Natural Respiratory Pause
One of the hardest things to teach new shooters in basic rifle marksmanship is the concept of not holding their breath. When you hold your breath, your body’s autonomic system kicks in. You start to experience rising blood pressure, pounding heart, and an ever rising heart rate. Your body does this in attempt to get you to breath. Obviously with all of this going on, your ability to aim and exercise proper trigger release becomes very difficult. This usually results in a shooter jerking the trigger and missing wildly. A typical adult at rest will take a breath every four to seven seconds. This window of time is referred to as the natural respiratory pause. This is the window you have to get your aimed rifle shot off.
Once in position, take a breath and let it out. You now have 4-7 seconds to get your shot off before you start experiencing these autonomic symptoms. If you can’t get your shot off, no problem, take another breath and reset. It takes some practice, but once you master this technique you will be amazed how much better your aim will become.
Continue reading“Basic Rifle Marksmanship- Part 2, by Mark Bunch”