Setup Rifle 1 MOA accuracy holds down the variations that are encountered at long distance fully adjustable cheek rest up/down and left/right makes cheek weld and sight alignment repeatable Scope MIL or MOA graduations on the reticle accurate reference for elevation and wind hold target image measurement for ranging distance to target direct measurement of impact on target when zeroing scope quick reference for follow up shots focus capability for target distance removes parallax error for repeatable sight alignment Turrets with slip scales for zeroing elevation and windage Horizontal and vertical adjustments that return exactly to zero provide repeatable scope settings Lens cover caps prevent dirt/dust scratches on glass 20 m.o.a. scope base increases available elevation adjustment for long distance scope rings that position objective lens low on the rifle barrel keep your face low for aiming stability Scope reticle focus adjustment • Look through the scope while aiming at the sky. • Adjust the reticle focus until reticle is sharp and clear. • Adjust at installation and then don't change it. Rifle cheek rest Correctly adjusted for repeatable cheek weld and sight alignment • Find your cheek notch directly below the outside corner of your eye where your upper teeth meet the upper jaw bone. You press • • • • • this notch against the top of the rifle cheek rest. This is secure and repeatable. Close both eyes Press your cheek notch against the top of the cheek rest using medium face pressure. Keep your head naturally upright and comfortable, neck in neutral relaxed position, no head tilt in any direction. Open your sighting eye. Sighting eye must be in perfect alignment with the horizontal and vertical axis of the sighting system. Open sights: Eye in perfect alignment will see front and rear sights equal level across the tops (vertical alignment) and front sight centered in rear sight (horizontal alignment). Scope sights: Eye in perfect alignment will see a circle with a sharp black edge all around the outside of the circle. Fuzzy crescent on any edge of the circle is scope shadow. Scope shadow means your eye is not perfectly centered horizontal and vertical. • Adjust the rifle cheek rest up/down and left/right until you open your sighting eye and find it is perfectly centered both horizontal and vertical behind the sighting system. • The top line of the cheek rest must run parallel to the scope bore. • Don't extend your neck forward or backward from the neutral position to get a clear scope image. Slide the scope forward or back in the scope rings to make the scope image bright and clear. • Contact between shooter's cheek and the rifle cheek rest is called cheek weld. Shooting Keep the scope lens caps closed when not sighting. Adjust scope target focus each time the distance to the target changes. • Ignore the distance numbers on the target focus ring – they lie. • Center the focus adjustment where the target image is sharpest. • When you move your head slightly while looking through the scope the reticle must not move in the image. You have dialed out the parallax error. Contact with the rifle Consistent groups occur when your hold is neutral and relaxed, requiring the minimum of muscle input. All inputs should be comfortable enough to hold for any length of time. Every contact should be repeated exactly the same way every time. Your trigger hand • Fingers lightly wrap around the rifle grip. • No gaps between the rifle grip and your fingers • Thumb position to be the most comfortable, either on same side as fingers or across top of rifle grip • Light rearward pressure of fingers on rifle grip will reinforce the contact at your shoulder. Use the same amount of pressure every time. Your non-trigger hand When shooting from a bench or prone and a rear bag under the stock, your fingers support and squeeze the rear bag. Your trigger finger Before you achieve NPOA • finger is outside the trigger guard. After you achieve NPOA • finger is square on the center of trigger. • Contact is midway between fingertip and first joint Your shoulder Correct shoulder contact with the stock's recoil pad prevents the stock from moving during recoil. If the stock slides during recoil you get unwanted changes in sight alignment and sight picture. Stock movement is usually the stock falling into a gap between the recoil pad and your shoulder. Reposition your shoulder joint to close the gap and the recoil movement will decrease. • Shoulder