Anecdote.
I used to shoot rifles with my wife's uncle. A very kind man and a WWII B-24 pilot. I looked up to him.
He lived in wheat farming country and would shoot "varmits" (ground hogs) which eat wheat. It was considered a beneficial activity.
Anyway Loyd knew I was an animal lover so he filled juice bottles with water and red food coloring and taped photocopies of groundhogs to them. At 300 yards they erupted with a spray of red, clearly showing we hit our target. Much easier than using the spotting scope to find a hole in a paper target. I never considered the aquagophers "creepy".
Marksman is generally used to refer to an highly skilled or expert "shooter", a term I'm comfortable with.