Went to the range today to plink with my 10/22. As always, it performed flawlessly.
Just as I was leaving, though, there was a young guy (perhaps 21, or so), shooting at a paper target at 25 yards with an SKS. I used "at" for a reason, because, for some reason, he couldn't hit the target. I mean, for most of his shots, he completely missed the paper. A couple of times, he hit right outside the ring. The range officer was trying to help him, but even he seemed a bit perplexed.
The shooter was not shooting rapidly. He was taking his time, and really trying to hit the target. It did not appear that he was flinching. Strange, I thought.
That's the second time in a row I've been at the range and a shooter couldn't hit the broad side of the barn. Last week a guy had a semi-auto handgun, and he was shooting at a rather large steel plate 25 yards away, and missing it with complete and total regularity.
Sigh. Sadly, marksmanship seems to be becoming a lost art. On a related note, we seem also to be losing our ability to see. The young guy today had a friend with him who was using a spotting scope to spot for the guy while he shot at a 25 yard target. That was a bit ridiculous, since you could clearly see where the shots went the two times the guy landed on paper.
Were all of his ring hit at least on the same side of the target? Maybe he's totally new to shooting and hasn't figured out which is his dominant eye.
I was recently teaching some scouts to shoot BB guns and had one kid on the range who had a heck of a time. The kid was largely ambidextrous for many tasks but the preferred/slightly-dominant hand was opposite of the dominant eye.
Usually I suggest getting those sort of things sorted out with a pellet gun and some pre-range classroom instruction before you move to live fire with an SKS.
Well, he only got two on the paper while I was there, and yes, one was at 7 o'clock and the other was at 11. Know idea where the other shots were going, though, so I don't know how useful that is.
The spotting scope, even at 25, could help keep track of which holes are already there, assuming there are any.
I had some trouble with my AR when I first got it because the only open slots where at 100 yards and I had not done any sort of bench zero of my scope.
I recently fired an AK47 at about 5 yards indoors but there were so many holes in the paper already I could tell whether I was hitting the paper or not. Likely I was but just hard to tell for sure.
Maybe new shooters, inexperienced ones not setting the sites properly. They buy a new gun excited to shoot it without adjusting the sites, as they go along missing the target they think maybe I'll shoot a little more to the right or left to hit the target, all the while not thinking to actually adjusting their gun sites. I've seen it happen.
Irregardless of the dominant eye, that will help him shoot better, but he should still be able to shoot well enough to hit a rifle target at 25 yards. Most likely he doesn't know proper sight alignment, or the sights are just plain OFF. In cases like that I always offer to shoot the gun myself and see if it's the shooter (two cases, him or me) or the gun (only one gun).
If I miss too, then it's the gun and we go about bore-sighting the sights.
I kinda wonder if the guy's sights were just way off. Or, maybe he just doesn't know how to line them up. Heck, at that distance you could just look down the barrel, you don't even need sights. Either way, was a puzzlement.
I see this a lot at the range I use. New shooter and a new Rifle (most of the time it is an AR), They tack up a paper plate at 50 or 100 yards and then wonder why they are not hitting it.
I usually carry a roll of 2' wide paper, so I take them to the 25 yard area and tack up the paper 4'X4' and mark a black dot in the center. Get the sights close at 25 yards and then move to 50 or 100 yards to zero. It is not unusual for sights (or scope) on a new gun to be off by 18" on the first shot. If you do not have a LARGE paper area, you will not know where the bullet is going or what to change.
I have helped many new shooters get the idea of sight picture maybe no one taught this young man.As far as eye sight I am 58 and my eyes need 325 magnification. My oldest niece is 22 and she needs 425. So age is not a factor. I knew someone in high school who had 20/200 uncorrected vision. That is correct without glasses he saw at 20 feet what most people see at 66 yards.
Could be a new shooter who thought the best choice for a 1st gun was an AK47.
If that's true and that's how he's starting off, I'm not surprised at all.
My 8 year old was able to peg the bullseye this week, but that's with a Savage Rascal.
People fail to learn fundamentals anymore, and while I appreciate and welcome new shooters, a lot of mistakes are made because of understandable ignorance on how to get started in the shooting sports. And despite the junior jihadi's in the middle-east, the AK is not an ideal gun to learn fundamentals on.
A couple weeks ago I needed to sight in a rifle. I knew I needed to start at 25 yards and work my way out but with others at the range ceasefires are sometimes rare so I set the target at 50 yards figuring I could shoot in the grass and get close. I've done it many times that way.
But I couldn't hit paper at all at 50 yards because I couldn't see where the bullet was hitting. The guy next to me asked a few questions and then spotted for me when I was shooting in the grass at 25 yards. I was way off. With his help I was able to get on paper and from there I was able to zero it in.
Very funny, 303. I think you might be just a wee bit older than the fellow out there today. You know, though, your story reminds me of a .22 I bought last summer. A Marlin bolt action. I cleaned it up and took it outside to make sure it would shoot. It did, but I had no idea where my shots were going. I had a tin can on a stake about 25 or 30 yards away, and I could not hit that thing to save my life. It turned out that the windage on the rear sight was off, but only by about 3 or 4 inches. Still, that little bit was enough to throw me off for a good 20-30 minutes.