contact is square and contacts all of the recoil pad • Raise or lower your shoulder pocket to fill a gap. • Shift or curve your shoulder pocket left or right to fill a gap. Your cheek • Place your cheek notch against the top of the rifle cheek rest using medium face pressure. • Keep your head naturally upright and comfortable, neck in neutral relaxed position, no head tilt in any direction. • If you don't have perfect sight alignment your cheek weld is not consistent or the rifle cheek rest is not adjusted correctly. Your eyes Your sighting eye should naturally and easily come to rest in perfect vertical and horizontal alignment with your sighting system. Aim and shoot with both eyes open. Partially close the non-sighting eye during the transition to learning both eyes open. • Both eyes open are naturally relaxed. • Both eyes open provide a wide field of view for maximum situational awareness and fast target acquisition Fundamentals of Marksmanship 1. Steady position 2. Sight alignment 3. Sight picture 4. Natural Point Of Aim (NPOA) 5. Breathing pause 6. Focus on the reticle 7. Steady pressure on the trigger 8. Follow through 9. Call your shot Do all the fundamentals in sequence for every shot if time allows. 1. Steady Position • get as low as you can • prone is the most steady • position a front support under the forearm of the rifle • backpack or shooting range bag makes a good front support • position an adjustable rear bag under the heel of the stock • your body is aligned straight on center line behind rifle 2. Sight Alignment • Contact your shoulder to the stock. • Repeatable cheek weld is necessary for repeatable sight alignment. Press your face notch against the cheek rest with the same pressure every time. Exactly repeatable face pressure requires practice. • The reticle does not need to be on target. The reticle is placed on the target in a later step. Open sights: correct sight alignment will see front and rear sight in perfect alignment horizontal and vertical. Scope sights: correct sight alignment will see a circle with a sharp black edge all around the outside of the circle. Fuzzy crescent on any edge of the circle is scope shadow. Scope shadow means your eye is not perfectly centered horizontal and vertical. 3. Sight picture • Sight picture means the center of the reticle is placed on the center of the target. • The reticle is the only thing you can control in the sight picture. • The reticle is the foreground and the focal point of the sight picture. Maintain tight concentration and look into the center of the reticle • The target is just background of the sight picture. • The reticle divides a round target into four equal size pieces. Center of target For establishing sight picture, when holding on the left side of a target (to allow for wind drift), the left side of the target becomes the new center of the target. Center of reticle For establishing sight picture with no wind correction applied on the horizontal reticle in the scope, the intersection of the horizontal and vertical lines is the center of the reticle. For establishing sight picture with wind correction applied along the horizontal reticle in the scope, the desired offset graduation on the horizontal line is the new center of the reticle. 4. Natural Point of Aim • Use a relaxed neutral hold, no muscle tension, less input is better • Take your time, speed comes from experience. • Get sight picture: center of reticle on center of target. • Relax. Close eyes. Take 2 breath cycles. Open eyes. • Should be no change in sight picture • If sight picture changed, shift your entire body around the front steady rest to correct horizontal error. Reset the rear bag to correct vertical error. • Repeat “closed eyes - 2 breaths - open eyes - body shift” until the sight picture does not change when you open your eyes. • Note the mirage for any final change of required crosswind correction 5. Breathing pause Inhale normal. Exhale normal. Then pause before your next breath. During the pause you have enough oxygen to make the shot. 6. Focus on the reticle Concentrate directly into the exact center of the reticle. 7. Steady pressure on the trigger Gently and steadily move your finger like drawing a line in dust with your finger tip. The rifle will fire. Do not release the trigger. 8. Follow through • Hold the trigger against the rear stop with steady finger pressure. • Maintain the sight picture after the shot fires. 