Artificer, that's why you, me and every other Marine spent a week with our A!! in the grass dry firing at 55 gal. drums with little target shapes painted on them.
OMG, it has been almost a half century since I was on the "Snap In Range" in Boot Camp and even though I was in pretty good shape from football and especially wrestling, I still remember being so sore at the end of the first day, I could barely raise my arms to eat that evening. Grin. By the end of the second day, there wasn't anywhere on my body that didn't ache to the bone, even including the tiny bit of hair I had grown on my head! I had fire watch that night and even when everyone was asleep, there were moans of groans all over the Squad Bay. Thank God by the third day we were so numb, it didn't hurt as much for the rest of the week! LOL. But I'm very glad you brought this up, as it leads to something else that is good for folks doing dry firing.
I stopped by the Pistol Range during lunch hour before I began teaching my Armorers to dry fire the then new M9 pistol. I brought paper and pencil and figured out how to make a relative size bullseye for them to use to snap in. I put two of them on a sheet of paper, one centered in each half, and ran it through the copying machine so everyone would have an appropriate size target to dry fire on after cutting the papers in half and taping them to the walls of the Armory.
Now even though we weren't real busy when I began the dry firing practice in our large Armory in the afternoons, I had to split them up into two groups so one group could snap in while the other Armorers did their normal duties as both the Repair Side and Issue/Recovery side of the Armory still had to take care of Recruits and our Regular Marines. I did have my Armorers in cartridge belts with holsters for the dry firing. Then something interesting happened.
We had a really good Captain who was our Company C.O. and he infrequently visited the work spaces to check on the Marines in his care. He used to joke that was the only way he got to see most of the Marines in the company, as we had so many obligations, we rarely stood Company formations. It just so happened he walked into the caged off entrance way of the Armory while so many Marines were dry firing on the targets taped to the walls. So I ordered my Marines to holster their pistols, and because I had my own cartridge belt and pistol on, I called them to attention and I saluted the Captain. He quickly told everyone to carry on and then asked, "Top, is there something I should know?" I replied I wasn't sure what the Captain meant? He grinned and said, "Well I was trying to figure out what kind of a vermin infestation you could have in concrete block walls that would cause you to have your Marines ready with pistols to do them in?" Everyone busted up laughing.
There is something else from that training that folks shooting BP guns could gain something from. That is to grip, hold and sight a long gun or pistol as uniformly as possible on every shot. Since the grip of the M9 pistol is so large, we had to get a bit inventive for the male and female Marines with small hands for them to be able to grip it, so they could use a smooth trigger pull.
In my case because I've always had an astigmatism in my eyes, I REALLY have to "crawl up" on a long gun stock to get the best sight picture and thus do my best shooting. It isn't as comfortable to shoot that way, but it gives me the best scores. I learned to do that subconsciously while I was growing up hunting with a shotgun, but I also had to learn to do it with a rifle. Doing it enough over the years, it has become "natural" to me, or more likely a well trained physical response. So don't be surprised if placing your cheek on the stock in a different position than one is used to, may improve your sighting and shooting and especially since most of us have aging eyes.
Gus
simulate the barrel time of my 42” flintlocks. As we must break position to reload, I’m paying additional attention to my foot positioning/natural point of aim. But poor follow through is most often the cause of fliers. At 73 I sure wish I had the 20/15 vision of 40 years ago.
