TIP OF THE SPEAR
Nuts and Bolts of Precision Rifle Stuff
BY DOC SPEARS
In recent blogs I’ve written stuff of a more esoteric nature, and not so much on the practical of how to build a concrete practice for your marksmanship. One reason is that there’s a million “how-to” and “what to buy” blogs, and very little out there on the philosophical and metaphysical aspects to firearms training.
My goal is to inspire you to take up a practice that has a deeper meaning.
The other reason for my emphasis on the intellectual aspects of a mind-body discipline like shooting, is that the written word is often an inadequate way to transmit techniques and applications. And it’s generally dull reading.
YouTube is the proverbial mixed blessing. There’s some valuable information available, and a lot more content that’s just dross, whose main purpose is to try and sell you something, like gear, or on the building of an image meant to monetize the presenter.
No judgement by me. It’s the American dream. Fortunately, we have resources like Primary and Secondary, which has a ton of valuable information from a variety of professionals. If you’re looking for other good firearms content on YouTube, I highly recommend the Buffalo Bore channel, run by Tim Sundles. There’s probably no more knowledgeable individual on ammunition performance and the taking of dangerous game, and he has a vast amount of great content on a variety of topics that you can get nowhere else.
I offer this podcast link as a way to connect through another medium with what I try and communicate here on Wargate Operator. I offer some practical advice about equipment needs and the relative importance of the items needed to get into the precision rifle hobby. Matt had great questions about the training aspect, and it allowed me to lay out some concrete advice that anyone can put into practice with whatever firearm you already have.
One thing I talk about is the theme I bring to all marksmanship training. Whether it’s a pistol at seven yards or a rifle at a thousand; the differences of the equipment and distance are only ostensible. I’m doing the same thing to succeed with either. And as a result, I’m training for both regardless of what’s in my hand at the time.
What do I mean? It’s really about the last parts of the shot process; follow through and calling the shot. Follow through is simply attention to maintaining a perfect sight picture on the target, during, through, and past pressing the trigger. Calling the shot is having the awareness of where the sights are relative to the aiming point when the trigger is pressed, when recoil lifts the sights off the target. Wherever that was, that’s where the shot should go.
And if I don’t have that awareness, I have no idea why I didn’t or didn’t hit. With a pistol at close range or a $10,000 dollar precision rifle system at a mile, those elements become the crucial difference between a hit and a miss.
I train for long-range rifle work every time I have a pistol in my hands. I do that by working at distances where it’s difficult to see the impact of the round. 50 and 100 yards are where I prefer to do this. When I break a shot, I call it. “The front sight drifted left as I broke the shot.” Or, “My sight picture was perfect center when the sights lifted in recoil.” Whatever the case may be.
When I look at a group of six shots, if I know that my first shot broke left and my fourth shot broke low, and the rest were center, then when I look at the target, I should see four close to center, one impact left, the other low.
My explanation may be clear as mud to you, but as I discussed in my last blog on the 4 Levels of Performance, the realization that you need further study or formal training is a wonderful form of self-awareness.
I did a blog on the importance of good grips on a pistol, and talked about the philosophical concept of Individuation Vs. Homogenization. (Wargate Operator, Tip of the Spear, April 10, 2025). The essence is that while your personal choice in firearm may be a mass-produced plastic striker-fired pistol—quite indistinguishable from any other—it’s still an object capable of having great metaphysical properties, because it’s yours.
But, don’t be disappointed if it’s not capable of the inherent accuracy necessary to do meaningful shooting at the ranges I’m talking about.
Proper fundamentals are the biggest part of accuracy, BUT, not just any gun is as capable of showcasing your talents as is a “better” gun. Facts. I do mean to return to the subject of which after-market parts and products are valuable to enhance your gun’s performance (and I started the topic in that blog by discussing grips). Essentially, a match grade barrel is necessary and by that I mean a gunsmith fit barrel, not a drop-in; those are rarely successful at significantly improving accuracy, despite what the manufacturers would have you believe. A light trigger is not necessary, but it must be one with a clean break. And if it does not possess decent sights, the goal of shooting small groups is a frustrating task. When your desire is to improve accuracy, there are solutions to upgrade your gun that are also reliable. And there’s also a lot of junk to be avoided. And of course, not every gun and use require such work. All things in their proper context.
I promise to return to those kind of practical topics in the near future.
Anyway, I touch on a lot of these subjects as I’m talking about precision rifle and hope you’ll find it enjoyable, informative, and applicable no matter your particular interest.