Ok gang, back to the main reason for my little blog. Creating a better rifleman. Let's get on track.
I have mentioned in a previous post about the "Big Three". The Triangle of Accuracy being the shooter, the ammo, and the equipment. When all three of these are lined up, accuracy, at a certain range, WILL happen.
Being accurate is good, but it is NOT good enough for me. I like to be as precise as I can with my shots.
Let's take a quick look at three pictures and you will see where I am going with this.
Picture 1 - Accuracy.
Each square on this ballistic target is 1".
You go to the range, sight in on the target, and take 5 shots. These are your results.
I have mentioned in a previous post about the "Big Three". The Triangle of Accuracy being the shooter, the ammo, and the equipment. When all three of these are lined up, accuracy, at a certain range, WILL happen.
Being accurate is good, but it is NOT good enough for me. I like to be as precise as I can with my shots.
Let's take a quick look at three pictures and you will see where I am going with this.
Picture 1 - Accuracy.
Each square on this ballistic target is 1".
You go to the range, sight in on the target, and take 5 shots. These are your results.
Hey, not too bad. Every shot is within 1.75" of your point of aim. Let's move on.
Picture 2 - Precision.
We are still about 1.75" away from the point of aim, but our group is much more precise than the shotgun blast looking thing on the first picture.
Picture 3 - Precision Accuracy.
This is what we want to eventually achieve. 5 shots, in the black, at your point of aim, close together. 1/4" to 1/2" grouping.
How do we get there? That is the big trick, isn't it? Shooter/Ammo/Equipment, that's how.
Let's look at Picture 1 compared to Picture 3......from a different point of view.
Same shooter shot both of them.
Picture 1 - Shooter was standing up, no support.
Picture 3 - Shooter was in a prone or bench rested position and the rifle was supported on sandbags.
What's up with picture 2, then? That was some nice shooting! I agree.
Shooter was same shooting position as in picture 3.
Picture 2 could be any number or a combination of a few different things.
1. Rifle not zero'd to shooter.
2. Different ammo than zero'd initially.
3. Same ammo, new box (different LOT#).
4. Steady 7 O'clock wind at 12-15 mph not accounted for.
5. A group this tight shows that the shooter knows what they are doing, so it is either equipment, ammo, or environment.
Let's take a look at 3 more pictures. Shooter is a precision shooter, great fundamentals but limited understanding of ballistics. 3 round groups.
Group 1 - ..22 Rifle - Zero Range 35 yds.
Group 2 - Same everything, target now at 10 yards.
And lastly, same everything, target at 75 yards.
How is it that the shooter is LOW at both 10 yards and 75 yards, but dead on at 35?
It is all about ballistics. Bullets are not laser beams. Bullets do not travel a nice elliptical arc to the target.
Gravity, bullet speed, air density, and drag coefficient all play a large part on the travel of the bullet.
Have a look at this chart. It shows a 35 yard zero with two different types of ammo for a .22 rifle.
As you can see by the graph, the point of impact will be low, then right on target, then drop again. It is all based on the range that the rifle is zero'd.
Same rifle, same ammo, with a 50 yd zero...
Notice how from about 22 yards to 50 yards how the bullet impact is ABOVE the target, and from 50 yards out to 100 our point of impact just drops like a stone?
The shooter HAS to adjust point of aim based on the range of the target to maintain precision accuracy at ANY range.
Being a great bench rest 100 yard shooter is fine....if you are only ever going to shoot groups at 100 yards, from a bench rest, at a range. Same shooter takes his/her rifle out squirrel hunting and anything between 11 and 100 yards is going to be a high impact, up to 2.75" high at 58 yards.
These are all things that we will address and learn to correct for.
But first thing is first. If we are going to have any semblance of precision accuracy, we HAVE to work the fundamentals in our shot, otherwise we can throw shot placement and consistency out the window.
We will primarily be dealing with the aspects of the shot itself, but I will also speak about ballistics a little bit because that deals with the point of impact upon the target and all of the things that can affect it while the projectile is in flight.
Some links that I think will help you out considerably as we go into this series...
Sniper 101 Series by Matt Tibor - The Tiborasaurus Rex. I am a very competent shooter yet my knowledge base has expanded exponentially since diving into this series. This series primarily deals with extreme long range shooting, however, we get into the science of the shot from every angle. Information galore. You will learn, Rex will teach you.
LuckyGunner.com - We purchase all of our pistol ammo from Lucky Gunner. Yes, you can purchase ammunition online and have it shipped right to your door. How cool is THAT? If you don't see it listed on the website, it's not in stock. If you see it listed, it's in stock and ready for you to buy it. It's that simple. Every order that we have had has been flawless.
It's not just ammunition and gear, though. The Lucky Gunner Lab does very extensive testing and they put their findings out there so that the customer can be more informed.
They also have free targets that you can print out. You'll notice the targets that I work with are the Ballistic Target and we will also be dealing with the Lucky Gopher and Lucky Squirrel as well as the Trouble Shooter and Silhouettes. I highly recommend them. (As of this second they have a ton of .22lr ammo in stock, if that tells you anything).
I currently use these FREE ballistic calculators. They are very handy when dealing with drop and windage for different ranges.
I use the Hawke BRC on my desktop and the mobile version on my Kindle Fire.
I use the Ballistic Sim program a lot just due to ease of use and comparison while at the office.
JBM Ballistics. This has been one of the premier online sources for running web-based ballistics for quite a while. I doubt that will change. I use this one a lot for getting spin drift and coriolis corrections.
JBM Ballistics Calcs
There are countless other good ones out there, like GSeven, but I don't have a lot of experience with them...YET.
Up next in the blog...setting yourself up to succeed and learning/re-learning the basic fundamentals.
Thanks for reading and I hope you read again soon!
JBM Ballistics Calcs
There are countless other good ones out there, like GSeven, but I don't have a lot of experience with them...YET.
Up next in the blog...setting yourself up to succeed and learning/re-learning the basic fundamentals.
Thanks for reading and I hope you read again soon!
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