Terry Wieland On Shooting

Back to School – Only This Time You’ll Enjoy It

Suddenly, we are seeing a growth market in schools: Shooting schools, hunting schools, tracking schools – even schools to teach you how to choose the appropriate school.

Well, all right. We have not yet reached that extreme stage. But shooting and hunting schools? Appearing magically, like hyenas around a sick wildebeest.

As someone who endured a dozen years of school only by gnashing teeth and pretending I was somewhere else (the Lado Enclave with a .577 Nitro Express, usually) the prospect of school – any school – makes me feel as though a giant is tightening steel bands around my chest.

In June of last year, though, I attended a school of a different type: two days of instruction in rifle use, conducted by shooting instructor Il Ling New at Gunsite, Jeff Cooper’s shooting academy in northern Arizona. Although Gunsite began as a facility to teach handgun use, especially in tactical situations, it has expanded its curriculum in recent years to include combat shotgun, hunting handgun, and rifles, both tactical and hunting.

With a shooting school around every corner these days, sorting out the good from the not-so-good can be a challenge. With Gunsite, there is no sorting to be done: Its reputation and long record speak for themselves.

As for Il Ling New, I can say the same thing. My colleague, Sheriff Jim Wilson, says she’s the best in the business, and her clients who fly her all over the globe to give personal instruction attest to that.

I mention all this because I believe strongly that the most important factor in getting the most out of shooting instruction – after admitting you can use it, of course – is confidence in the instructor. The best facilities in the world will not make up for an instructor who does not connect with her students, whereas a good teacher can impart knowledge anywhere, anytime.

For a century, British wingshooters have used shooting schools and instructors to teach the proper techniques for shooting birds on the wing. In the last few years, such schools and seminars have become more common in the United States. Instruction in rifle use has been longer in coming. For some reason, there is a built-in resistance to the idea that ‘a nation of riflemen’ could actually benefit from instruction in the use of their favourite firearm.

The fact is, everyone can benefit from instruction from an expert, whether it is in the rudiments of shooting, a refresher course for veterans, or specialized tutelage in the use of big-bore rifles. Even those who practise a lot (and they are few), develop bad habits. Having a master offer suggestions can be very beneficial.

When we arrived at Gunsite, Il Ling spent the first few hours going over safety rules and general theory. My fellow student was artist Susan Norris, with whom I was going to Africa later that year. What we wanted was some instruction in general hunting/shooting technique, with a few hours spent on big rifles. Susan had never had the pleasure (!) of shooting a .500 Nitro Express, and I took a double for that purpose.

As well, Susan knew she would be called upon to use shooting sticks in Africa, so we asked that they be a central part of the instruction.

Gunsite’s hunting instruction makes use of a number of specialized ranges with targets that simulate hunting situations in different ways. Some are falling targets that go down with any hit; others require a hit in a small area; still others are obscured by brush or other obstacles. Some courses require walking and target spotting. Another provides a variety of makeshift rests, which the shooter utilizes from different positions.

The people at Gunsite believe that shooting from a bench is useless, once the rifle is sighted in. To remove the temptation, they provide only the most rudimentary benches for checking sights; there are no covered lines of benchrests. They also stress offhand shooting, on both stationary and moving targets, as an essential rifle skill, before moving along to the use of makeshift rests in the field. All very practical and sensible.

Although I had met Il Ling previously, I had never seen her in action as an instructor. With Susan, she established a rapport immediately as she took her through a series of exercises designed to show her how to approach her rifle correctly. Susan has been using and hunting with a rifle for almost 30 years, so this was not new. But, she approached it with an open mind, figuring that as a self-taught shooter, she might well have some habits that need modifying.

For my part, I know very well I have some habits that need correcting. Knowing that, however, and correcting them, are two different things. One nagging bugbear is a flinch, from years of shooting big rifles. You cannot cure a flinch in one or two sessions, but you can establish the principles you need to follow to do so. So we worked on that.

As an expert, Il Ling had considerable specialized knowledge to share with me. However, there are areas where I have more experience than she does, and we spent a lot of time discussing our differing approaches to the same question. For example, Il Ling favours rifle slings that are, to my mind, too complicated and more suited to tactical rifles. For years, I have used Brownells latigo slings, which are a simplified Whelan-style leather strap, instantly adjustable for length, readily usable as a shooting aid, yet easy to tighten out of the way when they are not needed.

Il Ling was not familiar with that particular style, and happily learned how to use it while I spent some time with her rifle, seeing how her favourite sling worked. When it was over, neither of us planned to change our habits, but we had both learned something.

You would think that, as an instructor, Il Ling spends enough time in classrooms and on shooting ranges, but one of her favourite pastimes is attending courses given by other people. She asked about instruction I had received elsewhere, how it compared, what subjects were taught, and so on. “I think I always have things to learn,” she told me, “So I try to expand my own knowledge whenever and wherever I can.”

If an expert shot like Il Ling can acknowledge that she can still benefit from further formal instruction, then there is no excuse for any hunter to argue that he is a good enough shot and will not benefit from a shooting school.

No two-day course will turn a mediocre shot into a good one, or remove all bad habits for all time. What the course did do, for both Susan and me, was highlight some areas we need to work on which we could then practise after we got home. Susan has the benefit of living close to the NRA’s Whittington Center in New Mexico, while I have a number of ranges around St. Louis.

One habit I cannot seem to break is lowering the rifle from my shoulder to work the bolt. This is an anathema in modern rifle training, which insists the rifle should remain at the shoulder with the eye still aligned through the scope while the bolt is cycled. I have managed to break the habit of working the bolt slowly to pluck the empty cartridge case from the action, instead of ejecting it smartly. This is a handloader’s habit, and one that could be very costly in the face of a charging buffalo. Working the bolt with the rifle up, however, is something I will just have to continue to work on. It is one that, fortunately, can be practised every day, anywhere you can pick up a rifle.

Susan is working on the same thing, although she does not have a habit of 40 years to break. In her case, use of shooting sticks and sling is the new and different technique that will get the most attention.

Instruction at Gunsite is not cheap. You are looking at an outlay of several thousand dollars for two or three days of instruction, if you add airfares and hotels. The instruction itself can reach well over $1000 per day, depending on whether you are part of a larger class, or getting one-on-one tutoring and coaching.

Once you try it, however, I expect most will conclude, as I did, that it is money well spent. When a mid-range safari costs $50,000, adding $3,000 to ensure that you are getting the most from your rifle is a small expense.