Scope, Stance, and Breathing: The Fundamentals That Actually Matter

Do you want to stop shooting yourself in the foot on shots you KNOW you should be making?

Every rifle owner loves dropping cash on new gear and cool accessories. They upgrade optics, swap stocks like gloves, and obsess over the next shiny gadget. Here’s the deal…

Nine times out of ten…the factors hurting your accuracy have nothing to do with gear.

Scope alignment, shooting stance, and breathing technique are the holy trinity of repeatable accuracy. And guess what…They are:

• Completely free to practice
• Easy to learn
• Proven solutions that deliver improvements immediately

Yet most shooters overlook them completely. They fail to realize that rifle cleaning mistakes and bad shooting fundamentals often go hand-in-hand. A dirty scope lens or fouled barrel AND bad technique equals garbage groups. Eliminating basic shooting mistakes starts with mastering these fundamentals first.

Fundamentals Beat Gear Every Time

Here’s something most shooters don’t want to hear…

Expensive gear does not fix poor technique. Give a fundamentals guru a $300 walmart special and they will demolish anyone with a custom rig strapped to their back. The reason…

Practice makes permanent.

Whether you are good or bad and want to get better or worse, you need to practice. According to recent NSSF research, there are over 52.7 million sport/target shooters in the United States. That means that there are millions of people out there every year that blow through ranges all across this country without spending much time at all drilling the basics.

They want to learn advanced ballistics, fancy scopes, and spray shooting techniques without mastering their foundations. Sounds familiar?

Basic fundamentals work because they fix the root of problems associated with inaccurate shooting. Understand how to properly set up your scope along with shooting stance and breathing techniques and you’ll have everything else mastered.

Get Your Scope Dialed In

A scope that is misaligned is the most common rifle cleaning mistake shooters make without even realizing it.

Many shooters will go through and clean their rifle but inadvertently bump the scope during the process. Then head to the range only to wonder why their rifle is zeroed in the dirt.

Aside from being bumped during negligent handling or cleaning there are a few things you should pay attention to when initially breaking in your new scope.

Eye Relief

Eye relief is the distance your eye needs to be from your scope. Having inconsistent eye relief will cause you to get slapped in the glasses from recoil or tunnel vision as the image blackouts around the edges of your scope.

Mounting Torque

When mounting your scope make sure you don’t over tighten or under tighten the rings. Overtightening can warp the scope tube ruining your new optics. While undertightening can allow your scope to move when firing, once again ruining your zero. Check your scopes torque specifications when mounting.

Parallax

Don’t know what parallax is? Parallax is the slight shift you will see when looking through your scope at varying distances. At closer distances this isn’t as big of a deal. But once you’re getting out to distances past 200 yards small shifts in parallax can miss your target by inches. Be sure you know how to adjust your scopes parallax for the distances you’ll be shooting.

Your scope is your window to the target. If it’s not aligned properly your stance and breathing will never matter because your rifle won’t be pointed in the right direction to begin with.

Your Stance Matters

Have you ever heard the saying, “You can’t hit what you’re not aiming at.”

A bad shooting stance will never produce consistent results. Without a solid foundation to lean on your gun will jump around like a scared rabbit every time you pull the trigger.

Here’s the thing…

When people think about stance, they only think about standing. Stance is crucial no matter where your shooting from. Prone, kneeling, sitting, and of course standing. The focus here is on prone since this is where the majority of precision rifle work is done.

• Your body should be straight behind the rifle. If you angle off to either side it will cause tension in your muscles which pulls you out of position.
• Take a shot then close your eyes and relax. Open them back up if the crosshairs are not on target adjust your body positioning, don’t move the rifle into position.
• Your support hand should either be under the stock or on your rear bag controlling your elevation.

Natural point of aim cannot be stressed enough. If your body is fighting you to hold the rifle on target you will lose every time. Relax into position and let your body do the work for you.

Master Your Breathing

As primitive as marksmanship may seem, breathing control is something learned that can give you an advantage when it comes to tightening your groups.

Each time you breathe, you move the rifle. Whether it’s your chest expanding and contracting or your shoulders rising and lowering your bullet hole is moving.

So how does one shoot around something they can’t control?

The trick is to fire your shot during what’s called the respiratory pause. The respiratory pause is the split second between you exhaling and taking another inhale. When you are at the bottom of your exhale your body is the most stable.

Participation in sport shooting has nearly doubled over the last decade. With so many new shooters coming into the sport some fundamentals like breathing are often overlooked.

• Take a normal breath in.
• Let the air out, DO NOT force it.
• Once you hit the bottom of your exhale, pause for a moment
• Squeeze that trigger during that tiny window of calm
• Don’t hold your breath more than a few seconds

If you hold your breath too long your muscles will tense up and your heart rate goes up. If your body continues to move, you won’t drop that target. Keep this pause quick and don’t force it.

Don’t Make These Rifle Cleaning Mistakes

Cleaning your rifle is important part of gun ownership. However, there are some mistakes people make when cleaning their rifles that can completely ruin their fundamentals.

• Cleaning your bore too often can actually wear down your rifling. Only clean your barrel when you notice your accuracy starting to fade.
• Don’t use cheap target style cleaning rods. These can easily scratch your bore and cause issues down the road. Spend a little extra and get yourself a one-piece rod or bore guide.
• When cleaning NEVER forget your scope. Many times when giving your rifle a good cleaning you can accidentally bump your scope knocking you out of zero. Take a quick minute to verify your zero after every deep clean.
• Rifle cleaning isn’t just about the barrel and optics. Make sure you take the time to clean your rifle’s action and trigger assembly as well. Carbon and debris buildup can cause your rifle not to cycle smoothly which will play a role in your follow through.

A clean rifle only helps your fundamentals if you know how to use it properly.

Time To Wrap Things Up

There you have it the 3 fundamentals that actually matter. They won’t run you a dime to practice and can yield improvements that no gear upgrade will ever match.

Here’s your free shootout for later:

• Make sure your scope is properly mounted, aligned, and zeroed.
• Build a stable repeatable prone stance that you can rely on from shot-to-shot.
• Understand your respiratory pause to ensure clean crisp trigger pulls every time.
• Rifle cleaning tips that’ll help you avoid simple but harmful mistakes.

Remember even the best in the world still take the time to practice their fundamentals. Once you master the basics you’ll never go back.