Burbank Rifle and Revolver Club

TRAINING INFORMATION

Good marksmanship depends on good technique. On this page, BRRC Activities Chairman Dennis Santiago shares his observations about various shooting positions. Click Here to contact Dennis.

Shooting Tips

Self Paced Training at BRRC. Click here to see the self paced training course located on BRRC's main range.

Elevation: The rule for highpower shooting to set your base zero at 200 yards. The come ups to get you on paper are as follows. 3 MOA up from 200 for 300 yards. An additional 11 MOA up from 300 for 600 yards. Finally from 600 to 1000 yards add another 22 MOA. The number of clicks depends on what kind of sights you have. M-1's, M-14's and AR-15's generally have 1 MOA per click sights. Competition modified AR-15's can have 1/2 or 1/4 MOA sights. Match rifles can have 1/8th MOA sights.

Improve your slow-fire stage scores by NOT improving your sight picture. 20 rounds plus 2 sighters in 22 minutes gives one a lot of time to think. Sometimes you can think too much. A common error in competitive shooting is improving the quality of your sight picture progressively over your string of fire. The effect is counter productive. As you line up the sights better you usually push the front sight deeper into the black. And that means that your 10 or X using the settings from your previous shot's sight picture now becomes an 9 or 8 high on the bullseye or worse. The better technique is to dry fire a few times during the preparation period and memorize the sight picture you are going to use for the entire string then stick with it for the entire 22 rounds. And don't forget that there's time to dry fire a time or two in the middle of the string if you need to.

The same thing goes for rapid fire stages. Dry fire during prep and memorize a sight picture then stick with it so you get a nice tight group. Adjust the knobs during your sighters and if you are up to the gymnastics check it again after your first two rounds before firing the remaining eight. Btw, I highly recommend team matches where an observer coaches you during rapids. You will quickly get a lesson in how truly subtle changes in sight picture will affect which part of the bullseye you will hit.

.30 caliber Hunting Ammo: Here are some general guidelines for factory ammunition. Under 100-yards, use 180-grain round nose loadings. Over 100-yards use pointed nosed ammo, 150 grain PSP for thin skin game and 180-grain PSP for heavier game. The engineering behind ammunition manufacturing is about matching the impact velocity to the inherent design of the bullet to achieve the most immediate effect when hunting game.

Tinkering with guns: Here are some links to rifle projects you might find interesting.

POSITIONS WORTH STUDYING
	"Shooters Stand!" Following a three minute preparation period for rapid sitting, the match officer gives the command and shooters perform a delicate dance. Notice the position of the feet. Their location is key to the postion just built and one must be careful not to move them. The trick is to rise and drop back down into sitting so that your natural point of aim aligns perfectly with the target.
"Rapid Fire Sitting" Firing a clean score (all 10's or better) over 10 shots in 60 seconds with one required reload takes concentrated choreography. Three things dominate the equation. Natural point of aim, sight focus and muscle tension. Your position must be balanced so that the rifle completes each firing/recoil cycle with you lined up with the target. There isn't time to be hunting around for the bull. The position is built during the critical three minute preparation period. Wiggle around as much as you have to but find that natural point of aim. You have to be focusing on the front sight. The greatest errors in aiming occur at the front sight because it's short distance from the eye amplifies every 1/1000th's of an inch error by a country mile on the bullseye. A good trick is to place a pencil mark on your front sight and train yourself to look for it at the start of each string. After awhile it will become habit and you won't need the pencil. Lastly you need strong and equal tension on both arms holding the gun. Shooting the sitting position is like using a bow and arrow. The biomechanics to achieve gun platform stability relies totally on the athletic use of the back and arm muscles.
"Prone Position" Building a prone position is about getting your body aligned and using tension generated by locking the gun between the shoulder and sling to perform most of the gun platform stabilization. The tension should be strong but not so tight that it cuts off your blood supply. You'll know. It hurts. Do mark your sling and rifle to show where to set them. I have a reference mark on the handguard of my AR-15 and permanent ink marks on both sides of each adjustable buckle on my sling. Consistency is accuracy! Natural point of aim both in the static and dynamic sense once again come into play. Wiggle your body around like an animated worm looking for a natural point of aim that also places the bulk of your body mass behind the gun so it recoils perfectly to put the gun back in position after every shot. This is critical for prone rapid. Not as much for slow fire prone where you have the time to re-perfect the position for each round. Also, don't rely totally on the shoulder and sling. Put a little bit of muscle tension balanced equally into both arms to further improve the dynamics of your gun platform. This is an athletic event won and lost based on the fine tuning of one's small motor skills. Sight focus becomes truly critical in prone. The 10-ring is smaller so the leeway for error is that much less. Use the pencil trick. If you look closely at the photo you will see the degree of mental concentration in my eye looking through the sight at the target. Everything else about the position is now there to support that eyeball's sensory input. Manny is doing the same thing behind me but he wears a hat with blinders so you cannot see his eye but rest assured it's doing the same thing.

Other Information

M-1 Garand, field stripping guide from CMP website. The U.S. Caliber .30-06 M-1 rifle is the primary highpower training firearm used by BRRC.

M-14/M1A Series, care and maintenance notes. This successor to the Garand continues to be used particularly in junior training programs where M-16/AR-15 firearms are not available.

More M-14/M1A, information on the different types of M-14/M1A rifles manufactured.

M-16 Historical Information, plus links to historical pages on additional firearms. Presently restricted in BRRC's home state of California, the M-16 series rifle and it's civilain counterpart AR-15 series rifles is the current standard bearer firearm used in service rifle competition.

M-16 Magazines rules are different for match rifle and service rifle competition. Know the rules!

M1911 Series Field Strip, Bob Tuley. Mastering the handling of this handgun is one of the traditional rites of passage of American marksmanship. But when mastered the ability to safely and accurately use any other handgun usually follows.

AK Series Cleaning, from AK-74.net. These ubiquitous firearms and their cousins the SKS remain abundant worldwide. Every marksman should be familiar with their operation regardless of one's own nation's service rifle selection.

Shotgun Cleaning, by Otis Technology, Inc. Managing the shotgun is an art form both on the field and at the bench.

Cleaning Corrosive Ammunition, article. There was a time when the prompt cleaning and maintenance was vital due to the corrosiveness of propellant and priming compounds. While no longer common in current production sporting ammunition, shooters of surplus military ammunition in particular need to be aware th special precautions and procedures associated with corrosive ammo.

Disclaimer: These links are provided as backround and entertainment information for the members of the Burbank Rifle and Revolver Club only. We caution that you are being linked to a website not under the control of BRRC. While we believe the information in these links to be of interest to our membership, they may contain or be changed to contain erroneous or misleading information. Therefore, BRRC makes no represenations of the accuracy or utility of any information contained in these links. All members are advised that they should independently verify all information they may read anywhere on the internet regardless of the source. BRRC makes no representations of any kind whatsoever to anyone who is not a current paid member of the club.