Re: Prone Unsupported- do you?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tactical_Tom</div><div class="ubbcode-body">It’s kind of hard to shoot accurately without some type of support even if it is just a sling. Don’t expect to be able to get close to what your rifle is capable of. I suspect it is one of the reasons that people say you will never be able to out shoot your rifle. 2-3 MOA is the best I can do with my ar-15 without a bipod, using my EoTech, it kind of sucks. Although part of it is the lack of magnification. I really can’t understand how Palma shooters do it with iron sights at 1000 yards. </div></div>
I would have to totally disagree with this. My DPMS SASS and M1A shoot best with a sling. I can't get a bipod to shoot anywhere nearly as accurately as with the sling.
In sling, with jacket and glove with open sights my M1A last season shot a 5-shot 1.25" group at 300 yards.
I think a lot of it has to do with lock time. The gun seems to jump with a bipod and I think that affects the bullet. In prone with a very tight sling, it seems to dampen the rifle to the point where there is no jump, it's more like a push backward.
A scope should not matter in terms of accuracy. You do not need a crystal clear target to make cleans. A scope is really a target detection/ranging tool.
I use a Tactical Intervention sling for informal shooting. For competition, I use a Turner leather sling. If you are even remotely comfortable in prone, you are not slung up tight enough. Don't worry though, it gets better. It becomes more comfortable with time.
Don't waste your time at the range. Set up a series of dots, starting about 2 inches in diameter going down to the size of a dime. Post at about 75 feet and dry fire. When you can drop the trigger and hold on the smallest circle, go burn live ammo.
There are advantages to learning to shoot this way. Sometimes conditions do not allow the use of a bipod. The Tactical Intervention sling lets me get set up in seconds. It's fast.
I was shooting with security snipers who work at nuclear facilities last summer. We started at 300 yards. They all had AR-10's with Leupy Mark 4's mounted. They were all over the place. I shot my M1A with open sights and hit X on a standard NRA 600 yard target first shot. Those guys were all going, "Holy smokes...cold bore shot...that is unbelievable."
A mistake they were all making was touching up the shot too much. They would stare at the shot through the scope for minutes. Don't do that. As soon as you have an acceptable sight picture, take the shot. That goes for iron sights as well as scopes. If you stare too long, the image gets "burned" on your retina. When you move your eye, you still see the image and think it is on target, but it is really off target. No more than 10 seconds looking at the target, then take the rifle down.
I will say this, mirage was very bad that day, so I had an advantage with open sights.
