Handguns Afield by Jeff Cooper

Author:Jeff Cooper [Cooper, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, Iraq War (2003-2011), Persian Gulf War (1991), United States, Aviation
ISBN: 9781789124903
Google: HoqbDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2018-12-01T22:31:02+00:00

The field positions should be practiced until they may be taken without thought. Prone is rarely practical as any intervening brush or rock obscures the target, but it may occasionally be used from a ridge top. For this reason the rest position is more useful if the terrain allows it. Sitting is very accurate, but slow. It is good for watch-and-wait situations. Braced kneeling is excellent—both fast and accurate. Free-kneeling, as taught in some police academies, is pointless as it has no advantage over offhand. The standing positions (not offhand) are used when brush or high grass require the hunter’s full height for visibility. The barricade or postrest positions are satisfactory for low-powered pistols but tend to bark up the supporting hand with a Magnum.

One of the greatest difficulties in field shooting is keeping the eye focused on the sights rather than the target. Any experienced target shot knows that the critical relationship of front and rear sights is far more important in achieving a tight group than the actual position of the front sight on the target. A shot will not strike farther away from the aiming point than the front sight wanders, provided front and rear sights are perfectly aligned, but let there be unequal light rectangles bordering that front sight in the rear notch and your shot may strike several feet to one side. Now focusing on the sights is not too difficult on the target range. The bullseye is very distinct, you know where it is and that it will stay there. But in the field there is an almost uncontrollable tendency to focus on the game, allowing the sights merely to interpose in a blur. This is perfectly natural, since the hunter has been searching for hours, days or weeks for a glimpse of this fleeting target—now that his eye has it, it seems too much to ask to wrench it in and fasten on the pistol’s sights—but it must be done or a glimpse of the target is all he’s apt to get. For this reason the aspiring field shot should conduct all his snapping practice (“dry-firing”) on alternating aiming points, training his eye to leap out to the target and then instantly back in to the sights before each squeeze. As often as possible he should practice dry on living animals. From a window most people have frequent views of dogs and cats. “Snapping-in” on them will accustom the eye to holding an indistinct and moving target in half-focus while giving primary attention to sight alignment.

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