Advanced Marksmanship NPA help

[OREGUN]

Can someone help me understand how natural point of aim relates to barricade shooting?

I’ve been using a fortune cookie bag draped over the top of a tripod as an easily transportable barricade. I can set the rifle on the bag with the reticle on the target but as soon as I touch the rifle, I introduce a 2MOA wobble into the system. Perhaps there is a little bit of difference if I grip more or less firmly or if I press more or less firmly into the barricade but if I hold the rifle hard enough to keep it from falling off of the barricade with the shot, I get a wobble I can’t figure out how to dampen down. I struggled the most with a kneeling position. I’m a little better seated and I’m somewhere in the middle with standing. In the posted picture for example, the high and low shot in the two box are one each from standing and kneeling and the shot I pulled way out right was from sitting. After seeing my target posted below, a trusted professional shooter told me I should work on natural point of aim and recoil management. I’m tired of abusing this poor guy who was generous enough to answer my email.

For reference, this rifle and I can put 10 rounds inside of a half inch when shooting prone. I don’t think my fundamentals are junk but they very well might be. I’ve been shooting the Kraft target a lot, as a way to reference improvement, so that’s what I posted a picture of.

If there’s a thread somewhere that beats this horse to death I’m happy to be put in the right direction. Likewise, I’m happy to watch/read recommended videos or content. I’ve watched a lot of @lowlight training videos and read his book, among others, but at this point it seems like I’m trying a lot of things with no real idea if they’re moving me in a positive or negative net direction. If I’m going to build bad habits, I’d like the Hide’s help to do it.

Cheers.

 

[Lowlight]

NPA is defined by me as

Rifle pointed to the target, body pointed to the rifle, the idea with a barricade and bag is to remove the shooter influence. That NPA influence is noticed at the moment the shot breaks. If you are pointing the rifle, steering it on target the body will relax for a millisecond and the rifle will settle back to its natural location

With bags, the idea is, there is no resistance, so nothing to pull it back. But how NPA works is in the initial setup on the barricade. So for me and others, we include an Air Gap after we point the rifle to the target, we remove ourselves from the process for a split second. That settles the rifle in place and lets me point my body back to the rifle without influence.

What are you pointing at and how you are correcting it?
That target does not say an NPA issue

A target with an NPA issue has a proper zero on the rifle but the group is off-center, that would be an example. Another is horizontal stringing that is often called wind. We did on my range with Chris Way recently. If Chris just aligned to the target at 600 in a 14 MPH wind the hits strung 9" if he set his NPA prior using the wind his group was 3" shot altogether.

Because NPA has a variety of issues, many don't see them as an issue or if they see the issue it is credited to something else, like Wind.

the "given time and opportunity" answer to NPA Is to close your eyes, go through a couple of breathing cycles, then open your eyes and see where the reticle falls. If it moved that is NPA... The fine-tune is a dry fire if the reticle jumps that is also NPA the reticle is not jumping that is your body doing that... it's not the trigger tickling the reticle inside the scope.

We tend to shortcut this a lot, by squaring up and approaching things without chest facing the target, many feel that is enough. But it's not really the smaller the targets get

 

[OREGUN]

Ok. Thanks @lowlight.

In prone, I can close my eyes for 5 breath cycles and have my reticle exactly where I left it. However, when I dry fire, the reticle moves VERY SLIGHTLY up and left sometimes. Interestingly, in that 1/2” group of ten shots I mentioned, there was the tiniest bit of stringing up and left. I shot the group specifically because I was interested in your comments about guys shooting 5, one shot groups instead of 1, five shot group. I noticed the shots going up and left in the middle of the group and made some kind of adjustment...I’m not even sure what I did...just that I was really trying not to break the position. The last four shots went into the ragged hole without any more vertical. THAT sounds more like an NPA issue.

As for barricades, I’m definitely steering the rifle more than I probably should. I’ll work on that.

Thanks for taking the time.