CFSC · firing techniques and procedures

Marksmanship Fundamentals

By Hunters Guide. Written to the firing techniques chapter of the Canadian Firearms Safety Course. Sources checked September 20, 2026.

Good marksmanship is a chain of small habits: a stable position, a natural point of aim, aligned sights, a still breath, a smooth trigger press, and follow-through. Break one link and the shot goes somewhere else.

The RCMP lists "firing techniques and procedures" as one of the topics the Canadian Firearms Safety Course covers, right alongside "safe handling and carry procedures". That pairing is deliberate. This page is the skill and the range habits, nothing else.

Here is the chain, in the order it runs on every shot.

1. Build a stable position, and use a rest if there is one.
2. Settle into your natural point of aim. Move your body, not the firearm.
3. Grip and stock weld, the same way every time.
4. Align the sights, then place them on the target.
5. Breathe out and press during the pause.
6. Follow through. Stay on the sights until the shot is gone.

Why stability is the foundation of every shot

A shooting position is the arrangement of your body and the firearm that holds the sights still while the trigger moves, and the four the course teaches are prone, sitting, kneeling and standing. Stability falls in exactly that order. The reason is simple physics: more of you touching the ground, and a lower centre of gravity, means less wobble.

Standing gets used most in the field and shot worst, because grass, deadfall and slope often rule out prone. Practise all four, and know your groups from each before an animal makes the choice for you.

How to use a rest in the field

A rest is anything solid that carries the weight of the firearm so your muscles don't have to: a tree, a pack, a rock, a fence post, shooting sticks, a bipod. Any position gets better with one. Standing with a good rest can beat kneeling without.

Two habits. Never rest the barrel itself on something hard, because the barrel bounces off it and the shot goes high. Rest the stock, the forend, or your hand between the forend and the support.

And pad it. A hat or a glove between wood and rock is enough. Start looking for the rest the moment you see the animal, not after you've raised the rifle.

What is natural point of aim?

Natural point of aim is where the sights settle when your body is relaxed in position and you're not steering the firearm with your muscles. If that spot isn't the target, you'll muscle the sights over, and muscles get tired, twitch, and pull the shot as the trigger breaks.

Finding it is quick. Get into position, aim, close your eyes, breathe out, open them. Wherever the sights sit now is your natural point of aim. Off target? Don't push the rifle. Shift your hips or your rear foot and check again, until the sights settle on the target by themselves.

How to hold the firearm: grip and stock weld

Grip and stock weld are the two contact points that make the firearm and your body behave as one unit. Grip is your hands on the stock, firm and the same every time, with the trigger finger free to move on its own. Stock weld is your cheek resting on the stock in the same spot every shot, so your eye lands behind the sights in the same place.

Consistency beats strength here. Squeeze too hard and you'll shake. Change your cheek position from shot to shot and your eye moves behind the scope, and the point of impact moves with it. Pull the stock into your shoulder pocket so it can't slap you, and keep your face down on it until the shot is gone.

Sight alignment and sight picture are not the same thing

Sight alignment is the relationship between your eye and the sights, and sight picture is that aligned set of sights placed on the target. The exam asks about them separately, so get them straight.

With open sights, alignment means the front post centred in the rear notch, tops level. With a scope, it means your eye centred behind the lens with no crescent of shadow at the edge. That's alignment, and it has nothing to do with the target yet.

Now place those aligned sights on the spot you want to hit. That's sight picture. Alignment errors are the ones that hurt, because they multiply with distance. A front post a hair off-centre is a miss at two hundred metres.

How does breathing affect the shot?

Breath control is timing the trigger press to the natural respiratory pause, the couple of seconds of stillness after you breathe out normally and before you breathe in again. Your chest rises and falls with each breath, and the muzzle rises and falls with it.

So breathe normally while you settle in. Exhale. Press during the pause. If the shot doesn't break in a few seconds, don't hold on. Breathe again and start over. Holding a full lungful of air makes you shake, blur and rush.

Why trigger control matters more than aim

Trigger control is a smooth, straight-back press of the trigger that doesn't disturb the sights, and it is the single most common thing that separates hitting from missing. Most missed shots at game are not aiming errors. They're flinches.

