SUMMARY

This report provides a comprehensive review of the recent training class from multiple sources of insight and performance data. Trainee feedback was actively collected and analyzed to understand their individual perspectives, challenges and takeaways. Additionally, I’ve incorporated my own instructor observations gathered throughout our time together, with particular focus on engagement, progression, and skill application during drills, exercises, and match conditions.

Performance in the match setting was critical to assess how effectively the trainee executed learned skills under pressure, and to identify any recurring gaps or strengths in real time. Taking this all into account, I’ve developed a personalized training plan for each individual. These plans are informed not only by the data collected during the course, but also by my own personal experience as a competitor and an instructor.

The goal moving forward is to ensure that each trainee continues to build on their strengths while systematically addressing areas for growth using methods that are practical and tangible. All training elements have been tested and yield a form of measurable results. Training means more than identifying problems but offering no solutions. This plan is a practical guide for the next steps in achieving your goals. It is a standalone tool by itself, but I have also integrated links to relevant training within my Virtual Instructor Program where it would help correlate and add direct context. If you don’t have a membership yet, it would help, but is not required. If you’re interested, everyone from class will receive a 50% off opportunity to get access to that program along with notification of this report.

If anything in this report is not clear or requires further explanation, please reach out.

OVERVIEW

Thank you again for joining this class! It was very rewarding to watch you connect the dots and make progress throughout our time together. Each trainee comes to the event with varying levels of skills, abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and how much room they have to grow. In addition, everyone learns at their own pace. That said, you may have walked away with one little insight, several huge breakthroughs, or something in between. No matter what, this training was not an ultimate solution, but a place to better equip yourself as you continue on your journey. Everything you picked up, changed, validated, or completely rebuilt will need to be practiced and worked to get the results you’re striving for; the work is not done!

We reviewed basics, enhanced fundamentals with advanced techniques, refined sophisticated skills such as movers and tripod operation, as well as dissected deep cerebral topics such as spotting and wind reading. We exercised drills to lock in specific muscle memory, and also to expose you to new concepts. Topics the class asked for and were covered were:

1. Wind

2. Spotting

3. Positional Techniques

4. Tripod Techniques

5. Mental Planning & Stage Prep

6. Time Management

After each topic was covered in class setting, we took it to the firing line to hone in on the physical skill and techniques behind each topic. I was happy to see everyone participate even when the guidance didn’t necessarily make sense or seem significant at first. As an advanced shooter, there are some philosophies and simple concepts that are staples for progress, for ALL. A few of the mantras throughout the training were:

1. “Small changes can make large improvements” – lots of the teachings are subtle differences that can significantly clean up your execution, giving you better first round impacts, spotting, consistency, etc.

2. “Pause” – As simple as it is, this is often the critical missing piece to consistent performance. Rushing through the process may work for a while, but eventually you will face an issue and likely moved too fast to properly manage it. 

3. “Slow down and process what just happened” – Similarly to the one above, this focuses on the follow through in the shot process. Are we actually watching with an attentive brain as we make the shot? Or are we just waiting for the bullet to land so we can quickly cycle to the next shot?

We covered a LOT of material. As we discussed in class, not every insight needs to be incorporated into your process, but take as much as you can and see what yields the best results. No matter how our 2 days unfolded for you, the goal is to take what we covered, combine it with some pointed critique, and propel you on a guided path forward toward your next goals. Let’s get into your personal report!

SHOOTER GENERAL

Josh, I know you well, and I’m very glad you did this training. We both knew you were coming in with strong depth of experience, and at this point there’s little mystery in what we do. At the end of the day, you are a very knowledgeable and capable shooter, but have a hard time consistently stringing it all together during engagements over time. This is a very typical place to be at your level, and many have gotten stuck where you are. We are going to look at every opportunity to improve and leave no stone unturned. Between this report and follow up conversations, the goal is to look for every little glitch no matter how small. At your level of experience, it’s usually little things that all add up with a point or two here and there.

The good news is, there’s nothing truly holding you back. You don’t have physical limitations, you’re healthy and smart, and have seen most engagements at least ten times by now. With the right mentality and focus, we can certainly make some solid progress.

