THE EMPEROR IS REALLY NAKED

  Everyone has heard of the story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” The Emperor was a vain man who always wanted the latest in everything. He allowed some people to convince him that they were making him the latest fashion in clothes when he actually wasn’t wearing anything. Everyone was so afraid to contradict him when in fact he was really naked.

 How does this relate to shooting and the optics we use? Bullet drop is bullet drop. A bullet doesn’t know how many feet, inches, or centimeters it’s going to drop nor does it care. People are going to convince you or try to convince you their product is superior, and if you buy their product you will be a superior shooter.

 What they fail to tell you is that there is more to being a superior shooter than having the top of the line optic or shooting system. The truth is that knowledge and practice make a person a better shooter.

 Becoming a better shooter is the key, not changing equipment.  Good shots are 99% about the shooter and 1% about the equipment.  In today's market place, the main focus is on sales.  I also am selling things, but my focus is going to be on teaching truth.  All truth is simple.  Lies are complex.  The more complex a line of misinformation or distractions are the better the lies can be hidden in the swarm.  But the truth is ALWAYS simple.

What is the common lie?
That buying some new gadget or tool will make you into a better marksman.

It will not!   My scopes and my mounts won't do it either.

 What my focus is on 100% is to make the truth understood and give a tool that is super easy and non-complicated to shooters so they can increase their own skills for less money in less time.

               So, what is the truth of shooting?

A. All hits on target are a function of 2 things.

 #1 Is movement left to right from the bore line (we call it windage)

#2 Is movement up or down in relationship to the target (we call that elevation, depression or sometimes "hold-overs" or come-ups")

Left and right, up and down.

That's it!  That's all there is!

 Anything else is nothing but salesmanship, distractions and misinformation to cause you to think you are being educated in some deep science and special knowledge.  But it is actually nothing more than a detraction from truth. Windage and elevation is all there is.  It doesn't matter if the shot is to hit a mouse at 4 feet with a slingshot, or the Sea of Tranquility on the moon with the L.E.M. from the Apollo 11. 
Windage and elevation is what good shots are about and nothing more.

 If there is anything else, it's the Emperors New Cloths. Anything else is a distraction.
The emperor really is naked!

Now factoring in the variables into windage and elevation can have complexities, enough to keep ballistics labs busy forever, but the basics are very simple.        


                                                                                                                                             

                  DON’T BE CAUGHT NAKED! 

           Never use 10 steps when 3 will work as well, if not better.

The math and numbers that go into shooting can be a stumbling block or even a stopping block for a person who wants to learn long range shooting.

First Remember that Every style of shooting is different. Bench rest shooting is for those who want to test powders, bullets, primers and all other technical stuff. If you are Interested in hunting and the situations it presents then you have to learn to shoot with hunting equipment from different positions, A bench rest gun can weigh at least 13-20 pounds, a far cry from a 5-10-pound rifle you carry into the field, and what about your rest?  You know a bench rest can weigh up around 450 pounds.  You think you’re going to haul that around the hills?

All you need a bench rest for is to find your rifles matched load and that your rifle can maintain an inch or less group at 100 yards.  Keep in mind the best flying bullets are not always the best hunting bullets, so it is a good idea to develop a load or have someone help you develop a good hunting load using hunting bullets. Shooting at paper is for numbers and calculations, shooting at game is meant for one shot kills to put meat on the table.

 Now once you have developed your load and you can shoot your groups, quit wasting your time on your equipment at the range, spend the time on yourself familiarizing yourself with your optics and what your game will look like at 300, 500,700, and 900 yards, or further if you would like. Most importantly, remember trigger time! Only experience is going to make you a better shot.

 Forget all the mumbo jumbo of bullet coefficient, bullet speed, grains of powder. Remember these are equations are better done at the bench, not while your hunting.  Thinking about bullet speed when a 200-class whitetail or 380 class bull elk steps out in front of you at 500 yards should not be on your mind, because at that moment it all comes down to elevation (holdover) and left to right (windage). 

