Range tips to improve your shooting ability, safety and fun.

1. If possible avoid the "shooting range", finding an out of the way spot to shoot allows you to shoot at your own style target in various scenarios as well as pick and choose your own distances instead of the standard pre determined ranges.

2. Vary your targets. Instead of punching holes in paper try hanging paper plates, tin can lids, clay pigeons etc. at various ranges and heights.

3. Practice while wearing the equipment you might be wearing in a SHTF situation.

4. Practice weapon transition, go from a long gun to a handgun and then back to a long gun with out loosing control of any of them.

5. A holster tip, if ya can't reholster and secure the handgun with one hand then you need to change holsters. In a worse case situation where you may need to do a weapon change you don't have time to fight with a holster to get your weapon secure. The same thing applies in a situation where you may have to walk up on someone and handcuff or search them.

6. Practice with all your weapons with no sights. Take a piece of tape and tape over the rear sight.

7. A trick I have recently learned with my AR since I switched to the front site with a cross hair in the circle is that the cross hair really improves the pin point accuracy but also at 100 yards you can simply throw the rifle up catch the rear peep and the front circle together and when it crosses the target you can fire and be "on target". At 100 yards recently I was able to fire 5 rounds at the time, rapid fire, and easily keep them inside a man sized target for a total of 50 rounds. At 50 yards I was able to keep them inside a 4 inch circle.

8. The "standard" with a handgun is that you don't touch the trigger until your on target however in a more realistic scenario your hammer should be ready to drop as soon as your front sight hits the center mass of your target. As a revolver shooter this means that as soon as I get a grip on the weapon and it starts to come out of the holster the trigger finger is already at work and by the time i'm crossing the target with the front sight the hammer is all the way back at the point of no return. This can also be accomplished with most semi autos as long as your familiar with the weapon. DO NOT run out to the range and try this, all you will get for your efforts is a hole in your leg or foot. This is something that should be practiced at home with an empty weapon. Practice ALOT until you get the technique down pat. Being able to do at least 100 dry runs with out the hammer falling until your ready means you might be ready to try live ammunition VERY SLOWLY.

9. Fast drawing is alot of fun, seeing how fast you can get out and get a round down range. Always remember though that "speed is fine but accuracy is final".

10. Have someone else go with you to go out and shoot. Have them load your magazines for you and include empty brass as well as not tell you how many rounds are in the mags. Have them go out and hang targets for you along a pre determined walking route. Take a walk and engage targets as you find them having to clear jams and reload as needed.

11. Take the lids to coffee cans and paint one side red and one side green. Hang these with pieces of fishing line along your designated route. They will swing and spin in any breeze. As you walk only engage the targets that are green.

12. Practice shooting from your vehicle. Place a target near the front bumper in line with the driver seat. Start from a seated position and exit the vehicle and engage the target. A tip. It is easier for me to leave my right leg extended in the vehicle drop my left knee to the ground and fire from a low cover position between the door and the door post. REMEMBER to stay behind cover.

13. Use an old railroad tie or something similar to act as a roadside curb. Practice firing from behind it using it as cover, laying parallel to it. Depending upon how your laying you may have to fire off handed and in case will have to fire one handed.

14. Practice firing from various unusual positions. Sitting, squatting, on your side, on your back. Note that some semi autos will not function when fired upside down. Is one of them yours?

15. Practice firing while rolling on the ground. Pick a destination and start to roll toward it, every time you roll to your stomach fire one round at your target. A reminder, with a shotgun this can hurt in a hurry as it's difficult to seat the butt properly against your shoulder. The primary purpose of all of this is to put yourself into situations that you may encounter in the field. Practice them now so that if the situation should ever arise it won't be new to you. PLEASE, practice these with an empty weapon to start with, get familiar with what your doing and make sure your able to control your muzzle 100% of the time before you try it with live ammo.
 

Mtncat