STRENGTHS AND SUCCESSES

Self-diagnosed Pre-Training Survey:

• Mental/Attitude

  This is a very important trait, and I think it’s a well founded belief that you have solid roots here. You face challenges, feel a burn from time to time, but don’t get too bent out of shape about it. This might have some huge silent benefits, especially if you’ve always been that way — you don’t know how many other stages could’ve kept unraveling if you were upset and steaming out of the ears from a bad stage. Being able to keep a healthy attitude will balance out your performance over time.

  On the mental side, I think you’re a sharp guy, and usually keep up pretty well. We’ll revisit this later though as I feel the mental focus and clarity is often a barrier to success and often goes undetected. Overall though, this is certainly an asset for you.

• Positional Shooting

  After watching you closely for two days along with all the other time we’ve spent together, this is definitely a strong suit for you. I rarely see you building bad positions or having incorrect fundamentals.

Instructor Observations:

• Fundamentals

  As previously mentioned, there are few clean up items here and there, like snatching or snapping off a trigger, but you can address those pretty easily if you record yourself. Overall this is a nice strength and helps keep the road forward clear of hurdles.

• Focus And Cadence On The Clock

  Your pace and cadence on the clock is really nice. I think you get shots off in good time while getting everything set up right first. You have a nice shot sequence where each piece gets the right attention, and also a nice pause to process everything after the shot lands. You don’t seem too slow, and don’t seem to ever get rushed into an uncomfortable gear. This is another solid quality.

REFINEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Self-diagnosed Pre-Training Survey:

• Getting Lost On Panning Wind Stages

  This is one of the true cornerstone challenges of wind applications, and certainly a tough thing to get consistent for most. In a perfect world the answer is to make the correct wind call, plan your holds accordingly, and then the wind magically holds for you. This is a great concept, but usually not practical. It’s not an easy answer, and this isn’t the absolute solution, but it’s what I do when I’m facing this type of challenging stage. I prep by breaking it down into a few different mental processes, and combine it with efficient on-rifle observations in the moment. Follow me through this:

  Think of it as a 3-fold system:

  1. PLAN A - Call main wind angle and speed, apply to each target direction.

  2. PLAN B - Observe each target with calculated wind in mind, and scrutinize if it seems to hold — if it doesn’t look good, identify a new general wind angle if each target analysis points to something similar, such as a significant shift of let’s say 15-30°. Now you can make a Plan B based on that. Usually the wind has a main path that holds true 80% of the time, with the occasional cyclical shift. Depending on what you saw first, this new plan might be the occasional shift, or the main wind. Finish observation and try to figure out which one is the most consistent call for Plan A.

  3. PATTERNS - Follow and review your calculated dope card and see if there’s a pattern. It might be a consistent couple of tenths between targets, or even if it’s “I’m constantly turning into the wind so I’m shaving wind as I progress…” Find a simple means of remembering what to expect from one target to the next. Use this thought process and mentally walk through the stage on binos a few times practicing your on-the-fly thinking and adjusting

  This is not a fail safe, but covers most of the possibilities. Having enough time to manage this is the key, and if you’re the first shooter up you’ll need to get to work, and don’t overwhelm yourself - make a plan A, and plan B, review each target a few times to see how it feels, and review your jumps. When on the clock, get on target quick to save time, take a pause to verify mirage vs your planned hold, then make perfect shots, spot well, and believe the bullet. Make sure you stop and think when you miss and correct, BEFORE moving across the field to the next target. The wind can be dramatically different, and moving quickly is more likely to cause a mental purge of what just happened. Think about what your corrected shot means for a new wind plan, and how it might affect the next target, THEN move. It is time well spent.

  The big ticket items on a simple DOPE card are as follows:

  • Make a plan, and make it mentally simple to compute, for example, a wind plan should have a pattern to recall more than a need to read your 5-column dope card.

  • Rehearse the execution so it’s natural and not conscious thought - know where you’re going and how you’ll set up there, each step of the way.

  • Acquisition needs to be confident and cold - know where your target is, a fast way to find it, and work yourself onto it subconsciously as you are settling into rifle.

  • Know what your minimum corrections and blind corrections should be - in case you miss, you will immediately know what to do.

  • Even if you make a complicated DOPE card, that’s ok, but before you step up to shoot try to notate or circle the column you feel best about. I’ll review that once more before I put my mag in, and then give it hell!

  If you work these things into your planning phase more and more, you will be able to spend more time spotting, finding mirage, adapting to wind changes, and moving swiftly through a stage without wasting energy fighting those other thoughts.

