We were once called "A nation of riflemen." I haven't heard that in quite a while. I've always been an accuracy nut of sorts, I guess, because when I was a kid, I quickly learned that it was a lot more satisfying to hit what I was shooting at than just throwing a bullet in the general direction of the target. Then I tried to get speedier in my ability to deliver a bullet to the target. I had some degree of success in both, but time constraints drew the process out a bit. I've never been the fastest or most accurate shot around, but I did at least get quick and accurate enough to never be embarrassed too badly, even with the best shots I've been able to find.
Since we casters can shoot so much more for a given amount of outlay, we are in a rather unique position to really get as good as our abilities will allow, but the methods we use to get better also matter, and in some ways determine just how good we can wind up being.
My question to you, and especially to you newbies here, is whether you're using the economy of cast to really apply yourself to getting to be better shots, and if so, how you're going about doing that. There's a sort of generalized ethic in our culture today that all that's necessary is to just "be safe" (which is ALWAYS important, of course) and just keep shooting and we'll get "good enough." I've never been satisfied with that, and always kept thinking that I wanted to be as sure as I could that I could get that fleeting shot at a quickly departing whitetail or squirrel or whatever, and in a SD situation, that I'd be the first with a good center hit.
When I started wearing a gun for my job, I took it seriously, and that spurred me to do some serious practicing down on the lower 40 at multiple targets at unknown but likely ranges, and I'd try to shoot both fast and accurately, and get the gun out of the holster as quickly as I could without shooting myself in the butt or knee or leg. That last part was the most daunting of the lot, but with good, smooth moves and decent judgment, I still have all my body parts intact, and got to be pretty decent, and fairly fast, but more importantly (maybe?) I got to be pretty darned accurate, even in unaimed fire. That made me feel a lot better, and enabled me to enter possibly dangerous situations with a good deal of assurance I'd come out of it OK. That's no small thing sometimes, too!
So what are you guys, particularly you newer casters, doing to get really good with your guns?