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Field Shooting Practice

I really don't get to train much anymore so most of my shooting is just maintenance. It mainly consists of varmint or coyote hunting. If you could get into a good training class like BrentM stated that would help a lot. I got training from the Army and while training LE. But really most of the stuff I do now for hunting is self taught. Using shooting sticks with packs, shooting slung, shooting offhand, and shooting from barricades is most of the stuff I do. When I can shooting at moving targets is another thing I add. I'd concentrate on a position that you'd use the most and shoot from that position. Add shooting offhand or kneeling in case you cross game while walking to your hunting grounds.
 
I must admit that when I do any field shooting, I try to make it sort of like a bench setting. If it is light enough to lug around it goes. Tripods are the usual aid. Lacking that, any available support is used, like hay bales. The sitting position with a sling will work is nothing else is available - high enough to get above grass & weeds. I am real old & have no plans to scale 30 or more-degree slopes in thin air.

Clays make good targets but, on the condition, they must be bio-degradable & no beasts like cows are in the area that would eat the fragments and get sick. Busting up a bunch of midi size clays at varying ranges is good practice. Drop clays at various spots then determine distance with range finder on reflective target, license plate or bigger, back at shooting site(s). No bullet hole groups to measure with clays.

Save the box that has "Bio-Degradable" printed on it should any environmentally active individual(s) decide to be involved in your pleasant and harmless activity - smile & be nice. They might think the clays are made of black glass or plastic. Should bio-degradable targets be unacceptable leave nothing except your tracks and a few damp spots.

A used golf cart from a thrift store might be considered to transport a load of gear should motor vehicles be banned from the area. If any legal to shoot rodents are present, shoot the rodents.
 
Ol' Red said:
I like to go to an open area locally on public land. I prop clay pigeons on small rocks scattered over as long a distance as possible. Then using the range finder to distance the pigeons, shatter them. Shooting is done from sitting or standing with shooting sticks. It's fun and you can see hits without having to gather targets at the end of the shooting session.
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Excellent idea!
 
BrentM said:
By the end of day 2 I focus the students on first round impacts under some time constraints and stress to see if they can still engage with high levels of accuracy.
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Obviously, this is the primary goal- consistent first round hits.

I'd like to take a long range shooting class at some point, probably in a few years when I retire.
Where do you do your classes?
 
MtPockets said:
Ours is $35/yr, when you have a need for a bench.
The BLM shooting is free, but also free of benches.
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We have one range that's $40-$50 a year for just basic benches. And another one for $80 that's gated (the cheap range is sketchy), has amenities as well as pistol rifle shotgun and archery ranges, and steel out to 350 yards which is nice. BLM is always free, but I find by the time I get set up to load test on blm ground I've wasted half a day between driving and setup
 
X2 on dry firing. I developed a flinch shooting 150 gr. of 777 powder behind 400 grain bullets in my muzzleloader. I put a piece of plastic tubing over the nippel to dry fire. I quit shooting 150 gr. of powder.

For my centerfire rifles I make a dummy round and use the eraser cap from a Pentel mechanical pencil to cut a pencil eraser. The cut piece fits nicely into a large rifle primer pocket.

In all of my years of hunting, I've probably only been able to shoot prone about 4 times, and off a rock a few times. Usually the grass is too tall and the rocks too small.

I use shooting sticks, or a light tripod. When I was a bit more limber, I could put my knee out perpendicular to the rifle and rest the butt of the rifle on my knee. It was almost as solid as off the bench. But, my longest shots have been 340 yards.
 
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.
 
MtPockets said:
Obviously, this is the primary goal- consistent first round hits.

I'd like to take a long range shooting class at some point, probably in a few years when I retire.
Where do you do your classes?
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Southwest Idaho, near-ish Boise. My neighbor has a mountain ranch we use for the course. Usually students stay in Cascade, beautiful country.
 
I've found as long as I breath out, press the trigger, and follow through with my brain still trying to see the crosshair when the shot breaks, I hit more than I miss when shooting hasty or field positions. Also got used to "shooting the wobble". One can't realistically expect the cross hairs to settle as much positional shooting as they do bagged and bipod mode!
 

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