Maybe a silly question

[halfdan]

OK, I've been shooting for a long time but have never really known what this phrase means: "Aim small, miss small"

I see it can be read two ways:
1) Aim at a small target, miss it; Aim at a big target, hit it. --OR--
2) Aim very carefully and you'll only mis by very little.

Any of that make sense? Which way do you read it?

Thanks,
Halfdan

 

[Boomer]

Its a theory in shooting. For example, you don't aim at the deer, you aim at a tuft of fur behind the shoulder.

This phrase was immortalized in the move The Patriot.

 

[rabbit03]

Yep, the second one!

rabbit03

 

[rebel727]

Its a theory in shooting. For example, you don't aim at the deer, you aim at a tuft of fur behind the shoulder.

This phrase was immortalized in the move The Patriot.

Exactly. You don't aim at the bullseye on a target, you aim at the very center of the bullseye.

 

[CrackStock]

Aim at a button and you will surely hit the man. Aim at the man and you will be lucky to hit him.

CS

 

[renovato]

In my case, it usually means aim at a small target and miss it. :rotf:

 

[wulf]

AIM?????

 

[Stony]

Just a little FYI, Mark Baker was hired by Gibson as a tech advisor and while teaching Mel how to shoot a flintlock, he kept saying that little phase, Mel liked it so much, he incorperated it into the movie. :thumbsup:

 

[silverfox]

dPlink Thats because around you neck of the woods it's so flat you can see for miles. That 300 yard deer is so small they are just hard to hit. Aim small and still miss. :rotf: :rotf:
Fox :bow:

 

[Claude Mathis]

Just a little FYI, Mark Baker was hired by Gibson as a tech advisor and while teaching Mel how to shoot a flintlock, he kept saying that little phase, Mel liked it so much, he incorperated it into the movie. :thumbsup:

I recently asked Mark about that incident. Here is Mark's reply...

Yes, it is in essence true. I was not hired by Mel, but by the prop master, who was in charge of the weapons and thus the training. However, it was a phrase I used to teach Mel the difference between aiming for an entire British soldier and aiming at the criss-cross section of the double white shoulder straps in the center of the soldier's chest. Do you aim for the entire figure, or for a small part of that figure?

In brief, here is how it worked:

As part of our daily preparation, we shot at water bottles (16 ounce ones) and tried to hit the caps and not the bottles, at anywhere between 25 and 50 yards. Sometimes 70 yards with quart bottles. The bottles were full of water, and they would explode if you hit them in the body; or not explode, but just sit there, if the bullet hit the cap cleanly, just above the water line. It was a challenge.

During the tutoring sessions, I told him stories of the colonial riflemen shooting at British officers and hitting them at great distances. I explained to him that if you draw up quickly on a deer and just aim and fire and you miss, you will miss the entire deer; but, if you aim at the white spot on the neck, and miss that white spot, you will still hit the deer. You will still make the kill. It is the same way with aiming at a British soldier. These backwoodsmen were hunters first, and they had learned early in life to do just that. Aim at a small part of the animal, so that if they miss that small part, they will still hit the whole. It works for squirrels, rabbits, gongs, paper targets, enemies. If they just aimed at the entire deer, or soldier, and flinched, or hang-fired, they could draw off and miss the whole body of the target.

After giving illustrations of colonial marksmanship, and then practicing, I naturally put the lesson into an aphorism of "aim small, miss small." It was juxtaposed against "aim big, and miss big."

On the last day that we were together, Mel told me that he appreciated that saying and the concept stuck with him. He told me that he wanted to use it in the film, and he knew just the place for it. As a writer, my mind started racing, and I knew I had a hook for the article. But, I also knew that if the article came out after the film was released, folks might not believe me. I might be called a liar. The article came out with the July/August, which was mailed the last week of June. The film was released July 4th week, I believe. I timed it that way, so that the readers of Muzzleloader would read the article just before the film came out in the theatres.

 

[XXX]

I read the other responses. While I do not disagree with them in general, I think the expression stems from barebow archery shooting. Most firearms are aimed at a target with some type of sight. You either have a correct sight picture or you do not. In traditional barebow archery. The instinctive shot is made, or at least attempted, to where the archer is looking without the aid of a mechanical sight. This is hand eye co-ordination used in the same manner as a baseball picther. Doing this correctly, (and there are endless arguments on that) usually requires training the body to release the arrow when the eye is fixed on the target and the form of the draw is completed properly. The more focused the "spot" is on the target, the better the odds of hitting it instinctively with an arrow. That at least is the theory.

 

[Walks with fire]

I am kind of slow and deliberate in all that I do. I don't get excited about anything; and take my time no matter what I do. It kind of drives people who are always in a hurry nuts but I enjoy life at my pace.

My point is this; take your time and put a good shot on it, be it target or game. If you rush it you will not do as well. I play a lot of golf and the statement I always remember (not sure who made it though) "Miss em quick". My feeling is that it is best to let the sub-consious do it's work and stay out it's way. I like the saying "Aim small,hit small".

 

[Robert58]

I read the other responses. While I do not disagree with them in general, I think the expression stems from barebow archery shooting. Most firearms are aimed at a target with some type of sight. You either have a correct sight picture or you do not. In traditional barebow archery. The instinctive shot is made, or at least attempted, to where the archer is looking without the aid of a mechanical sight. This is hand eye co-ordination used in the same manner as a baseball picther. Doing this correctly, (and there are endless arguments on that) usually requires training the body to release the arrow when the eye is fixed on the target and the form of the draw is completed properly. The more focused the "spot" is on the target, the better the odds of hitting it instinctively with an arrow. That at least is the theory.

In target archery every target face has a bulls eye and a little circle in the center of the bull with an X in it. We don't aim at the bulls eye we aim at the X. As one of the posters on Archery Talk has in his signature, the bulls eye is only there to catch my arrow if I miss the X. Thats aim small, miss small. And we count the X's for a tie breaker.

Robert