                                                                                                                                          Remember when you were a kid playing football, baseball or simply throwing a snowball? Remember your ball or projectile was thrown and the further your intended target got from you, the higher you had to throw it. That is holdover.  You knew that to hit your target further out required you to throw your projectile at an arc. If you had wind you had to throw the ball in such a manner that the wind blew it into your target. This is windage. Subconsciously you learned this through practice and experience, the same way you will learn shooting at long range only you’re doing it much further out with a lot more velocity.

Your scope is simply a measuring device with reference points or stadia lines to help you find your DESIRED POINT OF IMPACT!

Whether it’s a football a baseball a snowball an arrow or a bullet, gravity will affect it. So, you have to compensate by throwing or aiming above your target. The principles that work at 50 yards for a Football works at 500 yards for a bullet. Remember Newtons law of motion, “what goes up must come down.” The higher you can get your projectile the farther it will go, the faster you can throw or shoot it the flatter it will fly. When an object leaves your hands or your barrel it is no longer attached to the earth and now the elements have free access to it. So, it’s up to you, the shooter to compensate for these elements and their effects. This Is what makes a you a shooter! The rest is the Emperor’s new clothes, and he has none.

  Somehow people can convince you there is a difference when in reality they’re both the same.   Don’t allow yourself to become like the people in the story who were afraid to tell the Emperor he was in fact naked, or be like the Emperor who didn’t want to acknowledge he was naked.

                   How does A scope work?

  Does a deer care that you hit him in the heart when you were aiming for his lungs at 450 yards? Also, how many guys have shot a 3-inch group on a game animal?

Remember this is the real world, governed by real truth, not theories. Theories are theories but a fact is not just fact, but truth.

Here’s the real truth about optics. You can use an MOA or MIL reticle but if you have a 130 inch drop most people that don’t use these forms of measurements will use feet, Why? Because they don’t understand MOA or MILS they don’t know that 18.5 MOA is the same as 5.15 MILS You may have heard someone say "I held about three deer above him," If a mule deer averages 43 inches three deer would be 129 inches or 10 feet 9 inches. Now to those that don’t understand MOA or MIL they understand the next best thing FEET.

  Let’s break it down further. You have 129 inches of drop at 700 yards. Divide that by 12 you get 10.75 feet. Naturally we round that up to 11 feet because of "keeping it simple".  So, if you hold 11 feet over the CENTER of the deer’s chest you make a kill.  Is the hit dead center? Maybe not, but it's close.  Now be honest with yourself and ask "is a deer or and elk going to care that you missed dead-center of the chest by 2-4 inches at 700 yards?" He's still a dead deer!
 

Learning an angular of measurement can be done using MOA, MILS or FEET, many if not most hunters think in feet.  Why? Well doesn’t it seem easier to multiply 11 feet by 12 inches than to divide 132 inches by 12 inches? 

Our brains are hard wired to go the easy route, so if we start by learning your holdovers in feet the inches will become easier to understand and finally lead you into MOA and MILS if you decide to go that far. Americans already understand it, so why change.  Mils are based in new metric system and feet in the English system but if you use 3.6 inches (3.5 or 3.4377) this is in inches although you have a decimal point involved for all intense purposes its still MOA 3.6 inches or 3.6 MOA or 1 MIL                                                                  page5

 Using a scope that gives 3 inch increments basically results in measuring in feet half feet and quarter feet with your stadia lines or points of reference. The advantage is you will acquire your DPI (desired point of impact) notably quicker and without depending on turrets or outside data.

However, nothing but experience is going to teach you about what I say next.

With practice and persistence your scope and its reticle will help you become a better shooter it’s that simple and that easy. Remember no scope and no equipment is going to make you a better shooter, becoming a better shooter is up to you but the right tool can make it easier to learn.