I am a military trained shooter, made expert marksman my first time out on 250m targets with rifle irons.  You are covering EVERYTHING my instructor was insistent about.  He would have us all take up our shooting position, align our sights and then close our eyes for a few seconds.  He made the point, if you open your eyes and your sights have shifted off target...your rifle is not correctly aligned with your body.  A bit of practice and it becomes second nature.  That "tip" alone brought my groups down dramatically.  TRIGGER CONTROL was drilled in to all of our heads along with breath and heartbeat timing.  Eye focus and shot follow through is another aspect we practices that was stressed.  Thank you for this video, great refresher of fundamentals that will improve anyone's shooting.

Dryfire practice can't be overstated.
It literally helps with everything.
State of mind, breath control, awareness, calmness, "feeling the gun", trigger control...

I just want to give a big thanks to you! I'm 73 years old, and have been shooting/hunting for 60 years. I always thought of being a fairly good marksman until I watched this video. After having a less than mediocre range session last week, I made a note of all your tips on an index card and taped them to my range bag. Went step by step as you discussed, and my range session today was miraculously unbelievable. Went from shooting 2-2.5 MOA to sub MOA, with my 7MM-08 turning in a .375" group.Biggest help was squaring up the body and rifle to target, and shooting 2 eyes open. You made me a very happy camper !

About closing one eye! You reduce the pupil in the aiming eye by closing the free eye. This gives you less light sensitivity in the sight and thus less sharpness in the sight image

You can practice all these techniques with an air rifle   In a back garden. You then could see your techniques improving at a fraction of the cost and on the actual target. Make it enjoyable and set different challenges that you would find in the field.
Thank you for a worthy video to watch

I agree with you, about 95% of the "hunters/shooters" don't actually shoot or practice, weather its rifle, shotgun, or handgun. They all brag about the number of guns they have, the # of rounds they own, but 0 range time...for years, not just months.

One of the best tutorials I have watched. Spot on with everything you covered. Some people find it hard to stay on the scope or irons with both eyes open, but you have to train yourself. My dad taught me to close one eye, but by the age of 9, I had taught myself to shoot with both eyes open, with any rifle or pistol and any type of sight. That was 52 years ago. It seemed more natural, and I could see so much more with no strain on the eyes. Tracking your target with both eyes while maintaining cheek to stock contact makes all the difference.

5 Fundamentals; Position (natural point of aim, both eyes open, consistent cheek weld, head position, etc.), Sight alignment,  Breath control, Trigger control, and Follow through.

I was a rifle coach back in the mid 60s in the USMC. In 1966 I won the overall end of year rifle match using these exact techniques and had the highest number of qualified shooters at 94.7 percent at MTU Camp LeJeune NC. You are spot on. Thanks for your video.

Such a good looking rifle. Bring it back for sure

Since I started looking and listen at your videos, I noticed one unique thing about you compared to all instructors that I have seen; you educate gently and without showing your learners that you can shoot fast. But you educate so that they can get each and everything you teach them.

the best advice you gave is to dry fire.  I did it for 3 days in the Navy just before I had to qualify for advancement.  I found out that I was one of the top shooters.

Never had a problem putting two rounds in the same hole with an angle in the prone, but we didn’t use bipods in the army. We were taught the eight steady hold factors, and number one was the placement of the left hand and elbow, with the left elbow directly under the front stock of the rifle. This was also when we used the sling as a shooting aid.  You can’t do that with your body straight behind the rifle. Using a bipod I and no sling makes more sense being straight behind the rifle. You create a pocket in the right shoulder by the position of the right arm. And elbow position. The reasons for shooting straight behind the rifle from my knowledge wasn’t because of shoulder pocket. It was because of recoil management, you present less of a target to the enemy. Repeatability of position which aids in accuracy. But if you get into the same pone position over and over regardless of angle you will have good accuracy.
So shooting angle depends on your rifle and whether you use a bipod, other support or a sling.

Early on you close your eye then you train not to close an eye. It’s a tough habit to unlearn.

Was the best batalion marksman.

When i jad marksman course, i kinda "invented" for myself what you call natural position of body.

Before every shoot, i asked myself, "If i fully fill my lungs and empty them, do i manage to go back to the same position i am pointing with empy lungs?" ...
I tried this test a couple of times before every time i start shooting. 300m with M4 + ACOGX4, 3-4inch groupings .

Logic behind this: if dont easily return to same position, it means your body not use all friction points with the ground. Which alsi means the moment recoil will come - you will move.
If you move, you will not manage to hit Target on 300m, or your grouping will be verrrrry bad.

Greetings!  Excellent tips under situations on the field.  Thank you for taking the time to make this video.

This is the fatherly advice I needed as I got older. Thank you sir

Hardest thing for me was keeping the focus on the reticle and not dropping the scope to look after the shot

Thank you for bringing my favorite rifle company back.  I need an Encore 6br blued pistol barrel.

Excellent advice!! I have coached target shooting for over twenty years and I hunt as well. Natural alignment, breathing cycle and trigger control are the most vital components in getting rounds stacked on target. Follow through is absolutely essential but possibly the hardest thing to teach people who are what I call 'Bang Bolt merchants!' Think beyond the shot. The shot should not be your end game. The 'release' of the shot should be at the centre point of the process. Visualise how you control the rifle through and beyond the shot, imagine the bullet travelling very slowly to the target and think through an impact.....hold.... release....breath. Also worth adding, that ideally, never take in a full chest full of air and hold your breath at that point. You will be extremely tense and force natural alignment off. Breath in-out-in...o..u..t..relax and suspend breathing with a natural quantity of air in your lungs....ease off the shot....hold.... release and breath in again. Don't panic about a follow up shot and a rushed reload and break of position. Be ready of course, but after your accuracy cycle.
I utterly agree that shooting with both eyes open is a fantastic way to improve accuracy. Even open sight target shooters will occasionally use this technique although there are different reasons why they may not.
With a scope.....keep 'em open!! Unless you have crazy eye dominance issues where you need to force your non-dominant eye to work harder because you are say a right hander with a very dominant left eye, then that may change things. For most people, practice with both open and allow your brain to do the final focus calculation as the target comes to the kill zone. This video is great advice.
In a hunting scenario, it's also important to remain disciplined and not focus on the kill having to take place. It really doesn't. Great if it can and happens, but don't force it. If you control breathing, focus on heart rate and stay as calm and relaxed as possible, you will maintain the presence of mind to focus on all the vital components of accurate shot placement as outlined in this video.
If you get over excited and allow your adrenaline to flow and heart rate to climb, your mental capacity will be on the wrong autopilot settings! 'Train hard, shoot easy' to steal and adapt a well known expression! 😊
All excellent advice here in your video. 👍🏻👍🏻👏🏻