I never shot gallery or other formal rifle shooting games, but did a lot of offhand shooting starting with what may have been close to a million BBs before turning 14, then thousands of rounds, shooting rats in a dump, or woodchucks/ crows in fields (our rule was anything 100 yards or under must be offhand)...at that time we were shooting .30-06 rifles for deer hunting practice.
My hunting buddy was a formal Junior Rimfire shooter. He was very good, but often missed out on a kill because he couldn't shoot fast enough. It often drove me crazy because we swapped off after a kill and passed-up shots that he should have been able to take.
Turkey shoot matches helped me to improve my marksmanship, both offhand and prone at 50 and 100 yards, including some three-shot, rapid fire 50 yard shooting. By that time, I was using a .22-250 Rem and did well enough to mostly take a two-turkey limit home nearly every week.
Stance/hold for me was my natural posture for plinking, which was pretty darned good, but it wasn't my attempt at concentrating on my stance, but perhaps, concentration on the target and confident squeeze at the right time that set me apart. The rifle was more like part of my body, and as such, could make rapid, but accurate shots. Rat shooting in open-pit dumps was great training for hunting. We had to shoot fast as many shots were when rats were running on top of ground and others when they were sneaking up through piles of garbage.
BTW: Most of my teenage woodchuck and crow kills were with a bolt-action 30-06 hunting rifle with a 2.5X Weaver scope. That rifle shot about 1" groups, but I hardly ever shot it for groups. The next rifle was a .22-250 that was more accurate and easier on my shoulder when sighting-in. The cartridge didn't allow bouncing rounds into woodchucks, but taught me to only shoot when I could get the frangible bullets directly to the animal. After a while, my favorite turkey shoot venue said I couldn't use my .22-250 because it wasn't powerful enough and wasn't a "deer cartridge", even though I'd killed several deer with it.
Running deer matches were my favorite because they called for quick, accurate shots with various leads, depending on a target on rails that varied in speed, often gravity-propelled. There were fairly narrow "shooting lanes", so the shooter has to aim from a few inches to about a foot from where the hits count most. The last running deer shoots employed hunting cartridges and I used mild .270 Win rounds that would still group around an inch at 100 yards. There weren't many running deer match opportunities within 50 miles, so I didn't shoot more than about 5.
Hope this is helpful for you to understand how I got into "fast and kinda-fancy" rifle shooting. It all came together for me when I shot a running deer, left-handed from a self-made tree stand. I was so pumped, I just sat there for a few minutes and "drank from cup of delight".
JP
My hunting buddy was a formal Junior Rimfire shooter. He was very good, but often missed out on a kill because he couldn't shoot fast enough. It often drove me crazy because we swapped off after a kill and passed-up shots that he should have been able to take.
Turkey shoot matches helped me to improve my marksmanship, both offhand and prone at 50 and 100 yards, including some three-shot, rapid fire 50 yard shooting. By that time, I was using a .22-250 Rem and did well enough to mostly take a two-turkey limit home nearly every week.
Stance/hold for me was my natural posture for plinking, which was pretty darned good, but it wasn't my attempt at concentrating on my stance, but perhaps, concentration on the target and confident squeeze at the right time that set me apart. The rifle was more like part of my body, and as such, could make rapid, but accurate shots. Rat shooting in open-pit dumps was great training for hunting. We had to shoot fast as many shots were when rats were running on top of ground and others when they were sneaking up through piles of garbage.
BTW: Most of my teenage woodchuck and crow kills were with a bolt-action 30-06 hunting rifle with a 2.5X Weaver scope. That rifle shot about 1" groups, but I hardly ever shot it for groups. The next rifle was a .22-250 that was more accurate and easier on my shoulder when sighting-in. The cartridge didn't allow bouncing rounds into woodchucks, but taught me to only shoot when I could get the frangible bullets directly to the animal. After a while, my favorite turkey shoot venue said I couldn't use my .22-250 because it wasn't powerful enough and wasn't a "deer cartridge", even though I'd killed several deer with it.
Running deer matches were my favorite because they called for quick, accurate shots with various leads, depending on a target on rails that varied in speed, often gravity-propelled. There were fairly narrow "shooting lanes", so the shooter has to aim from a few inches to about a foot from where the hits count most. The last running deer shoots employed hunting cartridges and I used mild .270 Win rounds that would still group around an inch at 100 yards. There weren't many running deer match opportunities within 50 miles, so I didn't shoot more than about 5.
Hope this is helpful for you to understand how I got into "fast and kinda-fancy" rifle shooting. It all came together for me when I shot a running deer, left-handed from a self-made tree stand. I was so pumped, I just sat there for a few minutes and "drank from cup of delight".
JP
