I went shooting today with a work buddy. This guy was military and has been shooting for a long time. He has taken all types of classes and buys lots of quality guns. He probably shoots 2-3 times a month. He’s still not very good. Standing still at 7 yards his targets are unimpressive. I mean at 25 yards unsupported I was shooting trigger groups then he was at 7. Meanwhile I took my friend Kelly (a 30 year old female who has never shot before) to the range not too long ago and she was a natural. Tight groups with multiple centerfire pistols at 7-10 yards.

I am more like Kelly. I have always been able to shoot tight accurate groups. I grew up in Northern NJ and no one in my family owned guns. My first pistol purchase after the 5 month wait to get my State Firearms ID card was a new Smith SW99 in 9mm. I bought it from a police supply store that I’m sure were happy to get rid of it. I went to a local range and without any instruction or ever shooting a gun before I put 15 rounds in the 10 ring at 7 yards. I thought to myself...wow that was easy. The next week I burned my next two pistol permits and got a Ruger MKII and a Glock 17. I don’t mean to brag but to me it always just came naturally. It’s not a technique thing either as I had terrible technique when I first started shooting. Cup and saucer method etc...

I still see this at the range all the time. Guys who shoot regularly but still can’t get bring it all together. So is it practice, eye sight, hand eye coordination, hand strength? Is shootig like other sports where some people are just born with talent? I also have friends who are decent but not great and what makes them different is that they are cross dominant and conditioned themselves to primarily shoot with their non-dominant hand. I’m cross dominant and it’s never been an issue for me. I feel like they are making too big a deal of cross dominance. I took practice weak hand but it doesn’t feel anywhere as natural as strong.

I'm not sure honestly. I've always done very well and I barely get to shoot. I did do rifle team in high school and placed well but that was the extent of my target shooting.

I have always been very good with a rifle. A pistol is a different story. I have improved my pistol skills with practice but it has been work.

^^^^^^^^^
I'm like that too - I've always been pretty good with a long gun (well, except for Skeet), but my pistol skills have plateaued somewhere between dismal and barely passable.

Yes, I was clearly born to live by the gun.

Guys like Miculek are born with it. He has the ability to slow the world down at will. Bruce Lee had the same ability. Us mortals only get that when we are under extreme stress. Remember that time you almost hit that deer and time slowed and you could see individual hairs on it's head? Well that is the phenomenon of which I speak.

That said, I think this guy learned a bunch of bad lessons and still has not re-learned how to do it properly. I remember shooting a pin match with a 1911 tuned by Novak's .45 shop. I was trying to hit the heads of the pins. I knew the gun was capable of it cause I'd done it on paper. Sure the timer can throw one off a bit but I was totally missing. I went back to paper and had no trouble. So, I slowed down and used better trigger control and started hitting.

Early on I realized I'd taught myself some bad lessons and worked hard to undo those bad habits.

I feel like I am a natural. Never had firearms in house while growing up. Dad was a Korean Vet that never saw combat. But he would tell me how he would break down his rifle in the dark and reassemble. Learned a lot from him before I even shot for the first time. Taught me sight alignment, stances, cleaning and breathing. When I was eight I shot a BB rifle for the first time in a competition. Placed first among more experienced and older boys. Loved it. Dad bought me a BB rifle shortly afterwards, which I still have. If I could see what you wanted me to shoot I could hit it. Eventually bought a .22 as a teen. First pistol when I turned 21, a 9mm. And eventually centerfire rifles.

Love shooting though I don’t go often nowadays. Need to change that. Though no matter how long it’s been between shooting opportunities, it always feels natural and I usually have no re-learning curve. Recently I went about 6 yrs without shooting rifles. The one rifle I grabbed to shot after my hiadous without even checking zero on the Aimpoint T-1, I put the first 20 rounds in center standing freehand at 25yds. Shooting does just feel natural to me.

I have yet to pick up a firearm that I haven’t shot well. And more often than not it’s better than the owner of it can, if it’s not mine.

I have shot out to 1000 yrds, only once though, and loved it. Really enjoy long range. Would love to have time, money and the place to shoot long range often.

I think I'm about a medium shooter. I don't practice very much anymore, but in my younger days I took several classes. I always seemed to be about the second best in the class and usually one of the faster ones where time was part of the equation...

I think it probably is somewhat genetic. You can train or teach a person and make them better, but you can't make a pre-disposed bad person great, just better than they were. Just like hitting a baseball - not everyone can do that well.

I've been drawn to shooting since I was old enough to pick up a stick and pretend it was a 6 shooter and I love shooting above any other past time. But whatever meager skills I have today I sure had to work my ass off for.
Definitely not in the born with it club.

I was a LE Firearms Instructor for 15 years. Lots of classes and trigger time, year in and year out.
I am pretty fair with a long gun and just average with a pistol.
After all this time and experience, I find that choosing the right pistol makes a huge difference in my performance.
For me, its the old school P225.

