Get Schooled on Accuracy

The single best trigger-control training device ever is a ballpoint pen, says Gary Smith, my precision- rifle instructor at Gunsite Academy. He holds one loosely between his middle finger and thumb, his trigger finger slowly cycling the top button over and again. “You want steady, gentle contact and to control the motion throughout,” he says. If you do it right, the point of the pen doesn’t wobble. He practices this two or three times a week for 15 minutes at a time, usually while watching TV. “Drives my wife crazy,” he says.

I’m near Paulden, Arizona, trying to cram Gunsite’s seven-day precision-rifle course into three. Before we start, Smith asks what my goal is. Avoiding abject humiliation jumps to mind, but I tell him I wouldn’t mind hitting a target the size of a deer’s vitals at 400 yards—an unfathomable distance to an Eastern bowhunter. He asks how much long-range shooting I’ve done.

“None,” I say, and he nods approvingly. I think he figures at least I’m not be sing him.

Of Gunsite’s 52 instructors, Smith is one of just five qualified to teach the