Hey guys,

How do you practice for your safari hunt in Africa? That is, how many loads to you fire through your gun, what targets do you shoot at and at what ranges and what else do you do?

K:
Here is what I did on my last hunt and it screwed me up big time. As on any of my international hunts I practice at my home range in Alaska 4-6 weeks before the hunt. I shoot off hand 6-10 shots per day with the double rifle(s) I plan to hunt with. It worked until I bought the Wilkes .600 and planned an August 2008 buffalo hunt in Zimbabwe. All of my practice shooting was slow, deliberate aim at 50 yards and all offhand. I hit the target well and was very comfortable with the recoil. Now, here is where the problem was. When I shot my buff with a frontal chest shot at about 60 yards the buff's head went down and off he went and I knew he was hit hard. In the brush, with the excitement of the hunt, and my PH also excited, I took several quick, snap, shots as the buff showed himself quickly in the brush. One does not shoot a .600 quickly--at least I can't--and all my shots went high as I was putting too much bead in the V of the back sight. Tomorrow (4-2) will be my first shooting day of the season and this will be one thing I will work on. I didn't hide it in the video of the hunt that was posted here as there are too many one shot kills that are questionable. I took a lot of heat for the poor shooting but it is what it is. For my next hunts I will practice the same number of shots, the same weeks prior to the hunt, all off hand, but will include many quick snap shots so I don't screw it up again. PS. A bench is only for sighting in the rifle--everything else should be offhand, with shooting sticks, or leaning against a tree--just as it is in the bush.
Cheers,
Cal

1. Ask you PH what kind of sticks he has tripod vs bi-pod type

2. Make your self a set and practice shooting from 50-200 yards. In most places there will be very few shots over 200 yards

3. Practice shooting and immediately cycling your bolt or lever.

4. Practice getting on target quickly and getting your shot off.

5. A 30-40 rounds off the sticks should get you tuned up just fine assuming you are already a reasonable shot.

quote:

Originally posted by cal pappas:
..................... A bench is only for sighting in the rifle--everything else should be offhand, with shooting sticks, or leaning against a tree--just as it is in the bush.
Cheers,
Cal

A bench is best used for accuracy testing of a rifle & load combination. I have seen bench shooting styles that - although the guy gets good groupings - does cause quite a different Point of Impact (PoI) than when shooting offhand. The way you hold your rifle does have an effect on PoI. So, once you have a good load and your rifle is sighted in at the bench do also check the PoI by shooting off sticks, leaning against a tree, sitting on your backside and supporting the rifle over your knees, standing offhand and lastly snap shooting offhand!

If you are going on a plains game safari, concentrate on the supported shooting, i.e. off sticks, leaning against a tree/fencepost/ more or less horizontal branch and a real difficult one for some resting the rifle over a termite mound. If however you are going on a DG safari, concentrate your practicing efforts on offhand shooting and snap shooting. By all means do the other exercises also, but do a lot of deliberate aimed offhand shooting. As Cal advises, also practice quick snap shooting - that is where your life may be at stake! It's OK finding out, like Cal did, that your snap shooting results in a to high PoI on a buffalo running away! You don't want to find that out on a buffalo charging at you! Neither does your PH!

How much should you practice? Until you know very well what your typical group size with the different rests is. With practice your group size will [should?] decrease, but will never get as good as the rifle can do off a bench. If you can consistently produce about [just my guess] 6 – 8 inch groups at 100 yards you will be a star! If you never get better than, say about 12 inches at 100 yards, try to improve, but tell your PH what you can do. He will then adjust the distance at which he will allow you to take shots so that you should be able to land the PoI into the vital area each time. Sure, getting to know what group size you can consistently achieve with, for example, snap shooting or from sticks, requires a lot of shooting. But that is exactly the idea – do a lot of shooting before any shooting at costly or dangerous wild animals! But get to know your own limitations and live with those. I will not publicly admit what my best typical grouping at snap shooting is at 100 yards, but I’m confident I can do what is required under stress at 10 yards! Similarly I just know if I’m able to make a clean kill at that springbok way out there by shooting from this termite mound. No, I’m not claiming to be a good shot, but I know and try to take hunting shots only within my shooting ability. So, if you practice enough to know your shooting ability, and you tell your PH, you should be good!

I cannot help but think of the words of South Africa’s famous golfer Garry Player: “The more I practice, the luckier I get!” Go get luckier!

Enjoy your preparations and you will also enjoy the safari!

Dear Kiwi

Between our family of 4 we fired of about 2500 rim fire rounds. Along with 500 centre fire rounds.

If using the guides gun practice with your friends.

Shoot of sticks, 60% of our shots were done this way.

Shot of trees and fallen branches.

Build your confidence of the bench first.

Practice breathing when doing off hand shooting. I come from under the target and move up.

