I was not born a good shooter. What I can today took me a long time of practicing with an Olympic air pistol at 10m/11yds. It was my basics for 25m competetive taget shooting.

Pistols yes. Shotguns yes. Rifle at long distances, still needs work.

As a kid I could shoot a rifle pretty well, but was terrible with a pistol. I had to work at those.

quote:

Originally posted by leavemebe:
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.

This is me also. For me, pistol takes a decent amount of work. I immediately took to rifle shooting though.

My son, since he was 8 yo, is a natural born all-around shooter. At an early age, he was a better rifle shooter than most of the regular adult shooters at our club. The ROs treated him like Harry Potter. As he got older, he was a natural shooting pistols also. Now 19 yo, he doesn't get to the range too often, school and all, but the last few times with him, he has not lost his touch.

Good with handguns, not so much long guns except AR's. At 10 or 11 I was shooting Neco wafers at 15 yards with a High Standard target .22. I've always been lazy, though, and I hate competition so I never really competed. I was always good with the M-16, I could easily hit 250 and 300 yard targets, same with the .30 cal carbine.

I'm not sure how much I was "born with" vs. developing basic weapon skills from martial arts that directly translated to firearms. At any rate, in my 30s I went shooting with some cooworkers, all of whom had been shooting most of their lives. It was my second time shooting handguns at all, the first time some 10 years earlier.

I dramatically out-shot all of them, creating tiny little ragged holes at any range with whatever they handed me. 9mm pistols, a Bryce SNS, revolvers. Finally one or them handed me his Colt Python .357 and pushed the target out to 15 yards.

This first time shooting a magnum I scored 3 out of six headshots. All shots were within a 6" circle. Years later I would repeat a similar performance with a .44 Magnum (first shot at 7 yards was on the top edge of the target circle; now knowing how the weapon was sighted, I proceeded to put the remaining rounds through the bull).

Years later I would put firearm skills to practical use shooting a centerfire rifle for the first time. After inventing the Accu-strut, I found I was a good enough rifle shooter as well to perform most of my own testing.

I wouldn't say I was a born shooter but I am certainly better with a rifle than I am with a pistol

I just need more range time...something sorely lacking in my life but its like anything else - it will become important again soon enough for me to go out and exercise my ammo

No. It's a daily struggle. After 60 years of practice I still do not consider myself a "good shooter"

Yes with a shotgun/rifle.

Not as much with a pistol.

My nephew was a naturally good shooter. Me, I really have to shoot a lot to keep up. I do pretty well but I'm not a natural.

Archery? Yes. Completely natural. I shot instinctual for many years. I just simply can't miss unless I try. I don't know how to explain it, but I've just got it, whatever "it" is. I actually do better without sights than I do with.

Rifle? Mostly yes. I'm not the guy that will consistently shoot dime-sized groups, but I can, and have always been able to, do a few inch groups at pretty much any distance. Don't know how or why.

Shotgun? As a kid, I couldn't hit a barn. I spent one season after school every day hunting pheasants and huns and one day a switch just flipped and it became natural. Swing, squeeze, kill. If you want good practice, go after huns. Them little bastards are fast.

Pistol? None of the above. It is something that I've always struggled with. I am good enough, but nowhere near as good as I'd like to be.

When I read things such as this thread, I think about a quote my wife uses to motivate her: "talent is wanting something bad enough to work for it."

Silent

See my tag line

I thought I was a good shot till the Precision Pistol bug (bullseye) bit me.

It is very challenging to say the least.

Maybe. I can say that I took to it naturally.

When I was born, the only thing I was good at was making shit out of strained peas. I had to learn everything else.

I was an easy and natural shooter up until about age 30. After that, eyesight started to go, and it has been all downhill from there.

I'm getting to the point where glasses with a front sight focal length will be a necessity.

My ancestors, and those of many here I suspect, lived in rural areas in much leaner times and were expected to make every shot count if they wanted to eat well.

Apparently, Grandpappy Apprentice on my Father's side was convinced that if you could see it you should damn well be able to hit it. He would demonstrate this with empty .22 casings placed nose first into trees that he'd then make disappear with a bullet.

Not sure how many generations are required for it to become a matter of evolution. My guess, looking back on it, is that knowing about my family's track record set the bar rather high for me.

As for the environment/practice time aspect, I was also raised in small town America where there were likely more guns than people.

So yes, it all seemed quite natural to me back then. Now? I should practice more often.

Yes

I wasn’t. I think it’s my long ass arms.