“Aim Small, Miss Small” — Decreasing Dot-Size Training Targets
In the hit Hollywood movie “The Patriot”, the hero Benjamin Martin (played by Mel Gibson), tells his sons: “Aim small, miss small”. That advice was given to help his sons survive encounters with the British redcoats, but the “aim small, miss small” mantra can benefit target shooters as well.
We have found that novice and intermediate shooters can often improve their accuracy simply by using targets with smaller, more precise aiming points. Inexperienced shooters can benefit by starting with a large-size aiming circle, and then progressing to smaller and smaller target dots. This lets the shooter increase the challenge as his gun-handling becomes more steady and his aim improves.
Here are two rimfire training targets with “big to small” target circles. Start with the largest circles, then move to the smaller ones in sequence. This systematic drill provides increasing challenge shot-by-shot. Novices often are quite surprised to see their accuracy improve as they move from bigger to smaller aiming points. That provides positive feedback — always a good thing.
Right Click and “Save as” to download printable PDF versions of these targets.
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Tags: Marksmanship, Rimfire, Targets, Training
Aim for the center of the circle and the 10 ring should not be harder to hit than the 30. In theory!
It doesn’t matter how big or small the target is, the center is always the same size! But seriously, I fully understand the principle in the article.
A fellow made up a game very similar to this called “Inside Out” over 20 years ago. The targets were eventually posted to the US Palma Team website, but are now gone.
Editor: Yes, I have a thumbnail of the target as listed on the U.S. Palma site, but the links to the printable target are now dead.
Sent it to Mailbox@6mmBR.com
At the stationary store get stickup’s any size or color and stick them on any
place or any used target. I use 1/2 in for 100 yd. works great.
Small targets are not just for novice shooters! They’ve are great training tool for sling scope shooters working on decreasing their wobble area by breaking shots in a smaller and smaller circle. Try hitting a dime sized circle 20 times in a row at 100 yds and you’ll see what I mean.