9. Call your shot • The sight picture you saw at the exact time the rifle fired determines the call. • Perfect sight picture is a call “good”. • Not perfect sight picture is a call “bad”. • Release the trigger. Purpose of the call: Helps the spotter (or you, if spotting for yourself) determine how to direct the next shot. The call is an assessment of whether or not the shooter was on the target where he was supposed to be when the rifle fired. External Ballistics Bullet in flight • gravity makes bullet drop • wind makes bullet drift • bullet is slowing down as it travels because of air resistance Bullet drop variables ▪ Easy to know and they do not change between shots. ▪ Distance to target (known, calculated, or laser rangefinder) ▪ Air density (temperature, altitude, pressure, humidity) ▪ bullet muzzle velocity (manufacturer's data or chronograph) ▪ Bullet ballistic coefficient (manufacturer's data) ▪ Wind does not effect bullet drop much. Bullet drop correction ▪ Use a ballistics program, ballistics table, or D.O.P.E. ▪ Dial up the drop correction to place the bullet impact exactly on the horizontal reticle. Wind drift variables • Hard to know and they will change between shots. • Wind speed and direction never stay the same. • Wind is not the same at every distance between you and the target. Wind drift correction • Estimate the wind speed • Determine full force correction for wind @ 90 degrees. Use a ballistics program, a ballistics table, or D.O.P.E. • Estimate the wind angle. • Adjust the full force correction by the value shown on the Marine Corps Improved Wind Clock. • Do not dial wind correction into the scope. Wind changes too often to dial. Just slide the wind correction in along the horizontal reticle and shoot. Slope angles over 30 degrees • Bullet drop acts like the distance to the target is shorter than the actual distance. Multiply the actual distance by the cosign of the slope angle. Use the result for distance to determine elevation hold. • Bullet wind drift acts as expected for the actual distance to the target. Use the actual distance to determine wind hold. Miliradian (MIL) 1 radian = the angle made when the radius of a circle is placed along the circumference of the circle: length = radius 1 Radian radius 1 radian divided by 1,000 = 1 miliradian (1 Mil) 1 MIL = 3.5 in. @100 yd , 7 in. @ 200 yd, 10.5 in. @300 yd. 1 Mil is divided into tenths 1/10 of a MIL (.1 MIL) = 1/3 in. @100 yd., 2/3 in. @200 yd, 1 in. @300 yd. • Target actual size (inches) X 27.77 divided by target image size (mils) = yards to target • • • • MOA • 1/60th of a 1 degree angle is 1 minute of angle (1 MOA) • 1 MOA = 1.047 in. @ 100 yd. (we will round 1.047 in. to 1 in.) • 1 MOA = 1 in. @100 yd., 2 in. @200 yd., 3 in. @ 300 yd • 1 MOA is divided into quarters • ¼ MOA = ¼ in. @ 100 yd., ½ in. @200 yd, ¾ in. @300 yd • Target actual size (inches) X 95.5 divided by target image size (MOA) = yards to target 100 yard zero 100 yards is a common universal reference point for long range holdover calculations. • Focus scope image for the target distance to remove parallax error • Adjust horizontal and vertical turrets so bullet impacts target exactly on the center of the reticle at 100 yards. • Slip horizontal and vertical turret scales to zero. • Confirm 100 yard zero at the start of each shooting day. • .22 L.R. 100 yd. zero will change with each 5 degrees of air temperature change. D.O.P.E. (Data of Previous Engagements) Record the holds that worked for you. Keep the extra data simple: ammo, distance, temperature, wind. Ammo: .22 long rifle Winchester Power Point Copper Plated Wt: 40 Vel. 1280 Notes: hollow point, narrow tapered nose, efficient looking bullet! Temperature 25 30 40 45 35 100 yards 0 0 0 0 0 200 211 5.3 4.9 4.7 204 4.8 195 4.4 300 10.5 315 11.3 Wind 090@5 .5 Miscellaneous Advantages of training long range with .22 L.R. • Huge bullet drop and wind drift equals learning opportunity • Distance calls and wind calls must be very accurate • .22 L.R. requires under 300 yds. to simulate a .308 shooting at 1,000 yds. • Recoil is light and ammunition costs less Ammunition • Find ammo that will shoot tight groups at 100 yards • A change of ammo will require a new 100 yard zero. • A change of ammo will require a new ballistics table. Fast follow up shots • Shoot. • Make a mental mark on the scope glass at the location of the bullet impact. This mental mark is the new center of the reticle. • Move the new center of the reticle to the center