Heck no! After spending some quality time with Mr. Bruce Gray, I can now hit the broad side of a barn.

My 19 year old is a natural shooter. Whether it be long gun, hand gun, bow. At times when shooting at my brothers house, people will say this gun never shoots straight. My son will shoot it and in a few shots has it centered. I had to make him start paying for his own arrows as he was hitting in a group at center ring and tearing up the arrows in the target. He learned to shoot at other parts of the target after he paid for a dozen arrows.

I fully understand when top competitors bridle at the suggestion that they were just born with their abilities and they didn’t have to work at becoming good shooters. No one likes to be told, “You’re so lucky; it just comes naturally to you.”

On the other hand, there is absolutely no doubt that innate talent is a huge component of top-tier (and lower-tiers) success in countless endeavors. Does anyone think for a moment that Mozart as a teenager was doing things with music that would make adult composers weep with envy and frustration merely because he spent more time working at it than they did?

I shoot a fair amount these days, and shot more often at a time several years ago. In addition to actually shooting, I’ve attended classes and made other efforts to study and learn the arts and crafts of shooting. Despite all that, though, there are people who shoot a tiny fraction of the number of rounds I do, have never taken a class, have never watched a You Tube video, and have never read a book or article about marksmanship who effortlessly shoot better than I do.

There are things I was born to do really well (okay, pretty well), but shooting isn’t one of them.

On the other hand, I consider myself to be a very good instructor. Not as good as some certainly, but better than most, and not all of that was because someone taught me about instructing.

My dad gave me a single shot .22 for Xmas when I was 10 years old.

I put a whole lot of meat on the table with that rifle. Doves, rabbits, the occasional pheasant.

As an aside, when I was 14 dad told me that he knew some of my buddies were smoking and if I wanted to do so it was OK, but I would have to buy my own. (both parents smoked, a lot). I decided that since a pack of cigarettes cost the same as a box of .22 I would rather shot than smoke. Soooo...

Only shooting lessons I took was when I went in the army, and everybody got to take them.

Scored second highest in the company. Top shooter was a SFC who was also from Idaho.

we could argue all day over what constitutes a 'good shooter' !

I would say I am good - definitely not 'great' or 'elite'.

I totally believe this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li0rGtXh23I

Some of my strength comes from exposure over the years to so many types of firearms: everything from .22LR to 12 gauge skeet growing up to machine guns in the Army to ARs and SD guns nowadays.

Shooting stuff is fun!

--------------------------------

if I don't think about each and every shot ( overthink it) yes.

I was born a better than average shooter.

my brain does not work right.
its the same way with driving a golf ball

If I look at the ball and the target , I can get'er done
by gripping it and ripping it.

but from the fare way I start thinking re-thinking and again over thinking all the "stuff"

Quote from another forum

Too many shooters think shooting hundreds of rounds every weekend makes them a better shooter. In most cases it does not. Go back and analyze your dry practice vs. live practice. If your not improving I would bet its because your shooting but not really training. Dry practice includes visualization. When you finally really see what's going on when executing a great shot, you will know you're doing right. There will be no doubts. I know it's not as much fun, but if you want to get better you gotta do it. Trigger, trigger, trigger.

I'm an innately-decent-shot at best, but fortunately started very young, got my first firearm at 8yo, grew up hunting, served in the ARMY, carried for 20+ years, belonged to various gun and hunting clubs, and have improved to what I comfortably call a good-enough-shot via lots and lots of time shooting and various bits of formal instruction, right at 40yrs worth so far. From neck shooting a deer or pinging steel plates just past 300m to punching paper at pistol ranges and various points in between, I worked at it, and practiced a lot. For a few years straight, for instance, I shot at least 1000rds a month with my carry pistol.

Dry firing helped as much as anything, I bet. That and basic repetition. And variety.

quote:

Originally posted by Hamden106:
Quote from another forum

Too many shooters think shooting hundreds of rounds every weekend makes them a better shooter. In most cases it does not. Go back and analyze your dry practice vs. live practice. If your not improving I would bet its because your shooting but not really training. Dry practice includes visualization. When you finally really see what's going on when executing a great shot, you will know you're doing right. There will be no doubts. I know it's not as much fun, but if you want to get better you gotta do it. Trigger, trigger, trigger.

I know plenty of people that practice practice practice and still can’t put 15 rounds in one ragged hole at 7 yards taking their time. I think it’s more than just practice and technique. I think there’s an innate component to it.

It is possible people that are good shooters when they first start is because they embrace the fundamentals early on.

I started off very young, and I've always been a good shooter. However, I believe I became a better shooter in USMC bootcamp due to those fundamentals being pounded into me. Because of that, I was "company high shooter."

When we were there at Edson Range, we heard of a female marine recruit at PI who never fired a firearm before, and her qualification score was higher than mine. Was it skill, luck, more favorable conditions for her and unfavorable for me? I'm guessing she took to firearms like Forrest Gump took to ping pong.