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Aim small, miss small?

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RackwitzG

32 Cal.
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Hi,
watching the movie "The Patriot" I came across the quote "aim small, miss small" and must admit that I don´t quite understand what it means.

Please help me out and explain.

Thanks alot.
 
pretty sure it's got something to do with missing a big "unmissable" target,before or after hitting small targets, if you just aim at a piece of the big target,instead of the whole thing, your more likely to hit it.like shooting at a whitetail,or shooting at a whitetails heart...smaller target pic leaves more room for error...I'm sure someone here has a better explanation,and i can't wait to read 'em! RC
 
In that movie it ment "dont shoot center of mass, but pick ..say a button on the coat. Fred :hatsoff:
 
RackwitzG said:
"aim small, miss small"
fw,
You may be correct...But in the movie
the father was a pascifist, and when he ask the
two sons "Do you remember what I taught you",
I doubt that he was refering to killing another
human being, when he said "aim small, miss small". However your thought of aiming at
something smaller than the whole target is IMO
correct. M2C.
snake-eyes :thumbsup:
 
He may have been a pacifist but they still had to hunt to eat and a miss meant they didn't eat. I think the phrase is self explanatory.
 
RackwitzG said:
Hi,
watching the movie "The Patriot" I came across the quote "aim small, miss small" and must admit that I don´t quite understand what it means.

Please help me out and explain.

Thanks alot.

Aim big (or wildly) and you stand a good chance of missing the whole target, whereas your target now stands a better chance of killing you while you are trying to reload... (under war conditions of course)

In other words, don't flock shoot, pick out your duck...
 
RackwitzG said:
Hi,
watching the movie "The Patriot" I came across the quote "aim small, miss small" and must admit that I don´t quite understand what it means.
Please help me out and explain.
Thanks alot.
When teaching Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger how to shoot a muzzle-loading rifle, technical advisor Mark Baker gave them the advice to "aim small, miss small", meaning that if you aim at a man and miss, you miss the man, while if you aim at a button (for instance) and miss, you still hit the man. Gibson liked this bit advice so much he incorporated it into the movie, just prior to the ambush scene.

Like in golf, don't just stand on the tee and swing away at the wide open space in front of you...find a landing area, line up your stance for it, aim for it, and try to hit it...more often than not you'll at least end up in the fairway and not off in the woods somwehere
 
My dad and grand pa always said to aim at a hair, not the whole deer. Pick out a hair and stay on.
 
Sound Advice. Aim at the whole deer and buck fever is liable to set in. Happened to someone who shall remian nameless last season! He missed a whitetail clean at forty yards :cursing: . I will not mention his name though :redface:
 
Cooner54 said:
My dad and grand pa always said to aim at a hair, not the whole deer. Pick out a hair and stay on.
I was told that in those exact words when I started hunting with a traditional bow.
 
snake-eyes said:
RackwitzG said:
"aim small, miss small"
fw,
You may be correct...But in the movie
the father was a pascifist, and when he ask the
two sons "Do you remember what I taught you",
I doubt that he was refering to killing another
human being, when he said "aim small, miss small". However your thought of aiming at
something smaller than the whole target is IMO
correct. M2C.
snake-eyes :thumbsup:


He was far from a "pascifist" having killed many men during the F&I War. He'd just had his fill of war and knew the "ghosts" that they left on a mans soul and didn't want the same for his kids. In the end he has no choice but to go back to his killing ways.
 
Also, in my experience at least, aiming small requires that one take a little more time, or at least care, in aiming. To me, aiming "big" infers aiming quickly and carelessly, while aiming "small" infers taking a bit more time and deliberation when aiming.
 
See that a lot at rendezvous shoots, good shots hit the tough targets but miss the easy ones because they just look too easy, can't miss, damn! I missed! One has to make a mental note to take just as much time and care on the easy ones, aim small on those big targets. :grin:
 
When teaching Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger how to shoot a muzzle-loading rifle, technical advisor Mark Baker gave them the advice to "aim small, miss small", meaning that if you aim at a man and miss, you miss the man, while if you aim at a button (for instance) and miss, you still hit the man. Gibson liked this bit advice so much he incorporated it into the movie, just prior to the ambush scene.
Thought I was right but you put a real good spin to the story :applause: Fred :hatsoff:
 
I have been teaching a newbie how to shoot.

Until I started coaching her she had the goal of keeping her shots inside the target frame. And that's exactly what she could hit.

She was shocked that I expected her to keep her shots on a paper plate on our first session. By aiming at the paper plate she closed her groups to around 8", the size of the plate.

On our next session I attached the plate to the target backer with a red thumb tack. I told her that she was now aiming at the tack, not the plate.

Her groups closed to about 2" at 25 yards.

"Aim small. miss small." It works.

:thumbsup:
 
That's why I like to sight in with my POA/POI being the tip of my front sight. No six o' clock hold for me, thank you very much. I want my ball to go where the sight is, not 6" or 8" over it. :v
 
TN.Frank said:
That's why I like to sight in with my POA/POI being the tip of my front sight. No six o' clock hold for me, thank you very much. I want my ball to go where the sight is, not 6" or 8" over it. :v
Not being a bullseye shooter, hunting is always my main interest and almost always in the 25-50yd range, I do the same thing...I want the ball to hit precisely what I put the bead on...and if that means through the tiny fork of a limb, I want to know that it will track precisely where the bead is...
 
Even when bullseye shooting I want the bullet going where the sight is. I want to hit the center of the bull not just hit the bull "somewhere".
 
I do a 6 o'clock hold for some guns. My .40 was sighted to look at a rabbit shoulder and take off his head at 50 paces. This gave me a good view of what the rabbit was doing while giving me a good opportunity to adjust for distance. At the 25, the POI of this rifle is close to being even with the flat of the front sight and my most common shot range is about 50 yards, so I learned to make it work.

I find those round sights on the late T/Cs are too large for good shooting since they are so large and therefore hide some much of the target unless one is shooting a bull that happens to give a good reference. Did you swap out for a finer front sight?

CS
 
CrackStock said:
I do a 6 o'clock hold for some guns. My .40 was sighted to look at a rabbit shoulder and take off his head at 50 paces. This gave me a good view of what the rabbit was doing while giving me a good opportunity to adjust for distance. At the 25, the POI of this rifle is close to being even with the flat of the front sight and my most common shot range is about 50 yards, so I learned to make it work.

I find those round sights on the late T/Cs are too large for good shooting since they are so large and therefore hide some much of the target unless one is shooting a bull that happens to give a good reference. Did you swap out for a finer front sight?

CS
TC had two different size bead front sights...the older one(#9051) was used with the low profile wideview rear (adj) hunting sight...I assume the size of the front bead was so it could be picked up quicker in low light conditions and it is good for that.

The down side is that the bead was quite large and as you said, at any distance to speak of it did hamper precision aiming...they were discontinued several years ago, give or take.

The newer one (#9061) is a much smaller, tiny bead allowing for much more precison, and when paired with the target style rear (adj) sight, they are excellent.

Most barrels I've bought in the past few years have been round ball barrels and the target rear & 9061 bead front came standard on them...I also bought a few and replaced the old style larger front bead sights on a few existing barrels I had.

One thing I've also done on them is to use the tapered end of a proper sized drill bit to very slightly 'dish out' the face of the beads, and dab white model paint in there...shows up very well in the woods.
 

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