  VIP VIDEO SUGGESTIONS: Each one of these targets the areas I mention above. Becoming more efficient in the methods described in the videos will save you critical energy on the clock and allow you to spend more time locking in on a confident call on the rifle.

  • https://www.carusoprecision.com/vip-core-skills/v/wind-pt-1- building a good, natural feeling of wind conditions through glass - confidence = efficiency

  • https://www.carusoprecision.com/vip-core-skills/v/wind-pt-2- quick wind math, gun number study, verifying mirage, all natural and verifying plan = confidence

  • https://www.carusoprecision.com/vip-core-skills/v/dopedata-cards- smart planning, recognizing patterns = quicker decisions on clock

  • https://www.carusoprecision.com/vip-core-skills/v/target-acquisition - slow target acquisition is tied with no-spot-misses for worst time suck - efficiency = critical!

• First Round Impacts / Wind Calls

  I don’t recall you having any more issue with this than the rest during the class, but I understand it is the common factor among most experienced shooters wanting to improve. I think we covered a lot of ground in the presentations on wind theory and principles, and then hit a lot of details on the range looking through glass. I hope that was a good gain for you, but either way, wind proficiency is a product of practice over time. Simply put, you need to put more work and energy on this than other skillsets to see the same level of improvement.

  First round impacts are a biproduct of not only a good wind call, but a statistical thought strategy. You really need to assess what the min and max winds are, and how well they fit on the plate. If they don’t fit, re-analyze the situation, highly scrutinizing the highs and lows to determine what is more likely. Then shave the bookends of your wind call bracket down until it fits on plate. That doesn’t always guarantee a hit, but it’s the smartest way to improve you average over time. Every now and then the wind throws you for a complete loop, but most of the time this will improve your odds.

  It probably goes without saying but I’ll say it — if stability or any other fundamental issues are causing the first round miss, then obviously that has to simply be ironed out first. I’m assuming the first round misses are from wind, but don’t let other slop cause this issue.

  • VIP VIDEO SUGGESTIONS: Same as previous topic, similar matters…

  • https://www.carusoprecision.com/vip-core-skills/v/wind-pt-1

  • https://www.carusoprecision.com/vip-core-skills/v/wind-pt-2

  • https://www.carusoprecision.com/vip-core-skills/v/dopedata-cards

Instructor Observations:

• Equipment Gremlins

  Over the years I’ve known you, you’ve had some oddities in BC manipulations, zero shifts, and a few other little snafus that hurt in a few different ways. First issue is the actual shots missed due to a bad DOPE or drag curve. The secondary and possibly worse issue is a lack of confidence in your equipment. This happened during the training event as well, with a zero shift and inconsistent grouping at 100. I’ll be the first to admit I’ve had a shift here and there, usually a tenth or two at worst, but you had I believe a four tenth anomaly at one point. If it was a one-off situation I wouldn’t have put much thought into it, but historically our conversations have crossed these bridges before.

  I think getting away from Geo was a good move, but if you still find yourself having zero inconsistencies, tracking issues, DOPE issues at distances, things like that — I would want to really dissect your gear and figure out what you have going on. My next idea would be to borrow your rifle a couple times when I go out, and just let me shoot it. I’ll check zero and DOPE it out a couple times, and we can compare notes. It’s just one of those things that is hard to diagnose, and we want to eliminate any other variables. If I get different results, we can narrow down on an issue. If we both get same results, that too will help lead us in another direction. It’s not the end of the world to have these things come up from time to time, but it’s definitely something you don’t want to deal with in a match. Over time, I think you’ve become accustomed to it, and made a little peace with it. I will say that the idea of “it all lines up when I do this really weird thing, so I’m running it!” or “I had a four tenth elevation issue, but it seems fine now…” — those things would not sit so calmly with me, especially in an event where I’ve invested time and money to compete. I would want you to chase those fixes harder, trying to figure out and mitigate what’s going on, and not accept it as normal. I understand if you run out of answers, it’s hard to figure out what to do next, but we should stack hands on this and make sure you’re equipment is 100% consistent and reliable, with dual verification between the two of us. Up to you, but it’s probably worth looking into.

