Slow Prone
For many years this was such a frustrating part of shooting. I would actually do fairly well at the 200 yard line but once I laid down the problems would start. I couldn't even stay competitive with the other shooters at 600 because I would be shooting some 10's and then a 7. Scores would be in the upper 180s or the lower 190s even at the protected ranges I normally shoot at. It wasn't until about 2003-2004 when my scores became better and it wasn't until 2005 when they became much more consistent.
To improve my scores I wanted to see what I was actually shooting at. So I used the Noptel (an electronic trainer) in prone and started dry-firing at the 600 yard target. Because of my inconsistency I thought that my hold was the size of the aiming black. It turned out that, at rest, my hold was actually pretty good. Below is a screen shot of my prone hold The blue, yellow, and red traces represent three seconds of holding before the shot. The gray trace is one second after the shot has already gone.
Three seconds of hold in slow fire prone
When I started seeing traces of this size I knew that my hold wasn't the problem. Neither was my trigger control since it was difficult to consciously get the trace to leave the 10-ring. The problem was where I was aiming. At times I would be in the 10-ring and other times I'd let the sights wander out.
To improve my aiming I went to an eye doctor for the first eye exam in my life. He told me I had astigmatism. To correct this I got some Junkers shooting glasses. Once I started wearing them it made seeing the front sight consistently a little bit easier but it wasn't a huge breakthrough.
I feel that anybody can shoot good scores in slow fire prone provided they just do two things:
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Get a relaxed, comfortable position with a firm grip on the rifle with the trigger hand.
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Focus on the front sight
A tensed position will make it so much harder to shoot good shots even if you are focusing on the front sight. When you tense the muscles that are holding the rifle it is like trying to balance yourself on a narrow beam. To stay balanced you have to exert tension first in one direction then another. Try as you might, you will not be able to hold this tension the same for each shot and the rifle will fall out of balance. That is why you are much better off relaxing the muscles and letting something else (like bones and the sling) support the rifle.
Getting a relaxed position can (and should) be done before you even go out shooting. Start at home by laying down in position with the rifle pointing at some reference point. Don't worry about aiming anywhere in particular, just get comfortable and look through the sights. Look at the reference point through the sights. When you feel you're settled in, start relaxing the muscles in your supporting arm. Start with the tips of your fingers and concentrate on relaxing these muscles. Then work your way back into your hand, wrist, forearm, bicep & tricep, and shoulder. At each muscle group think about whether these are tense or not. Actually think about relaxing. As you go from muscle to muscle keep looking through the sights at your reference point. Do the sights dip lower and lower as you relax those muscles? If so then your old position had tension built into it.
Once you are relaxed, adjust the sling and the way you hold the rifle to get the sights back to where you are aiming. Practice these adjustments so you can make the same corrections to fine tune your natural point of aim. Regardless of whether your firing point is lumpy or sloped, your position should still be relaxed while pointing at the target.
When you are ready to shoot slow-prone you can get into your relaxed position in the preparation period. If you need more time than that, by all means take it. You are much better off spending the extra time getting that position at the beginning than to try to reacquire it before each shot.
Related to the position is the grip with the trigger hand on the rifle. This should be firm. A loose grip will lead to bad shots and bigger groups.
Once you have your relaxed, comfortable position you can begin shooting and concentrating on the second part of the prone equation: focusing on the front sight. I've been hearing the mantra to "focus on the front sight" since I began shooting. Since that time I thought that I knew what it meant and what I should be doing. In reality, I didn't really understand it until much later in my shooting career.
I believe that the difference between focusing on the front sight and not is the detail that you see. One time someone had asked me what I see when I focus on the front sight. I instinctively began to mime the sides of the front sight by moving my hands about 24" apart. What I realized I was doing was describing my subconscious and how my mind sees the front sight. Not as a tiny sliver of black but as a wide slab that could be broken up into sections because it was so obtrusive. This detail is what tells you that your focus is truly on the front sight.
Even if you can see detail on the front sight you still have to contain your focus to a limited area of the post. That area is the top edge. It's this upper border that you must see in absolute clarity. Once this happens you can place the target wherever you want in relation to that post, but you must keep that top edge clear and black. Your focus on the post should create a difference in contrast with the target that allows you to place the sighting black in the appropriate place.