Learning Long-Range Shooting From the Pros

When precision rifle shooting competitions were in their infancy 15 years ago, the best instruction available came from military snipers. As the sport became more focused on a fast pace, and positional shooting with an array of props, shooting techniques evolved greatly. The change in shooting techniques has been so profound that contemporary precision rifle shooting is now influencing the military, law enforcement, and hunters. Recently, CS Tactical offered a Precision Rifle 1 course in my area that teaches these contemporary techniques. The course is led by MDT Team professional shooter Daniel Bertocchini, and CS Tactical owner Mike Cecil.

About the Course

The CS Tactical Precision Rifle 1 course is geared toward any shooter looking to develop long range skills. This includes casual rifle shooters, hunters, or those seeking to compete in precision rifle matches. Day 1 covers beginning to intermediate subjects. Day 2 covers intermediate to advanced subjects. Each day costs $350 to attend. I attended both days in the winter of 2024. Class size is limited to assure a low student-to-instructor ratio. The gear required for the course was simple, a scoped rifle, a rear support bag, and a minimum of 250 rounds of ammo. Targets were set out to 550 yards. The course was held at the Sacramento Valley Shooting Center in Ione, CA.

CS Tactical is an online store that caters to precision shooters, law enforcement, and military. It is in Sacramento, CA and carries high-end optics, firearms, and firearms accessories.

Daniel Bertocchini works at CS Tactical and is ranked 23 in the 2024 Precision Rifle Series. His shooting skills have earned him sponsorship from familiar names in the precision shooting arena, including Alpha Munitions, Benchmark Barrels, Bix’n Andy, CS Tactical, Hawkins Precision, Henderson Precision, Leupold, Lone Peak Arms, and MDT.

Before founding CS Tactical, Cecil was a professional competitive shooter. At the age of 18, he realized he had a talent for shooting when he entered his first Palma match in 1991 and won his class. Quickly, he was taken under the wing of well-known competitive shooters, joined a shooting team, and soon after made shooting part of his profession. His skills made him a highly sought-after instructor, and he has trained civilians, military, and law enforcement for 23 years.

Body Position and Fit

Day one started with body position and rifle setup. The old-school method of an angled body position with the buttstock in the shoulder has been replaced with squaring the shoulders and hips to the rifle, and the buttstock close to the center of the chest on the collar bone. The squared-up body position allows the rifle to recoil straight back and more of the body to absorb recoil forces. This applies whether prone or standing. The benefit is that the shooter can more easily spot impacts through the scope, and an angled body influences the rifle to recoil at an angle.

When it comes to fitting the rifle to your body, the course emphasized the word neutral. The problem with a traditional length of pull (LOP) and cheek-high piece is that it is optimized for one position. What Bertocchini recommends is a fit that is more forgiving in prone to standing shooting positions. This means a shorter LOP and cheek piece height. With LOP, the proper scope eye relief is where you see a little scope shadow or tunneling. With the cheek height, a neutral position allows you to see through the scope if your head is tilted up or down due to your shooting position. “Do not set the cheekpiece where it forces your head into a single position, you don’t want to be straining yourself,” Bertocchini warned.

Scope Setup

Bertocchini went onto explain that the scope is the most important tool. Set the reticle so that it is sharp and the parallax to align the reticle to the target. Bertocchini stressed, “if they reticle is not aligned, it will move around on the target and hence move your point of impact.” He recommends adjusting the ocular lens and parallax at maximum magnification because it provides more refined adjustment than at lower power.

Checking Rifle Fit

Bertocchini’s recommended rifle setup is how I have set up my match rifle for years. I asked him to check the fit in case I missed something. He noticed the ocular lens was dialed unusually far back and asked if it was crisp. I said it was. He looked over my position on the rifle and gave me a thumbs up.
Several new students had new optics and rifles and needed help setting them up. Those shooters received hands-on attention, including how to boresight their rifles. I loved that the instructors did not rush this critical part, the low student-to-teacher ratio of the class ensured we all started with properly set up rifles.

Natural Point of Aim

Body position and scope setup came together when Bertocchini began to explain natural point of aim. Standing behind his rifle, he demonstrated each aspect. “Natural point of aim is not influencing the rifle with your body. After you square your body to rifle, you want positive engagement with shoulder and some forward pressure that is repeatable in other positions,” he explained. “If you are fighting the rifle to stay on target, you don’t have a natural point of aim. The support hand and body manipulate the rifle. The trigger hand is solely to press the trigger and not influence the rifle, and your cheek should not apply a lot of pressure.”

To assess whether you have achieved a natural point of aim, get behind your rifle and place the reticle on the target. Close your eyes and then open them. If the reticle remains on the original target, your natural point of aim is good. If it shifts elsewhere, make body adjustments so you are not influencing the rifle.

The instructors went into details about the trigger and shooting hand. The trigger weight should be heavy enough so that you can apply some pressure with the finger pad without it going off. The thumb is floating or resting very lightly on the stock. The trigger press should be straight back with no side-to-side force. When breaking the shot, it should be on the bottom of the breathing cycle. If needed, take a few breaths to settle the body.
Cecil stressed the importance of follow-through. “Stay on rifle after the shot and maintain the integrity of position.” Once the trigger is pressed, keep it pressed and stay on the rifle while continuing to look through the scope. Let the rifle go through its recoil movement and watch your impact.

