Target Shooting Tips & Golden Rules

Ways to improve your shooting:

The following rules in my opinion apply to any kind of shooting.

The golden rules are the numbered main points, & text is some supporting information.
Please feel free to just read the headings if you want a quick summary rather than a thesis, but I highly recommend you come back & read it all to gain a thorough understanding of things.

This is of course just my experience & my opinions, & I hope they are valuable to you.

Whether it is rimfire target, match, long range, silhouette, 3 position, centrefire, field, hunting, shotgun, clay trap, sporting or skeet, I think these tips & rules if followed will make you the best shooter you can be.

1) Get a gun that inherently fits you comfortably & feels like a part of your body.

You perform any action best when it is intuitive & feels natural. It should be like chewing or swallowing, make it a second nature & you will find it so easy that you will nail it ever time. A good comfortable firearm allows you to feel in control 'by default' without having to analyse every move to make or specific sequences to follow.
It fits the shoulder, has just the right height on the cheek for the eye placement, the perfect length of pull, the correct weight balance & no fatigue doing it all over & over.

Easier said than available, which is why at some point you might be best to customise it. But for a start, get the most comfortable thing possible, within reason, as a compromise based on the different criteria we discuss here.

Please read my articles on the Importance of Customisation for Ergonomics & comfort as part of the series on customising things to suit you & improve your shooting.

2) Try to get the best possible trigger to your liking.

Trigger release & let off, once again, if natural will stop you second guessing & thinking about 'how to pull it'. Nice triggers go off instantly so its all in line with when you really wanted to take that shot. This is paramount & saves you pulling a tad after you were spot on. A Nice trigger makes it all 'just happen' & thats a very crucial aspect of any sport.

3) Try & get guns + ammo that shoots better than you, saves wondering if the equipment is the problem.

Ideally, equipment that is comfortable & capable of shooting accurately would be perfect & not cost the earth. That is not always the case, but try to buy the most accurate gun in its class that fits you nicely. Some brands & models tend to be more ammunition fussy than others but yes after considering the bigger factors of comfort & trigger & inherent accuracy, do look at what ammo you will put through it. Good Firearms are peace of mind. Then, if you dont shoot, you know its the gun & not you. Helps you get on with fixing your problems rather than worrying about what may be wrong with the gun or the scope etc.

4) Get clear comfortable adjustable optics - scopes or sights whatever it is, good optics leads to less fatigue & strain

If using scopes & shooting small targets, there is no harm in using adequate magnification. 9x or 12x magnification isnt what makes your hand shake, its you thats shaking the hand, the optics is merely telling you whats happening.
Usually its very difficult & rather bad for your eyes to shoot under 50 metres without parallax adjustable scopes (Adjustable Objective) AO is fundamental to get clean crisp focus of the target & crosshairs. It lets you not have to strain to acquire & centre the bullseye in every shot.
This reduces fatigue & you dont feel youre looking down a fancy contraption. You want to keep things as natural & as intuitive as possible to be a good shooter.

5) Stay Focused & shoot with concentration. Give it all youve got. Get the correct mental state.

There is no substitute for good old concentration. If you can be bothered, then its probably not going to be great. Forget all the odds that are against you, & be sharp with all your senses for every single shot. Its hard, but train to forget about a previous bad short & still move to the next one with full concentration. Its easier said than done, I struggle with this myself. Even a little routine malfunction, & I tend to drop the next shot. Work on thinking calmly & resuming.

6) Visualise what you do even when off range & let your understanding get clearer with time.

Ponder over what you did. Think of how it felt, what the impact was & what different conditions were present. Compare that to a previous similar recollection. Join the dots, you will figure out something youre not getting right, & a possible solution to try out next time.

7) Do not flinch & fear the recoil. Accept it, make it part of you, try to enjoy it.

Think of recoil as being the standard simple mechanical reaction of pulling the trigger. Dont think of it as pain & pressure. If the recoil is causing pain & discomfort too quickly, something is wrong.
Youre either not shooting correctly, or something isnt fitting you right, or you need a nicer recoil butt plate, or your cheek pressure/overall rifle hold isnt quite right. Its not about your body size either, its about technique & confidence. Thats assuming you dont have a medical issue of course. Please dont dislocate your shoulder or break your ribs trying out something silly. Start small & climb your way up. Im not advocating you shoot a 50bmg the first day.

8) Dress comfortably - amount of clothes, type of fitting, shoes, temperature all matters

Excessive padding doesnt necessarily make you steadier.
Tighter version of normal clothing dont make you steady, infact the discomfort will make you shoot worse. If youve got custom fitting jackets or proper match shooting target jackets thats a different matter, but just wearing a tight t-shirt or thermals will not make you better.
If you get too hot, your breathing will suffer. If youre too cold you might stiffen up.

9) Put your own requirements & priorities ahead of the technical charts & reviews.

It pays to listen to other peoples opinions, but to a certain extent, your own gut feeling of comfort & being able to make that gun your own is crucial.
There is room for customisation once the foundation is correct.

10) Shoot different disciplines whenever you can, each will improve your specific weaknesses.

Understand & appreciate the skills needed to shoot each discipline exceedingly well, & then apply it to every other type of shooting you do. They all complement each other. Please have a read of my other post on what each of the various shooting discipline taught me.


Do you have any tips to improve shooting? Please share them with us