Natural point of aim: let your body point the gun

• Your natural point of aim is where the gun points when you settle into position and let go.
• Find it with your eyes closed: let the gun settle, open your eyes, and see where the sights are.
• If that is off your aiming point, move your body, never the gun alone: the feet for a pistol, the whole position around its pivot for a rifle.
• Check it before every shot or string; a position settles as you shoot.

Natural point of aim is where your gun points when you are in your shooting position and have let go of every muscle you do not need. Target Rifle Australia (TRA) defines it as the precise point the rifle aims at once you have taken your position and relaxed completely. Larry Quandahl, writing for NRA Family, calls it the best known and most important of the NRA’s elements of a shooting position.

The ISSF National Coach Course in rifle shooting, by Goran Maksimovic, calls it the zero point. For the pistol, Shooting Sports USA, an NRA journal, calls it the natural aiming area: no one holds a pistol without some movement, and with the right alignment the sights’ wobble area is centred on the target.

Why it matters: the pistol training guide of the US Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) says a proper body position points the pistol straight at the target, with no tendency to drift to either side.

The test, for pistol and rifle alike:

1. Build your position and aim at your aiming point once.
2. Close your eyes and let the gun settle where it wants to go: the USAMU’s guide lifts the pistol arm and lets it sink back, Shooting Sports USA circles the pistol and takes several breaths, Quandahl takes three deep breaths.
3. Open your eyes and read where the sights are at once, before you correct anything.
4. If they are off your aiming point, move your body, as the next section shows, and test again.

The hard part is step 3: as your eyes open, eye and hand want to steer the sights onto the target. Take the first picture you see; if you steered, close your eyes and start again. Settle with the eyes shut: a true natural point, the USAMU’s guide says, is not found with the eyes open.

Quandahl also has you raise or shoulder the gun, checked unloaded, with your eyes closed, so you cannot look through the sights and muscle it onto the target. Not everyone closes the eyes: in American Rifleman, Matt Robertson passes on sniper instructor John Simpson’s advice against it, as the pupils dilate and change how the eye perceives light. Robertson puts the sights on the target, relaxes, gives the body a little shimmy and watches where they settle.

Check on a range under its rules, or at home with the gun unloaded and checked, the ammunition out of the room and the muzzle in a safe direction. The test needs no trigger.

A correction made by moving the arm on its own is artificial, the USAMU’s guide says: after the recoil of a shot, the arm goes back to its old error. So it swings the whole body, from the feet to the shoulders and head, as one unit. TRA says the same of the rifle: muscle it onto the target with the upper body and you get uneven shots, a hold that trembles and, in the end, fatigue.

Every position has a pivot point, Quandahl writes, and you adjust around it. In a match, the coach course corrects the zero point with the position in most cases, not the rifle. Move a little at a time.

A pistol held in one hand has the stance and grip as its only support, as the CMP’s guide to junior pistol shooting says. The USAMU’s guide finds the natural position in steps. On a range, follow its rules; anywhere else, unload and check the pistol, take the ammunition out of the room and keep the muzzle in a safe direction.

1. Stand turned about 40 to 50 degrees from the target, and turn only your head to look at it.
2. Raise the arm to the target, close your eyes, lift the arm a foot or two above the horizontal and let it settle back, relaxed. Repeat once or twice.
3. Open your eyes. If the pistol has settled in the centre of the target, you have your natural position.
4. If it settled to one side, move your rear foot in the direction of the error: settled left of the target, rear foot to the left as you look downrange. Keep the body one unit and swing it by shifting the feet.
5. Check again after each move until no error is left.

The CMP’s junior guide starts with the feet and body turned 85 to 90 degrees from the target. Take either angle as a start; the test decides where your feet end up. When the sights settle high or low, Shooting Sports USA changes the foot position or another part of the stance.

