I am having trouble controlling my AR-15 as well as I would like. I see awesome shooters like Lucas Botkin and Mike from Garand Thumb snapping from target to target and shooting with full auto or binary triggers like the recoil is nothing, while I feel like I’m reeling with every shot, struggling to just to find the dot again after every shot.
For accessories:
I’ve tried H thru H3 buffers, the JP silent H3 buffer, my casings are leaving at 3:30, and I have a light and silencer weighing down the front.
Stance:
I’m balancing slightly forward on my feet, which are shoulder width apart, and my shoulders are parallel to the target. I’m leaning forward a bit into the gun. My nose is almost to the charging handle, and the stock is adjusted to my length of pull and seated in my shoulder pocket. My support elbow is bent about 120 degrees, and my shooting elbow is tucked almost into my ribs.
Is my gun’s balance off? When my 16" is accessorized and loaded, the balance point is about a fist forward of the upper receiver. On my 11.5", it balances a quarter inch behind the upper receiver’s front edge.
Should I pull the stock out more? Should I move my support hand forward?
My daughter is now a new driver, the most difficult thing to explain is the feel of extension, of oneness with the vehicle, how you need to know it, beyond simple operation.
You need of course to practice a ton, find technique, but you must also unite with your weapon, your mind must conceive it as another member, be one with the gun, then you will realize the truth
so, the question is not
I was watching Lioness recently, a series, there’s a scene where an instructor tells a student to point with their knuckle in an underhanded barely through the door situation, not quite the same, but close, as the knuckle is a member and therefore your mind is connected to it, I thought it was a realistic scene, though a bit John Wick
Ok what about your support hand? Good C clamp grip on the fore-end? Move the butt a bit more towards your center line.
Buy a CMMG/Ceiner 22lr kit for your AR. A lot cheaper to train.
Transitions from target to target start with your eyes. Look at the next target then move the gun to where your looking. This works better with handguns.
I come at it from a different angle . I grew up shooting skeet and trap . When you learn to shoot doubles with a 12 gauge pump gun the light recoil of a 556 ar is not hard to ride from target to target .
If you grew up with it you likely learned to have the rifle be an extension of yourself, it’s no longer mind over matter, your mind already accepts the matter, you are one with the gun, something grows more easily natural to new developing minds but foreign to an older developed mind.
So,
in terms of recoil?
you have zen mind, lack of preconceptions as you learned it young, the Matrix movie touches on this problem as
We have a rule. We never free a mind once it’s reached a certain age. It’s dangerous, the mind has trouble letting go
It’s like learning to press, rather than pull a trigger, every input has always been pull the trigger, yet to developed shooting skills you need to overcome that, you need to press the trigger, be surprised even when the gun fires, a problem when you believe your pulling the trigger is how you shoot.
That , being true of course wont help you to shoot well.
Another reason dry fire training is so efficient, you develop muscle memory, which does what with the mind?
Or not, everyone needs to overcome their own problems in their own way and own time if they’re to overcome them at all, it’s good to at least ask if
as you need to get past that question, process of elimination is at least an effort to overcome a problem
Recoil is manageable . You learn to use it and use your forward hand to drive the gun to the next target. I only weigh 150 pounds but do not notice the recoil of a 12 gauge .
So far alot of this advise is spot on @shooterrex about moving the hand and @robert on pulling versus pushing tbe trigger.
Pulling will pull the shot .
Look up a shot pattern chart this will show you where the correction is needed. Additionally @Robert ‘s advise on shots coming as surprise is spot on . When one expects or is essentially waiting for the recoil to occur or the barrel to rise to occur your anticipating the shot and unbeknownst to you you are subconsciously moving your arms and hand allowing the barrel to rise.
The first shot will literally occur and go out of the barrel before you can counteract it but the second and 3rd and subsequent shots are being thrown off by you. Your essentially flinching . Start with moving the hand and then push versus pull.
I’ve personally never learned to control full-auto AR’s or the like. Even my binary triggers have the second shot fire as a surprise BUT usually a bit high. Still on the target but maybe 2” off where the first one hit. Full-auto I seem to always have the rifle pull to the right. It means that even with a real full-auto AR I can only get about 3 shots off that stay on the target. Yet I shoot trap and skeet well - if I have a good fitting shotgun (like a Browning O/U).
