Target Sports

TARGET RIFLE BASICS PART THREE: TELL THEM WHAT YOU HAVE TOLD THEM

Created on 14th May 2009

CHRIS WHITE explains why you don't need to have perfect eyesight to shoot well

LAST MONTH we reminded ourselves of the importance of focusing on the foresight and not the target, and I promised a story to illustrate this point. Some years ago the BBC invited personal recollections from World War One veterans. Some of these were made into documentaries, and one involved an old soldier who said that he had been sent to France when he was medically unfit and was subsequently wounded. The basis of his complaint was that he had been too short-sighted to be suitable for active service, but that due to an administrative hiccup he had been drafted. The Ministry of Defence's counter argument was that this individual had qualified as a marksman, and had benefited from the extra pay accruing from this. The BBC interviewed the man who admitted that he had qualified as a marksman, but was very short-sighted and should not have been sent overseas. Naturally the question was asked: how could he qualify as a marksman if he was so short sighted? The Vet explained that he could see his rifle sights quite clearly but that he could not see the aiming mark at all - the target itself was a vague blur. So he visualised a St Andrew's cross superimposed on the blurry outline of the target. His visualisation was so powerful that he could place the foresight at the intersection of the limbs of the cross!

The point of the story is that you do not need to see the aiming mark clearly. This is why it is possible to shoot quite well in misty conditions. Put simply, if the target is 600yd away, any blur on your foresight will be magnified 600 times in terms of its effect on the aim of the rifle.

Breathe easy

So that we can see straight and think straight, both brain and eye need to be supplied with oxygen. But we cannot breathe and deliver the shot at the same time because our body needs to be stationary during shot release. In those last few moments before releasing the shot we need to take a couple of deep breaths to saturate the lungs with oxygen and then relax. We do not align the rifle in a vertical sense by ‘breathing on' as we may have been taught, but by moving the right foot (left foot for left handed shooters) either towards or away from the front of the firing point. Once we have stopped breathing the supply of oxygen to the eye will reduce rapidly, as will our ability to maintain the ‘sight picture'. It is important, therefore, that after the sights are aligned within the aiming mark and our body is stabilised after our last intake of breath that the shot is delivered as soon as possible.

Everyone was taught that the trigger must be ‘squeezed' and not ‘pulled' so that needs no reiteration. Remember, we want to exert no undue influence on the rifle so the trigger finger should not contact the stock at any time before, during or after trigger release.

There is a very small but finite time between the brain telling the trigger finger to ‘go', generally referred to as ‘lock-time' (it's a bit more involved than that), and the bullet leaving the muzzle. Recoil and torque will start to move the rifle before the bullet exits the barrel.

What we want to avoid is inputting any muscular effort to the rifle in this period. So we ‘follow through' while maintaining a stable position and continuing to focus on the foresight until well after the bullet has left the muzzle. The importance of a good follow through cannot be exaggerated.

Set your sights

Like the F-stop on a camera, the aperture in our rearsight can help increase the eye's depth of field. Generally, the smaller the better, but there must be enough light coming through the rearsight for the eye to respond to. Filters can improve contrast and reduce glare but will always reduce light transmission. Play about with different filters under different conditions and find what works best for you. If you are using a six hole eyepiece, check that this is not slipping out of detent; if it does you are in trouble!

Interchangeable foresight elements can be a problem. I measured nine different foresight ‘tunnels' in my possession and found a difference of 160 thousands of an inch in internal diameter and 100 thousands of an inch in lug size. If you use interchangeable elements make sure they are all of the same manufacture and that they are compatible with your foresight. My recommendation is to use an adjustable foresight, but if you do, do not carry your cleaning rod in your rifle slip. They are prone to damage and many have been ruined by being poked with a cleaning rod.

Advice to novices is to use the biggest possible foresight diameter. One too small may appear to give a good sight picture but this is due to light scatter off the element producing a ‘halo' of light round the aiming mark.

While blade foresights are now rarely used in TR, classic and service rifle shooters have to master the use of the blade. The traditional method of sitting the blade below the aiming mark can cause consistency problems, particularly when one has to ‘aim off' to correct for wind or, worse still, a zero error on the rifle. An alternative method may be required (see Target Sports December 2007).

We know that gravity pulls the bullet towards the ground as soon as it leaves the bore. To overcome this we need to apply elevation to the rifle, and the amount of elevation required increases the further away we are from the target. For this reason our rearsights are adjustable in a vertical sense. For each brand of ammunition we use and for each distance we shoot, we need to make a record of this elevation setting. This must be done by reference to the vernier and not the elevation scale. So that we do not end up trying to read a negative figure on the vernier, our ‘zero', at the shortest distance at which the rifle will be used, has to be a positive figure; five minutes say. It is not good practice to follow the traditional method of setting the scale to zero at this distance.

Vertically adjustable foresights provide a great advantage by allowing us to increase elevation on the rifle without raising the rearsight, thus keeping our cheeks in contact with the stock at all distances. The correct procedure when setting these up is to set them to suit our head position: put the head on the rifle and alter the rearsight until it is directly in line with the eye and then adjust the foresight to get the shots printing in the right place. This is not how many shooters do it, but it is the right way and is the whole point of the vertically adjustable foresight.

However, when we achieve a wind zero it is of vital importance (as we will see later) that the wind arm of the rearsight needs setting to zero when there is no wind. When there is no wind, your shots should be going close to the middle of the V bull with your windage reading zero. If they are not, you need to re-zero.

Finally, and since it was covered recently in the series it should be fresh in the mind, remember it is important with TR to avoid cant. Canting (tipping) the rifle will cause a significant lateral displacement of the shots as well a smaller vertical displacement.

Now we have covered all the basic mechanical aspects of shooting a target rifle and reminded ourselves of the salient points. Next time we will get onto those aspects of our sport which require a little more conscious thought and judgement.

TARGET RIFLE BASICS PART THREE: TELL THEM WHAT YOU HAVE TOLD THEM

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TARGET RIFLE BASICS PART THREE: TELL THEM WHAT YOU HAVE TOLD THEM

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