• Fundamental Clean Up

  Not taking away from the strength section, your fundamentals are very good overall and in most cases hard to critique. Most of the little misses here don’t seem like a big deal and may not be causing issues, but like I said, we’re not going to leave any stoned unturned. At this level one or two points here and there can be huge! The couple items that popped up during out time together were mostly the following:

  • Trigger Slap or Snatch Off - More snatching off than anything, this happened enough that I thought to note it. When a shooter releases the trigger and reaches for the bolt before the shot has landed, or even after it landed but before mentally processing what you saw, it’s a good indicator that you’re not committed to maximizing your performance on THAT shot. You’re brain is already moving on, even if you feel like your eyes are still in the fight to spot. Your energy is being diverted to the next manipulation and next shot. This should be identified and completely stopped as much as possible. The only time I give a free pass is on a huge target where you’ve made up your mind that you know you’ll hit without watching (like a 10 position hustle). Even then however, I will make at least one or two perfect shots with great follow through before abandoning fundamentals for time.

  • Positional Tweaks - When shooting a mid-height standing shot, you had a nice and square position behind the rifle, but your legs were still bent at the knee. This means two things to me. First, you’re too tall there, and are making an effort to get lower. I would prefer you widen your stance and lock your legs out, getting the muscles out of the equation. This prevents tremors, fatigue, and the subtle killer — anticipatory postural adjustments. This is where you’re brain knows you’re not super comfortable, and it tries to ignore it just long enough to get the job done. However, it can let go and relax too soon, just at the shot going off as it’s finally ready to dump the tension it’s holding. Second thing is it will lead to more torso-tilting down and into the cheek weld from above. Leaning down induces more pressure in the back, potentially causing muzzle jump. Better to step torso straight into buttpad, then widen out feet until it’s the exactly matched height with your shoulder pocket, and then slightly lean straight ahead to connect, and neck slightly down to gain sight picture. In other words, eliminate as much downward movement to gain sight picture.

  • Bag Manipulations - I think you mentioned this was something you noticed a difference on. Dropping the rifle and just rolling with it, versus sawing and shimmying for a fully settled rifle-bag connection. The first approach will still give you a steady reticle to feel good about the shot, but then allows the rifle too much freedom under recoil. If you settle hard, the rifle will perform better after you pull the trigger, allowing for better spotting, processing, etc…

• Time Management/Efficiency of Movement

You already move well, so this may be significant in only certain circumstances. The tripod stage for example (see attached video), you make a lot of unnecessary movements, where you couldn’t saved more time for the shot sequence. Moving smoothly to gain a few seconds of scope time can make a huge difference in an engagement, even if it seems like splitting hairs. I’ll break that down more in the video review. Either way, as much as I said you move in a very healthy gear, I think you can add a little more speed between positions here and there. I’m taking it with a grain of salt because I’ve seen you shoot enough to know that you can certainly move quick. Either way though, every opportunity you take to give yourself more time on target in the glass, the better.

• Video Review 1

  Your vertical profile here looks pretty good, I like how your center of gravity is over your base. I suggest you lock out the legs to

  stack the bones, and you do it pretty easily. That’s where I’d like to see that be more muscle memory on your own. The caveat to

  that here, is that when you lock out, it boosts you upwards a little. Without the bend, you’d need to widen the feet a little more.

  I do this by shimmying my feet out until it feels right. Other than that, you do a lot things right here! I love the tempo, love the

  pause after the shot, recoil looks great, little to no flinching, a nice resettle into the bag after some shots have past, and of course

  after a miss, you make a good correction for the last shot on the far target.

  A lot to be happy about here. The critique doesn’t always have to be on negative things! Physically speaking, and at least on the

  surface mentally, this is what you’d want to duplicate. I can imagine if things are more complicated, the mental side might have

  more trouble, but from what I can see here this looks great. Nicely done…

• Video Review 2

  Here’s a much more dynamic stage, incorporating the same multi-positional and multi-dimensional target engagement, but now

  also incorporating the tripod. I love the deployment on the right side, utilizing the appropriate hand. Extending the legs is smooth

  and really a non-event.

