Shooting Around Barricades

Today’s Pro Tip is how to interact around barricades and obstacles, to the most benefit of the shooter. Here, we pretty much have a standard barricade. There are basically two techniques that you can use to shoot around it. One is using it for a lot of support where you really thrust on to it.      The other technique is a very light hold, with just a thumb, just to set the muzzle while you make the shot. It’s also a concern of how long I want to be here. So if I want a really fast set up, I would just come in here, and use a thumb.  If I’m going to finish up a stage here, I’ll get wrapped around a barricade and stay here for a while. So, let’s see what that looks like.  Both of these techniques that I just showed you work really well if I’m not going to stay here for a long time, and the targets are close, and good size.      But if the targets are further away, and they are smaller, I need to get more accurate on them. What I’m going to do is go down, and take a knee. It’s a lot steadier. Let’s see what that looks like. You notice when I have the rifle shouldered, I have my elbow on my knee. It’s a lot steadier. It’s a great point of contact. Now we’ve got the barricade moved out and we’ve brought in a table. I’m going to show you some points on how to interact with a flat surface like this. What I try to do here is get the hand guard parallel to the table top. You notice here, the magazine is making contact. And when I do this, I have as much of the rifle on the front as possible, and it makes for a very stable shooting position.  In different three gun matches, you’ll come across different props, roof tops, and angled shooting positions.  What you want to be aware of, you want to use as much contact of the rifle on the prop as possible. I’ve got a standard 30 round mag in here and, to shoot off this position, the only point of contact I have is at the front. So, I’m pretty wobbly back here. I can’t really get my elbow down on the prop.    A better choice would be to change magazines, and let the magazine work with you. Here, I have a 100 round beta mag. When I address the prop now I have two points of contact. It’s a lot easier on the shooter. I can drive the rifle a little bit faster and hold it lot steadier. When you find yourself at a three gun match, you really want to be careful about the stages, and the walk through, and shooting the right equipment. Choose the right technique and you’ll have a good match.         CLICK HERE FOR PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION