Here’s the deal, my brothers and sisters in camo: We all like shooting, and we all want to be better at it, right?
There is an overabundance of volumes that have been written about shooting and marksmanship dating to the muzzleloader cap-and-ball days, and now we have more videos than you could ever watch and more instructors than you could ever take classes in a lifetime. After a while, you can soon reach overload on shooting technique, which covers everything from stance to sight picture to trigger squeeze to eye dominance to the best way to lay on the ground and fire a rifle.
Among all the vast quagmire of the shooting and firearms world, when you boil it all down to the sticky residue in the bottom of the can – and get past the inflated egos of many supposed firearms gurus – one truth is undeniable and always shines through: We get better at shooting by doing it.
Nothing takes the place of going out and burning powder. Doing it over and over (correctly) only makes us more familiar with the weapon and improves our marksmanship. And here is the kicker: It needs to be fun! If the gun doesn’t fit you, the recoil is hammering you and the report is too loud, you are not having fun. Most of us humans tend to quit doing things that are not fun, and when we quit practicing, our shooting skills go out the window.
There is a remedy for all this, and it is called plinking, a term you’ve seen me use before in this column space.