Was thinking about this article and The Hunger Games. I’ve seen many of the shots that Katniss made in The Hunger Games decried as “impossible” — shots that were actually rather easy for someone with her (or an Olympic archer’s) skill level.
Most of the shots she took were at close or huge objects — the only really difficult shot (for an expert archer) I saw her take was at the pheasant in flight at the end of the movie. And even that was close to her.
Just shows that those who have little to no expertise really have no idea just how far expertise can go.
In my own realm (though I am not comparatively as good as Katniss), I can and have made shots that I thought were easy that others have deemed impossible.
For instance, one time I was shooting with my dad. We were using a pistol (.357 revolver, forgot the brand) to blast at some bottles about 75 feet away. My dad was making fun of me because “I wasn’t hitting anything” and was “wasting him ammo!” I didn’t say a word. The bottles weren’t moving apparently from that distance when I shot at them, so it looked like nothing was happening.
Then we walked up to see our results and my dad noticed that I’d shot the cap/cap area off every single bottle. All six of mine.
“Damn, son. Damn,” was all my dad had to say about that. That was with a weapon I’d never fired before. With one I know, I’m far better.
Anyway, just because you can’t do something is no real gauge as to what others can do. Real experts can do things that seem positively superhuman.
About Katniss, in reality if she’d been bloodthirsty and gotten hold of any bow and arrows quickly in The Hunger Games, everyone would’ve been dead in about 10 seconds. Would’ve been a short film. That’s how overpowered with her chosen tool she was compared to the others there.
(I used to practice shooting with a really high-end pellet gun I saved for years to buy. And I practiced mainly by shooting the leaves off trees and bushes by the stem from 50 or so feet away. Though sometimes I’d shoot a smiley face in the leaf before I shot it off the bush.)
You must have excellent eyesight! Are you right or left eyed?
I flirt with the idea of getting a gun but then I realize that without my glasses, I can’t see the broad side of a barn. :/ (I assume excellent eyesight is necessary, not sufficient to snipe well.)
I shoot with my left eye.
I have good distance vision — beyond 7 or 8 feet. Up close, not as good. But for shooting it works. A lot of competition-level sharpshooters wear glasses, though, so if your glasses work well enough you’d be fine.
Mostly though it’s just practice. I fired probably hundreds of thousands of pellets and BBs as a kid, though often inferior pellet guns so I had to learn to predict how they shot (no sight adjustments on a $40 BB gun!). As well as of course gunpowder guns but not as often because ammo is expensive and we were mostly poor.
I don’t even really enjoy shooting any more. But still have the ability, a little rusted. These days I just enjoy shooting with my camera, though.