How To Shoot A Rifle

Hunting trip coming up and you find yourself wondering, "how do I learn to shoot a rifle?" Shooting a rifle is not all that hard, but it takes practice to do well. Shooting a rifle is one of those past times which you can see rapid improvement in, if you work diligently, learn the basics, and apply them with consistency. That is what will be discussed here, the basics.

Equipment needed to shoot a rifle.

• Rifle
• Ammunition
• Targets
• Backstop/Range
• Shooting glasses
• Hearing protection

The shooter will find that he "needs" more equipment the more he shoots, but this is the very basic list of needs.

Steps

1. Buy equipment.  Buy a rifle which you will be willing to shoot a lot. Practice is the key to becoming a good marksman, which means a lot of practice. Ammunition is expensive so buy what you can afford to shoot a lot. A .22 rim fire is perhaps the best place to start. They are cheap to buy, cheap to feed, and have little recoil and noise, which helps in learning the basics of shooting without learning a flinch.  Buy ammunition, targets, hearing protection, and shooting glasses while you are buying the gun. Shooting glasses and hearing protection are very important. If your hearing or sight is damaged it can be permanent, so a bit of protection is good insurance.
2. Find a place to shoot.  You will want to have a place with wide open distances to shoot. A shooting range is the ideal place, and probably the best place to start. They will even have range masters for safety, and instructors available to help you learn.
3. Learn safety.  Learn and apply safety rules. A gun is always considered loaded, and you never point it at anything you are not going to shoot, EVER. There are others, but this one is the most important. Learn them and use them every single time you pick up the gun.
4. Learn how your rifle works.  There are a a lot of different types of rifles. The working of the rifle is called the action. There are semi-automatic actions, bolt actions, lever actions, single shot break actions, and various others. Learn how to properly load and shoot your particular rifle.   
5. Learn shooting positions. There are various positions from which the rifle can be shot, prone, standing, using a rest, unsupported, and various others. Learn how to use each, as they can be used in different situations.
6. Learn how to hold the rifle. There are various ways to hold the rifle in these positions, freehand, using a sling, and others. Each has merits, and can be used in various times
7. Learn the aiming process.  Learn which is your dominant eye and use it to aim with. There are different types of sights and each is used slightly differently. Learn how to use your sights on your rifle. The basic process is to aim through the sights using your dominant eye, align front and rear sight, Attain proper sight picture. The key to aiming is consistency.
8. Relax and be comfortable.  Movement is bad for accuracy. Relaxing will help you keep from moving the rifle, and being comfortable will help you to spend more time shooting.
9. Learn breath control. When you breath you move the rifle. The rifle will wobble slightly as you breath, this is especially noticeable when using scope sighted rifles. You will want to learn when to hold and release your breath for final aiming and then not breath until after the shot is taken.
10. Learn trigger control. It is important to learn how to pull the trigger smoothly. You want a long slow smooth squeeze of the trigger as opposed to a jerky, yanking pull. Any extra movement of the firearm through the trigger will throw the shot off target.

Those are the basics of shooting a rifle. It is not a hard task to accomplish, but there is a difference between shooting a rile, and shooting a rifle well. The latter takes practice, a lot of practice. It also takes consistency, you must perform the same tasks, in exactly the same way every single time. Good luck and enjoy your new sport.