Shoot to Win interior

Before going into any of the technical aspects of marksmanship, I think it’s important to ask yourself, “Why am I interested in learning how to shoot?” Your answer will be your motivation and give you a direction for your training. And your reasons may change over time. I originally started for fun, but my appreciation and interest in shooting has expanded far beyond fun.

Going to the range can be a great way to unwind and have some fun with your friends, family, and loved ones.

If you want to shoot just for fun, you might want to consider going the self-taught route like I did and read books and articles online, and watch all the YouTube videos that are available on this topic. The awesomeness of the Internet comes through for us once again.

Geeks for Guns

The Silicon Valley folks I interacted with during my time at Google mostly had a neutral to positive interest in shooting guns. Like many people, they had seen them on TV and in the movies and had a healthy fear and respect of guns.

I was often the person on my team who arranged for fun team off-sites, and one quarter I organized a trip to our local gun range near Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. Once at the range, the twelve of us went through a safety meeting in a training room, where we reviewed the four safety rules. We headed into the shooting bays with a mixture of pistols and a Remington 870 12-gauge pump shotgun. Some of the range employees were on hand to help manage our group.

I distinctly remember the smiles of joy and excitement as I watched many of my colleagues shoot a firearm for the first time. Naturally, some of them struggled, but many of them were also excellent shots. For high-tech people who spend all day staring at a computer or phone screen, a low-tech activity such as shooting guns can be a very pleasurable experience. Some companies, even have shooting groups, such as the Adobe Shooters League and the QShooters Club, where the company pays for recreational shooting activities.

Google has its own internal mailing list for Googler gun folks where casual group trips to the range, tech specs around guns, ammo, and gear are all vigorously discussed and scrutinized.

Tech people naturally love technical things, and so there is a natural attraction for tech geeks and gun geeks.

Training for Top Shot

When I applied for Top Shot Season 4, I trained for five months, putting in twenty to twenty-five hours per week. Since I didn’t have any friends who owned guns, I relied on teaching myself what I could through the web and from competition shooters I met on the range. I really enjoy learning new things, and there is an incredible amount of useful information online to help you have fun shooting.

Staying focused on having fun enabled me to stay calm under pressure, and that calmness helped me beat out seventeen Top Shot competitors. Many of my competitors psyched and stressed themselves out, since the competition wasn’t a fun game for them as much as it was a title to be won or lost.

For me, competing was for fun and for the personal challenge—to see if I could come out on top. Having fun, constantly challenging myself, and striving to be my best is an attitude I carry with me in all the things I do in life. If I’m not enjoying or challenging myself, whether at work or play, then I’ll seek a different path.

If your interest in shooting lies in learning how to defend yourself against attack, then I would suggest taking lessons specifically geared toward using firearms defensively. My book will help you with firearms basics, but self-defense training is a whole additional level of technical and physical skill that also carries ethical and legal considerations.

The United States has varying laws and regulations regarding how, when, and where you can use a firearm in self-defense. It depends on whether you are on your own property as well as the particular situation. In many counties, to carry a concealed firearm you must receive a permit from local law enforcement. However, certain counties do not require a permit, and there are additional laws regarding long guns (rifles and shotguns). Again, using a firearm for self-defense requires further study outside the confines of this book.

I’ll go into a little bit more detail on this topic in part II on pistols in this book.

If you’ve never shot a gun before, you’ve probably seen guns on TV or in the movies. You might have seen some actor running at full speed, jumping away from an explosion while shooting a pistol in the air at some bad guy 40 yards away, and actually hitting his target. Let me tell you that even standing still, with no explosions and no distractions, some pistol shots you see on TV and in the moves are incredibly unrealistic.

When shooting, you will become hyperaware of how even the slightest movement—a leg twitch, a quick finger, the wind, and even your own breathing—can throw off a shot. Shooting is an activity that requires full body awareness, where becoming aware of and controlling your gross and fine motor skills are big keys to success.

Handling Stress

I know how my body reacts when I am stressed out. I feel my blood pressure rise and my face starting to feel warm. I can feel my heartbeat through my neck. My hunger usually goes away, and I actually feel quite alive, lucid, and in the moment. My senses are heightened, and I tend to perform well under stress.

At Google, I was surrounded by high performers who want to change the world. It is a “work hard, play hard” environment. I started my Google career as a technical support agent for Google Apps, which is basically a paid version of Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and other communication and productivity applications. My job was working directly with customers via email, phone, and chat to help them resolve any problems they were experiencing with the product.

As you can imagine, nobody is happy contacting tech support. Customers are already stressed out because there’s a problem that’s disrupted their life in some way. In my customer interactions, often the customer had a problem with email (and most of the time the problem was user error). In my five years at Google, I had spoken to thousands of customers, a number of whom were very upset. I learned how to handle that type of stress at work, and I’ve taken that same approach to handling stress into other situations, personal and professional.

