Lets talk Natural Point of Aim

[usmcveteran]

How many people here have heard of natural point of aim?

I am not going to talk about proper stance (way to much info to write out right now on that) but basically natural point of aim is getting into such a stance or shooting position that your sites naturally line up to where you want to hit your target.

Next time you go to range or get a chance at home with a safe firearm get into a good stance or shooting position with it and aim at whatever your target is. Now what I want you to do is close your eyes while maintaining your position and take a deep breath or two and release it to your natural respiratory pause (point where you naturally stop exhaling) and open your eyes. You will notice most likely your not pointing at your aiming point anymore. What you are pointing at is your natural aiming point.

Once you have found your natural aiming point you can now make minor tweaks to your stance or position to achieve a natural aiming point that matches what you want to hit. For example lets say you are firing a rifle or pistol or shotgun from a standing position. You have your feet shoulder width apart , I have my non dominant foot slightly more forward, bent knees and bent forward at the waist. Now if your natural point of aim is not on target you can actually adjust your feet closer or wider or change your angle of feet to adjust to the left or right.

The main purpose of doing this is to allow you to expend less energy fighting the firearm to point where you want it and too allow you to shoot more accurately.

Also if your shooting in prone for example you can adjust distance between elbows to raise or lower natural point of aim and rotate whole body to adjust left or right.

Did I miss anything?

[Newfie]

Will give this a try next time out to shoot.
I have an interest in "point and shoot" technique. Like chest high close in hold or hip level with gun forward of strong side hip\leg. There most likely is a natural body stance or position that would be a correlation to what you describe when speaking of natural point of aim.

[phritz]

I gotta say, USMC, I'm really enjoying this little "series" that you've started. It's reminding me of all the fundamentals that I used to practice a lot more than I do anymore. Ive definitely been guilty of taking it for granted. I really need to get out and refresh these basicsin more often.
Thanks for taking the time to put it out there.

[jonboy 69]

usmc your series on shooting practices have all been good food for thought. todays post made me think of another aspect with your title of " natural point of aim ". back when i was shooting a lot one of the guns that i favored was an adjustable sighted browning high power. i had changed out the wood grips for a thinner factory plastic pair. that browning for me had a natural point of aim. so with that natural point of aim with the browning, a fair amount of shooting with it, brought a bonding which brought a high level of confidence and skill. i think this " mindset " brings a lot to ones shooting skills in itself. i've had a few guns i never bonded with and those are long down the road. probably would be a bit rusty today but would probably be a short curve bringing the browning back out.

[nortatoga]

Very good thread usmc! As a Appleseed instructor (IIT) this is just what we work on at AS shoots along with some American History (The Battles of Lexington and Concord) These fundamentals can be used in all disciplines of shooting!

[usmcveteran]

Thanks! Would be thrilled to see what you could offer as well that might be able to help other shooters.

[usmcveteran]

Bump

[BigJohnH]

What about finding dominant eye? Some may not know which is their dominant eye and that can throw off point of aim.

[24Pink14Stink]

Somebody showed me this technique at the swamps last year. It made an immediate impact.

[Meketrefe]

This is very important in precision shooting. The rifle wants to shoot on a specific direction so all we have to do is to adjust our position (and some bad habits) to
land in a natural and confortable position where you agree with the rifle. The more one tries to force the rifle, the worse it gets.
We should also say the importance of adjusting the rifle, ergonomics included to fit you and not the other way around.
This is specially important when ordering and setting up sight systems and scopes. But also comb height and length of pool. Even stock angle if one has that kind
of adjustment possibility.
So when buying a rifle if you want to be a better shooting not only concentrate in the equipment like barrel, bedding but also in the scope mounting process and your
ergonomics. Then the training that is possibly the most important part and often overlooked.
I would say about 3/4 of the folks at the range have scopes that are not properly mounted, bad ergonomics or a given combination of both. Then they never took
training or a very basic sportsman education training that is required prior to getting a hunting permit.

If you guys want this fall we can host an Avid shooter crash training to review fundamentals and get people on target consistently.

[MilesTeg]

I'm game!

[BigJohnH]

When you are done you will be able to hit an arrow at 200 yds.

[nortatoga]

I forgot about this tread! I will have to get a picture of my NPO, Muscle Memory, Respiratory Training Rifle! This weekend I will be using it at our Appleseed shoot.