TerryR brings up an excellent point. Being able to "handle the piece" goes a great deal toward being a good shot. Too many folks don't realize that you can do a whole lot of practicing without sending rounds down range. You can practice mounting the rifle, aquiring the target (it can be your mother-in-laws picture on the wall) removing the safety and squeezing the trigger right in your living room. It is quite an impediment to good shooting if you're having to wonder where is the safety, is it two position or three, how hard to I have to pull the operating lever before it will go bang and so forth. All of that stuff should be automatic. You should be able to look at the target (animal) and interpose the rifle without taking your eyes off of the game. The rifle should just "fall into place". IMO you can shoot however many thousands of pistol rounds or however many rounds of rifle ammo from a bench set up and its not gonna do you a whole lot of good under field conditions.

I almost never practice. It cost too damned much!! You have ammunition, range fees, targets, gas to the range, etc, etc, etc. I learned to shoot along time ago, and for me anyway practice isn't necessary. Judging from what I have seen in the woods, I would wager most the other hunters don't practice much either!!!

ASS_CLOWN

I here a lot of talk here about 300, 400, 500 plus yard shots on this forum and am wondering how much most shooters here practice? The reason I am asking this is every year in a gunshop I help out at we have guys come in buy a new rifle and then want us to even sight it in. Can't be much for practice if you can't even sight your own rifle in.



Personally I shoot in excess of 5000 rifle rounds a year in silhouette and sporter rifle. This does not include my pistol shooting, trap/sporting clays, sighting in and off season varmint hunting ect. Just wondering.

I belive a lot of the regulars here do a fair amount of parctice. I shoot thousands of rounds a year. I have my own 700 yard range to use. I go p-dogging ect.

But I do know people who think all they have to do is shoot there gun once a year and they are good enough. Then they all wonder why I help fill so many of their tags.

It is the same with rifles shotguns or pistols. I have a SD. bird trip coming up the last several weeks ,I have shot hundreds Clays. I well shoot a couple of hundred more before I head out. Practciceing the the shots that are hard for me to make.

But I am willing to spend the time and money to do it a lot of people are not.

I hope shooters on this forum here don't think I am trying to discredit anyone because I am not. I am pretty sure most guys here at least run a few boxes of ammo thru their firearms each year. I guess I asked this question because of what I see in a gunshop I help out at and a couple of others that I frequent. I see these guys come in around hunting season buying the latest and greatest rifles. I have listened to so called experts talk about bullet performance, 500 plus yard shots and than they ask if they could have someone sight there new magnum in for them. Kind of scary to me. A couple years back I even met a guy in the woods who asked me if I could unload his rifle for him. Seems the clerk at the store loaded it for him and that is the way he kept it till hunting season. Problem is the clerk didn't show him how to unload the Win lever action and the guy was clueless. I don't even live in the city but in rural upstate NY where there are plenty areas to shoot. I wonder if any others have encountered this kind of behavior?

As for you Ass Clown I have seen pictures here of Judy's new convertible and your house so don't give me that it's to expensive. Hell I drive a 1993 Toyota crapola car and I can still find the pennies to shoot.

This is a densely populated area and rifle hunting is illegal. So the best thing is High Power target shooting. There are two High Power clubs to which I belong within an hour and Camp Perry is about two hours. I shoot about 2000 rounds per year.

For offhand shooting, dry firing is about the best practice you can get. Skills are transferrable from one rifle to another. I don't think the typical deer hunter can hit a 4 foot by 6 foot target at 200 yards from offhand. Last year I helped a guy sight in a BAR he had bought 20 years ago and never fired. When I got it pretty well zeroed, I handed it to him. Surprisingly, he didn't even want to shoot a single shot.

Geez, I thought I practiced a lot until I read how much some of you shoot! I get in about 800-1000 centerfire shots a year, maybe 500 22 LR outta my Mark II Ruger, and another 1000 or so from my 22 LR and 17 HMR rifles. I have access to both a range to sight in from the bench and a ranch. Both are about 15 minutes from my house. I practice out to 350 yards on the ranch--have an 8" steel gong that I shoot from the different field positions. Oh yeah, I've made it a practice not to shoot my 40+ caliber rifles more than 5 rounds at a time. I guess the 1500 or so 12, 16, 28 gauges and 410's don't count for this thread!

Something of a sore point this year. I probably average shooting 1000 to 1200 rounds a year at the range...50, 100 and 200 yards. Most of them from the end of July until the season starts in mid-Nov. This year has been tough though. My gun club is closed until they finish lead abatement and an upgrade...Probably not before the end of December. I don't live close to another range and I've had too little time to drive out to more distant ranges as often as I would have liked. And, some of my range time this year went to crossbow practice. I probably haven't shot more than 250 rounds since July. I do practice off-hand in the basement with an air rifle but this year only enough to convince me that off-hand shooting beyond @30 yards will be a big no-no. This is why God gave us comfort rests on treestands.