Hickok45 - Deep Thoughts

What he is talking about is very, very true.  I've heard it called, "Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast", that one was actually used in the Mark Wahlberg movie "Shooter", "Quality is it's own Quantity", "Slow Deliberate Aimed Fire, is faster than you think", "Take your time, in a hurry" and several others.

The whole idea is, get enough practice, and build enough muscle memory, that your body and the weapon become a synergy and every shot is fired on an almost instinctive level.  Yes you still have to line up the sights, however your body, "Knows" where the firearm is supposed to be in relation to those sights, your body "Knows" when is just the right time to pull the trigger to get you the best shot.  That is "Fast"  You have trained your body to take the weapon and bring it to bear on an instinctual level.

In THIS post, you see the results of me taking slow deliberate aimed fired at a target is.  That is 30 rounds.  Yes it is at only 25 yards, but I have done similar at 100 and 200 yards.  Not quite as accurately, but all rounds on target in the hit zone.  That is roughly a shot every 3-4 seconds.  A trick my Uncle the Marine who fought in WWII and Korea, taught me is to take up the slack on the trigger lightly, place the bottom of the front post on the target and bring them up, as the sights align on the bullseye, finish taking up the slack so the trigger breaks just as the sights are properly aligned.  The shot should come as a surprise to you.  In that video you can my shots are mostly strung in a vertical pattern with a few to the sides.  I have done "Rapid" fire mag dumps and kept 28 out of 30 rounds on a 9" pie pan at 40 yards, I think the two I missed were my first and my last rounds, as those two just "felt" off to me.  But that is shooting a full mag in less than 30 seconds, and keeping all the rounds on target.  And those 2 rounds that I missed?  They were still in center mass, inside of a 12" circle, just not the 9" pan I prefer to shoot.  I'm not an expert shot or a sniper.  Heck I barely qualified with the M16-A1 in Basic Training way back in 1985.  I DID however qualify Expert with the M-60, M14, M-21, and a 1903A3 Sniper Rifle. 

My Drill Sergeant was very disgusted by my shooting in basic, and asked me if I had ever shot before joining the Army.  I told him I learned how to shoot on my uncles 03A3 sniper rifle that he took his 3X scope off of.  The next range day I got pulled aside and handed a 1903A3 that had the side mount for a scope but no scope, and told to Zero it and head out to the KD range.  I had it Zeroed in 4 rounds and was hitting consistently all the way out to 600 meters.  After the rest of my Battery, (I did did basic at Ft. Sill, THE Artillery base, so a Company is called a Battery) was done and over cleaning their M16-A1's, I was shooting the 03A3, only now with a scope out to 700 and 800 meters.  And the next day I was back out on the range while the rest of my Battery was cleaning the Barracks and getting ready for an inspection, I was shooting the M-14, M-21 and a weird M-60 that had a scope on it.  And Drill Sergeants, Hatcher and Torres and several other Drill Sergeants I didn't know were watching me shoot.

And while I shot Expert on all of those, I again barely qualified with the M16-A1.  Drill Sergeants, Johnson and Johnston, both Vietnam Vets and both were from the Marine Corps finally figured out what my problem was.  I had always shot heavy rifles, ever since I was a kid, I shot relatively heavy firearms.  An M16-A1 weighed a little over 7 lbs.  The M1903A3 I learned to shoot with weighed over 9 lbs loaded.  I was just used to shooting heavier firearms, which is why I actually shot the M-60 better than I did almost any other firearm.

All of this comes back to Slow is Smooth, and Smooth is Fast.  I had and have muscle memory of bringing up a rather heavy rifle into proper sight acquisition, and squeezing off my shot.  And for years, I had problems because the AR platform rifles are lighter than my muscles remember so I would miss high.  Only know as my body is falling apart can I shoot my Franken-15 like you see in the video I linked to above.  However even though my Franken-15 is a polymer receiver Carbine length rifle.  It still weighs almost 8 lbs.  I thank Surplus Ammo and Arms for their thicker profile barreled upper for that.

Oi!  I've rambled on quite a bit.  The point Hickok45 and I are both making is this.  Practice until you have developed the muscle memory.  Once you have that, your speed will improve.  Don't try to force speed, you won't develop the muscle memory, or you will develop it incorrectly which is detrimental.

Tamara would tell you the same thing.  Practice, practice practice.