Videos, online resources for becoming a better rifleman.

[grfox92]

While I would love to attend a formal course, and I'm sure I will in the future, is there any online instructional videos that are good for shooting in field positions?

I'm talking breathing, grip, follow through. Just a good crash course in basic rifle fundamentals. I shoot a decent amount but want to shoot more and want to make sure I'm practicing well with good form.

I'm going to do the drills that Form has posted but was wondering if there is anything else out there maybe on YouTube or a book I could get.

Thanks

Gary

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[hereinaz]

Snipers Hide and Modern Day Sniper

I finally have my little corner in my yard built up like a little mountain side. I have been meaning to make videos about how I have learned to use a tripod. That is a pretty hot topic. Also alternative shooting positions.

 

[JohnJohnson]

Dryfire will help a lot with shooting fundamentals if you get something like the DFAT system for indoor dryfiring. I'll link an article on how indoor dryfiring works for you. I'll also link a pretty old 6.5 Guys article on it just so you can get the PowerPoint they link for download in it. Not sure if the guy from the 6.5 Guys article still makes IOTA's but the DFAT system from the recent article is what people use now. The dstprecision website top google search link redirects to some random betting website which is sketchy as hell but for some reason the link to their DFAT page in the Exo article still seems to work fine. Not sure what's going on there.

Effective Dry-Fire Practice for Rifle Hunters

How can you use dry-fire practice to reinforce good shooting fundamentals from real-world shooting positions with your rifle? Let's look at the tools and techniques that rifle hunters can use to make dry-fire practice more realistic — enabling you to be more effective on your next hunt.

exomtngear.com

https://www.65guys.com/dry-fire-practice-and-the-indoor-optical-training-aid-iota/

 

[Formidilosus]

While I would love to attend a formal course, and I'm sure I will in the future, is there any online instructional videos that are good for shooting in field positions?

The best available right now are THLR.no on YouTube.

I really can not suggest any others as they have fallen so far into barricade benchrest esoterics that they cause as much confusion as they help for hunting rifle field shooting.

 

[Formidilosus]

Dryfire will help a lot with shooting fundamentals if you get something like the DFAT system for indoor dryfiring. I'll link an article on how indoor dryfiring works for you. I'll also link a pretty old 6.5 Guys article on it just so you can get the PowerPoint they link for download in it. Not sure if the guy from the 6.5 Guys article still makes IOTA's but the DFAT system from the recent article is what people use now. The dstprecision website top google search link redirects to some random betting website which is sketchy as hell but for some reason the link to their DFAT page in the Exo article still seems to work fine. Not sure what's going on there.

While the DFAT is a neat thing and has some uses, it only comes in once technique is learned.

Effective Dry-Fire Practice for Rifle Hunters

How can you use dry-fire practice to reinforce good shooting fundamentals from real-world shooting positions with your rifle? Let's look at the tools and techniques that rifle hunters can use to make dry-fire practice more realistic — enabling you to be more effective on your next hunt.

exomtngear.com

Quoted from the article-

FIX YOUR FLINCH​

An inherent benefit of dry-firing is that you are getting used to "shooting" the rifle without the noise and recoil of sending a bullet downrange. When you begin to dry-fire, you may find that you have a flinch. Or perhaps you don't notice an actual flinch, but you discover that you have increased stress or anxiety (via muscle tension, increased heart rate, or quicker breathing) as you get in position and prepare to execute a "shot" while dry-firing.

Dry-firing will naturally train you (even at the subconscious level) to execute the "process" of a shot without anticipating the recoil and sound that happens as a result of the process. When you build good habits in your dry-fire practice and focus on the process of executing a shot, you can take that same focus on the process to your live-fire shooting. If you do, you will shoot with more consistency and accuracy — and with less anticipation of, or reaction to recoil.

This is 100% false. Dry firing in no way helps with a flinch, it does the opposite- it ingrains at a subconscious level the precise moment the trigger will break, further helping your subconscious be more efficient at exactly when to anticipate or brace for the shot.

Dryfiring is extremely important, but has no hand in correcting a flinch.