• The only thing I’d like to discuss more is why you unlock and float the hinge on the support leg (00:13). I want to hear more before I

  naysay anything, but my gut tells me although it’s a cool idea, it may promote a bit too much rear engagement. The normal steep

  angle allows for a very gentle progression laterally as you move up or down for vertical position on the leg. When you pull it out to

  a more shallow angle, it creates a situation where to change a good chunk vertically, you now must run further out laterally on the

  leg — this will make your adjustments take you further away horizontally from your target than the normal leg pitch. Just a theory

  without talking through it more with you, but I think that has a lot to do with the extra leg adjustments you make to get your first

  shot off. There are always adjustments needed, but this back and forth seems a little excessive and I wonder if the leg angle is

  affecting it. Moving on…

• Next I see a some tripod tilting that you keep fighting to settle out around 00:27. To mitigate that, I want to emphasize that you

  eyeball the target in the glass as you connect the tripod, and the rifle should be pretty set at that point. The tilting usually comes

  from connecting prematurely, and then pulling the tripod along with the rifle adjustments. If the rifle’s major adjustments are done

  first (especially if lined up slightly right of target), THEN you connect the tripod, and lastly your only adjustment is to collapse the

  support leg in toward the other two, keeping all the feet planted as you fine tune your final point of aim. You can see I point down

  at your one leg that is bouncing, another biproduct of the system being unnaturally pulled with rifle adjustments. As a reminder, if

  you sense it at all, simply release the grip, dropping the tripod back to neutral forces-all legs down, and then re-establish the

  connection. This dampens out as you get to lower positions as the lower height allows for more tripod stability, therefore less

  tilting. The big issue I see is that first two shots took way more time than it should’ve. But this is all very workable!

• Dovetailing off the previous point, there’s some good opportunity here to multitask and gain efficiency in time. As soon as you get

  the rifle in the window and get your body behind it, I’m working a sight picture on the right side of the target, AND shimmying like

  we would a normal support bag. This helps level out and stabilize the front bag, which will also help in reducing the extra

  adjustments once the tripod is attached. It would mainly save you from the extra settle-check you give it at 00:32. The last

  efficiency item I see is for some reason more now than normal, you aren’t dialing until you break connection with the rifle. Maybe

  due to a lack of physical comfort behind the tripod system vs. a normal position, but it’s possible your body is eager to get out of

  position, and then your brain is catching up and stopping the momentum to make sure you don’t forget to dial. This whole thing

  is a quick little moment, but causes a few extra foot shuffles each position, breaking a natural cadence. If this was addressed, I

  think you could’ve saved at least a few seconds across the entire engagement.

• I attached the video of myself running the same drill for comparison. I definitely don’t think it is a perfect run, but I think the

  layering is there, the settling, the uninterrupted cadence, and most importantly the setup on each target. The big thing I want to

  emphasize is that my fine tuning for the initial position, AND the follow up on small target, is all done with very minimal pressures

  and movements of the tripod foot on the ground. I almost just lift enough to reduce surface friction, and then shimmy or wiggle

  my hand until the foot has moved a few millimeters on the ground. I rarely lift and reset — that’s how you end up hopping back

  and forth across targets, since it’s usually a very small movement at the shooter to move the few feet of aim point down range.

• A cool feature is you can play both videos simultaneously, and if you sync the beep of the start clock, you can really get a feel

  for where the time differences are made or lost.

TRAINING PLAN

Your overall skills are solid and at this point it’s all about a defined path forward. Aimlessly going to the range to just shoot more, will only get you so far. Let’s target specifics, and put your energy in the right places to get you measurable results. The class is over, but your climb has just started!

The following section is a combination of range-day timeline AND items to work on. Take these things and try to incorporate them in a compounding way that will stack benefit on top of benefit. This is designed to give you maximum results in the areas of improvement you need.

RANGE DAY ITINERARY:

1.      Review forecast before going – come up with a guess of min-max wind hold you’ll need at say 800 yds.

2.      At Range - Check zero/chrono/adjust kestrel.

3.      Drills – start with the cold wind call at distance.

4.      Work through other drills in this plan, and don’t be afraid to add/substitute what you need.

5.      Mid day, when the wind has the most potential, stop your other drills and repeat a full wind analysis, ending in another semi-cold call at a farther target.

6. Take notes!

DRILLS:

• Cold Wind Call:

1. EVERY TRIP OUT, make this your first plan after checking zero. The hard part of this drill is that everyone loves the satisfying feeling of hitting every hundred or so, validating data. But you can do that later! The other challenge is that there’s nothing on the line, it’s not a match, so it’s easy to jump the gun and get impatient.

