Can you shoot anything?

[Rapier]

How many of you guys can shoot just about anything you pick up, and shoot it well, pistol, revolver, rifle, shotgun, etc? I wonder if it is just a God given talent or if it is a learned trait that we never forget, like riding the proverbial bicycle and we simply add to the learned trait over the years, like layers on a cake? Thoughts please.

Ed

[Mr. 16 gauge]

I do pretty well with handguns & shotguns.....I'm not so great with a rifle, esp. one with open sights. That is, unless I am shooting at a moving target....then I manage to somehow hit it most of the time! I think part of that comes from shooting at so many clay pigeons over the years; it sort of becomes 'instinctual' to keep the barrel moving until it gets ahead of the target.
I must also add that I was fortunate to grow up in a society that wasn't full of whiny panty waist types.....we made our own slingshots and bows and arrows as kids (something that if done today would probably get you a stint in juvie), and....worse still....we actually shot them at birds, frogs, ect. A lot of the basics, such as hold, follow through, breathing control, windage, ect. were learned on those forked sticks and inner tubes.
I also think that there is a bit of 'talent' in using a firearm well, just like a musical instrument......I can teach someone how to aim, squeeze the trigger, breath properly, ect., just like I can teach someone notes on a page and which string corresponds to which note, ect., but there are going to be those that can just barely plunk out a tune (or barely hit a target) and then there are those that after a few lessons just seem to be able to play anything after hearing it once (and those who seem to hit targets at impossible ranges or angles).

[popplecop]

My younger days are pretty much as I grew up in a sparsely populated county. Most everyone I knew hunted and fished and we thought everyone was like that. Have noticed as I have grown older that I have to practice more to stay reasonably proficeint with firearms, but I enjoy that as it involves more shooting. For those of you in these Golden Years you will probably agree.

[Dan Morris]

So far, I've been proficient with what ever.....had some excellent training in the past
and a LOT of various rounds down range. God willing, I'll stay that way.
Dan

[skeet]

Actually I am fairly proficient with most types of shooting. I am primarily a shotgun shooter and do ok with them.,,maybe a little better. Rifles I am ok with for the most part especially with time from a bench. Handguns are another matter. Not a great target shot. Just don't have the inclination. I am however a pretty fair field shot when it comes to point and shoot....with both rifles and handguns. I have shot quite a few coyotes on the place here with mostly handguns..mostly my Wilson Combat 45. Sometimes they let you get right up to 'em on a 4 wheeler...long as you don't have a rifle over your shoulder LOL! But even if'n I ain't great with them..I love to shoot rifles and handguns..

[Rapier]

I think we have all gone to the range enough to see the folks that can pick up a pea shooter and shoot it just as well as a shotgun or handgun. I was interested in learning how many regulars on the board were that way. I suspected the percentage was fairly high. I like several of you was raised on a farm. I was taught to shoot when 5 years of age, now about 60 years ago. Started with a 22 revolver, then a 22 rifle and then a single barrel 12ga. By 7 years I was shooting English sparrows on the wing in the chicken yard (they liked chicken feed) with rat shot in the 22 rifle. Then at night I was shooting rats with a head lamp and the 22 rifle at the same feed trough. My grandfather taught me the basics of shooting and taught me well, at least well enough that I have never found a gun of any kind I could not master in short order. Most times I can just watch a shooter for a few minutes and do a pretty fair job of duplicating what ever they do. I guess it is similar to a musician hearing music and playing the tune. I watched an expert rated machinegunner with an M-60 machine gun once, picked up the gun for the first time and duplicated his score, including his trick of firing single rounds into the target, like a rifle, by trigger control.

But it is just about the only "gift" that I can at least think I might have. I sure can not play a musical instrument unless you figure a radio is such.
Ed

[buckhunter]

I do pretty good with a shotgun and rifle. Handguns are another story. I'm aweful. It might have something to do with eyesight. In my military days it was a rifle, handgun and then shotgun. I definately changed the order.

