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If you can hit what you normally shoot at, with relative certainty, that may be good enough for you. I however, have strived over many years to develop my skills to the point that I am better than that. I want to know that I can make that shot at any range within the effective range of the rifle. It does not matter whether there is wind or not, nor the direction from which it comes. Whether the wind is 5kts or 20kts, uphill or downhill, raining, humid, or dry -- I want to know that I can make that shot, or, that I cannot. If I cannot make it then I will not take it.

This section is going to focus on rifle marksmanship at a level above and beyond that used for clay pit plinking.

Some cartridges are better than others for certain situations or targets. However, bullet placement is far more important than caliber when your shot must achieve an effect. It will not allow you to stalk dangerous game with a .22, but it does make the question of 30-06 or 7mm Rem. Mag. academic within the effective range of a medium size high velocity rifle -- about 900 meters.

This section delves into the human body and the factors that must be considered before one sits down behind a rifle.

Our heartbeat causes our body to move. Chest, shoulders, arms, neck, hands, and fingers all move when our heart beats. Remember that these things are touching, or connected to parts that are touching our rifle. This can be seen through a very hi-power scope. The cross hairs bump along the target as our heart-beats. This is not really evident through a 9X hunting scope. Change your body position slightly, and the pattern the cross- hairs follows changes as well.

Now If you try this experiment you will find something else out real quick, not only is your pulse moving the rifle but it's probably hard to see clearly because your breathing is moving it even more! If you have a less than optimum grip and hold on the rifle, while you are studying these phenomena, you will notice that it starts getting worse. This is because your muscles are starting to fatigue, and when they fatigue they begin to tremble. Stop breathing and the lack of oxygen to those muscles will cause them to tremble even more!

You cannot make your heart stop, but you can slow it. Your pulse rises when you work out or become excited. Your respiration increases in the same way. Think about the time you missed that deer and blamed it on your rifle, load, scope or whatever. Think about it -- how did you feel when you saw that buck? What were you experiencing when you raised your rifle and took aim?

Chances are that the experience was quite different from the feeling you got when you were sighting in that rifle at the range. Was it really the rifle? Was it you? Buck fever is an extreme case, the shooter is so overwhelmed by the experience that they cannot even remember pulling the trigger while the gun was still pointing up in the air! Many people suffer from increased pulse and respiration when they sight game. This will reduce the maximum range that clean shots are possible.

• Relax! • Feel the targets presence, • Try to smell the target. • Breathe normally, in, out, steady breaths. If the target is close just open your mouth wide, your breathing will be silent. • Think of nothing -- Clear your mind -- Think only of what you must do. • Control yourself, you will get this shot only once

 Fatigue

Yes, you can control this too. Conditioning is important, but it no matter what your condition is, if you do not have good form you will shake. You must take advantage of bone structure when supporting the rifle. This is easier when you are prone, use these tips as guides.

· Keep forearm vertical under the forearm of the rifle. Straight up and down. When you angle your arms you are using muscles to hold them still. Gravity will do this for you if you keep your forearm vertical.

· Your body must lie in a relaxed, flat position. Point your toes out so your feet lay sideways, flat against the ground. Start with your feet and think about the position of all body parts, working up to your fingers. If you are using muscles to hold your position you will shake.

· Find the position you could hold for hours without tiring. Try every variation you can think of with your rifle in your shoulder. You are looking for the combination that will allow the least vibration, and the flexibility needed to work the action on your rifle. When shooting you do not want to take your eyes off your target to reload or work the action. You must be able to do this without your movement being seen.

· When you have found it, take a mental snapshot of each part of your body and it's position. Remember how each part feels in that position, look at your hands, arms elbows, and where the rifle is resting in relation to your nose. What part of the rifle is close to your nose? Practice these actions until you have them down pat. It may help to sequence the movements necessary to assume this position and number them. Practice assuming the position by the numbers. Eventually it will become second nature. If you shoot infrequently you may want to write this down so you will remember it if you forget.

If you are a hunter and you must use this process from a blind or tree stand, use the same principles. What you do will be different from every tree you hunt and for every game animal that walks out in front, behind, or to the side of you. The position the hunter must shoot from depends on the situation. This will give you something to think about when the time comes. You will focus on a problem and the solution.

