Shooting Offhand With Dignity Part 2

Taking The Position: I should mention that my comments on shooting are based on my years of shooting competitively in the standing position. Some will disagree with the seemingly meticulous pre-shot preparation, but as they say in the military, "Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast".  Efficiency will come with time, but be careful to keep the fundamentals of shooting offhand clearly in mind.

Shooting a muzzle loader is a little different from shooting a modern firearm. The buttplate is positioned so that the shooter's head can be held erect. The comb, the part of the buttstock that touches the shooter's cheek, is also lower to allow a clear view of the sights, which are typically very close to the bore line.

There are typically four contact points between the shooter and the rifle. Keep this in mind, as all contribute to a stable shooting position. For simplicity's sake, I will identify these points for a right handed shooter. They are:

• Shoulder to buttplate
• Cheek to buttstock
• Right hand to wrist of stock
• Left hand to forearm.

Shoulder to buttplate. Locate the "pocket" in your shoulder and position the arc of the buttplate in it.  This pocket in your shoulder is fairly stable and doesn't shift if you rotate your arm.

Cheek to buttstock. Simply drop hour head until it contacts the comb of the stock. Because of the shape of the stock, your cheek should fall naturally on the comb and you shooting eye in line with the sights. You may need to make some slight head adjustments to attain that perfect Sight Alignment.

Right hand on wrist of stock: The strength of the grip should be firm, but lighter than a handshake. The important part is to adjust you position so that the trigger contacts your finger between the tip and the first joint. This close up shows me in the firing position, assuming that the rear trigger has already been "set".

Left hand to forearm: Here's where I behave more like a target shooter than a 18th century rifleman. I don't think the "snap shooting" mentality should be adopted until you've mastered the basic skill of target shooting. Keep in mind that you're not engaging a moving target, so there is no need to react in haste. Remember, slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

As a target shooter, I use one of two target shooter's support styles. Both have their roots in competitive smallbore shooting where recovery time after the shot isn't an issue. Although not mentioned, your support elbow should be resting on your rib cage and not your hip.

Palm Closed (left): Here, the rifle rests on top of the shooter's closed fists. It provides a more stable platform and little or no stress on the fingers. However, it tends to point the muzzle downward, but I haven't found that to be a problem when shooting the Trail Walk. The long gongs require a bit of adjustment. It is probably the most stable platform you can adopt.

Palm Open (right): This works well when shooting a light-weight rifle, although some might find the pressure on the fingertips uncomfortable. If you find that your rifle is consistently pointing low, you may have to adopt this alternate method of support.

Once you have built your shooting position from these suggestions, locate a blank wall. With your shoulders aligned on a perpendicular to the wall. shoulder up, and look down the barrel at the sights. Remember to concentrate on the front sight, neatly positioned in the notch of the rear sight.

Having attained the perfect Sight Alignment, let's do something to make the rifle "fire". Make sure that the washer is in place, the hammer is cocked, and the trigger is set, if applicable. 

Breathing: Take two deep breaths. Then take a third breath, but let it out slowly. You're not blowing out candles on a cake, you're just sighing. This assures that you body is fully oxygenated, as you will have only ten seconds to get off your shot before your body notices that it's depleted its existing oxygen supply and needs to take a breath. 

Trigger Press: While your sights are precisely aligned, slowly add firm pressure on the trigger until the hammer falls. Your sights should still be locked in position. For the moment, don't worry about where the rifle is pointed. Concentrate on maintaining your focus on that perfect sight alignment, and pressing the trigger without disturbing it..

Follow Through: I like to think that the shot is fired two seconds after the hammer falls. This is called follow through, and it's critical when shooting a muzzle loader, which are known to occasionally present the shooter with a hang fire, a delay between the moment the hammer falls and when the main powder charge pushes the ball out of the barrel.

Next, we'll talk about sighting in, wobble area, and grace under (hang) fire.