Fill empty coke can's coke plastic bottles. A more exciting hit on a target keeps you interested.

We also use small steel targets cut out into animal shapes and knock them over. Set them up in groups so 1 mag full should knock down 1 lot.

Finally we use life size paper targets.
Place a bush in front of them, turn them to try to make a real hunting situation.

Range 50 to 200 meters is our normal practice distance.

Being a Kiwi long shots should not be a problem.
Find out of the PH what is the average shooting distance and add another 75 meters, focus on that.

Regards Mark

To add to the other good advice posted above:

Learn the fall of shot of the ammo you will use by shooting it at different ranges out to at least 250 yards. DO NOT rely on ballistics tables or published velocitys. They are rarely accurate in real world conditions

I spent a long cold winter watching DVDs of African hunting and it amazes me the number of times I have watched hunters fumbling trying to save their brass immediately after a shot and then putting it in their pocket. I just watched Boddington on Buffalo II and there is Craig doing that very thing. Brass is cheap compared to a lost trophy fee. When you practice eject your brass to the ground and then pick it up later. Also practice reloading quickly not looking at the gun. Reload from your ammo belt or set up you plan to use in Africa not from a plastic box on the bench.

quote:

Originally posted by LJS:
I spent a long cold winter watching DVDs of African hunting and it amazes me the number of times I have watched hunters fumbling trying to save their brass immediately after a shot and then putting it in their pocket. I just watched Boddington on Buffalo II and there is Craig doing that very thing. Brass is cheap compared to a lost trophy fee. When you practice eject your brass to the ground and then pick it up later. Also practice reloading quickly not looking at the gun. Reload from your ammo belt or set up you plan to use in Africa not from a plastic box on the bench.

Very good advice. I pick up brass at the range after each shot and I found myself doing that in Africa as well. Luckily I haven't lost an animal yet, but if I keep doing it it will probably happen.
I had a coach that used to tell me to "practice like you play." That is good advice in this situation.

So sorry, but I always pick up my brass and probably won't change that practice unless I'm hunting dangerous game. Of course, since that's usually with a single shot, it's not that hard.

As for practice, I don't think it's as much how much you shoot as to how you shoot. Spraying shots at tin cans isn't as useful in my mind as taking the best shots one can in a controlled and measurable fashion. Also, I don't think shooting 500 rounds within a couple of weeks is as useful as shooting 500 rounds in 2 or 3 months.

When we were practicing for our plains game hunt in '09, we shot the vast majority of the time off of sticks. (Three bamboo poles from Lowe's strapped together with a vacuum cleaner belt). Unlike the guys here, nearly all of my practice was with three different .22LR guns (a CZ452, a Ruger Single Six Hunter and a T/C Contender) fired at some rimfire silhouettes at ranges to 100 yds. (All but one of the game animals taken during the hunt was with a handgun.) The silhouette animals were scaled down enough to simulate shooting at a much longer range and the bullet strikes on the black painted metal showed point of impact.

Admittedly, I didn't get to learn about the trajectory of my actual hunting guns this way but I knew enough about their rounds ahead of time.

Just tell the boys you want your brass
..... and recycle and shoot again til whatever it is is down!

Don't forget the old "dryfire" in your living room to practice mechanics!

If PG, you MUST know what the rifle of choice will do out to 350m.....if DG, knowing from 80m down shud work.

Just shoot.
Standing, kneeling, off sticks at different ranges. Practice setting the sticks up after each shot and purposely don't set them perfect each time. Sometimes you'll have to stand up taller or cruch down lower than you'd like becuase of a lack of time to adjust the sticks. Take a break and jog a little, get your heart rate up and then immediately shoot, multiple times. Practice cycling without lowering your bolt rifle (very important). Wear your cartridge belt and practice pulling rounds and feeding them in the mag. Even with the elevated heart rate, keep yourself under control. If it's a double, practice 2 quick shots, re-load quickly and 2 more.
Even though I promote quickness, always remember, each shot has to be controlled as if it's your only shot. Pulling a trigger is the easiest part of shooting, its setting up and preparing to pull that trigger under differing conditions that will make you a good shooter.
Always, aim small, miss small, even when your excited.
Good luck.

Like your "adage" very much AH----aim small, miss small!!!
Good advise to all even on an Ele ear hole!

I hunt jack rabbits with the guns I take to take to Africa. As silly as it sounds to go after the little beasts with a 375 or 458 they are great practice, they are small, fast and require a quick and likely multiple shots.

When I told the PH I did this he thought it was hilarious. About the third day he asked if I really used a 375 to hunt rabbits and he said he was going to tell all his clients to do it.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by Code4:
To add to the other good advice posted above:

Learn the fall of shot of the ammo you will use by shooting it at different ranges out to at least 250 yards. DO NOT rely on ballistics tables or published velocitys. They are rarely accurate in real world conditions

I've found Remington's tables for their 300 grain A Frame .375 load to be quite accurate, actually. I have made several shots out to 300 yards using their corrections, starting from a hundred yard zero, and succeeded. Can't speak for other companies. but those numbers worked for me quite often.

quote:

Don't forget the old "dryfire" in your living room to practice mechanics!