 

[grfox92]

The best available right now are THLR.no on YouTube.

I really can not suggest any others as they have fallen so far into barricade benchrest esoterics that they cause as much confusion as they help for hunting rifle field shooting.

Thank you.

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[Wrench]

I like to shoot from my pack vs a bi or tripod. I like to make my off season random ass shoot sessions mimic how I'd roll in the field. If you have a small saw, length of para cord and a backpack.....there's not a lot of places in timber country you can't get a reasonable position.

Perfect fundamentals are awesome....but being able to get almost perfect from almost any position is more awesome.

 

[hereinaz]

I like to shoot from my pack vs a bi or tripod. I like to make my off season random ass shoot sessions mimic how I'd roll in the field. If you have a small saw, length of para cord and a backpack.....there's not a lot of places in timber country you can't get a reasonable position.

Perfect fundamentals are awesome....but being able to get almost perfect from almost any position is more awesome.

Learning how to build a position quickly in the field is most important skill to practice, IMO. As long as you practice how you will hunt, how you build the position is personal preference, whether pack, bipod, tripod,

I would rather be a hunter who can build a solid position with a 2 moa rifle, than a shooter with a .25 moa gun who can’t build a solid position.

 

[hereinaz]

The best available right now are THLR.no on YouTube.

I really can not suggest any others as they have fallen so far into barricade benchrest esoterics that they cause as much confusion as they help for hunting rifle field shooting.

I can’t disagree much with that. I like the way he does the videos.

I don’t shoot my PRS rifle much any more because it handles and shoots so much differently than my hunting rifles.

I think an exception would be some of the videos on fundamentals like trigger control and recoil management. I found them useful and gave me additional insight. But, to get the good stuff you do have to wade through some inapplicable stuff.

 

[Formidilosus]

But, to get the good stuff you do have to wade through some inapplicable stuff.

That’s the issue. There’s so much that is not applicable or is not optimized for most hunting and most hunting rifles, that people get lost in all of it.

 

[hereinaz]

That’s the issue. There’s so much that is not applicable or is not optimized for most hunting and most hunting rifles, that people get lost in all of it.

I will concede the point…

I tried to go back and find a couple videos that I would recommend. I forgot how much I had to ignore or unlearn from them.

I haven’t gone to a class for years or watched many videos lately. I shoot and experiment.

I want a good advanced positional hunting training. Hat Creek’s mountain training is the one that I know I want to do, but he only does limited civilian classes last I checked and timing didn’t work yet.

 

[Formidilosus]

I will concede the point…

I tried to go back and find a couple videos that I would recommend. I forgot how much I had to ignore or unlearn from them.

It sucks because there is some good things in some of them.

I haven’t gone to a class for years or watched many videos lately. I shoot and experiment.

I want a good advanced positional hunting training. Hat Creek’s mountain training is the one that I know I want to do, but he only does limited civilian classes last I checked and timing didn’t work yet.

Unfortunately it’s mostly all the same. The training available mainly falls into two “camps”- sit at a bench or lay in the prone with bipod and hit a large plate at 1,000 yards so you feel good; or PRS heavy rifles from tripods and barricades.

THLR is the only one I know of that is working on things from a legit hunting/killing perspective, that also has enough knowledge and skill to do so competently. His philosophy and practice revolves around what he needs to be successful while doing the type of hunting he does, and then what he learns while hunting feeds back into his practice. His goal is hunting and killing animals, his field practice is tailored to that.
Not everything he does would I say is optimum for common western US hunting- for instance we shoot a lot more from alternate positions and have less time to get shots off frequently, however overall his videos and methods are solid.

In comparison everyone else, even if they are saying or selling “hunting”, are starting from “this is what we do in PRS and this is the rifles and equipment we use for PRS”, then trying to make it somehow fit for hunting and killing animals.

 

[JohnJohnson]

I'll likely be attending a course in the spring to brush up on fundamentals and positional shooting. It's tough to find a class that truly focuses on the fundamentals and has low enough class size for the instructors to actually even monitor it. I'm going to have to relearn a lot of things since I was unable to shoot (almost entirely) for 3 years before this season. In the meantime it's mostly indoor dryfire for me.

