That new piece of gear won’t make you better
Ok. I know what you’re thinking. You read that title coming from a guy who spends an inordinate amount of time in life testing newly released shooting equipment and think like that greta chick, “how dare you?” Hear me out. I will preface with this: equipment used for our love of long-range shooting and competing is constantly evolving and stretching the capabilities of our discipline. However, the gear itself is not what makes us better, and we need to stop making purchasing decisions as such. If you have bore with me this long, then I offer this up to you. There is a better way to spend your money, and a better strategy to employ when making gear decisions.
I will kick this off by stating that I’m not absolutely crazy. The fact of the matter is that better gear is always better. That’s just logic. I realize that. I always tell people to start shooting with the best set up that fits within their budget. It’s a heck of a lot faster and less frustrating to learn long-range on high quality gear. But It’s not a must. If a factory rifle and midgrade scope are what you can afford to learn on, then that’s a heck of a lot better than not learning at all. But this article isn’t about how we start. It’s about how we choose gear as we get better.
Early on in my shooting journey, I was a penny pincher who thought ‘eh I dont suck too bad, and I’m having fun.’ I’m talking box mag 308 and gen 1 PST in MOA, and that worked for my goals at the time. Then my competitive nature kicked in, and I way over-corrected thinking I could shorten my learning curve by treating money as no object. Sure, it worked at first. Vastly improved rifle and optics vastly improved my score. But I never settled. I never slowed down to figure out WHAT was actually working. Change projectiles. Change scopes. Change rear bags. Change triggers. And it took several months and more dollars than I care to admit, to realize that I was plateaued simply for the fact that I wasn’t actually learning the discipline. I was taking whatever small amount of natural skill I possessed, amplifying it with high end gear, but never actually refining my skills.
Like a drug addict, I would tell myself “man I wish I could settle on a set-up” and be on midway or snipers hide that night making my next purchase. Finally, though, I stopped for a while. Shot for fun shot for no pressure and shot the same set up for a longer duration. I started to realize I was picking up on the nuances of gear, of positions, of strategies. Why? Because there was at least one consistent item in my game, and that was the gear I held in my hand.
So here I am having told you my story without providing any resolution or plan of action. Why did I even write this piece? It’s to provide this piece of advice: when purchasing gear, set a goal for what part of your game you want to improve and ask yourself ‘how does this purchase improve my capabilities over what I currently have?’ Personal example. I shot 308 longer than I care to admit out of simple stubbornness. When I finally switched to 6.5CM, it seemingly helped so much that I switched to a 6mm much quicker than I probably should have. I’ve shot 6BR for a long time because I really couldn’t come up with a cartridge that hit on all points I wanted that also beat it in sheer wind and elevation. 6 creed? I just can’t do a sub 2K barrel life. 6.5 creed? Don’t want the recoil ( I like to watch bullet trace easily). 6 dasher? The speed gain doesn’t make fireforming worth it. Plus that’s hipster. Except now I have hit a point where I want something faster. Little faster, a lot faster, not important. Just faster.
I told a friend I want a 2k-2500rd barrel life, that was faster with heavier bullets, didn’t increase recoil, and fed from normal mags (all BR shooters understand). And here I land at something I am almost ashamed to admit: considering a 6GT. That is until, while doing some light reading, I read a post from a respected shooter who stated almost to the letter the exact same thoughts I expressed to my friend; and he was talking the 6GT. Here I sit a stubborn penny pincher, realizing I should listen to my own advice. But why am I making this purchase? Not because I’m trying to buy the next best piece of gear, but because I laid out a goal or endpoint of what I believe will help me take my next step, and then found the item/gear that seems to meet that need.
I’ve said before that a man should spend his hard-earned money how he dang well pleases. However, we should all be willing to take in other perspectives to help better refine our decision-making process. This process I have laid out is simply that: a perspective. Hopefully, it helps. Maybe it doesn’t. But It works for me. At the end of the day, it’s the Indian, not the arrow. That new piece of gear won’t make you better.
Written by POI Sr. Reviewer: Jose Gardner
Items shown in picture:
https://mcmillanusa.com/mcmillan-rifle-stocks/