How much practice do you guys do before hunting dangerous game?? do you practice just in the weeks/months coming up to your trip or all year round.

From the DVD footage i have seen there are some great shots here at AR,so how much practice does it take???

TP, for what a safari cost, I would shoot as often as possible. With out burning your self out on your big bore. Also, doing reloading drills, without looking at the action. Dry firing at the TV, for as many "targets" as possible. The more time spent handling you rifle, the better it should be for you on your trip.

Keith

Make yourself (or Buy) a set of shooting sticks and get used to shooting off them! Use the bench only for initial Zero as many rifles shoot to a slightly different POA from asticks or leaning on a tree etc.

A large number of full power rounds is unnecessary. lot's of dry firing, and if you reload, some seep shoots with down loaded ammo. For training guys here I load a 400grn .458 bullet to 1500fps in .458 Win or Lott and in .375 use 200grn bullets at 2000fps Since almost all "speed" shooting takes place from 25 yards and under, the shift in point of impact is immaterial.

Being familiar and comfortable with your rifle is far more important than being recoil tollerant. When there is something worth shooting in front of you, you will not notice the recoil.

Always mark your dummy rounds bright red- several TV's go west every year here as apprentices train for their exams...

i'll shoot on the average today about 10,000 rounds a year, way down from the 50,000 I used to shoot. Practice shooting doesn't always have to be with your big bore, actually you can learn more from shooting a 22. My advice is to join a club. You will find guys there that go from 1st timers to almost or even pros. All will be willing to help. There is nothing quicker to learn from than an experienced coach. He can tell you things you would never dream of yourself.

I often get asked this question, and get amazing looks when I say I never do any sort of practice with big bore rifles for the hunt!

In fact, the only time I actually shoot them here is when I load the ammo for my hunt, I might fire a few shots just to make sure the scope is set correctly.

Every now and then, we do shoot a 308 rifle - a custom built Remington 700 - off hand for fun.

Most of the shooting I do here is sighting in other people's guns.

I practice at least once a week with whatever rifles I'm taking for at least three months or so prior to the hunt. I have found that more is not necessary.

I need this much practice, however, because I always take more than one rifle, at least two and sometimes three.

And I often take two loads (softs and solids) for a couple of them. So, it takes a little work to make sure that I, my rifles and my ammunition are performing as expected.

Practice as much as you can, but quality practice is more important than sheer volume. But shooting a big bore too much, and without adequate concentration and control, you can give yourself a monster flinch which will not improve the chance of success on a safari.

I would suggest regular shooting sessions of 20 to 50 rounds from legitimate field positions using a rifle that you can handle well (.308?).

Add to that not more than 10 rounds from your big bore per shooting session.

All shots should be taken with proper form, well aimed, trigger squeezed, etc., to develop muscle memory of good shooting practices.

Rapid fire practice is fine if not overdone, but again concentrate on good form so that you reinforce good habits rather than bad ones.

The big THREE: Placement, penetration, and horsepower.

You can rip off a couple thousand rounds a week if you so desire for practicing accurate shooting, working the bolt, etc., but knowing where to place the shot is more important than just burning up powder and primers.

quote:

Originally posted by Will:
The big THREE: Placement, penetration, and horsepower.

Yeah, yeah, you are just trying to sell a book.

Stay off the bench. The bench is for new rifles and load development - it will only tell you how well your rifle shoots, not how well you shoot.

Take a look at retreevers posts prior to his hunt last summer. Some great information. Particularly on his physical conditioning regimen. That is something that is not to be ignored.

You may shoot great offhand after moving from the car, setting up targets, shooting offhand, retrieving targets and getting back in the car, but those shooting skills will erode after an all day stalk in the heat carrying a 9 to 14 pound rifle and other equipment.

Less fatigue = better shot.

Craig Boddington just had an excellent article on managing/avoiding/breaking flinch and I agree with him that shooting a .22 as often as possible, interspersed with shooting a few rounds of your intended caliber as well, as you feel you are tolerant to so do, during each practice session, is the way to go. This kind of goes along with what Saeed has indicated: that you don't have to shoot the hell out of your DG rifles to be good with them. Having complete familiarity with your rifle (if it's a double, then you might want to purchase a double 20 ga shotgun and shoot that too for familiarity) is very important, and doing a lot of small caliber shooting to avoid/break the flinch is, IMHO, the way to go. That's what I do, inasmuch as I have a Winchester Model 52B .22 rifle (full weight and size fairly comparable to that of my Model 70's) and a 20 gauge SXS shotgun (Weatherby Athena D'Italia) (similiar to my double rifle) that I shoot quite often, interspersed with the real things. Then when you do shoot the DG rifles at DG, and in the excitement, you are not only not going to feel the recoil, but you will have managed to avoid the involuntary flinch that alot of people develop. Just a suggestion.

My kids and I started with .22's shooting offhand and on rests out to 75 yds. We switched to .300 win mag for rests and offhand out to 2oo yds. We then went to our .375's off a rest and out to 100 yds. We minimized our time shooting from the bench and spent a lot of time shooting from a sitting position leaning on a post or from sticks.

We fired - 2500 rounds of .22 ammo, 300 rounds of .300 win mag, and 250 rounds of .375 ammo between four of us.

I would have used more .375 ammo but the kids handled the big gun very well. We spent a little extra time on the .300 as it seemed to kick harder.

Anyway - we took 17 animals (3 buff, 2 sable, one croc, eland, bushbuck, 5 baboons, warthogs, impala, kudu, waterbuck, bushpig, etc. and lost on baboon.

When we go back, we will use the .22's again and shoot nearly all offhand with the others. The biggest thing for us was firing 3 or 4 shots as fast as we could while walking. Once we could hit a 10" target offhand with 3 quick shots at 100 yds, we were ready.

For those times when weather or schedule prevents range trips, a high quality air rifle can give you a lot of practice. A simple bullet trap in the basement using sticks, offhand or sitting position can help. The good ones will weigh 7-9 lbs and probably have a better trigger than your DG rifle, but can be adjusted to be close. Pellets cost nothing and this type practice can really help in certain aspects of training.
Larry

HOW MUCH do you feel you should practice to keep yourself alive in an environment that can go bad in a hurry?
AND
will you really be alone or will you have backup if you F'up?

That is pretty much the question for consideration.
I spent over 20+ crawling some really nasty ghetto and I was on the range every week even when I had to burn my own ammo. The odds of running against a dangerous predator on a regular basis were pretty good.

Going out to Africa with a PH who has incentive to keep you alive so you can pay the bill is a different matter.
I shot my Model 70 .375H&H into a smooth bore getting ready for a hunt I still haven't been able to take although iut has tracked a lot of ground in Canada.
it is geting rebarreled now.

AS yourself what is your life worth and are you comfortable at your present skill levels for any and every forseeable problem, based on the support package you will be traveling with. If you feel comfortable with your present skills, then you dont need to practice.
if you are not then maybe you should.
Shoot ANY caliber is better than shooting none when it comes to honing skills.
besides getting skills honed is part of the fun.

Just be at comfortable, efficient and at ease with your rifle. "Know" it - how it works, how it reacts, and be smooth. If you have even the smallest apprehension, spend time with it. If that means shooting a number of rounds, do it. It's fun anyway. You'll be in good shape ..