Shoot like a star: Tips from ‘Top Shot’ star Chris Reed - Entertainment, TV, Television - Navy Times

Shoot like a star: Tips from ‘Top Shot’ star Chris Reed

FUNDAMENTALS

• Move your feet: My feet are always moving, trying to get those minute muscle fibers aligned and to get everything dead set. Stance is like building a mountain. You can’t build it on a wobbly foundation. Everything starts from your feet up. With a pistol, I tend to want to stand with my left foot leading more as opposed to more of a squared-off stance. With rifle, I’m more sideways, trying to balance the weight over the center of my torso and getting my body aligned so I’m using the least of my muscles to maintain posture. I’m putting more weight on my back foot to counterbalance the weight of the barrel.

• Close your eyes: The big thing I learned in the Marine Corps that was unique to me was natural body position and natural sight alignment. When I’m set up to shoot, whether a rifle or pistol or whatever, I close my eyes, kind of relax and let my body settle naturally. When I open my eyes, say I’m left of the target, I’m not going to twist my body or manipulate my weapon to the right, I’m actually going to shift at the foundation. I’m going to keep my body in the same neutral position but just shift my feet and then aim at the target again, close my eyes and open my eyes.

• Focus on the front sight: That’s another thing I learned from Gunny [Brian Zins] and Joe [Serafini]. Now, I’ve heard that a million times before, but in archery, it’s the opposite. You don’t focus on the front pins, you focus on your target. But on a handgun especially, they say you get target fixation — you stare at your target and lose your sight picture. So I really had to shift my focus to the front posts and let the target blur.

• Take your shot: We had one shooter who would take two or three seconds literally raising the gun up, slowly, slowly, slowly, and then when he got on target — bam! I was like, what did you just do, man? He wasn’t hitting nothing. Literally, he’d take five to 10 seconds to get all the way up to the target then — bam! — it was like a drive-by. And it cost him. There’s a point after seven or eight seconds when you start losing your vision. Your eyes will only focus intensely for a few seconds, and then after that it gets increasingly worse.

• Trigger squeeze: Once you start applying pressure, you never take it off. A lot of people squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and then right at the last minute they kind of jerk it. Once you start to squeeze, you keep the squeeze until it goes bang, and you don’t let anything interrupt the shot. Instead, maintain a constant, even pressure allowing the squeeze to bring you to the bull’s-eye.

• Shoot with both eyes open: I don’t think they emphasize that much with military shooters because they’re trying to get people qualified. But all my life I’ve been taught that it’s imperative you see your target and everything that’s around it. Archery is the same way. Most people want to close one eye, but for me, [both eyes open] helps with equilibrium and balance, and of course it just opens up your field of view so much.

• Don’t flinch: Whatever you do, don’t flinch. Don’t anticipate the shot. Don’t prepare for it, don’t brace for it. A lot of people want to get all tensed up, but that’s the wrong kind of tensed. That last split second before it goes bang is the most critical part. You can spend all the time you want getting set up, but if you blow it right there at the end, it’s gone. A good way to practice not flinching is to have a buddy loading your rifle for you so you don’t even know if it’s chambered. That’s a good game because you never know when it’s going to recoil. If you jump and it doesn’t recoil, you messed up.

• Soak up knowledge: I’m notorious for picking people’s brains. A good way to do that: Practice with good competitors. If I practice with somebody I can beat every day, I’m never going to get any better.

WEAPON-SPECIFIC TIPS

• Finger placement, pistols: Some people want the trigger in the crease, some people want it on the pad, but you can manipulate the impact of the shot just by the depth of your finger on the trigger. So [for right-handers] if you’re shooting to the right, you cannot put your finger in as deep; and the opposite, if you’re shooting to the left, you can stick it in a little farther. As you shoot, when it breaks, it’s going to naturally want to pull it to that side.

• Finger placement, revolvers: When shooting double action, stick your finger in the trigger guard a whole lot farther than you normally would, wrapping your finger around and touching the frame. That puts the trigger in the second joint of your finger. That allows you to feel with the very tip of your finger when that trigger is going to fire. It helps support it, but it also gives you the moment it’s going to go off.

• 1911: If you’re a right-handed shooter, make sure you’re driving your left hand up hard against the trigger guard. You can put a lot of pressure there to help you support the weapon. And make sure you have your thumbs lined up parallel and on top of each other with your right thumb on top of your left thumb and pointed straight forward.

• Shotgun: Keep your head down throughout the shot. People want to pull the trigger and then raise their head up and look around. If you’re shooting clay pigeons or whatever, set your body up where you want to break the bird, not where it’s coming out from. Square your stance up where you want to hit it, and then twist your body around toward where it’s coming from. And then don’t let the bird outrun the barrel. Keep your barrel in front of your target, and just cruise along with it at the same speed.

• Bow: The biggest problem I see with most people shooting bow is that doesn’t fit them. It’s so critical. I go to the eighth of an inch on just draw length.

• Tomahawk: Don’t ever change your throw. It’s kind of like a golf swing. Once you’ve got that thing down, just change the distance between you and the target.