Okay Folks,
I'm practicing with my 375 now, rifle is sighted in for 1&1/2 inch high at 100 yards. I'm practicing shooting off sticks made from bamboo and sweeper O-ring. What an eye-opener! When I'm shooting off the bench I can easily shoot groups that can be covered by a quarter but off the sticks, not even close.
I have several hundred acres out in a pretty un-populated area to play in so I set up kind of a walk-thru rifle range. I originally planned using 1 quart oil containers for 50-ish yard shots, 2 liter pop bottles around 100 and 1 qallon milk jugs out to 200 or so. What I found out is plastic doesn't work. I needed something that when I hit the can it would move so I knew I hit it. The plastic jugs just get a hole poked thru. So now I'm going to use coffee cans, they swing or move when you hit them.
What I was wondering was what are some of the realistic practicing methods some of you folks are using. I'm using a couple stipulations. #1-Has to be re-useasble so I'm not setting targets up all the time. #2-I have to be able to tell if I hit the target from 50 yards and out so paper-like targets won't work#3-It has to be safe, even though I'm way out in the country I won't take chances with a 300 grain ricochet. Thanks in advance
Joe

I made some metallic siloutte (sp) 1/2 thk steel targets about 1 foot in diameter and set them at various distances.....the sound of smacking them was clear even at 300 yards.

Shooting from sticks is a must.....I wish I'd done a lot more of it.....the places I hunted required the sticks as everything to rest the gun on was thorny as hell,,,,,I couldn't get close to a tree to rest the gun!!!

I like to shoot coyotes, etc. with the .375, .416 ubtil I'm confident from about all field positions. Other than that, it looks like you're on a good practice program now. My other main thing is shooting clay pigeons offhand at 25, 50, and 100 yards and from sitting position as well, although I couldn't use it much in Africa.

What about balloons? You can set up several at each "station" (so you don't have to set up targets for each session). Cheap and you know when you hit them.

Regards,

Terry

Terry,

Great idea. Get helium ones and they'll move about in the breeze and you'll get some moving target practice. Get multi-colored ones and have a friend call out colors to practice target acquisition.

-Steve

Balloons are fun targets for a bow as well

Get the WaterBalloon size ones, they are smaller.

goosejoe,

Fill those jugs with water, and there will never be a question if they were hit. Only problem is, they are one time use only!! It's pretty darn easy to come by plastic containers if you get your friends involved!

BOWHUNR

"What about balloons? You can set up several at each "station" (so you don't have to set up targets for each session). Cheap and you know when you hit them.

Regards,

Terry"


What about baboons!!!

urdubob

Ballons on a tomato stake is exactly how I'm going to get my wife to practice (and myself) for this years trip. It is more fun for a beginner and she can learn to work the bolt and shoot again if she misses(or hits). I'll set them up from 25 to 200 yards and have her shoot offhand at close ballons, sitting , kneeling and off the sticks. A light load with a 100 gr HP in her 7mm-08 should get her good and familiar with the gun. Substitute a heavier X bullet and she'll get that kudu shes been dreaming about.

Sometimes folks miss that preparing for safari is a big part of the fun. Your walk through range sounds perfect.

Break down and buy a set of Stoney Point sticks. Get the tripod model. I used them in RSA, light, steady, and not to expensive. If you PH doesn't have them, then you can use your own.

With your criteria, ballons are the way to go. I used paper plates, gradually reducing the size until I was down to 4" plates at ranges up to 200 yds. They are light weight and after shooting my "course" I could check the group, then put up another target. I fired 2 rounds at each target so I could practice cycling the action, without taking the rifle down from my shoulder to work the action. You can't do this drill with ballons. Good luck.

I'll second on the Stoney Creek stix. I carry them always. They telescope so travel is easy.

Groundhogs, grackles and crows are cheaper than baloons and neeed shot anyway

quote:

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Originally posted by urdubob:
"What about balloons? You can set up several at each "station" (so you don't have to set up targets for each session). Cheap and you know when you hit them.

Regards,

Terry"


What about baboons!!!

urdubob

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BABOONS

Here's a pic of my friend Bill and I practicing for his trip to Namibia. Homemade shooting sticks fashioned after Roy Vincents (from Saeed's videos), and milk jugs filled with water. If you look close you can see the water jug exploding at the 100 yd bunker.



Cheers,
Canuck

I did the metal silhouttes, to shoot at! before I went to Zim for hippo I had a friend of mine cut out a silhoutte of a hippo's head, (3/4 inch thick). like he was in the water, just the top part. it was alot of fun shooting at it! Now it's stuck in the ground as you enter my studio, everyone gets a kick out of it. I've cut sil's of groundhods, prairre dogs, You for sure know when you've hit it!

Thanks everybody, I thought about the balloons too. The problem is this is a couple mile walk-thru and I"m trying to shoot when I'm winded. I didn't want to have to re-hang targets, I want to be able to shoot and keep walking thru to the next target.
Now the steel plates sound interesting, I wonder if I need to worry about ricochets? Of course there are plenty of places that have very good back drops but I'm going to be using Barnes 300 grain solids for my next 200 reloads. I wouldn't want one of those ricocheting into the air.
I have a pair of the Stoney Point sticks that have elastic cord thru several sections, I haven't tried them yet as I'm still trying to just plain get used to shooting off sticks.
I can tell you one thing, it is very hard to hold steady on some of the longer shots when my heart beat keeps bouncing the crosshairs off target! Hopefully as I get into better shape this will decrease. Right now it takes about 1&1/2 hours just to walk thru and shoot 20 rounds, that's at a pretty fast pace, definitely not a hunting pace where you would stop and glass with binos.
I think my next couple of walk-thrus I'm going to just use my 30-06 and shoot like 60 or more rounds just to get used to shooting off these sticks. Of course I still need to practice my sitting and kneeling but it has been very wet here.
One other note: This is definitely a good way to check equipment and the best way to carry it. I'm definitely breaking in my boots and I'm getting used to loading shells off my cartridge holder on my belt. Thanks again
Joe