Specifically, I tend to destress when I’m able to talk something through with a trusted individual. Taking a brisk walk and going outside also help. Breathing is really important, and so I become highly conscious of my breaths. Oftentimes I will exaggerate my inhalations and exhalations as a way of ensuring good oxygen flow. If you watch episodes of Top Shot Season 4, you will see me taking plenty of breaths during the competitions.

Body awareness is a skill that you can develop and apply to many parts of your life.

One of the most important techniques we’ll discuss in this book is trigger squeeze. Having a strong sense of body awareness and control is a key concept you’ll need to develop as a marksman. As it applies to physical awareness, trigger squeeze is all about focusing on one tiny part of your trigger finger, making sure it is properly pulling the trigger.

Increasing your physical awareness can also translate into other parts of your life. Perhaps you will become more aware of how your body reacts when stressed at work and how you go about calming yourself down. That approach could then be applied in a self-defense situation where you are under stress, or perhaps at the range when you are trying to steady yourself for a precision shot.

Marksmanship involves mental discipline as well as physical skill one. You should ask yourself how mentally disciplined you are. Do you have the mental stamina to dry-fire for five minutes and make sure you have perfect form each time? When you fall short, are you going to crumble or are you going to double down and practice even harder and smarter?

There will be certain aspects of marksmanship that will be hard. You may not be able to consistently hit the bull’s-eye, and to figure out what’s wrong when you don’t. You may know what you have to do, but learning that habit may be challenging. Take comfort, though, in knowing that every shooter, no matter how experienced—including me—struggles with something.

The question is whether you have what it takes to overcome that hurdle. This book will teach you much about form and technique, but you will have to be mentally tough to push through some frustrating moments in which you will need to work on hard and practice. I promise you that, if you stick with it and practice, you will improve.

For American marksmen and markswomen, there can be no better way to appreciate a constitutional right than to exercise it. The Second Amendment protects our right to protect ourselves and our loved ones. If you are interested in Second Amendment politics, there is no shortage of interesting issues and debates in which you can engage.

If you live outside the United States, I hope you have an opportunity to learn about marksmanship in your home country or when traveling abroad. For some foreigners, the Second Amendment is such a big draw they are willing to give up their citizenship of birth to become an American citizen.

Iain Harrison is one such person. Iain is the Top Shot Season 1 champion, editor of RECOIL Magazine, and author of the afterword in this book. After his native England banned civilian ownership of pistol ownership in 1997, Iain left his home country and came to the United States to become a US citizen. Harrison notes that the government “gave everyone the chance to hand in [their guns], or face ten years in prison. I decided at that point that I wanted to continue owning firearms, so I moved to the United States.”

Participating in the self-defense, competition, or fun use of firearms is one of the best ways to exercise and appreciate our Second Amendment rights.

In the shooting community, there are plenty of opportunities for leadership. Many gun clubs and organizations need officers for a range duties, from administration, to finances, recruitment, community relations, fundraising, and social and competition activities.

In the policy and political realms, there are many opportunities to get involved at the local, state, and national levels.

Much of the world’s history can be told through firearms. Collecting firearms, whether family heirlooms or guns with historical significance, can hold special meaning to the owner. There is a large collectors market where gun owners trade, sell, and barter all sorts of interesting and historical firearms.

A Nazi Luger Pistol

For me, reading about history can sometimes be bland, and also hard to grasp unless I have an experience to anchor it. Visiting a historical site, touching a historical object, or hearing a first-hand story helps me remember the details.

With my Top Shot prize winnings, I wanted to invest in a historical firearm, one that had an interesting story.

The author’s personal Luger pistol.

I found a Luger pistol that had weaved its way through Europe from World War I to World War II and eventually found its way to me here in the United States.

The pistol started out as a 1917 Artillery Luger and, after World War I, was issued a 4-inch new barrel and stamped “1920” to be issued to the new German army, which could not exceed 100,000 men, according to the Treaty of Versailles. My Luger was again reissued in 1937 with Nazi proof marks, a holster, and magazines. It was used from then until 1945, when an American soldier liberated it from a German soldier. When I purchased the gun, included were a German soldier’s Iron Cross, Second Class with a ribbon, and a map of France written in German. On the back of the map is a calendar with written dates through March 11, 1945. That was the date the pistol was relieved from its owner.

The soldier passed this Luger to his daughter, who ended up selling it through an auction house. That’s where I came upon it and appreciated its history and place in the world. It is one of my favorite firearms, and, at the time of this writing, I have only shot a few rounds through it and was impressed at how accurate it is almost seventy years later.

Many firearms increase in value over time, and, besides having monetary value, historic firearms are incredible pieces of our human history. Every time I pick up my Luger, I think about its path and the people who built the parts, the soldiers who relied on it, the lives saved and lost, and how it was a part of two world wars. Collecting firearms is a wonderful way to remember, respect, and preserve our history.

At its core, hunting is about providing food for one’s self and loved ones. Hunting is also about respecting and conserving our natural open space, and about controlling animal populations. Each season “tags” are distributed by each state’s department tasked with regulating hunting and fishing. The number of tags for any given season is determined by state wildlife specialists to keep a balance in the ecosystem.