2. Don’t rush, take in every detail, study the area, and average your wind across the field of fire.

3. Finalize your call, and take a poke.

4. Hit or miss, reverse out of the shot and analyze what you could have seen better.

5. See if there is a single indicator you could’ve used during the shot sequence that would’ve been the best source of information.

   DON’T SKIP THIS STEP - This is where the learning happens!

6. It’s a long term gain, sow progression drill. Things won’t necessarily change overnight, but it’ll take the already solid wind calling you have, and help you start to hone in on more specific details. 

   PHASE TWO

• A second level drill would be to switch to only doing this on the rifle

• Give yourself a few minutes tops, then one minute, then make your first shot within 20 seconds.

• 800+ yards is fine, does not have to be 1000…

This is going to be your money maker based on what we’ve looked at. Being able to look through the scope, analyze everything in a reasonable moment and make a decisive shot — that’s what separates the top guys. It’s a long and slow game, but it’s the best way I’ve come up with to train this.

• Efficiency Drill 1:

  Using this standard drill mainly to iron out your bag stability improvements and check for correct body fundamentals…

1. Think of the build and break drill from the class

2. 15 seconds, then 12 seconds, then 10 seconds…

3. Pick a standard target - .4 wide, non-painted steel preferred

4. Sturdy prop, different positions available. Pipe fence was a great example

5. On the clock, build a swift and complete position, and shoot 2 shots on target

   • Bag down, rifle down

   • Drive it forward while lining up barrel to target

   • Settle QUICK AND FIRM into the bag as you acquire target in scope

     • Mag well buried into bag for rudder support

     • Forcefully and abruptly sawed/shimmied into position in target area

     • Finish building connection behind rifle

     • Make final shimmy onto exact POA

   • Push out a breath as you close the bolt

   • Hyper focus on target, make the shot!

   • Spot, RESET in the bag, cycle another round, make second shot!

6. Evaluate your progress on building an effective position quicker without compromising fundamentals.

7. Choose another time limit, and repeat

8. Occasionally sit and just hold the position for a while. If it’s a bad position you’ll start to feel the fatigue and discomfort settling in. This won’t inhibit you from making a good

shot, but it is more likely to cause you to WANT to get it out just a hair faster than you should, just to get out of the physical situation.

• Spotting Drill 1:

I suggest these two for everyone; they are the best drills on the planet for what we do. Do this for the first several shots, until you have lost the element of surprise on your wind call. Once you know confidently know where your shots are landing and where the next ones are GOING to land, you move to drill 2. Next phase will allow you to re-introduce the element of surprise to make your brain have to analyze the point of impact again from a fresh perspective… But for now:

1. Start on completely sturdy props and use un-painted steel

2. Use a big/small array, maybe a KYL Largest and then Smallest (or one of the smallest)

3. Make perfectly stable and bag-settled position

4. Take several seconds before the shot to study the target and backdrop

5. Prepare for expectations of what you’ll see with a hit or a miss

   • Depending on your vision, consider more emphasis on plate movement and statistics (how likely you expect to be over or under on your windage).

6. Take a shot, and freeze to see everything you can, and take a few seconds to process.

7. Make a measured call, not “a little left,” but “0.2 left of center…”

8. Take that call to a small plate and test your call.

9. If it hits – SUCCESS… If it misses, repeat the drill on the big plate and see if you see it better;

   • You will likely have a better expectation the second time because you just saw a miss in the dirt. That’s ok!

   • Let that guide your brain to better interpret the information down range this next shot

10. To reset the level of challenge, take the drill to a significantly different distance and repeat the drill.

• Spotting Drill 2:

Taped Turret, with a buddy or alone, re-introduce the element of surprise and get yourself working hard to spot again once you’ve pretty much figured it out for the current conditions…

1. Have a buddy spin your windage off by up to double what the actual wind conditions call for, and down to zero wind. For example, if it’s roughly 1.0L of wind, allow for anything within 2.0L-0.0.

   • This simulates a big gust or a big lull in wind; a bit much, but still reasonable and good for this drill

2. If you’re alone, it’s less calculated

   • Without looking, spin your own windage a little one way, reset your grip and go the other way. A few clicks this way, that way, this way, etc… Once you feel lost, you’re set!

