I ride motorcycles, and something I say a lot, is that I'm not capable of using that machine to it's fullest potential. Every time I ride, is a learning experience, and I do get better year over year. I see this is the case with my rifles as well. Before I purchased my first rifle, I figured shooting single hole groups would be a breeze. Little did I know, that in reality, there are so many factors that go into precision shooting, that I would become obsessed with the one thing I thought would be so easy. We are misguided by TV and movies into thinking shooting is easy and accurate.
I suspect a lot of people try to downplay their role in shooting accurately, especially when I hear things like "it's cheap ammo, it's the wind, that [insert firearm in question] is for hunting not target shooting, or it's a cheap rifle." I'd be willing to argue that for the vast majority of us, it is in fact our technique that is the cause of our lack of precision.
On my last outing to the range, I focused on body positioning, and it's effects. Just a simple change to the location of my elbow on the bench had an effect on my groups. Something I have neglected to pay attention to (and I suspect most of us do the same), is to examine how our rifle has moved AFTER the shot has been fired. Is the rifle always moving the same way? I think this analysis is the key to improving our groupings.
I noticed that placing my elbow further outward on the bench resulted in less sideways motion of the rifle after the shot. I believe that this change in position allowed the rifle to move more directly rearward, as opposed to being pivoted to the side, as my arm/elbow acted as a lever.
I often hear people blaming stray shots to the right (I am right handed) as being a trigger control issue (ie jerking the trigger), but I know in my case this is not the cause. I'm extremely careful to use pressure to gently squeeze the trigger back, and during dry firing, my rifle does not move a peep during this process. Examining the effect of recoil (even the small recoil of the 22LR) I began to see how my arm pivoting at the elbow would absolutely cause the movement in the barrel that cause these 'off to the right' shots. I feel like I learned something very important this last time out to the range.
I'd like to thank Germán Salazar over at 'The Rifleman's Journal' for his advice recently.
http://riflemansjournal.blogspot.com/ His advice prompted me to examine my body and it's effect on the rifle, beyond the trigger control and controlled breathing techniques.
