I’d love to hear how you define fundamentals for shooting.
Long-range precision covers a lot of ground. Benchrest, F-Class, Palma, PRS, and others all share the same goal, but the fundamentals are not always weighted the same. Fundamentals still come first. Position, natural point of aim, recoil management, trigger control, follow-through, and reading conditions. How those fundamentals are applied changes with the discipline.
What do you shoot, and which fundamentals matter most in your discipline? Which ones separate good shooters from consistent ones?
I am sure this one could be debated for eternity, as all of your points are important to shooting. When it comes PRS shooting if I had to pick 2, being able to manage your position and trigger control are key. Then you are able to watch your impacts and make quick adjustments on the fly as needed.
Thank you for the insight. It is interesting. So many programs out there teaching fundamentals without even asking what the desired discipline is. Excited to see what others have to say.
I shoot primarily for fun (enjoy developing different loads for my rifles) and hunting. That said I have been primarily self taught. AlldaySubMoa said it right, this can be debated for eternity. Whenever I can, I prefer to shoot prone and concentrate mostly on natural point of aim, bipod preload, breathing, and trigger control. I’m sure that there are some teachings that involve much more than I am aware of but that’s what I tend to concentrate on.
I’ll note a couple of fundamental considerations I did not think about until I was immersed in shooting:
a) Barrel heat - all bullets create barrel heat… some WAY more than others. It’s a combination of bullet diameter, bullet bearing surface, barrel finish and velocity. Even the powder you use. Barrel heat rises in front of your optic and causes most of the mirage you see. Your accuracy goes down as mirage picks up. I’ve adapted by using cartridges and bullets that are easy on the barrel and produce minimal heat.
b) Barrel life - when I started, my desire was for something fast and accurate. After I started shooting in competition, it killed me to have my winning barrel get burned out in 900 rounds, just about the time I got it shooting right. I now favor cartridges that give me at least a couple thousand rounds of competitive precision.
c) you mentioned changes with the discipline. It is important when jumping into a new discipline to research what winners are using. The bullets, the rifles, the optics, the accessories. I see people coming into F-Class with bipods and 30-06s or 300 Wins only to learn that they could have spent their money more effectively by looking before leaping.
d) recoil management - after about 50 years of shooting, I finally let the effect of low recoil sink in to my head. I always thought I was tough and gave no thought to recoil. Then I finally learned that I didn’t need a 50 BMG to shoot a deer under a corn feeder at 40 yards. As a matter of fact, by the age of 50 I had shot dozens of bang flop deer out to 500 yards with 100 grain bullets. I have never run into a 30-06 deer hunter than has tried a 125g bullet. They would be shocked to discover the effect in predictable leads, killing power to 300 yards and above all recoil. I’m old now and recoil is even more important to me for maintaining good shooting habits. I do real well with my little 6mm Dasher that is so low on recoil that I occasionally need to verify whether it went off when I pull the trigger. I’ll use my 300 Dakota when I require it for elk or something big at long range but I don’t shoot 1000 yard targets with it.