[Rapier]

Guys,
The eyesight issue is a very valid problem as we get older. I did about three years worth of reserch for a magazine article about eyesight and shooting. What I found was that far sighted people are able to shoot well for a much longer period of time as compared to those of us who are near sighted. It is ok to have the target a blurr, not so ok if you can not see the target at all.

There are several "tricks" that you can use to extend your ability to shoot iron sights, such as an artificial pupil on glasses or the stick-on, adjustable pupil devise, made by Meritt. I pretty much used them all, trying to maintain top class competitive scores, until I finally had to switch to optics. But......

I did another magazine article you might have read in a national magazine about Lasik surgury. It is the ultimate sight adjustment and it can produce truly fantastic results. Both of my eyes were done, at the same time, in 1998. My eyesight was 20/15 after surgery. However, eyes being eyes, 12 years later my eyesight is today 20/40. Eye sight, with very few exceptions, does degrade with age, regardless of assistance by man.

By the by there is also a trick to Lasik eyes, go find some .5 magnifier glasses and wear them while shooting. You can see the target out to 200 yards and the sights very clearly. Magic for iron sight, shooting.

Best,
Ed

[FIJI]

I'm right on target !


give me a 12 guage and I cant hit the broad side of a barn

[Duffy]

I'm very proficient with a shotgun, and I'm good with rifles that have open sights. I have some trouble with scopes, but I tend not to take long shots anyway. I'm OK on handguns.

[rainydays]

I do very well with a rifle and a shotgun. Shooting handguns accurately has remained a challenge for many years now.

[Adam Helmer]

Rapier,

Great thread. Fortunately, I was the Firearms Coordinator for 10 years for a Federal agency and conducted semi-annual qualification for 100 agents in all 6 New England states. I was the NH "Top Career Officer with Service revolver in 1977 and 1979" and got the Training Job as a Collateral Duty.

I attended many firearms instructors schools and ended up instructing the duty handgun, shotgun and sub-machinegun for many mopes who thought it was yesterday!

The question is "Can you shoot anything?" Reckon I can since I was one of the 5 folks on the NH High Power Rifle Team that went to Camp Perry twice.

I suspect I can shoot anything and have all my life. I suggest all hopefuls shoot much and often will all arms. NEVER Confuse REPITITION with Practice!

Adam

[dovehunter]

I think that a lot of folks think they are better shots than they actually are. As far as my own shooting is concerned it seems that sometimes I shoot fairly well and other times I can't hit the barn from the inside. If what I shoot at hits the ground I must have done okay. If it runs or flys away presumably unscathed I guess I didn't so well. If I had to pick I'd probably say I do my best shooting with a scattergun. Regarding someone being an instinctively good shot, I don't believe there is such a thing or at least I have never seen one in my 50 yrs. plus of shooting and hunting.

[jon lynn]

Hmmmmmm.........well, always had a knack for shotgunning for ducks, peasants, and the like. I never had a problem with rifles too much, but now I need a scope, can't use sights any more. I usually shot best with the ghost-ring style.

But with pistols? I fared very well with the M1911A1 in the Army, but when they switched to the 9mm, my pistol days were over! With pistols, I never seem to know how to use the sights, always have to ask how to use them.

[GoodOlBoy]

I'm not bad with most types of guns, but there are models that just baffel the heck outa my ability to line up a sight. Several years ago a person I worked with met me out at a local range with a new gun he had purchased. It was some target shooting space age looking thing that was hald carbon fiber, half plastic, half titanium, and half kryptonite. . . . year I know thats more than 100%. Anyway this thing was free floated bare barreled with no handgrip and some kinda autorangefinding electronic recticle thingamajobber with a enhanced power add on, a light, and its own targetting satelite. I did good to hit paper with it. He was making nice little clover leafs. But then again he just about coulda let it shoot itself and gone to lunch with all the crapola hanging offa that thing. So I did what any red blooded American male would do. I pulled out an iron sighted 45 colt lever carbine and matched him pretty much group for group at up to the 75 yard line. beyond that it was all pans and I rang as many as he did.

GoodOlBoy