of the target. • Shoot again. Reload while shooting • During a lull. Before rifle is empty. • Do not watch your hands while loading • Eyes down range on target Contents of shooting bag: ammo and spare mags Ballistics table and D.O.P.E calculator, pencil, paper thermometer tool to slip scales tape measure masking tape to cover bullet holes on the target Missed shots Correct missed shots by working in this order: 1. Bad fundamentals of marksmanship 2. Bad wind call 3. Bad dope 4. Bad ammo 5. Bad scope 6. Bad rifle Cold bore The first shot of the day may hit in a different place than later shots. The cause is probably the shooter, not the bore. Make 5 consecutive perfect dry fires before you send the first bullet down range. See .22 bullet in flight Distance to target 100 to 200 yards. Scope magnification around 10X. Sunlight behind you. Light colored simple background. Sight picture perfectly steady after firing the shot. You will see the bullet in flight. The flying bullet will look like a bee in curving flight to the target. Mirage Lines made by heat waves. The angle of the lines can tell you the crosswind component at the target. The lines will drift downwind across the target. See them through your scope. 0 Wind IIIIIIIIII 5 mph Wind \\\\\\\\\\\\ 10 mph Wind ========= Scope internal parts A scope is a metal tube with a stack of lenses inside. • Ocular lens is nearest your eye. • Erector lens is somewhere in the middle of the stack. • Objective lens is nearest the object you are looking at. EYE Ocular lens === Erector lens === Objective lens TARGET Reticle Focal Plane Refers to where the reticle is placed in the lens stack. First or second focal plane only matters when you have a scope with variable magnification. First focal plane scope Ocular lens === Erector lens === Reticle === Objective lens • FFP scope changes reticle size when magnification changes • reticle graduations are accurate at all magnifications • reticle is small and graduations are hard to read at low magnification Second focal plane scope Ocular lens===Reticle===Erector lens===Objective lens • SFP scope reticle stays 1 size regardless of magnification. • Graduations are accurate at only 1 magnification, usually full power. Fast Target Acquisition This skill helps you acquire any moving or stationary target against any background in 3 seconds or less in a high power rifle scope. The narrow field of view in a scope is like looking through a pin hole. A small target, a moving target, or a target in a cluttered background is not easy to find through a pinhole. Train your eyes The first step is to train both eyes to focus. Your left and right eye do not focus equally at the same time. The eye with the stronger focus becomes the dominant eye. Each eye can be trained to serve as the dominant eye. • Select an easy to see object at least 20 feet away with a contrasting background. • Focus sharply on the object with both eyes open. • Isolate one eye by keeping it open while closing the other eye. Continue to focus your open eye on the object for 5 to 10 seconds. Get the sharpest focus that you can. Note the feeling within your eye as the eye muscle reshapes the lens into focus. • Switch eyes to isolate the other eye. Reverse which eye is open and closed. Get the sharpest focus you can. • Continue switching back and forth, 5 to 10 seconds per eye, feeling each eye get the focus. • You have just trained each eye to serve as the dominant eye! By closing one eye at a time you were using a crutch. Now it's time to eliminate the crutch. • Keep both eyes open while switching the sharp focus from one eye to the other and back again. If you have trouble getting an eye to focus, half close the other eye. • When you can get each eye to focus with both eyes open, you are ready to get on the rifle and find the target. Find the target • Establish cheek weld while looking down range at the target with both eyes open. • Make the eye not looking through the scope produce the dominant focus that sees the target. This eye will have a wide field of view. • The eye looking through the scope will see the reticle. • Your brain will combine the two images, target and reticle. The combination will appear to be the reticle floating in space along the outside of the scope. • Place the floating reticle on the target seen by the outside eye. • Change the dominant focus to the eye looking through the scope. • The sight picture in the scope will be the reticle on the target.
