Maintaining the perishable

I'm a trained long range shooter and shoot various other types of firearms also; I've travelled around the place applying my skills in various situations from in the field to competing against other long range shooters. Some the applications in which I've used firearms have resulted in something being killed and many have not however no matter the application or situation I have taken it seriously and diligently applied myself to continually improve my skills with a view to increase hit-probability and overall accuracy, which brings heightened confidence.

With long range shooting there's many elements that come into play, I've done posts about them in the past so I'll not go into them all here, but gravity and wind are two of the most prevalent.

Coriolis effect, azimuth, target angle from the shooting position, aerodynamic jump, spin-drift, altitude, humidity, temperature, ammunition factors like neck tension, powder and primer type, projectile weight, rifle-system set-up, scope quality and turret tracking, target movement - speed and direction, barrel-twist, barrel temperature and harmonics, gyroscopic stability...it's a long list and there's more I've not mentioned. But here's the thing...there's a human behind the gun and even if the shooter takes every element into consideration but does not have the required personal skills impacts won't occur downrange, hit-probability will decline sharply and the job, be it killing or target shooting, will be rendered ineffective.

For coming on to thirty four years I've owned and operated firearms and have spent countless hours in the classroom and in the field building the skills and knowledge to do it well; much has been reliant upon those skills over the years and when it comes to despatching live targets I've always wanted to make sure I do it efficiently, effectively (and humanely). I know many don't like to think about killing preferring to think of it as something someone else does (or not think of it at all) but that doesn't negate the fact it happens every single day of the year, you'd not be eating and using animal products if it did not. Maybe you don't have to do it yourself but someone does and isn't it a little easier for you to think of knowing it's being done humanely and that the people with the right skills and morals are doing it?

Over the last five to six months I've allowed my long range shooting skills to diminish slightly simply as I've had other priorities. That doesn't mean I'm not a good shooter, only that I'm not as good as I need or want to be - it doesn't sit well with me and does not feel right; the lack of skills or discipline.

Maintaining the perishable...and effort

Instead of shooting three or four hundred long range rounds every month it's been twenty or thirty. Instead of working on my wind-calls, that is, judging wind direction, gusts and speed and spending time looking through my scope into the distance at the mirage and determining wind conditions from it (not an easy skill to master), I've been at cafés drinking coffee and...well, doing other things. It's unacceptable even though there's valid reasons which I'll not mention here. I had to get back to it.

Shooting, whether at long range with rifles or closer with handguns and shotguns is a perishable skills, don't use it and you'll lose it.

The knowledge is still up there in my noggin of course, but the muscle-memory fades, the unconscious competence diminishes and with very small margins of error involved the results one gains when sending projectiles down range reduce dramatically when the skill is not practiced.

With this in mind I've been on a mission to rebuild those skills back to the standards I require.

It's meant shooting a lot but also dry-firing to hone the shooting process, breathing and trigger-pull, and spending time reading and verifying wind calls plus working on ballistics data collection and review, that's called DOPE, (data on previous engagements). It all comes back quite well and quickly and I'm moving back into that unconsciously competent zone, being so comfortable that it all happens automatically, smoothly with less conscious thought which leaves my mind freer to focus on some of the other aspects that may be required from time to time. It's been fun to be back on it and to see how quickly the skills come back, years of training are ingrained I guess, although has taken a lot of time...considering I make my own ammunition it means I'm always in my workshop making it to keep up with shooting it...but it's felt good to get back to my usual standards.

Most skills are perishable and for one to operate at a high level effort and discipline is required. I work on most of my skills be it navigation, first aid, shooting skills, or even business-related skills but there's only so many hours in the day making it difficult at times. I feel it's important to me though and I don't like the thought of losing skills that have taken so much time and effort to acquire. I guess just need to determine if that effort is worth it and then act accordingly; we all probably do right?

I wonder how you folks go about maintaining the perishable skills you have and how much importance or effort you put into doing so. If you'd like to comment below, tell me about one or more of your perishable skills and explain how you work towards maintaining it at the desired or required level.