3 Vital Skills For Carbine, Hunting, & Precision Rifle

Missing what you’re shooting at sucks.  It’s embarrassing.  But it’s amazingly common for shooters to completely miss elk, deer, and paper targets with rifle inside of 100 yards…even with optics and scopes.

Missing game is bad, but the bigger problem is that if we don’t fix these problems for hunting, they’re likely to rear their heads in self-defense situations as well.

Whether you’re a novice or an expert, I’ve got 3 simple, easy drills that you can do to dramatically increase your speed and accuracy with a rifle…regardless of whether it’s a carbine or long gun.

This is a big deal this time of year for hunters, but it’s critical for anyone who owns a rifle for self defense.

Regardless of whether or not you’re a hunter, this is a great time of year to brush up on 3 vital skills for making fast, accurate hits with carbines and long guns.

Let’s start with the mount.

There have been times where I’ve hunted with friends and used their guns.  Guns that I wasn’t used to.

And when I had all the time in the world, I could shoot them just fine.

But when the speed of competition or speed and surprise of hunting came into play, I fumbled the mount.

I’ve lost good animals and missed easy shots because I was too slow, too jerky, or too loud mounting the gun.

So, what’s the fix? Practice. But not just any practice…

Try this:

• Mount quickly and quietly from standing, sitting, and prone positions.
• Get a feel for hand placement and head angle.
• Pro tip: Count how many fingers fit between your forehead and the scope. It’s a game-changer for finding the right head position.
• Mix it up: different clothes, with/without gloves, various starting positions.

Just 2-3 minutes of this before a hunt can make a world of difference.

Do it a few times a week, and your ability to mount smoothly and efficiently under stress will improve rapidly.

Vision:

It’s very hard to hit what you can’t see.

We cover how to see distant objects more clearly and expand your peripheral awareness and peripheral vision in See Quicker Shoot Quicker for Hunters, and anyone who thinks they’re a serious rifle shooter owes it to themselves to go through this course, but let me share a drill with you to help you transition from seeing over the scope to seeing through the scope.

It’s amazingly simple, yet few people do it.

Unload your rifle…and better yet, remove your bolt or bolt carrier group. Mount your rifle and look over the top of the scope at something in the distance…then simply lower your head and look through the scope with your dot, chevron, or crosshairs lined up on that same object.

Do this drill a few times and you’ll create a “macro” of how your eye needs to be focused and how your visual cortex needs to suppress your non-dominant eye so you’ll be able to do it quicker and more accurately when time & excitement are factors.

Up for a challenge?  Try switching back and forth between looking THROUGH the scope with your dominant eye and AROUND the scope with your non-dominant eye without moving your head at all.  It seems impossible at first, but it’s not only possible, but the payoff is huge.  (This is one of the high-leverage skills that we address with the Self-Standing Dry Fire Target.

Trigger Press

Dry fire practice on a rifle is as important, if not more important, than on a pistol because of the distances involved.

Two of the most common errors that shooters make that ruin great shots are disturbing sight alignment while pressing the trigger and trying to look over the scope too quickly after taking a shot.

Here’s a drill to help you nail that perfect trigger press:

• Unload your rifle (seriously, always do this)
• Aim at a distant object (with a safe backstop)
• Practice pressing the trigger without disturbing your aim
• Keep your eye on target for half a second after the press

Pro tip: On many bolt actions, removing the bolt gives you spring tension throughout the trigger pull. Perfect for dry fire practice!

And here’s a little secret… use a shot timer to push your limits. Can you make the shot between the “go” beep and a 1-second “par” beep? It’s addictive!

Something you may want to do is to alternate practicing your trigger press with the safety on vs. off and with a dead trigger so that you know what you’re encountering if your gun doesn’t go bang when it should…if you can identify the problem without having to look, you can fix the problem MUCH quicker & quieter.

BONUS SHOULDER STABILITY DRILL

Here’s another one for you that’s critical…it’s a shoulder stability drill.

One of the biggest reasons why people miss in real-world conditions is that they do most of their practice with their gun supported and end up shooting off-hand or with inadequate support in the field.

Here’s what I want you to do…

Take a Post-it note and put it on the wall.  I’d strongly suggest completely removing the bolt or bolt carrier group from your rifle/carbine or using an airsoft gun or inert trainer.  Don’t do this with a platform capable of firing live rounds.

Stand across the room from the post-it, aim at the post-it, then alternate between aiming 2-3 feet above the post-it and 2-3 feet below the post-it, pressing the trigger every time your sights come through the post-it.

Next, do the same thing horizontally…then diagonally in both directions.

Finally, try doing a sideways figure-8 so that the post-it is in the middle.  Do the figure-8 in both directions and attempt to press the trigger every time you go over the trigger.

What this will do is help develop the stabilizer muscles in your arms, shoulders, back, core, and hips so that you can create a more-stable shooting platform in non-ideal situations.  Ironically, it’s not really designed to help you shoot moving targets…although it can definitely help with that as well.

So, try these out for a few minutes before the next time you go shooting or hunting and let me know what changes you see.

And, if you bought a carbine, AR, MSR (modern sporting rifle) or pistol caliber carbine (PCC) that you haven’t had a chance to break in and run through it’s paces yet, I want to STRONGLY suggest that you pick up the Home Defense Rifle course.  It’ll get you more comfortable with your carbine then running through half a case of ammo at the range.  It’ll make your next trip to the range a lot more fun, help you put more meat in the fridge, AND might even save your life.  Learn more now by going >HERE<

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