Short Range Rifle Targets

[D.Hayden]

At the 3 Gun nats.. it became quite clear this is something I need to work on. Not the hits, but the time. I think my biggest problem is using the scope and trying to get the cross hairs stable before firing, and not taking the shot as soon as I see it on the target where I want to shoot.

Any suggesitons on how to get better at this?

I have a 1.5x5 scope and a JP tactical sight.

What ranges do you start using the scope?

[outerlimits]

At the 3 Gun nats.. it became quite clear this is something I need to work on. Not the hits, but the time. I think my biggest problem is using the scope and trying to get the cross hairs stable before firing, and not taking the shot as soon as I see it on the target where I want to shoot.

Any suggesitons on how to get better at this?

I have a 1.5x5 scope and a JP tactical sight.

What ranges do you start using the scope?

dave-sounds like yer setup is like mine-bennie special and a doctor on the side for me. i think you have to decide which targets yer gonna engage with which sight. going back and forth is ok as long as they are not in the same array, otherwise, the clock's ticking. i can still engage faster with the dot (doctor) than thru the pro-diamond, but you have to get used to changing your gun mount-that's imperative. last year in vegas i shot 1 scope, a TA21, and it was really fast for the close stuff-but i could never shoot it on the 300+ stuff, so i went to the current setup.

engaging closer targets with any kind of magnification takes some time to master-but no different than the handgun-gets down to what an acceptable sight picture is at any given target.

[Religious Shooter]

I think my biggest problem is using the scope and trying to get the cross hairs stable before firing, and not taking the shot as soon as I see it on the target where I want to shoot.

Any suggesitons on how to get better at this?

I initially had this problem on the first close rifle stage. But finally I said to myself "F*ck it! You have all these freakin' boolets in this thing." So I just started to let it go as soon as the red dot hit the 'A' zone. Steady or not. And if I wasn't comfortable with it I just shot it again.

You just need to trust yourself and flick that switch.

I think it becomes easier to have that trust the more you practice and confirm to yourself that you can and will hit the target.

[George]

I "try" to slam the shots into targets under 30ish yards and under, but I still feel slow at it. Especially after being squadded with the AMU and watching Daniel Horner do double-taps on pretty much every paper rifle target in the match. He was shooting 25-30 yard stuff like I shoot 10-12 yard stuff. He shot the 70sumthin' yard partial paper on stage 12 like it was a bunch of full targets at handshaking distance and got away clean. That took some confidence!

Somehow I just can't get my head into not really seeing what I need to see on that second shot and I still feel that I am better off waiting for the tiniest indication that the dot/crosshairs are back in the brown. I am wondering if he is "seeing" anything there on the second shot, or just trusting the muzzle brake and the weight of a loaded beta-c mag to stabilize the rifle through recoil.

I'ma gonna' hafta' take a coupla' paper targets and try various positions at various distances and see what snapping single sighted pairs into them get's me in the way of second shot placement. It has been quite a while since I tested anything like this and I now have a need to know exactly how fast I can go and at what distances before I fall off a cliff and start losing that second shot.

[Nik Habicht]

I have a 1.5x5 scope and a JP tactical sight.

What ranges do you start using the scope?

I change by feel more than anything else between my 4 power ACOG and the JP short range sight. That said, I'm comfortable going 35-40 yards with the irons on wide open targets, partials might see me shaving ten yards of that distance. I can transition between targets much faster using the short range sight ---- so I put almost all my dryfire time in on three things: Mounting to Acog, Mounting to irons, and transitioning between them, in both directions. The last bit makes it easy to shoot a whole bunch of open targets with the irons, while quickly transitioning to ACOG for the one or two partials in the bunch, and then back to irons for the rest of the open stuff.....

[EricW]

Get a true 1X scope or an EO Tech so you can shoot both eyes open. Between that and a good comp, you can just mount your rifle and lay down the boogie. I hate short targets but I have to admit running a pistol course with an EO Tech on top of my rifle is big fun. The only "hard" part is remembering to aim high at short distances because of scope offset.

[kellyn]

1st of all, you have to accept crosshair/reticle movement. You cannot hold the rifle still and magnification makes the movement appear greater than what it is. Try the approach technique and break your shots as the reticle is moving into the A zone. Don't snatch the shots as the reticle goes by.

I don't "double tap." I try to see some sort of sight picture on every shot, even the close ones, although I think I'm in a minority in this area. I may not be as fast as Taran or Daniel but I still shoot pretty fast and see the sights. With modern guns, you don't really need to see the 2d shot on the close stuff but I think you can start to move the rifle off target as you transition to the next target before the 2nd shot is fired into the A zone. Seeing the 2d sight picture allows me to call the shot and makes me be patient enough to keep the rifle on target before I swing it to the next one.

When shooting open, my area of transition between scope and dot was around 20-25 yards.

[kurtm]

Gad zooks!! Kelly and I agree for the second time in the same century !! See the sight for both shots and of course a little "bullet wispering" KURTM