Ballistics

The second half of Day 1 started with ballistics and wind basics. These subjects can easily overwhelm a new shooter, so Bertocchini kept it focused on the basics. He provided the relevant information the students needed to set up data in a ballistic solver, and explained that Ballistic Coefficient is aerodynamic drag. G7 profiles are preferred because they more closely model today’s long-range bullet shapes. He touched on the effect of high winds on bullet elevation as well. With right twist barrels and at a certain wind speed, a left wind pushes a bullet up .1 mil, while a right wind pushes a bullet down .1 mil. The Coriolis Effect was also briefly explained. It would not have benefited the students to delve deeper.

A student asked if we should dial or hold for wind. “It depends because the wind changes frequently,” Bertocchini answered. If the wind is a constant value, he may dial it and then hold over the extra as he sees the wind change. He may simply hold over. This highlighted another aspect I liked about the instruction; nothing was dogmatic.

Time to Shoot

When it came time to zero our rifles, we shot them from a shooting table. I used a bipod for front support and a rear shooting bag. I started from a standing position and bent over to engage the rifle. Standing in this modified position showed the importance of squaring up to the rifle head to toe. It also makes you aware of how much you are pushing the rifle up, down, left, and right.

A student asked about loading a bipod. Loading a bipod is where you press your shoulder heavily into the buttstock to force the bipod into the shooting surface for better recoil management. Bertocchini recommended that shoulder pressure consistency is key no matter the shooting position. When shooting from other positions, you will not be applying heavy pressure.

I have always zeroed my rifle while seated, so I was curious how well I would shoot from a modified standing position. My first group was a tight cloverleaf and was .25 inches above my point of aim. With my second volley of shots, the group was spread out, which means I did not have a good natural point of aim. Refocusing myself brought the group to a tight cloverleaf again.

Once I was zeroed, I looked at the other student’s targets. By the scattered shots, I could tell a couple of the new shooters were struggling. Bertocchini and Cecil were right on top of it and guided them to a precise zero. It was cool hearing their kid-like cheers once they were dialed in. One shooter mentioned that it was the best he had ever shot.

We ended the day by entering data into our ballistic solvers and confirming the data. Steel targets were set at 220, 330, 425, and 550 yards. Target sizes were large and small out to 425. At 550 they included an extra small 5-inch target. My ballistic solver data for the 550-yard target called for 3.14 mils, I rounded up and dialed 3.2. It was .1 mil too high, so I wrote 3.1 for my 550-yard elevation.

Intermediate/Advanced Class

Day 2 started with a refresher on shooting fundamentals, ballistics, and wind reading. We then strung it all together with fun, timed shooting drills.
The first drill was a 21-Dot Drill originally developed by Frank Galli of Sniper’s Hide and Jacob Bynum of Rifles Only. The timed drill is shot prone at 100 yards and tests fundamentals, magazine change, target acquisition, and standing to prone shooting. Bertocchini left out shooting support side and instead doubled standing to prone. He also used a Modern-Day Sniper target with 1.5-inch circles instead of the standard 1 inch. Bertocchini explained how the four lines were run and then shot the drill.

This was the first time I shot this drill. I had 100% confidence in my rifle, but shooting on the clock causes sloppiness in the fundamentals. The line that took the most concentration was the last one. I started standing with my rifle and support bag in hand. When the buzzer sounded, I had 25 seconds to drop to a prone position and fire a single shot. This was repeated five times with each subsequent time getting shorter. On the fifth shot, we had 10 seconds, and with each shot I refined how I stood and where placed the rifle and bag on the ground. Overall, I felt that I pulled a few shots but shot it clean and finished the drill within the allotted time.

The spinner drill was fun; shoot the bottom plate to make the spinner spin once. The drill reinforces the importance of follow-through. It forces the shooter to stay on the gun while the target is swinging and press the trigger at the right time to make it spin one time. Shoot at the wrong time and you will stop it or miss the spinner. This drill perfectly applies to hunting. Many times, I have shot an animal that required a quick second or third pull of the trigger. Having good follow-through keeps the animal in the scope for a fast second shot.

The final timed drill was shooting a small and large target at each distance near to far. What made this tricky was that the 220- and 425-yards were far left of the 330- and 550-yard targets. Bertocchini stressed lifting the rifle to reposition toward the targets and keeping the body square, rather than pivoting the rifle on its spot and putting your body in an angled position to shoot.

This was another drill that helps train for hunting, as well as precision shooting matches. After you shot one distance, you had to locate the next targets using landmarks and orient your rifle towards them.

The day ended with whatever we wanted to work on. I clamped my rifle in the head of a Vortex Switchback tripod and ran the targets near to far. When I got to the extra-small 550-yard target, I was hitting it at will.

Summary

This is exactly what a rifle class should be. I’ve been to one too many classes where the lesson plan dictates the pace of the course. The consequence is that students who need more time don’t get it. Here, the instructors put the students first. Those who needed help weren’t rushed through the process. Those that didn’t need as much help, took the time to practice what had been taught.

The course laid a solid and clear foundation for the rifle and the shooter. Each element was a building block that was reinforced with fun drills. There were quite a few hunters in the class and Bertocchini would often explain how it applied to hunting. The techniques that are taught are valuable whether you want to shoot precision rifle matches, hunt, or understand long-range shooting. I highly recommend it to any rifle shooter.

Sound Off

Interested in rifle techniques? Want a recommendation for long-range or precision rifles?  Email your thoughts to gaeditor@outdoorsg.com with the subject line "Sound Off".

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