An introduction to a platform that really is a sound tool to have in your toolbox but even better still, it is a chance to become the craftsman that can "run and gun" effectively. The "Challenge" provides the Talk, Walk and Crawl" phases.

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America's Rifle Challenge (Shooting clinic)

• Attendees learn modern defensive shooting skills with their own firearms and gear and experience shooting in multiple firing positions including from behind barricades at varying distances. The AR Challenge is a moderately physical program, requiring the shooters to be able to gain safe shooting positions of standing, kneeling/sitting and prone.

• A friend I've been watching progress through this discipline said, "I didn't have any experience and I didn't think I could compete with others, but then I was doing it..."

In the Challenge it is as simple as explaining why stance and shooter posture is important.

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America's Rifle Match Level I (Basic Match)

• Intended for AR owners who are not experienced in action rifle competitions. Shooters will use basic defensive positions at a slow pace to test technique and accuracy. This is a moderate physical activity competing at distances of up to 100 yards and in different firing positions.

America's Rifle Match Level 2 (Advance Match)

• Intended for experienced competitive shooters. Competitors will be required to change firing positions, move through multiple firing points and reload against the clock.

Some of the skills you will learn/flex:
o Position changes:

• There shall be stages designed so that the competitor will move, against the clock, from a standing position into a kneeling position, from a kneeling position into a prone position, and from a standing position into a prone position. This may be achieved by target, barricade, and firing line placement; by limiting the number of rounds loaded into the first magazine; by mandating the firing position used at the beginning of the stage; and by other means.

Adapting to your environment and learning to make use of cover and concealment becomes an added benefit of being provided a chance to experience the use of new technical skills at the range. It doesn't seem significant but the discipline of using every tool to your advantage provides an "edge."

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o Shots fired from the support shoulder (10% of the course)

• Shooting from the support side in all shooting disciplines is an art unto itself.

o Reload in conjunction with position shooting

• CA shooters really have to deal with and practice with their "featureless" vs. "fixed mag" solutions. This adds a few more variables to the mix.

o Distances

• Range rules permitting, matches that have a maximum distance of 100 yards shall have shots fired at 100, 40-70, 15-35, and 7-10 yards, those with a maximum distance of 50 yards shall have shots fired at 50, 15-35, and 7-10 yards, and targets may also be placed at other distances.

o Targets: Vary from bullseye to A-zone and shoot/no-shoot
o Round Counts: Can vary from one event to the next to include single hits on steel to several hits on paper based on scenario while the timer is running
o Moving Targets
o Rules for hits on no-shoot targets
o Use of barricades

Running several different positions from the barricade will test your patience with all that "stuff" you might have on your rifle to include your waist, pockets and your physical ability and flexibility. There's nothing wrong with gaining a realistic understanding of your limitations.

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o Walk through and procedural penalties

Equipment:
Iron sights, optics, bring what you've got and see if it works for you in the practical application
Slings:

• Any sling used must allow the competitor to keep the rifle pointed in a safe direction at all times, and allow for safe and efficient loading, reloading, unloading, and clearing of malfunctions. Other than in a Basic Match, a sling may be used in “hasty” fashion in any stage, but it must be free of the support arm until time begins.

Safety, throughout all events, is woven into all facets of the training and matches. This includes the "high-speed, low-drag equipment you might have thought good for your load-out. This is definitely a way to fine tune all that molle, keylok, m-lok and picatinny gear you have found so convenient to affix/mount gear. Sometimes, in my experience, it becomes necessary to shave off the weight and complexity and return to basics.

This still leaves many things to experience and that is low light environments, transition shooting (rifle/pistol/shotgun), buddy team shooting, close quarter techniques (sight over bore line), force on force, stress...

[DaveK]

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Well, I thought I'd sneak this product in, given the topic for the net this week. I suppose, with a little bit of stretching, this would qualify, so here it is. Last week I mentioned Jeff Cooper and his Gunsite Academy as one part of the overall approaches to improving shooting skills, and in that context, I felt that it would be appropriate to now mention one of Cooper's books that can serve that objective as well. The book is probably one of his more well known, and was, at least at one point in time, published by GUNSITE Press. Today, it is still available at the Gunsite Proshop, either at the Gunsite Academy or online (https://www.gunsitestore.com/product/li ... ard-cover/) While available elsewhere, consider purchasing the book from Gunsite, a well known supporter of the Second Amendment. The book is entitled, "To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth," and contains 367 pages of sage advice on shooting skills, and some very entertaining stories.

The book was Cooper's second of his anthologies, and, despite the title, the book is concerned almost entirely with shooting. Topics covered range from the technical aspects of shooting to the how and why of marksmanship. For those looking for ways to improve your shooting skills, this book should be in your library, but only after you have read it. Putting the advice to good use is also probably a good idea.

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[KA9WDX]

Check in please - Thanks - Bernie

I was always a pretty good shot, even though I was born Left handed and was taught everything Right handed, like writing for example, so some things I can do with either hand, and during one two-week period of time, back around 6th Grade or so, either before or after 6th Grade, not sure which, during the Summer, I was at camp, and we had this BB gun range set up, and I got the highest marks one week, and another guy got the highest marks the other week, and I even impressed my younger brother by being able to shoot the heads off of dandelions that were in the front yard...LOL....He couldn't believe that I could do it but I could...and he got a real kick out of it...now days they won't allow a person to shoot in their yard in the city like they used to allow you to do.

Anyway, to help me out, to get the best results with shooting with a pistol, I taught myself to slowly squeeze the trigger, and not just pull the trigger, and I wouldn't even really know exactly when the gun would go off, I would just keep aiming, and the gun would go off sometimes right when I thought that it would go off, but other times it would go off slightly before I thought that the gun would go off, and sometimes the gun would go off slightly after I thought that the gun would go off....It would sometimes be a split second difference between the time I thought the gun would go off, and when the gun actually would go off, but if I'd pull the trigger, then sometimes I would actually slightly move the pistol, so even though I knew when the gun would go off, and even though I'd still hit the target, sometimes the bullet would hit the target in a slightly different spot when pulling the trigger.

I'd also stop breathing briefly when shooting with a rifle, like I would take aim, then I'd hold my breath when slightly squeezing the trigger, as if I kept breathing, then it seemed harder, or more difficult, to keep the rifle steady or to keep holding the rifle steady.

I haven't shot a pistol or a rifle in a long time...seemingly long time anyway...and I no longer have the Winchester Model 94, lever action, 30/30, that I used for deer hunting, sold it when I needed money and wasn't hunting deer anymore anyway, or the Mossberg 16 gauge shotgun that was stolen on me, which had a cracked stock, which needed fixing, etc, and all I have right now is an old, Mossberg, Model 152, .22 long rifle only, that my grandfather gave me as a birthday gift when I was a teenager, otherwise I no longer have any other guns. The Model 152 was one of the earlier ones also, as it has the wooden, hinged, fold down/up, hand grip, as the later models had the Black plastic hand grip, so in about 27 years or so, it'll be around 100 years old or so, as I guess they were manufactured somewhere between 1948 and 1952 or so I think, so it's an antique to me.

[Diesel4x]

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Randy KF6KOC
Becky KF6RGR

Thank you!

[Geoff]

Please check me in tonight.

[Jeff-OAUSA]

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WD6USA