Given that it’s Easter Sunday, I thought I may write some about the easter eggs that I was able to pull out of the three day shooting course that I took last year. Starting with the omni-applicable skill of patience. Yes, patience is a key element in shooting fundamentals, but I am referencing the idea of being patient with yourself when learning something new.
Having never shot high-caliber long range weapons (with any skill at least) I was eager to master all-of-the-things, but the sheer volume of stuff to learn was overwhelming. From the first classroom session until I left the course shooting out to over 1000 yds with consistency, I never felt truly comfortable — I was learning on the fly to be patient and allow myself to absorb and implement the things that I was learning. Even to this day, a year later, I am reminding myself to be patient and focus on fundamentals every-time I go out back to shoot some steel.
The second easter egg is one that helped me implement the patience I needed in learning so many new things... technology. Without modern technology there is no way I (or any other newby in the class) could have overcome the steep learning curve to understand how modern day rifles, ballistics, and scopes operate... For our class the instructors suggested that we download the app called “shooter” for $19.99 and boy was it worth every penny.
With this app, instead of guestimating, you could input your elevation, current windspeed (enhanced if you have a kestrel), temperature, and the ammo you are shooting... It would then list out exactly how to dope your scope (e.g. turning the top turret nob) and allow you to be zero’d in for whatever distance you are shooting.
