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THOUGHTS ON EXPERTISE

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As a certified muzzleloading instructor here's a couple of my observations-

Girls/women are much easier in general to work with. They listen and improve quickly. Best student I had last summer was a 12yo girl. After about 30min of instruction, she got to the point she was intentionally cutting the wires holding the targets with a Civil War musket. Not that she had any encouragement to do so:D

Guys can be problematic. I had one who insisted he was right eye dominant but was actually cross dominant and refused to admit it. They often bring seriously bad habits/form with them. I had another who talked smack from the moment we started shooting about how he was going to be the best, yadayada. Wouldn't listen, couldn't hit a cracker on the wire when we had other kids doing it. In frustration, he dared my other instructor and me to do it, wrong thing to do pal. My other instructor took out half the cracker with his shot and mine reduced the rest to tiny crumbs. At that point, he started to listen. Sometimes a cold reality bath works wonders.

At the range, you'll see lots of folks who have never had any form of instruction and they shoot horribly and think they need the next great shooting gadget cause that's what some gun rag author said. In reality, they need to get back to basics and eliminate poor habits and technique. It's very prevalent in the pew pew crowd. Some of them are so into themselves that when they see me pull my competition Enfield Musketoon out of the bag, they do a bad job of hiding the sneers. I love to con those types into an impromptu match with an 8in gong at 200, offhand only. The Schadenfreude flows strong on those days when I point out that all pew pew does for the poor shot is allow him to miss at a much faster rate.:p

Generally at our range, I don't tell anyone I'm an instructor. Only a very few know. If somebody asks for help, I'll do what I can. Most of the time, I'm just shooting my stuff and observing and enjoying the day.
Locally this isn’t at all unique to the mall ninja crowd... this time of year they all show up, its the black powder crowds turn at the benches right this month.
When I see these types at our range I may try to place my targets close to theirs... hell, I have a competitive streak so often I will do this whenever I spot anyone who looks like they may be a professional, no matter what it is they or I happen to be shooting that day. Steel hones steel so it keeps me sharp. We used to have the local LEO community using our range (back when I was one too.) honestly, the good ones can shoot, but many, most really, are not shooters and it shows. I have never understood this mindset among people who carry a firearm professionally.
 
I remember when I was on the police department, most of my co workers were more dangerous to the public with a pistol than the criminals were. Probably 75% barely qualified.
 
I have also found women to be easier to instruct when showing someone new how to shoot. They listen to your instructions and more importantly, work on using them. In short order they are shooting some pretty darn good groups. Men either won't listen or have done a bit of shooting in the past, enough to have bad habits that are tough to break. Usually it is flinching the trigger when the sights wander by the bulls eye.
Seems to me that women new to shooting haven’t learned all the bad habits that many of the rest of us wizards have. If they did have a bad shooting habit, they probably wouldn’t have them on constant display.
 
I am new here. I have really enjoyed reading some of these post for a couple of months or so.I just read this one and think I know what Dr5x is trying to convey? I use to teach archery, no bells and whistles,just plain traditional archery and found the major problem with someone not learning was over eagerness to acquire accuracy.I would teach one way and they would look at the internet and books and start inserting something they saw into the method I was teaching. Whenever a person does this they are doomed to a substandard result on their target. When I first realized this I started telling them that you can travel somewhere by bus, car, train,plane and so on but you can't get anywhere unless you pick and choose one way and stick to it.Do not mix them up!This is what I understood Dr5x was saying?
 
I prefer Ishi's approach to target shooting with a bow.
It applies well to muzzleloaders. Especially smoothbores.
 
I remember when I was on the police department, most of my co workers were more dangerous to the public with a pistol than the criminals were. Probably 75% barely qualified.



Actually that's an understatement. I taught firearms at the police academy and most of the cadets would have been better served carrying a sawed off shotgun. And I do find women make better students. But switching folks to BP is, oddly, a bit difficult.
 
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