Take the principles that were learned about shooting at long ranges and apply them where the situation calls for them.

When shooting a rifle without a scope, it is important to align the front and rear sights perfectly and consistently. There are four things in this equation -- your shooting eye, the rear sight, the front sight, and the target. The distance between the sights does not change. The distance from your eye to the rear sight can change and this must be avoided.

The relationship between your eye and the rear sight is important. Once you find the right position for your eye, note the relationship between your nose and the stock or action of the rifle. Each time you aim put your nose in the same place. This will help you get your sight picture consistent.

Peep sights are the best sights for a rifle. For those of you unfamiliar with these, they will take some getting used too.

Sometimes the rear sight might look fuzzy. That is because you should always focus on the front sight post. You will have to align the front sight post in the center of the rear sight aperture using your "peripheral" vision. The target will be fuzzy too.

The peep sight system is better because it allows you to get a better picture of sight alignment. It is very hard to focus on the front sight post with leaf sights. The only part of the front sight that is visible through leaf sights is the very top. When the leaf sight blurs out of focus, it is very hard to tell whether the front post is centered in the rear sight groove. Leaf sights work well out to 100 yds. They are adequate for hunting purposes on a .22 rifle. But for serious target work, the peep sight is far superior.

When using a scope it is also important to note the relationship between the gun and your nose. In dim light, if your eye is not perfectly positioned, you will lose a great deal of the field of view. Yes, you'll lose it when it's bright too, but in dim light this problem is not readily apparent. Notice that when your eye is not in position that areas of the scope view are black. In dim light the correct view is also very dark. If you don't know where your eye should be without "looking" through the scope to find it, you will find yourself chasing a fleeting image through the scope.

If you don't breath you will shake. There is a correct way to breath when shooting. Try this excercise --

• Take a breath. • Let it out. • While exhaling, notice that there is a point during exhale where you do not feel it necessary to continue exhaling, or to start breathing in again. • Now try it again. This time when you get to that "place", stop breathing for a second or two. It's easy!

That is the place in your breath cycle you want to take your shot. Since you can only hold it a second, two at most, you must time the rise and fall of the rifle, the sight alignment & picture, and the trigger squeeze to coincide with that "place". Notice that when you inhale the muzzle of the rifle drops. It rises again when you exhale. When your chest expands your shoulder rises, your forearm that supports the rifle does not move so the muzzle drops. You must time this rise and fall so that the target is sighted at that "place".

Look at your finger. Bend it to a hook shape like you would when pulling a trigger. Now simulate trigger pull and watch your finger. Notice that at no point on your finger, does your finger move straight back. The movement of your finger is to the side and back. No matter where you touch the trigger, pulling like this will exert a sideways pressure on the trigger. What do you think the muzzle will do?

If you are right-handed, the muzzle will move to the right because you are pushing the portion of the rifle behind your forearm to the left. The place on your finger that moves the LEAST to the side is the very tip. You want to put the very end of your finger on the trigger. Do not use the tip by the nail, but the soft part between the tip and the first joint. When squeezing the trigger be conscious of this, and try your best to eliminate all lateral pressure.

When you pull the trigger you must apply steadily increasing pressure until the gun fires. The shot should come as a surprise every-time. If you anticipate, and flinch, you will never be able to shoot well.

The biggest mistake a shooter can make is to start off with a loud, powerful, hard kicking rifle and not wear hearing protection. Not only can you damage your hearing, but the noise will be most unpleasant. You will begin to associate the noise with the recoil, and in your mind they will be one and the same -- a big unpleasant event.

Isolating recoil and noise is very important when trying to overcome a flinch. Once you realize that the kick is not that bad, and it certainly will not hurt you, you will be able to focus on sight picture, breathing, and squeezing.

A .300 Win. Mag. kicks hard. It is something you will have to get used to. Many gun writers recommend that people of slight build stick to lighter weapons for this reason. That’s not true, size has little to do with it. Carlos Hathcock, all 140 lbs. of him, killed most of his 93 confirmed people with a 30-06, and won the 1965 Wimbledon Cup with a .300 Winchester Magnum. But if you think you are too tough to wear hearing protectors, you may have problems with a big rifle.

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