TeflonTrout :bc: he/him@TeflonTrout@beige.party
Range Safety
This subject is near and dear to my heart. If you are in a public setting, learn and follow the rules of the range in addition to this guide, as I'm willing to bet they will be very similar.
1. ALL RULES REMAIN IN EFFECT AT ALL TIMES. The range is a place to relax, practice a difficult skill, and develop your awareness of your body. It is NOT a place to show off, roughhouse, or chemically alter your mind state. A calm mind is a safe mind.
2. At a range, your weapon should be pointed at the ground in the direction of the targets at all times. At no point should you allow your muzzle to aim at a person or piece of property that is not either the ground, or a target. Again: All weapons headed to or from the range must be cleared and pointed both downrange and at the ground a few feet away from you.
3. Make sure you have hearing and eye protection. Some people also like to shoot with gloves, but I leave that up to you. Eye/ear protection is not optional. “BUT TEFLON, in the real world you won't always have glasses and earmuffs!” You're right. Also, statistically, taking your weapon out in the wild is going to cause more problems than it solves, so maybe just go ahead and either wear eye/ear protection, or you can leave my range.
4. Listen to and obey directions given by range staff/class leaders at all times. Failure to do so can and should result in your immediate removal from the range. If you aren't prepared to do exactly as I say as soon as I say it, I am not prepared to take responsibility for training you.
5. NEVER LOAD YOUR WEAPON until you are ready to begin firing.
6. NEVER WALK ON THE RANGE unless an “ALL CLEAR” has been given, all weapons on the range have been confirmed clear, and permission is granted to move down range to the targets. DO NOT TOUCH ANY WEAPONS until ALL personnel have returned to the firing line.
7. WEAPON MALFUNCTION AT THE RANGE: Immediately clear the weapon. If you know how to do so safely, inspect your weapon for signs of a misfire, failure to eject, failure to feed, or a hang fire. I'll go into more depth on these issues in the “Marksmanship” section; meanwhile, if you are not confident in your ability to inspect the weapon, read your manual and study until you are BEFORE you ever load a single round. Once you are positive the weapon is in fully operational condition, resume firing. When done, clear the weapon, lock the slide to the rear, and place it on the table. If in a group setting, wait until everyone has completed firing. If it's a less formal range, you can come and go as you please so long as you follow the range's rules.
Follow these basics in addition with the basic safety measures I outlined before, and you'll have a safe, happy, productive target session.
TeflonTrout :bc: he/him@TeflonTrout@beige.party
MARKSMANSHIP
OK! From here on out, adult rules apply. The previous sections should be blazed firmly into your minds.
THE FOUR FUNDAMENTALS
Steady Position
Sight Picture
Breathing
Trigger Squeeze
Steady Position: This will vary depending on your weapon and your own body. With a pistol, place the back of the grip firmly into the meaty part of your dominant palm, wrap your middle through pinky fingers around the front as far as you can, and with your off hand, wrap up your dominant hand's fingers, and as much as the outside of the palm as you can. Your index finger will rest on the frame, pointing at the target until you are ready to fire. Pictures when I can get them will do a much better job of describing this, so just do what feels most comfortable to you. The goal is to have a firm-but not tight- grip, with as little slack in the meat of your hands as possible. Everything should be nice and compressed, loose enough to hold the weapon indefinitely, but tight enough to absorb recoil. Think of it like playing tug-of-war with a strong dog: If you're tight, you'll lose your grip. If you're firm, you'll move with the recoil without losing control of it. You'll also tremble much less.
Your dominant hand should be able to be very relaxed while your off hand helps to squeeze the grip through your fingers. The dominant hand's main function will be the trigger squeeze, which will be covered shortly.
Sight Picture
You need to learn to trust your eyes. Our eyes have a near-magical ability to find the middle of things. The US Army uses “peep sights” to take advantage of this amazing capability- the rear sight is a tiny hole, and you aim at the target by placing the front sight post into the center of the circle. On handguns, however, you will almost always have standard sights instead.
First, focus on the tip of the front sight post. If you are doing it correctly, the front sight post will appear clear and in-focus, while the target is blurry.
Yes. Seriously. The target SHOULD look blurry.
The rear sight' posts need to align with the front horizontally, so a line drawn across the tops of all 3 posts touches them all. Then, place the target's center of mass so it is sitting on top of the front sight post. Imagine it like setting the dot from a lower case letter “i” on top of the line of the letter.
Practice aligning your sights and focusing quickly on your front sight post.
Breathing
Your position is steady, your sight picture is correct, now you need to get to my favorite part of shooting: Breath control. This is where I get to compare marksmanship with meditation. Relax your body as much as possible, breathe deeply as if doing yoga, and when you are ready to fire, gently exhale without using any effort. Wherever your body stops exhaling on its own is where you need to be firing from. This provides a reliable and consistent place for your ribcage to settle, so your body is in the exact same position with every shot. If you start to need air before you can fire, simply take a breath and do it again. Keep your blood o2 level good and high, that will also minimize trembling while reducing your heart rate.
Trigger Squeeze
This part is one of the most common places people who don't qualify on range day mess up. Every part of the four fundamentals is vital, but trigger squeeze is the easiest to mess up. When your position is steady, your sight picture is good, your lungs are empty, and you are ready to fire on your target, it is time to start squeeeeziiiiiiing theeeee triiiiiiigerrrrrr verrrrryyyyyy slooooooowlyyyyy.
The object of a good trigger squeeze is to be caught by surprise when the gun fires. This is why, when learning, it is very common to need to pause for more air before firing. Speed will come naturally with practice, do not practice speed until you are an advanced shooter.
As you get used mentally walking through the whole 4 step process before each and every shot, firing will become more and more natural. While shooting a pistol in an unsupported position, you'll note that even when everything is done correctly, your aim point will mark a vague, horizontal figure 8. You'll learn with practice for the gun to surprise you just as your sight post crosses over the center of the target.
This is a skill that must be developed, and it takes a lot of practice.
TROUBLESHOOTING BAD SHOOTING
There are clues to be had from investigating your target. Are you all over the place? Most likely you don't have a good steady position; that is the bedrock of good marksmanship. If not, then you are most likely messing up all three of the other fundamentals. Are your rounds all land on the same general horizon, but are horizontally far apart, that usually indicates you are jerking the trigger. The opposite is true for bad breath control- if your shots are all close to the same vertical axis, but vary in elevation, then it is most likely your breathing.
When you get a shot group that is equally distributed horizontally and vertically in a well-defined circle, you are most likely doing well and simply need more practice.
There is a whole additional discussion to be had about weapons with movable sights, but I'll save that for a later update.
That is literally it. Everything is easier with an outside observer to help correct you, but this primer gives you everything you need to teach yourself to become a pretty proficient shooter, at least when it comes to basic marksmanship. If you practice the fundamentals frequently and carefully, you'll usually find that you begin to out-perform those around you in short order. Even when you feel comfortable, poke and prod at every step, looking for things you can improve on. Doing this will lead you to very satisfying range time.
