How not to practice up for hunting season

[KirkD]

I went to the range today to do some more practicing for deer season, which opens in just over a week from now. This year the rifle I'm using is an original Winchester Model 53 chambered in 44 WCF (44-40) and made in 1928. It is a very nice, light little rifle with a 22" tapered nickel steel barrel and built on the Model 1892 action. Think of an 'extra light' 1892. Anyway, I've been practicing once per week using the free standing, offhand position with no elbows touching my body and at ranges of 100 yards and 50 yards. Things are going well and if I see a Whitetail deer at that range, it is as good as in the freezer. Next week, before I leave for up North, I'll pay two more visits to the range. This little rifle is feeling right at home.

Today, there were two fellows who arrived about the same time as me and they left at the same time as well. They were also getting ready for hunting season. The entirely of their 'getting ready' was to take several shots at 50 yards through a scope with their gun on a bench and the forearm on a padded rest. (Why anyone needs a scope for 50 yards is beyond me .... these were young fellows who could still see.) I thought they were just sighting in their gun before practicing without a rest and was very surprised to see them, after about 10 shots taken from the rest at 50 yards, pack up their stuff 'ready' for hunting season.

In my own experience, a bench rest is seldom handy when a Whitetail deer shows up, though sometimes I can rest my elbow on my knee or lean against a tree. If a fellow is going to practice for hunting, I really believe in practicing from a free standing, offhand position. Those young men left the range today not having a clue as to how they might actually shoot if they don't have a bench in the bush to shoot from. They might have got an education if they had tried at least one shot offhand, but they left satisfied that their gun is accurate. How they actually shoot with that gun without a bench and rest will have to wait until a deer shows up. That is how not to practice for hunting season.

[gamekeeper]

I feel sorry for any Deer they shoot at! Probably end up as a Coyote's dinner

[Tycer]

My Win 94 AE 360 Dan Wesson shoots 4" high and left @ 100yd when I shoot it from the bench. Prone, sitting and standing are all within the same poi.

[GoatGuy]

perhaps they were just checking to make sure that their scopes were still zeroed, after several months of closet time. Not my cup of tea, but I've seen worse at shooting ranges over the years.

[Borregos]

This is where shooting levergun silhouette pays dividends, great offhand practice

[deerwhacker444]

You don't need to watch out for those guys. You need to watch out for the ones that are just now digging the rifle out of the closet after a year of zero practice and think they're Gods Gift to the deer woods...

[jnyork]

Shooting off a bench may be fun and it may be shooting, but it has very little if anything to do with marksmanship. Sadly, many of today's shooters have never been exposed to anything BUT bench shooting.

[Ysabel Kid]

Good advice Kirk. When I lived up in Michigan the rifle line was about 5 miles south of our town. Each year we'd get a parade of so-called hunters up from Detroit. These guys would touch their gun once a year, and they were bound and determined to shoot something - anything. I don't even think most of them practiced from the bench. A lot of them shot at anything that moved. Really gave hunting and hunters a bad name...

[L_Kilkenny]

Heck, you think that's bad!!! We were getting our slug guns sighted a few years ago when a friend of a friend showed up to sight his in. He fired 2 shots, both hit 1 foot left. Everyone else took their turn and it came back around to this guy. He proceeded to put 3 shots centered on paper at 50 yards. I made a commet that he was lucky to get his adjustment down on the first try. His response was "I just aimed a foot right". No fooling, not a joke. Glad he hunts with a different group.

LK

[Modoc ED]

Heck, you think that's bad!!! We were getting our slug guns sighted a few years ago when a friend of a friend showed up to sight his in. He fired 2 shots, both hit 1 foot left. Everyone else took their turn and it came back around to this guy. He proceeded to put 3 shots centered on paper at 50 yards. I made a commet that he was lucky to get his adjustment down on the first try. His response was "I just aimed a foot right". No fooling, not a joke. Glad he hunts with a different group.

LK

What's wrong with that???? It's called "Hold-off"". Sometimes you can drive yourself crazy trying to make minute adjustments to iron sights. Now, I think a foot is a bit much to hold off but if it works for him -- great.

[Buck Elliott]

Don't be too hard on those young fellers. I've been known to show up at the range, just to make sure sights are still lined up like they oughta be, but that is NOT the extent of my shooting (or practice), not by a long shot. (pun sort of intended...)

At least those boys found out where the guns were slingin' their slugs, and that ain't at all bad.

I don't like to hang around the range too often, nor for too long at a time, because of some of the dim bulbs that show up there, out of the blue...

[AJMD429]

The best way, if possible, is (...once you sight in initially from the evil bench and sandbagged-rest... ) to get in the deer stand with your gun, and shoot from there. I'd put milk cartons out at various ranges, and shoot them from your stand. You'll not only learn your gun (and adjust the sights more to your real shooting hold), but you'll have a great feel for your field-of-fire at that particular stand.

If you don't have off-season access to the land (or don't want to spook the deer by practicing from your stand in season - which here in the midwest hasn't seemed to prevent deer from walking by that same stand a few hours or even minutes later), you could at least set the stand up somewhere during the off-season and that might be the most realistic practice, for 'stand' hunters, that is...