This is great advice. You should be totally familiar with your rifle. If you practice you should never have to look at your firearm to load, cycle the action or fumble for the safety. All of this plus practice of field shooting positions can be accomplished in your living room at no cost. With dummy rounds of course!

I developed my loads on a bench and moved to shooting sticks. I started at 50 yards shoting pie plates then moved to 100 and then 200. I found shooting bulleyes very difficult off sticks. My range at the time had steel hanging targets at 200m, 300m, 385m and 500m. I practised two quick shots off the sticks at the 200m chicken. I got so I was hitting the chicken 9/10 or better most days. The quick followup practise really helped when we got to Africa as the critters didn't always fall over right away.

Lots of good advice on here. Shoot offhand and on the sticks.

I also like the Perfect Shot targets as I find it more challenging to shoot the animal targets than bullseye targets especially with iron sights.

My wife is hunting now and she has been shooting plenty of 22 rimfire. Today we worked off the sticks with her 7 by 57 and me being the "PH". We walked up to the firing line, I put the sticks down, told her what to shoot, and she would fire. I believe she is a better shot than me!!

I would add that you should procatice getting on the sticks when you get to camp, with whoever will be holding them. This is especially true for me, a lefthanded shooter. Focus on height, placement, etc.

I shoot once a week at the 200 yard 10 inch gong from the sticks; sometimes I take a few standing sans sticks. I use a .223. A few months before, I switch to my .416.

Sometimes I go a few weeks before I miss the 10 inch gong, but I still practice every week.

Long range shots are the easy part...Better do some stress innoculation: Practice rapid fire shots on targets inside 20 yards and as close as 5. Everybody knows how to shoot at range under relaxed conditions. However, when bad stuff happens and critters come in real close it is good to know where your weapon prints!

Been there!

JW

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Wemmer:
Long range shots are the easy part...Better do some stress innoculation: Practice rapid fire shots on targets inside 20 yards and as close as 5. Everybody knows how to shoot at range under relaxed conditions. However, when bad stuff happens and critters come in real close it is good to know where your weapon prints!

Been there!

JW

Jeff,

I guarantee if you ding the gong at 200 yards you won't have any trouble shooting at 20 yards. Now if you can simulate a moving target coming at you, fine. But I am going to go out on a limb and say charging DG at 20 yards happens because you screwed up shot No.1. But I don't know, never been there.

I keep a careful log of the stuff I shoot. I have never had to shoot at anything under 20 yards in the conditions you describe.

I shot a lion at a range approaching 200 yards. I did not have a steady rest. The crosshairs were all over the place. But practice taught me not to shoot until I was sure of being able to place my shot.

The best practice I ever had was when I shot service rifle in the Army. If I muffed a shot I always thought, "If I only had a do-over, I could make that shot."

Now when I am faced with a tough shot I imagine missing. I then wish for my "do-over."
That worked wonders for the above mentioned lion.

I shot an elephant at maybe 15 yards; he didn't go anywhere. The closest I have shot a buffalo was 15-20 yards. None of these shots was remotely "stressful."

As a prior service vet you know the importance of "worst case scenario" training. That is my point.

Under the best of circumstances all game will be humanely and safely dispatched at reasonable ranges, but I for one am prepared for the worst and recommend that everybody on this forum do the same.

Things deteriorate rapidly in the bush - I for one consider it incumbent upon any potentioal DG hunter to train for worst case.

JW

One shot that I never was to shoot off the PH's shoulder. Find some unsuspecting buddy who will volunteer his shoulder as a rest.

Also, practice trying to shoot after running/high exertion.

i would go to the safarishootingschool of mont kalogeras or gunsite safari prep course .

I take a drive through the woods with the quad, and staple up paper plates on stumps, dead trees, and on dirt mounds. Then I walk a course, shooting at the plates at varying ranges depending on the caliber, shooting off sticks, kneeling, leaning against trees, and offhand.

We shoot all the year and have a shoting schooll at our farm most of the clients are security personel that trains with carbines ,shotguns and pistols ,but lately we are training a lot of hunters.
we use small clasic ipsc targets ,and animal prits targets with the vitals marked.
We began shooting air rifles for mastering the calsic shooting positions ,then we shoot a lot of 22s ,and permit the shooters to take as many doves and periquits they want with the rifle.
then we began with centerfire 100 rounds minimun with several hunting conditions and extreme conditions running and against a timer.
For double rifle shooters we traing first with a double 12 shotgun .
we are conducting too practical matches with bolt action centerfire rifles with ipsc rules.