Well, a couple of years ago, I got back into shooting after a long absence. I have to be honest- I was dismayed at how poor a shooter I was at first.
I practiced a lot, though, did a lot of reading on shooting, watched a lot of videos of some really talented shooters on YouTube, and I got a lot better at it. I'm still nowhere near where I would like to be, but I feel the important thing is to strive to improve.
The young fellow today was trying to hit his target, I gotta give him that. He was trying to learn. OTOH, the guy last week with the semi-auto pistol? He didn't seem to care. He shot up a whole bunch of ammo, and never seemed to come close to the steel plate he was shooting at.
When I bought an SKS in the mid-90s, the first range outing started with the common and cheap (at the time) Norinco and/or China Sports 7.62x39 ammo. At 25 yards, the rifle couldn't keep all of the holes on an 18" square target paper. And that was from sandbags.
Switched to USA made PSP 7.62x39, and the group size was around 1.5" (full circle, not center-to-center).
The generic Russian ammo in the waxed tan cardstock packages was much better than the Chinese junk.
He musta bought the twin to my cousins SKS. His shot just like that. He couldn't hit a cement block at 25 feet. It was so bad, I told him if he ever gits mad enough to shoot at me with that pile of metal, I was just going to stand real still. No sense in fleeing and taking the chance on running into a bullet.
I hauled the cement block about 300 yards up into the field and my son ( who was about 15 at the time. and taught to shoot from about age 10 ) dusted it with an AR . And yes, I did it just to make my cousin with the SKS feel REALLY disgusted. . haha. MY BAD ,,,,
I'm a multi award expert but have had a couple long guns with sights that are so far off they barely hit paper. A casual observer could assume I can't shoot.
There's no doubting some folks can't shoot very well. It's surely not the gun they use as even the most notoriously inaccurate guns shoot quite acceptably.
There seems to be a lot of new shooters out there. You can quietly laugh at them, ignore them, or help them.
When my kid hit a stumbling block I had him watch this, and though he won't admit it, it helped tremendously:
I'm a multi award expert but have had a couple long guns with sights that are so far off they barely hit paper. A casual observer could assume I can't shoot.
There's no doubting some folks can't shoot very well. It's surely not the gun they use as even the most notoriously inaccurate guns shoot quite acceptably.
There seems to be a lot of new shooters out there. You can quietly laugh at them, ignore them, or help them.
When my kid hit a stumbling block I had him watch this, and though he won't admit it, it helped tremendously:
Sigh. Sadly, marksmanship seems to be becoming a lost art. On a related note, we seem also to be losing our ability to see. The young guy today had a friend with him who was using a spotting scope to spot for the guy while he shot at a 25 yard target. That was a bit ridiculous, since you could clearly see where the shots went the two times the guy landed on paper.
I have a spotting scope mounted to my pistol box and always use it at 25 yards. It's hard to see those little .22 holes when they're all in the black. [emoji41]
I also think "marksmanship" is all relative. Most people I see at public ranges shoot pistols at 7 yards and are happy if they have a decent group. For Bullseye competition we shoot at 25 yards indoors and 50 yards outdoors. I've seen guys put up 1" ten shot groups in competition. A majority of shooters never even attempt to shoot at 50 yards with a handgun (let one one handed, unsupported).
Knowing nothing of the individual the OP saw, nor anything about his rifle, I would hesitate to comment on his ability. I certainly wouldn't make the assumption that "marksmanship is a lost art" because some guy I know nothing about can't hit a barn door.
I'm not basing my statement on one, or even two, instances. While there are certainly many, many outstanding shooters, there also are far too many who are not just new and uneducated, but rather who simply seem to have no understanding for, or respect for marksmanship skills. They tend to blame the ammo, the sights, the optics, the benchrest, the trigger... all without first assessing their shooting ability, or lack thereof.
There are always going to be the people who refuse to admit that they are the problem and will blame the equipment, conditions, etc. (This applies to any sport or hobby). Everyone has different benchmarks for what is considered "good" or acceptable as well. I've too have seen people who can't hit a 2'x2' target at 25 yards and they didn't care at all. As far as they were concerned, a gun is for self defense and, if they can hit at 7 yards, they're good to go. Then there are some experienced shooters who put up a basket ball size group and quantify it by stating that "two bullets through the same hole is a waste of a bullet". I always love that one. As if they weren't trying to hit the same spot with each shot.
On the flip side is the shooter that spends hours testing various combinations of bullet and powder for each individual gun in search of an accurate cartridge for each in an attempt to get the tightest groups possible. Or sets up cameras to study their stance and form. We all have different standards.
In general, especially if you go to public ranges, you're going to encounter all sorts of different people with different goals and varying levels of experience. Considering the stats for gun sales over the last 5-10 years I would assume there are ALOT of new shooters out there.
If you don't compete at all, I suggest you go check out some matches available in your area. There are all sorts of disciplines and, I can assure you, you'll be impressed with most of the shooters attending these events. I shoot Bullseye because there is a local club that makes it convenient but I'm looking to get involved in some steel matches as well.
IMO, Marksmanship is alive and well, you're just traveling in the wrong circles.
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