Some people say that you don’t have mastered marksmanship until you can hit the target while standing tall “on your own back legs”. Standing can be the most difficult shooting position because there is no solid horizontal resting place for your arm or elbow. Carl Bernosky, 10-time National High Power Champ, explains the standing shot. Carl Bernosky, one of the most famous marksmen in history, is a master of marksmanship. Carl Bernosky is a multi-time National High Power Champion. He has won ten (10) National High Power Championships during his long and storied career, the most recent in 2012. Carl provides step-bystep strategies in this article to help High Power Shooters improve their standing scores. Shooters should pay attention to Carl’s standing techniques. Carl is regarded as one of the best standing shooters ever in the history High Power shooting. Carl rarely puts pen to paper, but he was kind enough to share his techniques with AccurateShooter.com’s readers. If you’re a position shooter or aspire one day to be, read the article word-for-word, then read it again. We guarantee that you will learn some techniques and strategies that can improve your scoring. Learn how to shoot standing. This is gold, people.Carl Bernosky
Shooting consistently good standing stages is a matter of getting rounds down range, with thoughtfully-executed goals. Your hold will determine your success. 1. To shoot 10s, your hold must be 10 Ring. This means your sights should be within your best grip for a reasonable time (enough for you to fire a shot). When the sights are not in the center, it is a waste of energy to pay attention to them. My best hold occurs within 5 seconds of first looking through my sights. At that point, I’m ready for the shot. If the gun does not stop, I do not shoot. I start again. 2. The gun must be still in your grip when you fire. If the gun moves, it is most likely moving away from your grip, and you have missed the best part. 3. You will be able to fire the shot once you realize that the gun is still and in your hand. Dry fire or live fire practice will help you develop awareness of the gun’s stillness. It’s not completely subconscious, but it’s very close. 4. Do not disturb the gun while you are shooting. I don’t use ball or dummy rounds to be surprised when the shot goes. I shoot every shot consciously. Sometimes I make a mistake, and I hold the shot too long. The more I practice, the fewer of these I have. If I get a bad round, my gun will dip. * I don’t think you can learn to ignore the recoil. You must react consistently to it. 5. Know your hold, and shoot within that. The best part of the hold is approximately 4 inches. Once I’m in the flow, I can recognize a gun that is still within my grip and fire. I practice this with every shot. Close 10s is acceptable. Mid-ring 10s do not count. If my hold was 8 inchs, I would train the exact same way. Shoot the shot while it’s still in the hold and accept the occasional 9. Accept the occasional shot, but not the ones that are outside the hold. 6. Practice makes perfect. It matters how many rounds you fire at the range. I can’t believe how many rounds I have fired standing up in my life. It still takes me a month to feel comfortable before Perry. In the month leading up to Perry, I shot about 2000 rounds while standing. It peaks my interest at the perfect time. This is what I think it takes to shoot a good standing stage. I hope this gives you some insight, understanding and a road map to your own success when shooting standing. Carl Bernosky has more tips on markmanship in the Hornady Blog Q&A. * I can see this very clearly when shooting pistol. If I miscount the rounds in my magazine, I will noticeably dip my pistol. I can shoot bullets at 25 yards. The pistols of the best shooters that I have watched and shot with also dip. One might call it a “jerk”, but I call it a “controlled aggressive execution”, performed consistently.
