For context
I have heard my fair share of tall tales of how someone went up for their military service and they got noticed as a good shooter and got sent or at least invited to join the marksman course.
My question
But what I would like to know is if someone, let’s say in their late twenties to mid thirties was to be forced by some event of their life to pick up shooting as a means of survival, like hunting, would it be possible for that person to become a better than average shooter, admiting they had the time and resources to practice.
I am aware some individuals may have knack for some activity or skill or something alike it but shooting, in my understanding, is more about early introduction and constant practice than just inate skill.
I took a bunch of teenagers shooting last month, and most of them had never picked up a gun before. There were three boys that outshone the others as being much better shots straight away. And funny enough, they were not the boys I would have predicted. So, yes, people can have a knack for it.
That being said, better than average depends on what population of people you’re talking about. If you’re including all non-experienced shooters, then absolutely, with a little careful practice, most people can become decent shots in a pretty short amount of time.
Even if you include only gun owners that think they’re experienced, it’s still easy-ish to be better than average with focused practice. There are a lot of people that think going to the range once every six months and shooting 100 rounds of slow fire makes them good. Meanwhile, the people that are actually good do dryfire drills daily, and shoot thousands of rounds each month.
I’m solidly low-middle when it comes to shooting competitions like local PCSL, local USPSA, Brutality, Gun Run, etc. That probably puts me in the top 5% of gun owners though. (And I absolutely suck at long range shooting; I’ve done a little, but I don’t know my holds, because I’ve had very limited ability to shoot past 100y. I really struggle past 300y without a spotter, and past 500y it’s basically pure luck for me to hit a full-sized steel IPSC target.)