The same test checks your grip. With the arm out and the eyes closed, the USAMU’s guide raises and lowers the arm, settles and looks: if the front and rear sights have come out of line, reposition the pistol in your hand, turning it slightly away from the error, and test again until they stay aligned with no help from the wrist or head.

The positions themselves are in Air rifle positions; here is how each moves its natural point of aim, for a right-handed shooter:

• Prone: the left elbow stays put. Gary Anderson’s booklet for the CMP lifts the body with the feet and legs and moves it sideways, opposite to the way the sights must move on the target. Moving the body forward lowers the zero point, the coach course says.
• Kneeling: the coach course turns the whole position around the centre of gravity of body and rifle, and moves the left shin for height. Quandahl pivots on the kneeling roll and starts height with the sling: tighter raises the rifle.
• Standing: Quandahl turns the whole position around a point between the feet, and changes height with the support hand on the fore-end or the width of the stance.

Breathing moves it up and down too, TRA notes; Breathing when shooting covers when in the breath to fire.

• Natural point of aim: where your relaxed body points the gun.
• Point of aim: where you hold the sights.
• Point of impact: where the shot strikes, in Jeff Johnston’s words in NRA Family.

Your body puts the first on the second; your sights join the second to the third. So with a 6 o’clock hold or lower, settle your natural point of aim under the black, where you hold: the CMP’s junior guide holds the whole arc of movement below the bull. The holds are in Sight picture.

Moving the group on the card is the sights’ work, as Reading your shot groups shows; pushing the gun toward where the shots should go gives the body the sights’ job.

• After the shot, the sights come back somewhere other than your aiming point. TRA wants the aim to return to the centre, and reads anywhere else as a natural point of aim that was not quite right; the coach course wants the rifle to fall back to the middle of the target.
• The gun drifts off the same way each time you hold, and you keep nudging it back.
• Shots wander as a string goes on, as the position settles. When a pistol’s zero seems to move, the USAMU’s guide checks position and grip before a bold change to the sights.
• In prone, the rifle comes back to one side of the middle after the recoil: the coach course blames the elbow’s position.

The USAMU’s guide checks the position before each shot or string; Quandahl checks and adjusts it all through a course of fire; Shooting Sports USA repeats the test now and then, as experience, posture and age can change your natural alignment.

• Make the check part of every shot: settle, eyes closed, open, look, adjust.
• Rebuild and check: step out of position, build it again, test with your eyes closed, and count how often the sights are on your aiming point as your eyes open.
• Quandahl’s one-shot drill. Fire one shot, get completely out of position, take it again and fire one more. If you truly know your position, he writes, your groups will be small and round.
• Keep your feet in place between shots. The USAMU’s guide rests seated without moving them, and suggests chalk marks if you fear you cannot find the same place again.

Shoot the live drills on a range under its rules. Do the dry versions with the gun unloaded and checked, the ammunition and pellets out of the room and the muzzle in a safe direction, and dry fire only if the maker’s manual allows it. Holding drills are in How to hold a gun steady and, for air rifle, Training at home.

Shoot a card before and after you change your stance: for each card you scan, Shooter shows where the shots landed and the group’s size, so you can compare them. What that says about your position is for you and your coach to judge.

Should my natural point of aim be on the centre or under the black?

On your aiming point, wherever that is. With a centre hold or a ring front sight, that is the middle; with a 6 o’clock hold or lower, it is under the black, where you hold the sights. Putting the shots in the centre of the card is the sights’ job.

Does natural point of aim matter with a pistol?

Yes. A pistol held in one hand has only the stance and grip to support it, so it drifts toward wherever the body points. The USAMU’s pistol guide and Shooting Sports USA both find it with the eyes closed and correct it with the stance, the USAMU’s guide never with the arm alone.

How often should I check my natural point of aim?

Before every shot or string, as the USAMU’s guide does, and again whenever the sights stop coming back to your aiming point: Quandahl expects a position to settle as you shoot. Now and then, Shooting Sports USA repeats the test as your posture and experience change.