3. Cover the turret with some painter’s tape - if alone and it’s on the support side, just don’t look!

4. Shoot, spot, measure, correct – analyze results

5. Reverse dissect what you thought you saw versus what actually happened

6. Contrary to the fun speed stage in class, take your time. Accuracy over speed here!

7. Repeat this drill until you can’t miss your second shot, or you’re completely sick of it! At a minimum, do this for 5 cycles.

• Tripod Drill:

  Practice build and breaks with a tripod, seeking to gain efficiency in the set up and movement between positions and onto target

  1 Recreate the type of engagement from the class — high, medium and low positions, but even just with one distance big and small

  2 Set the clock for 30 second intially, and strive to get everything perfect for a good shot by that mark. Level, bag settled, good connection with shooter, tripod feet all down

  3 Repeat sequence at 27, 24, 21, etc. until you are able to get set up near perfectly in minimal time, every time. It doesn’t have to be deploy on the clock either.

  4 Work to layer in the steps simultaneously rather than independently:

  • Rifle down, muzzle right of target

  • Lower head as you shimmy bag and check level

  • As you find a sight picture, connect shoulder and pull tripod over simultaneously

  • Make minor pitch corrections, make final lateral push into tripod to polish the aim point onto target as you breathe out and close your bolt

  • Take the slight pre-shot processing pause, and then let it rip.

  It can be 10 steps or 5 steps, depending how you layer it. And with the right techniques you can eliminate the side to side hopping.

• Free Time:

1. HIGHLY recommend reverting back to more scope based wind work in second half of day

   • Mirage is up, changes more frequent, challenge accepted!

   • Build a tough panning long distance stage, and put in the time to get a specific plan

   • Make sure you have a plan A, and a simplified plan B using simple additives per target.

   • Test it out and reverse engineer what you needed, vs what you saw or could improve

2. Obviously feel free to do anything else that needs work – don’t skip the tough stuff!

CONCLUSION:

             There are always more drills and beneficial methods you can use depending how you want to attack your focus areas. These are my observations and best ideas for you, but certainly not the end-all-be-all; don’t be afraid to try other things. As I said, you’re in a great spot with a great mentality, and I truly believe you can work through these little issues, but it will take commitment.

The best news is, that I would love to spend a day at the range training up for some upcoming stuff. As much as I may be a good instructor for you, you are experienced enough and a great set of eyes to help me too. I would be happy to work together and really dial in the tripod work, and spend some good time on glass working on-the-fly wind calls. I know we’ll try to line something up, hopefully the planets align!

             I’m really happy you came out, and I look forward to talking more about this report. Let’s get together and really talk through some of this and see what doors we open. See below for a bonus list of highlighted items from the curriculum that I want to emphasize before your next trip out. Please share your victories big or small, and stay in touch (I say that to everyone but at least with you I know I’ll probably see you next week lol). Thanks and God bless,

Matt Caruso

Caruso Precision

CLASS HIGHLIGHTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

1.      Get out and train sooner than later, lock in what you learned

2.      Keep your attention within your thirds, G.O.D.

3.      Stick to your processes, in every phase of the day/match/stage/shot sequence; don’t cut corners

4.      Drill your weaknesses even if it’s less fun – “don’t skip leg day!”

5.      First shot = most important shot… make it perfect!

6.      Don’t settle for bad wind angles, use an azimuth or good compass for exact numbers

7.      After a stage, reverse math the wind to derive true wind conditions to carry forward

8.      Other than checking DOPE, don’t shoot clean steal because it makes you weak

9.      IMO spotting is the most important skill beyond having good fundamentals

10.  Prepare spotting expectations based on target environment BEFORE you’re on the clock

11.  Know your min. correction for edge miss (½ target) and blind miss (¾ target) BEFORE on the clock

12.  Plan your toughest target, toughest position as a primary driver of your plan development

13.  Review EVERYTHING on your rifle end to end before saying you’re ready for the clock

14.  Make mental snapshot of last shot before stepping off. Finish process before chatting with buddies

15.  Pause, process, plan, then execute… Do NOT rush downrange analysis

16.  Corrections should have a number, not just a direction… “I was left,” vs “I was 0.4 left”

17.  Move the bag and rifle separately from position to position

18.  Saw into bag before every shot, it becomes muscle memory, costs no time, yields good benefit

19.  Confidence = efficient time management. Take the time before the shot, or you’ll struggle afterward

20.  Move quick, shoot slow