Long-Range Shooting Tips For Beginners

Whether you’re used to firing handguns and want to make the transition or haven’t fired a gun before, long-distance shooting requires different skills and tools. However, if you want to learn some basics on your way to becoming a crackshot you’re in the right place.

Choose Carefully

It can be tempting to go after the biggest rifle or the one with a dozen modifications, but long-distance shooting comes down to accuracy. It doesn’t matter if you fire a .50 or a .30. The key is to hit what you aim at.

Most ranges have an assortment of weapons to rent, so you might consider testing a few rifles and going that route to find one you’re comfortable with. Heavier calibers tend to have larger recoil, which isn’t ideal for everyone.

Keep in mind that different bullets fire with differing velocities and impacts, so knowing your target could inform your decision. There are also various optics and gadgets out there to help with long-distance shooting, such as range finders and binoculars.

Of course, when it’s all done you might want to invest in a safe place to store your rifle and ammunition. This is especially important if you have children in the home.

Be Intelligent

One of the most effective weapons in a marksman’s arsenal is intelligence. The more you know about a target or the location you’ll be shooting, the better prepared you can be.

As stated above, different ballistics travel differently. Like bullets, different weather can drastically affect your shot or your weapon system.

Rain creates resistance, so your bullet might not travel as far or lose impact force if the distance is far enough. This would also cause the bullet to drop, so you have to learn to account for that.

The Coriolis effect exists, but the only ones that really have to worry about that are snipers. It involves the timing of the shot with the rotation of the Earth, which is generally only for shots over a mile.

Remember to Breathe

Your weapon is an extension of your body when you fire. The best way to think of it is that your rifle breathes with you, because the stock rests against a vein in the meat of your shoulder.

Your pulse indicates when you should fire. Control your breathing and squeeze, don’t press, the trigger on an exhale for the best results.

Become a Mil-ionaire

For shots 500 yards or less, as long as your scope is zeroed you should be able to hit what you aim at with ease. However, for shots over 1,000 yards you’ll want to learn how to utilize the mil-dot system in your optic.

Mil-dots are the number of clicks you’ll have to adjust for your shot. The easiest equation to remember for clicks is to multiply the yards that your bullet will drop by 1,000 and divide the result by the yards to your target.

So, if your target is 500 yards away and your bullet will drop roughly 36 inches, your mil equation would be (1×1,000)/500, or 2 mils.

Each scope has different mil amounts, but if each click is 1 mil you’ll need 2 clicks and so on. Basically, become familiar with this system or the MOA if your scope uses those measurements instead and you’ll be much more accurate.

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

One of the best ways to shoot is with both eyes open. This is because, when you shoot, you want to have follow-through.

In shooting terms, follow-through means you’re ready for a second shot after the recoil. Sight picture is important in this case, so you want to see the exact same thing in your scope after each shot.

Learning the difference between focal planes and having a scope with parallax adjustment, which affects how the scope moves with your eye, can help create a solid sight picture every time.

Fire and Fire Again

As the old adage says, practice makes perfect. While there is such a thing as bad practice, the important thing is to familiarize yourself and get comfortable with your rifle every chance you get.

No one is born the best sniper in the world. That comes from years of shooting and the more you shoot the better you’ll get. You’ll learn distances and bullets, get faster on the reload, and even the complex things will become muscle memory.

So hit the range, try out some rifles, and find one you’re comfortable with. After that, be patient and it’s only a matter of time before you’re hitting everything you aim at.

Guest Author Bio:

Richard Douglas is a long-time shooter, outdoor enthusiast and technologist. He is the founder and editor of Scopes Field, and a columnist at The National Interest, Cheaper Than Dirt, Daily Caller and other publications.