In a world so dominated by computers, phones, and video games, enjoying the great outdoors as a hunter is something I’ve just recently had the opportunity to experience. While many hunters hunt out of necessity to feed their families and protect their land and crops from varmints, there is also a huge social component to being outside and using all your senses. You get to spend some real quality time with friends and loved ones, uninterrupted time where you get to live in the moment instead of through an electronic screen.

My First Turkey Hunt

Many Americans associate turkeys with Thanksgiving and sandwich meat. You see turkey in plastic wrap at the supermarket and have probably seen some pictures and video of real turkeys.

I was invited on a shotgun turkey hunt with some NRA instructors the week I got my NRA instructor certification. We were at Red Bank Outfitters, a beautiful private ranch in Northern California learning about specific animal habits and characteristics. I learned how turkeys can see well, which is why hunters need to dress in camouflage from head to toe. If a turkey spots you, they will run, and hours of sitting patiently waiting can be all for naught with one wrong move.

I also learned about box and slate calls, and how to produce different calls with each. It was a thrill to be outdoors trying to see who would prevail in this game of man vs. turkey.

Unfortunately for us (but fortunately for the turkeys), the turkeys won. We spent ten hours over two days looking for gobblers, and we only found one that was on another property. We waited to see if any of the birds would cross the property line so we could at least take a shot, but to no avail.

Many hunts end without a single shot fired. That’s the nature of the hunt. Sometimes it’s good; other times you go home empty handed. But even if you don’t bring any meat home, you still bring home memories of time with friends, of learning about the land, and of how to properly take from the land.

I’m excited for my next hunt and hope you will consider enjoying the great outdoors with me!

I also love food, and hunting for me has been a great way to reconnect with where food actually comes from. Having grown up in the suburbs, I ran the risk of learning that a chicken’s natural state was growing in a Styrofoam tray. Thankfully, hunting has been an ethical, philosophical, and educational experience for me.

Perhaps you’ve been watching too much of The Walking Dead like I have, but knowing how to shoot a gun is a critical skill in the event you’re stuck in some unsavory environment, for whatever reason. A more realistic scenario is if civil society ever breaks down and you’re in a survival scenario.

When I was twelve years old, I was less than an hour away from the 1992 Rodney King riots where Korean American store owners had to rely on their own weapons to defend their lives and property because law enforcement and military personnel were unprepared, overwhelmed, and unable to provide security for everyone in South Central Los Angeles. Obviously, civil society breaking down is going to be a rare occurrence (at least I would like to think that in the United States), but it can, and has, happened.

Thinking back to when I was twelve years old watching events unfold on TV, all I understood at the time was that this was a race riot, and that guns were keeping people safe.

Now as an adult, I think about how, amongst other guns, I would at least want my AR-15 in that kind of lawless situation. (AR stands for ArmaLite, the company who originally designed the AR-15 platform. The AR-15 later became the M-16, used by militaries around the world.)

Now here’s an area that could change your life. For years and years, I went to a gun range and shot on a static firing line at paper targets. After an hour of destroying a bunch of paper, I would get bored and pack it up. Then I discovered competition shooting.

Competition shooting has many different disciplines: United States Practical Shooting Association (USPSA), International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA), skeet and trap shooting, rifle shooting, cowboy action, and 3-gun (pistol, rifle, shotgun). Among the many other competition shooting disciplines are ones specifically for youngsters, college students, and veterans.

Multi-time world champion Julie Golob inspires current and future shooters alike.

Many of these disciplines feature shooting from the holster and on the move at metal plates, paper targets, flying clays, wagons or other moving contraptions. One 3-gun competition, the MGM Ironman, even has a stage where you get hooked up to a zip line!

Anyone that is capable of completing a half-day safety training course can come compete. Amateurs and professionals alike come to matches all around the world. There are different classifications and divisions, so you are competing against shooters who are equally matched in both skill and gear. Most matches occur on the weekends, which is when most folks are available.

If you’re interested in getting into competitive shooting, check out the end of parts II through IV of this book, on pistols, rifles, and shotguns, respectively.

Gun folk are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. Like any activity, there are social events and communities around varying demographics. There are many clubs for skeet and trap, competition, home defense and self-defense, clubs for young adults and women, and state organizations.

For those politically inclined, there are plenty of Second Amendment groups of like-minded Americans to join.

Competitions are primarily driven by volunteers who help create and build stages, keep score, serve as safety and range officers, fundraise, and recruit new shooters and sponsors. These volunteers are crucial in ensuring that the shooting community can operate smoothly.

What’s great about shooting for me is that, after spending so much time behind a computer, my phone, and TV, I get to spend some time outdoors to relax, unplug, and socialize with fellow shooters.

Even if you aren’t getting into shooting for the community aspect, I guarantee that, if you spend some time at a range or at events, you’ll see how vibrant and diverse our community is.