Marksmanship Fundamentals: Improve Your Shooting By Mastering the Basics

By Pseudonym Sniper

Marksmanship Fundamentals is an eBook written by an active service Tier 1 Operator and covers the fundamentals of Long Range marksmanship.

The book was primarily written for Beginner and Intermediate level shooters however, even experienced shooters may benefit from the book.

The fact is, if you are very good at the basics (the fundamentals), Long Range shooting becomes relatively easy. The marksmanship fundamentals are the foundation of accuracy and precision and their mastery should be a focus of your training.

SOME of what is covered in this eBook:

* Achieving Accuracy and Precision
* Influencing Factors: Environmental, Ammunition, Rifle, Optic/Scope, Shooter Ability/Marksmanship
* The Fundamentals
* Shooting Position Checklist
* Conventional Shooting Positions
* Unconventional Shooting Positions
* Recoil Reduction
* Dry Firing
* Live Firing
* Target Options
* Rifle Setup

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Oct 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781456627621

Book preview

Sniper

Introduction

This book has been written to assist beginner and intermediate level shooters to not only learn but to understand what it takes to successfully engage targets at long range.

It will help to expand their knowledge of the Marksmanship fundamentals and teach them how to set up a rifle correctly to increase hit probability.

Learning these skills will transfer into the ability to successfully engage targets at long range.

This book’s target audience includes prospective Military and Law Enforcement Snipers, long range hunting enthusiasts, and civilian competition shooters.

This is why I will use the term shooter throughout this book as opposed to sniper or marksman. It is a book for anybody wanting to master the fundamentals.

This book will cover all of the fundamentals of marksmanship and also cover rifle setup.

Now…engaging targets at long range, whether it be in a Military, Law Enforcement or Civilian context, is one of the toughest skills to master, and it takes constant practice, in a variety of environments, for a shooter not only to become, but to remain proficient at it.

The implementation of these skills will require focus and concentration on the part of the shooter, and as such I have not written about the many other aspects of sniping/shooting.

These other skills include, but are not limited to, accurate range and wind estimation (see my other eBook "How To Estimate Range & Wind", camouflage and concealment, stalking, and tracking.

All of these skills require a lot of focus, concentration and practice and I prefer a shooter perfects each particular skill set before moving onto another, which is why I have not covered these other skills in this book.

No matter what your background, I hope this book serves you well and helps you to achieve a higher level of proficiency.

Kind regards,

Pseudonym Sniper

www.pseudonymsniper.com

Achieving Accuracy and Precision

Now, you may be wondering why I have chosen to talk about Accuracy and Precision right off the bat.

Well the reason is simple…when you are learning a new skill, no matter what it is, you need to know what the end result of all your hard work will be…your goal.

With Marksmanship, the result you are trying to achieve is a combination of both Accuracy and Precision to enable you to engage targets at long range.

To reach this goal, you need to be able to consistently employ the fundamentals of marksmanship, which is what this book is all about.

So…before we look at the fundamentals, let us quickly look at the goal…Accuracy and Precision.

Now, some of you may be asking…aren’t they the same thing?

Well…no.

Accuracy is the ability to achieve rounds on target where the MPI (Mean Point of Impact) is the same as your POA (Point of Aim). The size of the group may be consistent with that of a dinner plate but if the MPI is the same as the POA then this is accurate fire.

Precision on the other hand is the ability to consistently put all of your rounds as close to together as possible. The size of your group may be 1MOA (1 Minute Of Angle) or better, but if the MPI of this group is not the same as your POA, then this is precise but inaccurate fire.

Therefore…by achieving a combination of both accuracy and precision consistently, you will be able to achieve a much higher hit percentage when engaging long range targets.

Below is a graphical representation.

Right so let us take a look the major factors that influence Accuracy and Precision.

Influencing Factors

There are several factors that influence our ability to achieve the necessary combination of accuracy and precision.

Let us take a quick look at what they are:

• Environment

• Ammunition

• Rifle

• Optics

• Shooter Ability (Marksmanship)

Disclaimer: I say, Quickly look at because the information I have provided below on Environment, Ammunition, Rifle, and Optics is merely included to give those new to long range shooting a brief introduction/understanding of these topics, as each of them could be the subject of their own book.

The shooters ability (aka marksmanship) is the only factor we will be looking at in depth (as it is the subject of this book), although we will cover off the basics of proper rifle setup.

Environment

The environment i.e. the wind, density altitude, temperature, and other environmental factors, GREATLY affect a shooter’s ability to shoot long range but there is little you can do to influence them directly.

What you can do though is develop an understanding of how things like wind influence your bullet as it travels downrange and make use of technological devices such as Kestrel Weather Meters, Laser Range finders, and Ballistic Software which all help to reduce the effect of environmental factors

If you are a Beginner or Intermediate level shooter I recommend reading my other book "How To Estimate Range And Wind" to give you an introduction to these topics.

The next three influencing items can be directly controlled by us…the shooter.

Ammunition

Ammunition is a major factor because even if you do everything else right, if your ammo isn’t fit for purpose then you will never achieve the level of accuracy and precision you are striving for.

You also need to think about your intended use.

Applied Ballistics Munitions (ABM), produce ammunition that rivals hand-loaded ammunition for consistency.

For example if you are shooting in competitions such as F Class, you will want to use match/target projectiles which have excellent external ballistic characteristics. The downside is that these projectiles usually have poor terminal ballistic characteristics so are not ideally suited for hunting.

By contrast, if you are hunting, you will want a projectile that has good terminal ballistic characteristics. The issue is that you usually have to compromise somewhat on the external ballistic characteristics, however the impact isn’t significant because with hunting, you are generally targeting a large area (i.e. a 10 target area on a deer at 1000y vs. 5 Bull in F Class).

When it comes to ammunition, you want a projectile with a high BC (Ballistic Co-Efficient), and if you plan to shoot extended long range (i.e. through the Transonic

Reviews for Marksmanship Fundamentals

[24HR Airgunner Channel · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very good book plenty to absorb and take in but still a good book