Practice rifles

[Snowboy]

Do you primarily practice with your hunting rifles?

Do you use a small cartridge "trainer" for trigger time, fundamentals, better barrel life?

Most LR hunting rifles are barrel burners and while barrels are expendable, when you're shooting 100 rounds a month or so on a big boomer you're going to be doing load work up before hunting season every year...not even considering component costs...so how do you personally balance getting trigger time?

this is a bit of an open ended conversation I'm just interested in what y'all are doing, and figured this could be a good and educational discussion with many stuck inside and bored

Every rifle or shotgun I pick up is all practice.The model 52 Winchester is economical to shoot but hey I use dry fire ammo indoors whenever I get the itch too.

 

[sturner]

.308

 

[Coyote_Hunter]

I've long believed that any rifle I shoot is better than none and provides good practice regardless of cartridge.

 

[RH300UM]

I try not to discriminate and shoot them all.
Of course new additions in the stable get attention over the others.
But I have1 rifle that gets preference over all the others for trigger time.

 

[SHDeersniper]

Plus one to the comments about using something like 308 so you learn recoil management. I shoot a pile of 223 and it is more forgiving of poor fundamentals v heavier cartridges. Can let you get sloppy and not know it until you get back behind something heavier

 

[Tangent]

Plus one to the comments about using something like 308 so you learn recoil management. I shoot a pile of 223 and it is more forgiving of poor fundamentals v heavier cartridges. Can let you get sloppy and not know it until you get back behind something heavier

Bingo

Recoil is part of the deal if your goal is to be a proficient rifleman.

 

[johnnyk]

I do load development year round for several rifles. Cartridges like the .223 Rem and 6BR Norma are very accurate and somewhat cheap to run compared to the magnum's and get a lot of attention. They help keep my desires for "group therapy" subdued and keep me in good shooting form by my need to shoot smaller and smaller groups.

Still it's exciting when a new bullet or powder comes out that will possibly work in the 6.5-284Norma, .300WinMag or .270 Allen Mag. Loading and shooting for these seems to keep my mind focused on the upcoming hunting season, setting up for long shots and the fueling my desire to hunt.

 

[PNWdude67]

So, live fire time is very valuable no doubt. I love to train and shoot and am fortunate to be able to do a lot of it. That said, I dry fire more than anything and it really helps. If time and budget is tight try fitting some dry fire time into your practice. MAKE sure youre SAFE!

 

[300 whby]

I use 22 with target ammo at 200 mts in my back paddock, I've got the basics right but shooting at that range in any wind teaches you wind reading real good,, which is usually why you miss at longer range.(600 mts +). For hunting I use a 338 Edge, 300 Whby mag, 7mm rem mag... I can afford to burn a 100 rounds of 22 but not the others..(barrel life, cost ect)

 

[Radman]

Do you primarily practice with your hunting rifles?

Do you use a small cartridge "trainer" for trigger time, fundamentals, better barrel life?

Most LR hunting rifles are barrel burners and while barrels are expendable, when you're shooting 100 rounds a month or so on a big boomer you're going to be doing load work up before hunting season every year...not even considering component costs...so how do you personally balance getting trigger time?

this is a bit of an open ended conversation I'm just interested in what y'all are doing, and figured this could be a good and educational discussion with many stuck inside and bored

I shoot everything I have spread out over several weeks. There are rarely any surprises but when there is a surprise I usually learn something.