Spotting your shot

[Rich Coyle]

JE,
I hear people all the time say the rifle going off should surprise you, but negligent or accidental discharge is a little extreme!

Exactly!

 

[yobuck]

It may go without saying but for some reason I see orange on the other canyon slope fairly often??

Id be worried about that, because theres a good chance they are not seeing you very well, and not much else either. Your right and they are wrong with the place they chose to be, but chances are none of that even registered.

 

[J E Custom]

JE,
I hear people all the time say the rifle going off should surprise you, but negligent or accidental discharge is a little extreme!

That is exactly right !!
It should surprise you but with good trigger control. If it does surprise you, it is easy to call your shot. If it doesn't surprise you, you are anticipating the the trigger and nothing good comes from it. Ideally,
the trigger control is good enough that you continue adding pressure
to the trigger until it supersizes you without altering site picture or thinking about when the trigger will break. To little trigger weight will produce the same thing that happened to me. To much trigger pull and you will anticipate the trigger pull. so each person has to decide what is right for him. I trained with 4 to 6 pounds triggers so 2 pounds seems light. but for hunting it is perfect for me. Obviously, 7 oz was to light for me while hunting.

Trigger control is one of the hardest things to master and takes practice. Simply making the trigger pull lighter treats the symptoms
not the problem.

J E CUSTOM

 

[yobuck]

We certainly can't prepare for every possible scenario but more often than not when we're hunting at long range the target is going to be pretty well if not perfectly stationary so in most circumstances it will work fine.

Now, during the rut anything can happen but who among us limits their hunting solely to the rut anyhow?

Well if theres a 2 week season, and the rut is happening, what choice is there?
As for calling your own shots, that might work (sometime) but other times it wont, especially at the longer distances in mountainous terrain with varying wind patterns, and even more so if trees are involved.
Regardless of ones ability, that all is meaningless after the bullet exits the muzzle. Even at 1000 yds the bullet has arrived almost as fast as you can blink. So not much time to recover from recoil and spot a hit on your own. Add 6" of snow and you probably wont see it, and maybe a spotter wont either. And then the tree branches.
I mean I just never miss these kind of shots, and I know my hold and follow thru were perfect as usual.
But friend, you just did. lol

 

[Rich Coyle]

yobuck,
I don't think you get calling your shot.

 

[WildRose]

Off topic, but worth noting again. I shoot 100% suppressed, but still wear hearing protection all the time, even when hunting. With a muzzle brake I would wear foam plugs AND muffs, with my suppressor I wear the molded in ear style of plugs that you don't even know are there.

On the topic, the art of calling your shots is a great skill to have. When I shoot competitions and get in a "zen mode" of finding the right blend of time management and good fundamentals, I can call my shots with a surprising amount of consistency. I find my fundamentals tend to be lacking when I get in a hurry. Kind of a slow is smooth, smooth is fast type deal. In hunting, I feel I can slow the situation down enough If I make a good stalk and the animal has no clue I am there. Then I just really concentrate on that tiny spot of hair and make it a point to watch the bullet impact the animal.

"There's always time to make a good shot". When we hurry things go downhill at an exponential rate.

 

[WildRose]

Well if theres a 2 week season, and the rut is happening, what choice is there?
As for calling your own shots, that might work (sometime) but other times it wont, especially at the longer distances in mountainous terrain with varying wind patterns, and even more so if trees are involved.
Regardless of ones ability, that all is meaningless after the bullet exits the muzzle. Even at 1000 yds the bullet has arrived almost as fast as you can blink. So not much time to recover from recoil and spot a hit on your own. Add 6" of snow and you probably wont see it, and maybe a spotter wont either. And then the tree branches.
I mean I just never miss these kind of shots, and I know my hold and follow thru were perfect as usual.
But friend, you just did. lol

If you can't spot your own hits at a thousand yards you're dong something consistently wrong or need better equipment.

If you don't have full confidence in your POI you never should have pulled the trigger to start with.

If you don't know you've made a good shot when you pull the trigger, you're guessing, not shooting.

 

[TG-5150]

If you can't spot your own hits at a thousand yards you're dong something consistently wrong or need better equipment.

If you don't have full confidence in your POI you never should have pulled the trigger to start with.

If you don't know you've made a good shot when you pull the trigger, you're guessing, not shooting.

WildRose, non of this is ment towards you,
At a grand, few of us have the ability, from breathing/trigger control to quality/ cartridge to optics deviation. Let alone all the things that go into reloading or learning true match grade factory ammunition's.
Quality of optics chosen by my personal wallet's availability chooses my range. This will change in time bu5 for now, 700 ish is good enough. And thats under perfect conditions for the scope I currently run.
Some of us need to be realistic about our absolute abilities, and not just the purchased equipment. Just cause you can afford it doesn't give ya the right to light the fireworks.

 

[WildRose]

WildRose, non of this is ment towards you,
At a grand, few of us have the ability, from breathing/trigger control to quality/ cartridge to optics deviation. Let alone all the things that go into reloading or learning true match grade factory ammunition's.
Quality of optics chosen by my personal wallet's availability chooses my range. This will change in time bu5 for now, 700 ish is good enough. And thats under perfect conditions for the scope I currently run.
Some of us need to be realistic about our absolute abilities, and not just the purchased equipment. Just cause you can afford it doesn't give ya the right to light the fireworks.

No offense at all, well said.

None of us should even attempt to exceed our known capabilities when shooting at game. That's what steel and paper are for.

 

[TG-5150]

I'm just learning all this stuff and having great fun. I've always been pretty capable out to 550-600 yards until joining this site.
Pretty capable= sometimes chit went wrong. Unless someone is a keyboard warrior or an outright liar they would have to admit things don't always go according to your plans.
Now= I have learned more about e.d and s.d., bla bla bla. Which has tightened my groups, made me more contentious at the trigger and more.
Calling my shot or "spotting it" has become easier or maybe more conscientious since joining this forum, and I thank all who have made me a better shooter. Thanks for your input.
TG

 

[yobuck]

No offense at all, well said.

None of us should even attempt to exceed our known capabilities when shooting at game. That's what steel and paper are for.

Well no offence intended on this end either.
But over about 50 years ive known and hunted with some very good target shooters. A couple of them 1000 yd record holders. At least where and how we hunt, that distinction actually means very little as for hunting success.
Probably half if we had kept records, of the bucks killed at our long range bucks only camp over the years have been taken by young kids or inexperienced adults with zero target shooting experience. I could care less about other opinions, those are the absolute facts, and there are many other camps in that region who would say the same if they were asked.
Anyone having the ability to shoot a 1" group consistently at 100 yds, can kill a deer at long range using our system of shooting from a portable bench and using an experienced spotter. The very first time shooting long range will see those type shooters hitting small rocks at distances they never dreamed they could.
Those choosing to use other methods is of their own choosing, but those are the ones we choose, which work very well in that type terrain.
And you know what, many PA hunters hunt other places also, and they work just as well there.