New Hunter Shooting Practice

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Wag482

Active Member
Joined
May 3, 2024
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31
Location
Indiana
Hey Guys, I am a fairly new shooter and trying to become a lot more proficient than I am currently.

The post on wind calls and using 1st and 2nd focal plane scopes I thought was great.

Are there any resources or courses that you guys would recommend to a new shooter to become better at shooting for hunting purposes.

I currently shoot a Tikka T3 Lite Stainless in 243 and am practicing with it as much as possible since I got it. We have access to places we can shoot out to 500+ yards for fun and would like to be proficient at 400 and in for hunting purposes and hunting situations. The place I hunt is western mountains and possible cross canyon shots on occasion. My buddy and I go hiking together and do rock hunting on occasion but would like to have a better foundation in general than I do currently.

Thanks in advance.
 
Practice, practice, practice. When you go out shooting take a note pad and write down conditions (wind, temp, lighting) and keep track of how your shots hit the target. Shoot at the distances you may hunt and further. If you think you may hunt out to 500 yds then practice out to 700 yds. Having the confidence to shoot 700 constantly will make you feel that shooting 500 yds is more of a walk in the park. And learn to read the wind. Wind will be a HUGE factor in making any shot. Learning how to read the speeds and how the wind will blow multiple directions from your barrel to your target.

Welcome from Central Florida
 
A thing I have had to work on and re-work on is control. Controlling my gun, my breathing, my nerves and trigger finger. Shooting at a rock or paper is no big deal. I am cool as a cucumber. Shooting at paper off a bench with the proper front and rear rest is almost boring. 500-1200 yards, read the wind, check your dope and bang.

Now, take the same wind, the same yardage, and replace the paper with a 180" white tail, that you have hunted all season, it is almost dark, he is chasing does around, you have 15 seconds at best, no good rests around, and have been hunting hard for 3 straight days...heart is pumping, you are excited, now can you make that shot. How to practice this? Only way I have gotten close to putting this into a more real scenario is when I practice I normally setup to shoot 250-400 yards. I then do a cold bore off the bench, with rests to ensure my cold bore zero is correct, then I jog down to the target, mark my hit and then jog back. Heart is pumping, I am breathing hard. I take the gun off the bench and use sticks or tripod, take a knee or sit, start my timer for 20 seconds, and try to calm my breathing and heart enough to get the reticle to stay on target and make the shot, then repeat procedure. I practice on the farm so I can go to the target after each shot. If on a range, you will need to jog in place or do other cardio to get the blood pumping. After many decades of hunting, I still get ramped up when I am about to shoot. This has been the only way for me to try to practice "real world" moment of the shoot techniques. Before I started this, I missed a couple of nice animals, but would rather miss than maim. Good luck, and if you are one of those guys that can stay calm under the pressure of the shot, my hat is off to you. But I am glad I am not, as if I ever lost the excitement, I think I would give it all up. I get jazzed up with the sight of ducks turning to the decoys, a dove coming my way, or even the sight of a fish rising to my fly. Put the king of the forest out in front of me after 5 days of driving and hunting and I am going to get ramped up. Great feeling.

Good luck. You will get lots of good ideas from this forum. try them and use what works for you.
 
Trigger time, trigger time, trigger time. I can't add much to what @Sealesniper or @Lee7588 posted. Shoot as much as possible. Shooting from the bench builds confidence in your ability with your rifle. Then get away from the bench and shoot targets at different ranges and sizes. I have access to state property, and use the rangefinder to distance targets, such as rocks and shoot them. Filling empty pop bottles with water and dropping them at different ranges makes for fun reactive targets. Don't forget to pick up your trash before leaving public lands. Welcome to the forum.
 
Wag482 said:
Hey Guys, I am a fairly new shooter and trying to become a lot more proficient than I am currently.

The post on wind calls and using 1st and 2nd focal plane scopes I thought was great.

Are there any resources or courses that you guys would recommend to a new shooter to become better at shooting for hunting purposes.

I currently shoot a Tikka T3 Lite Stainless in 243 and am practicing with it as much as possible since I got it. We have access to places we can shoot out to 500+ yards for fun and would like to be proficient at 400 and in for hunting purposes and hunting situations. The place I hunt is western mountains and possible cross canyon shots on occasion. My buddy and I go hiking together and do rock hunting on occasion but would like to have a better foundation in general than I do currently.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

We (wife and I) bought a pair of Ruger 77/22's, and tried to make them as close a twin as possible to our hunting rifles.

They were already similar in weight, we replaced the triggers for a much better trigger pull (close to that of our hunting rifles) cut her stock to the same LOP as her hunting rifle, scopes of similar power.

While these cannot replicate the recoil of our hunting rifles……all of the other shooting fundamentals are fairly closely replicated, from offhand, prone, sitting, sticks, ect. However……. "Doping" for wind can't be replicated with the 22's.

We can shoot a lot of 22 LR's far less expensively than our hunting rounds! A bullet drop chart for your cartridge can be figured, using a chronograph, the bullet BC, expected atmospheric conditions and elevation/temperatures, ect.

We can shoot 1400 rounds (Remington Bucket of bullets) for under $100. To shoot 1400 rounds from our hunting rifles would cost us in the neighborhood of $3K (if I did my math right), and use up a lot of very hard to obtain reloading components ……not to mention the time reloading.

Oh and……Welcome from North Central Wyoming! memtb
 
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Ol' Red said:
That is great practice. People laugh at me or think my cheese slid off of my cracker when I use a .300 Win Mag or .338 Win Mag on prairie dogs. But it is great real live practice and more fun than you can imagine.
Click to expand...

I'm with you 100% with your Prairie Dog practice, and called coyotes are also great.

As coyotes rarely pose very long for a shot….it's valuable practice for a "genuine, real life hunting scenario! You must do your ranging, wind doping, and shot set-up pretty quickly! 😉

The only negative is the cost of that practice…..We could only do a minimal amount of that kind of shooting! But, it sure is fun! 😁 memtb
 
memtb said:
I'm with you 100% with your Prairie Dog practice, and called coyotes are also great.

As coyotes rarely pose very long for a shot….it's valuable practice for a "genuine, real life hunting scenario! You must do your ranging, wind doping, and shot set-up pretty quickly! 😉

The only negative is the cost of that practice…..We could only do a minimal amount of that kind of shooting! But, it sure is fun! 😁 memtb
Click to expand...
After getting a load worked up and sighted in, I can't stop shooting. I can make holes in paper and measure groups, or hit a prairie dog and watch him fly three or five feet up and twenty feet backwards.
 

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