New Year Resolutions – How to Improve Your Shooting Skills in 7 Simple Steps

Written by: Jay Chambers 1/11/20 Minutemanreview.com

The New Year is a time for resolutions – and as a weapon enthusiast, your resolution should clearly roll around your shooting skills. When it comes to shooting, no matter if your passion stands in hunting with a gun or a bow, there is always more place for improving your accuracy. You just need to be patient enough.

That being said, how can you actually improve your shooting skills so that you can become the best version of yourself? Well, we have a few good tips for you here.

• Practice Makes Perfect

No one becomes the perfect shooter overnight; you’ll have to work for it plenty. If you decide that you want to make shooting one of your hobbies, you must be willing to allocate it a certain amount of time every day.

For example, let’s say that you want to improve your shooting skills – and you’ve only been going once or twice a week to the range last year. Thrive to go more often to the range. Try to practice as often as possible – preferably even more than you used to last year. This way, you should be able to get better.

• Don’t Aim Farther Than You Can Shoot

Many people can’t manage to improve their skills simply because they are trying to shoot farther than their skills allow them to. Ultimately, you are likely to miss a shot simply because you did not estimate that range correctly – something that can continuously happen if you don’t practice properly.

Go with the range that you can manage – and once you get that perfect shot, go even further. Skipping steps or taking shortcuts won’t get you any closer to being a good shooter, so you might want to follow the proper road.

• Turn the Magnifier Down

This is generally the case if you tend to rely on your scope too much. Indeed, sometimes you may need a bit of magnification to improve your accuracy – but if you use too much of it, not only will you end up missing your shot, but you’ll also be completely reliant on it. This way, you won’t get to learn how to shoot it properly. So, the easiest way to learn how to shoot is actually the hardest way.

• Fix Your Shooting Stance

Whether you believe it or not, the stance that you take when you shoot is also important. Without proper shooting stance, you will not be able to actually make any accurate shots. This doesn’t mean that you will have to take any uncomfortable positions – comfort is actually very important when you are shooting. However, there are still a few steps that you might want to consider in terms of stance.

First of all, when you are shooting, your arms should be extended completely – but not locked out. Make sure that your shoulders are relaxed and that you are not hunching them around your ears. The shoulders should also be placed forward of your hips while your torso is slightly leaned forward. Don’t lean back, and make sure that your body is in a proper balance when you are shooting.

• Get Acquainted with Your Gun

Many people borrow guns from the range and/or friends in order to improve their accuracy. However, in order to actually improve your skills, you may want to get your own gun – and your own gear. This will allow you to get acquainted with every part of a gun and every reaction – therefore, improving your accuracy.

Let’s say that you continuously borrow guns that have different blowbacks. When a gun is difficult to control, so is your accuracy. This is why you might want to get your own gun, whose reactions you get to know and with which you may learn how to improve your accuracy.

• Invest in the Right Accessories

Indeed, when you are trying to improve your aim, relying on accessories might not always be the best move – and you should definitely practice with the basics. However, when the situation asks for it, you might want to learn about the gear that you need, as well as how to pick the right one.

For instance, you may want to invest in the right scope, or the right upper for your AR 15 to ensure that your gun performs properly. You don’t need to go for anything too fancy, but purchasing these accessories will allow you to scratch your upgrade itch. Used wisely, they can help you improve your shot.

• Get Off the Bench

At the shooting range, you see a lot of people practicing their aim by stabilizing their position on a bench. However, when you are on the field (say, tactical hunting and so on), you don’t see benches around, sitting randomly and waiting for you to use them as support. However, you will see other obstacles that require alternative positioning of your gun – something that cannot be provided by the bench. So, if you’re not going to get better using the bench, why still rely on it?

If you want to get better, you need to learn how to master shooting without the advantage of good support. By kneeling, for example, you will find that the bench was actually hiding the imperfections of your shooting technique – imperfections that you could now see, once the bench was taken out of the question. Plus, if you practice more sans bench, when you do eventually use the bench, you will see that your long-range shooting accuracy has improved. Master your aim without the benefit of good support and see how well you can shoot when you actually have that support.

Final Thoughts

Improving your shooting skills is definitely going to take quite a bit of time and practice, as no one can become a skilled shooter overnight. However, with enough determination and the right technique, you should be able to improve your shooting skills this year. All you need is a bit of patience.