Field Shooting Practice

Yeah, I agree on prone for hunting. I generally find a tree limb or fence post, but for longer ranges how does a guy get a solid rear rest? Thats always one of my struggles.
I've always shied away from bipods and tripods because of the extra weight and the aversion to carrying "more stuff" but that may have to change to stretch my ranges.
As I said in a previous post, you are probably already carrying a pack of some kind and if you are hunting big game you have meat sacks or should, your pack makes a excellent front rest for prone and carrying your meat sacks rolled up in a cloth or nylon bag inside your pack makes a good rear rest, that's how my family and I do it here in N. Idaho.
 
$80 a day? My god, that's our yearly fee…
I know, it's ridiculous. I've only been a couple times to verify dope for a few loads out to 5-600 yards. If the drive wasn't so long I'd get a yearly membership but between career and kids/family I don't have the time to waste on driving right now.

This is the range I was referring to: https://arestrainingfacility.com/
 
As much as I like to see the small groups that are posted from those bench sessions, does anyone have pics and tips to share about shooting out in the field in hunting conditions?

Especially when the ranges get longer, I'd like to learn what you guys are doing for true precision in field conditions.

Anyone have any "secrets" they'd like to share?

Thanks in advance!
There is no real way to practice for a shooting situation that happens quickly and under unknown conditions in the field. One of the big things that I have found over the years is that whens shooting with a scoped rifle that the eye relief is different from each and every position. While the actual eye relief stays the same, your position dictates where your eye will rest dependent upon your cheek weld. This means that parallax comes into play during shooting in different positions. You will have to adjust your cheek or eye position to get a clear view without parallax influencing the shot. This takes time and many choose just to center the cross hairs and press the trigger without the proper alignment, which causes the bullet to go places it was never intended to go. I have all of my rifles set up for shooting on a bench. The eye/cheek position is optimized in this position. When I am out in the field I try as much as possible to get into a bench rest position, either prone with the rifle resting on a backpack or other handy device. I also practice shooting from a braced position using a tree or other object to help steady the rifle for the shot. I don't use shooting sticks, bipods or other gadgets that I have to carry along. I have watched hunting buddies who swear by these gadgets attempt to get the sticks, tripods or bipods set up for a shot only to watch the animal disappear while fumbling around with their shooting aids.

Here are a couple of videos that really do a good job of explaining parallax:





Another item that affects shooting is keeping the rifle oriented vertically. Next time you are at the range get into a bench rest or other position, I like the bench rest but braced against a solid object like a vertical support used on covered ranges. While looking through the scope slightly cant the rifle a bit left and right and watch what happens when the rifle varies from the vertical position. You will see your point of impact move drastically from where you think that the bullet will hit. This is especially important to those of us who shoot tactical scopes where we adjust the elevation for the range being shot. Any variation from vertical will not only cause the change in elevation you just programmed in, but it will also affect windage. It doesn't take much to end up with a clean miss on what was perceived to be a perfect shot.
 
Take up PRS, NRL, or NRL Hunter. NRL Hunter is the best if you're looking to practice for hunting, but also the most limited in terms of number of matches. Treat it as practice for hunting, remember your end goal, and worry about competing with yourself rather than beating the top shooters whos end goal is a good match score.
 
Ours is $35/yr, when you have a need for a bench.
The BLM shooting is free, but also free of benches.
My range is $80/year. An honestly I used to prefer shooting on blm but now there are more people out there so it gets difficult. If I had a spotter or two to keep watch that would be better. And my local organized range has some sort of competition every weekend so I either shoot during the week or wait until the dead of winter to use the range.
 
Might have been Cross Hairs. I've lost touch with that crew so not certain.
If they are retired LEO then maybe. The guy I talked to just moved here in the last few years. There was talk of me helping them out but we didn't link up prior to the class. Logistically I probably couldn't help much, if at all anyways.
 
Might have been Cross Hairs. I've lost touch with that crew so not certain.
I was just curious if you knew the same guys. It being a small world and all. I apologize to the OP for the hijack. carry on.
 
I was just curious if you knew the same guys. It being a small world and all. I apologize to the OP for the hijack. carry on.
Looked at their page. Didn't appear to be them. I think there are several who put on different classes. Cross Hairs and myself focus on hunter specific. Others will do PRS, tactical, sniper.... I've not been part of those. I used to shoot PRS with a lot of them tho. Anyway, we usually have some Game officers come in and talk about issues they've encountered it the field, give some guidance, and we focus on hunters and keep the intensity low.
 
Top