 

[hereinaz]

I'll likely be attending a course in the spring to brush up on fundamentals and positional shooting. It's tough to find a class that truly focuses on the fundamentals and has low enough class size for the instructors to actually even monitor it.

That’s what I really want, the personal coaching. Class size makes that hard.


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[Formidilosus]

I'll likely be attending a course in the spring to brush up on fundamentals and positional shooting. It's tough to find a class that truly focuses on the fundamentals and has low enough class size for the instructors to actually even monitor it. I'm going to have to relearn a lot of things since I was unable to shoot (almost entirely) for 3 years before this season. In the meantime it's mostly indoor dryfire for me.

That’s what I really want, the personal coaching. Class size makes that hard.

Y’all probably realize this, but it’s a cost thing. Basically any trade takes 7-10 years of focused, practiced, high level skill development and on demand ability to be good- plumbers, carpenters, Doctors, lawyers, etc. and that’s not world class/ that just good. The same is true of shooting. The difference is that a normal wage for a legit top end person in those other trades is $70-$200 an hour. But people want to pay for shooting lessons from the same level of tradesman for $10 an hour.

A teachers/coaches time spent with one student is just as valuable to him as it is spent with ten students. Our issue as a culture is that we under value that time. The answer is that instead of spending thousands on dumb, unnecessary “gear”, spend $2,000 -$3,000 for 20 hours of one on one, legit coaching and learning.

 

[JohnJohnson]

A teachers/coaches time spent with one student is just as valuable to him as it is spent with ten students. Our issue as a culture is that we under value that time. The answer is that instead of spending thousands on dumb, unnecessary “gear”, spend $2,000 -$3,000 for 20 hours of one on one, legit coaching and learning.

I'll be doing at least one class, probably two next calendar year. It'll cost money but from the class I took before, it was worth it. That and I'll be getting my .22lr up and running again on top of using a DFAT for dryfire. It's largely an issue of not being quite as young (and neck not being as flexible) as when I last was shooting a lot. Fixing the neck issue with significantly higher scope rings for starters and going from there.

 

[Formidilosus]

I'll be doing at least one class, probably two next calendar year. It'll cost money but from the class I took before, it was worth it. That and I'll be getting my .22lr up and running again on top of using a DFAT for dryfire. It's largely an issue of not being quite as young (and neck not being as flexible) as when I last was shooting a lot. Fixing the neck issue with significantly higher scope rings for starters and going from there.

What classes are you going to take?

 

[JohnJohnson]

What classes are you going to take?

Possibly something over at Frontline Defense (couple hours away from me), which would be exclusively prone so not that enthusiastic about that option to be honest. I may have to travel a longer distance than I'd like in order to take the sort of class I'm looking for. If I do that it's likely I'll try to do Precision Rifle I and II at Rifles Only.

Edit: Nevermind I found this course an hour away from me. We have a winner other than the fact it sounds a bit more PRS oriented than I'd want. But for just getting back into shooting it'll do great.

Pilot Mountain Arms | Online Store

www.pilotmountainarms.com

 

[Formidilosus]

Possibly something over at Frontline Defense (couple hours away from me), which would be exclusively prone so not that enthusiastic about that option to be honest. I may have to travel a longer distance than I'd like in order to take the sort of class I'm looking for. If I do that it's likely I'll try to do Precision Rifle I and II at Rifles Only.

Edit: Nevermind I found this course an hour away from me. We have a winner other than the fact it sounds a bit more PRS oriented than I'd want. But for just getting back into shooting it'll do great.

Pilot Mountain Arms | Online Store

www.pilotmountainarms.com

Their head gunsmith is legitimate with pistol and carbine fundamentals. The pictures from the LR class show concerning issues in technique.

 

[JohnJohnson]

Their head gunsmith is legitimate with pistol and carbine fundamentals. The pictures from the LR class show concerning issues in technique.

For Frontline or Pilot?