according to my dad and my uncle ...i have something called 'instinctive shooting' ...something my grandpa(their father) had

i was 11 at the time on my uncle's farm

my grandparents on my dad's side died before i was born

I'm simply saying that shooting at a flying squirrel up in the air is a bit on the risky side , seeing how 22 rimfire can go 2.5 miles

ok, oldest bro and his friends took me upstate when i was 13..i was a scrawny kid ...skinny arms and such..bro tried to teach me to shoot with a 357 mag

had me hold it with both hands...barely hit the targets

targets were beer bottles and old fired shotgun shells

i said to him on the reload - "can i shoot it my way now"...he let me...i did 6 for 6 with right hand, then after reload, 6 for 6 with left hand

i was hitting the bottles and the shotgun shells

Probably from the hip too😏

at 25-50ft

Just me messing with ya bro

while wearing a scuba mask

Lol

they told me there was a swimming hole up there before we went up...turned out to be a skeeter pond

so no swimming for me

anyway...after i get done with all 12 shots..i turn to my bro and ask him if i could shoot one of his friends for picking on me on the trip to the place

both his friends dived into the ditch on the otherside of the truck

No shit , when I was in 10th grade had one of the Crossman 357 co2 guns
I shot a bat flying around in my backyard . My neighbor came out and said "good shot, it must have been a dingbat" lol

in the navy boot camp they had a target range u had to qualify to understand how to shoot basic..they basically just told u to fire the 45 at the target

anyway....my turn to shoot...i fire 1 round....missed the target, i turned to the instructor and said the gun was off

instructor marked me down as 'marksman'

turned out they were using under powered loads and the sights were off anyway....also they rigged the 45 to shoot 22

A conversion kit. My cuz has a colt ace I want bad from him. Big dollars these days

other reason why i got marked that was i knew how to use the gun..drop clip, re-insert clip, turn on and off safety, cock gun

the usual stuff a normal gun owner would know...even tho it was my first official time with a 45 colt

.45 is a good round

well fired a 357 mag as an early teen..so figured a 45 wouldn't be that hard as a late teen

thought the kickback was too low for the 45

turned out it was weakened rounds and lower cal

What are the rifle/pistol ranks other than marksman in the miltary?

Expert maybe?

Sofaking would know , miss that dude too

marksman, expert, sharpshooter, ...to name a few

sharpshooter req's rifle mastery

Well, Thad be me😉

anyway...after that 357 mag incident ...bros refused to take me to target practice since...even decades later...they considered it a waste of ammo...since i didn't need practice

but because of that natural skill..they wanted me in the army

but i didn't want to be in the army...i wanted tech skills so i opt'd for navy or airforce

Shooting is a deteriorating skill , you have to stay in practice. Different conditions, distances, calibers.

opposite for me...more i shoot, the worse i get