A flinch is your body bracing against recoil and noise before the shot, and it shoves the firearm at the instant the shot breaks. You'll never see it happen. The sights looked fine. The shot went low and left. Bad aim, by comparison, is a slow, visible, small mistake.

The fix is a press so gradual that the shot surprises you. Pad of the finger on the trigger, pressure building straight back, no idea exactly when it'll go. If you know the exact moment, you'll flinch at it.

Follow-through, and calling your shot

Follow-through is keeping everything exactly as it was, position, grip, cheek, sight picture and trigger held back, for a moment after the shot has left. The bullet is still in the barrel for a fraction of a second after the trigger breaks, and moving anything in that window moves the shot.

It also tells you where the shot went. Stay on the sights through the recoil and you'll remember the sight picture at the instant it broke, which is called calling the shot. Lifting your head to look is the classic way to throw one high.

Why dry fire is the cheapest training there is

Dry fire is practising the whole sequence, position, natural point of aim, sights, breath, press and follow-through, with a confirmed empty firearm and no ammunition anywhere near it. It costs nothing, it makes no noise, and it takes the recoil out of the equation so you can see your own flinch.

With no bang coming there's nothing to brace against, so any movement of the sights at the click is pure trigger error, and now you can see it. Ten minutes a few evenings a week does more than a box of ammunition on a bench.

Check the manual, because some designs want a snap cap. And point it somewhere safe every single time, because every firearm is loaded until you personally prove it isn't. Our page on ACTS and PROVE is the routine that comes before any of this.

How should you practise for the field?

Field practice means shooting at the distances you'll actually see game, from the positions you'll actually be in, wearing what you'll actually be wearing. A clean group from a bench at a hundred metres in a T-shirt tells you the rifle works. It doesn't tell you much about you.

So put on the bulky jacket and see where the stock now lands on your shoulder. Shoot kneeling off sticks. Shoot after a jog, when your heart's going.

Then find your honest range. That is the distance you can put shots in a vital-sized target nearly every time, cold, from a field position. That number is your limit, not the rifle's.

Before the session, run down the range day checklist: eye and hearing protection, targets, a rest, the tools for your scope mounts, and a notebook for your groups.

The range habits underneath all of this

Range habits are the handling rules that run underneath every shot, and the course teaches them as reflexes rather than rules to remember.

Muzzle in a safe direction always, even while you're explaining something to a friend. Treat every firearm as loaded, no matter who just told you it isn't. Action open and empty whenever you're not on the firing line and shooting, so anyone can see its condition at a glance. Finger off the trigger until the sights are on target.

And protect your eyes and ears, for every shot. Muzzle blast is an impulse loud enough to damage hearing permanently, and the harm is cumulative. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety puts it in capitals: "Hearing protectors must be used ALL THE TIME to get the full benefit." Eye protection stops ejected brass, gas and debris, and it's the cheapest piece of gear on the bench.

Every provincial hunter education course leans on the same fundamentals. B.C.'s CORE program, for one, lists "Firearm Safety" among its examination topics. Test yourself on the CFSC chapter with our firing techniques practice questions.

Questions about marksmanship

Which shooting position is the most stable?

Prone, lying flat with the firearm supported, because the most body contact with the ground and the lowest centre of gravity give the least movement. Sitting is next, then kneeling, then standing, which is the least stable and the hardest to shoot well from.

What is the difference between sight alignment and sight picture?

Sight alignment is the relationship between the front and rear sights, or the reticle and your eye, with nothing to do with the target. Sight picture is that aligned set of sights placed on the target. You can have perfect alignment on the wrong spot, and a perfect spot with crooked alignment, and both miss.

When should you press the trigger while breathing?

At the natural respiratory pause, the moment after you exhale normally and before the next breath begins. Your chest is still for a few seconds there. Holding a full breath makes you shake, and pressing mid-breath moves the sights.

Why does flinching cause more misses than bad aim?

Because a flinch moves the whole firearm at the instant the shot breaks, when nothing can correct it. Aiming errors are small and happen slowly enough to see. A flinch is large, fast and invisible to the person doing it. Dry fire is the cure.

Is dry-fire practice safe for the firearm?

For most modern centrefire firearms it is fine, and many rimfires and some others should use snap caps. Check the manual for your model. The safety of the person matters more: confirm it is unloaded, remove all ammunition from the room, and still point it somewhere safe.