[AJMD429]

What's wrong with that???? It's called "Hold-off"". Sometimes you can drive yourself crazy trying to make minute adjustments to iron sights. Now, I think a foot is a bit much to hold off but if it works for him -- great.

True, I have some guns with fixed sights that I have to shoot using 'hold off' - and I've been outshot by many a geezer with an old rattletrap gun using 'hold off' while I was busy clicking my Williams FP Target or my scope knobs.

I'll admit though, that I'd rather use a ball-peen hammer if needed to 'adjust' the sight for windage, and just use the 'hold over' instead of 'hold off'...

[KirkD]

Don't be too hard on those young fellers. ...
At least those boys found out where the guns were slingin' their slugs, and that ain't at all bad. blue...

You are right, Buck. They at least know where their gun shoots.

[Rusty]

A buddy of mine is a R.O. at a local range. We get some laughs talking about some of the people that show up there and can't shoot.

He even had one guy show up and unload one of the foam 3-D targets you use to practice archery with. He was going to shoot at it with his rifle.

[El Chivo]

sounds like those guys have one of those whiz-bang guns that are within 3" out to infinity, no need to worry about trajectory or anything else but whether or not the screws are tight.

[ndcowboy]

Or maybe they don't shoot offhand at deer!
I don't do much offhand rifle shooting in practice, because I don't do much to any while hunting. I find something to lean on or I shoot in a laying position with a bipod. All these guys shooting off hand are what wound deer IMHO.

[rafter-7]

Kirk,

get on a leauge that shoots .22s @ 50 ft. for a score of 200 points its called light rifle or hunter class. Its very demanding of the shooter but fun. Trigger control,controlling the swirls of the muzzel and breathing. When I started shooting i scored in the 140s (first score) and now I am in the mid 180s / 200 Arjunky can shoot in the high 190s


any body can shoot of a bench now try offhand separates the men from the boys

^
7

[Kansas Ed]

I have something called splayed shoulder which unfortunately makes offhand shooting unreliable. I've had it for 25+ years and its due to an old injury. There is a very weak spot in the rotation of my shoulder which makes holding a rifle or handgun offhand very shaky. So I limit my shots on big game to rested shots only. Now on coyotes ...I'll shoot anyway I can

Ed

[KirkD]

Or maybe they don't shoot offhand at deer!
I don't do much offhand rifle shooting in practice, because I don't do much to any while hunting. I find something to lean on or I shoot in a laying position with a bipod. All these guys shooting off hand are what wound deer IMHO.

If I can lean on something, or rest my elbow on something, I'll definitely do it. I'd say just over half the deer I've harvested were taken in offhand shots because there was nothing to rest or lean on. I think you are right about a lot of deer being wounded by offhand shots, but I would say that those were offhand shots taken by fellows who had not practiced offhand shooting. When I talk about practicing, I mean shooting enough so that a fellow knows that he can put his shots into an 'x' -inch circle at 'y' yards. It does not necessarily mean that he's a good shot at 150 yards. It just means that he knows at what range he can keep all his shots in the vital area, be it 25 yards, 50 yards, or 200 yards, and he knows this information because he's practiced enough to know what he can do and what his limitations are. A fellow like that should be able to avoid wounding deer just as well as a fellow who is shooting from the rest. The main difference is that the fellow shooting from a rest will be able to likely make longer shots and still put them in the vital area. There is nothing wrong at all with using a rest or leaning on something while hunting. In fact, it is a smart thing to do no matter how good a shot a fellow may be. Anything to make that shot better is desirable when hunting.

[Hillbilly]

Laughs at YK.... what? you dont like the ORANGE ARMY?

The west side of Michigan gets the other battalion of those sound hunting idiots--from Illinois.

I lived out in Larkin Township... when opening day was midweek ... at least 30 guys with 7mm or bigger rifles would touch a round off at first light. I dont know how many saw a deer... but it sounded like Iwo Jima out there for about 3 minutes.

Jeff

[fordwannabe]

part of the problem is the gun clubs the one I belong to won't let you shoot off hand, bench only and it's not the only one like that around here...unfortunately. I have access to some fields so I can shoot off hand some, but it ain't always easy like when we were kids and didn't know they even made a thing called a rest. tom

[Buck Elliott]

The Jack Rabbit population of eastern Park County has suffered dearly from my off-hand shooting (with iron sights) over the years. But most importantly, my shooting has not suffered at all...

.22 WMR; .45 Colt; .45-70... All have accounted for their share of the flop-eared varmints.

You DON'T want to plop down on your belly in the snake-infested rocks & sagebrush of Oregon Basin.

[KirkD]

The Jack Rabbit ... .45-70... All have accounted for their share of the flop-eared varmints.

.45-70 on Jack Rabbits, you say! Reminds me of the time I shot a Snowshoe Hare with a .43 Mauser that I used to have ..... kills, cleans, and skins them all in a fraction of a second.