What ranges do you practise at with your hunting rifles?I practise regularly to 500 yards and will not attempt a shot at a game animal at any distance that I have not practised at.I do however see many people at the range that sight their gun in at 100 yards but do not shoot at all at any longer distances.These same people will then attempt shots on game to 300 yards or even further.Some even have trajectory charts attatched to their guns even though they have never shot longer ranges to verify if the chart is correct for their gun.

A couple of feet to 700 yards. Close in fast shooting requires practice to.

I practice at a 100, 175, and 370 yards. I use 12" X 12" steel plate an inch thick as targets. I practice under field conditions using improvised rests, or sitting or kneeling. This year I plan to put a target out at 440 yards just for the hell of it. I fire several hundred rounds before each hunting season, not including badgers and coyotes during the rest of the year and pleant of 22 mag rounds.

I practice 90% of my shots at 100 and 200 yards. Before hitting the mountains I can go on out too 700 yards. I would never shoot that far at game. My brother-in-law and his two sons shoot a 50 BMG and regularly use it at a 700 yard range on their Buffalo farm. I have rifles that will reach on out there and touch at great distances, however I have never attempted a shot further than 350 yards at game. Gee, should I have said never. My longest shot on a Deer is 320 yards, the longest on Elk is 300, both one shot kills. Longer than 300 I would have to have a perfect rest with little wind. Target practice is another matter, anything goes. Good shooting.

I like to do a lot of offhand practice out to 75 yards, and some at 100. I have a "200 yard rock" I shoot at with my Iron sighted rifles. I sight in my rifles from field shooting positions I can't even remember the last time I shot on a conventional "bench with sand bags", not to many of those in the field. Hunters need to work on getting their shots off quickly and accurately, which means you have to have the ability to decide what is the most stable shooting position you can use and have time to get into to make your shot before the animal moves from your line of fire.
If you plan on making 400 yard shots on game, get your self at least 2 lifesize deer targets and a rangefinder. Set up your first target and practice till you have a good zero. Then the next time you go shoot put up a deer target and take one shot then walk down and look at where you hit. If it ain't a kill shot you ain't ready to shoot game at 400 yards. Practice till you are.
In the meantime sneak closer.

[ 06-28-2003, 22:05: Message edited by: N E 450 No2 ]

I grew up hunting in open country. I never gave close range practice a second thought until I moved to western Washington, where 50m is a long shot. Seems strange, but learning to deliver a fast, precise shot up close is a real eye-opener. Jeff Cooper's "Snaps" exercise, as described in The Art of the Rifle, was a big help.

Probably 75% of my practice is offhand and inside 100m, because that's what I'm most likely to need in the field. The rest is inside 250. Okie John

All depends on what and where you hunt. For example, if one hunts bears in some forested areas of Alaska, it may be wise to practice enough to memorize the bullet trajectories of your rifle...from lets say 20 yards to 200.

At the same time, most moose are killed within 200 yards from the shooter. To hunt caribou you may want to stretch the distance to about 300 yards, but even these animals are often killed much closer.

Okie what is the snaps exercise-don't have the book so can't take a peek.

Thanks for your time

Dog

I practise at 100,200,400,500 for hunting in South Texas,that is with my 300 winny and with the 243 for varmint hunting I do 100,300,500, 600 when I can get the range to myself.

Doc in Texas

Dog, start from cocked and locked, finger outside the trigger guard, and your muzzle following your eyes as if game were nearby. Cooper uses the IPSC Option target but other practical targets work if you keep the scoring rings the same size. At the signal, you try to hit a 4" circle at 25m in 1.5 seconds. Do it five times, then repeat at 50m, trying for a 10" ring. Cooper says ten hits are rare, and those who do should do it three days running before getting cocky. I agree--Snaps is far harder than it sounds.

If you get bored, try a target at 25, then one at 50, or vice versa, or pairs instead of single shots. I only shoot this exercise once in a day, as you really burn up ammo on it, and my second run is almost never better than my first. I shoot it, take my lumps and move out smartly.

I posted about training for a hunt in Hawaii on a thread about practical targets a couple of days ago. You may find it helpful. Mostly, just figure out what shots to expect, recreate them as well as you can, and make them as often as you before Opening Day. Hope this helps, Okie John.

One problem here in the Northeast is finding a rifle range that is longer than 200 yards. I wish I didn't have to drive half a day to get to one.

Not knowing any better, I took my first big game animal (a caribou in Newfoundland) with an offhand shot at a running animal at 170 yards. Shot placement was four inches below his heart. I needed another for the coup de grace. Beginner's luck.

I agree that practice makes perfect. I attempt at least 40 rounds through the rifle after it is sighted in. Varying ranges from 100 to 400 yards. Put 5 rounds through your target at 100 then go to 400 yds and you will gain appreciation for what I am talking about.

Makes you a better judge of distance. Practice offhand a lot too.

swede

Thanks Okie-I'll give it a go I am quite sure it'll be a most humbling experience.

A friend of mine and I used to do something sort of like this. We'd pick a target--usually a rock in the canyons we'd be shooting chucks. Not too big of a rock mind you-something say like a basketball, and at about 100 yards or something a bit bigegr at longer ranges (say out to 200).

Then we'd load 3 rounds-carry the gun down and in the hands-at the timers say so you'd have to raise the rifle and shoot 3 times as quick as you can. These guns were our chuck rifles and would anything from 6's to 33's in hunting form not varmint. It was a quite interesting training tool.

For us we found anything under 10 seconds and 3 hits to be quite good.

Thanks for your time Okie

"GET TO THE HILL"

Dog

I practice out to 500 yards both from the bench, and also from my shooting sticks. i have found that past 400 yards from the sticks, my accuracy begins to suffer. however out to 400 yards, with out gail force wind, i am pretty decent and wouldnt hesitate to take a shot at anything. being an avid coyote hunter has helped me alot. shooting coyotes out to 4 and 5 hundred yards all year long, pays huge divedends come fall. last year i took a cow elk at 450 yards, and it was like shooting at a barn compared to dogs. one shot, she took 5 steps and died. it pays off to practice . cheers!

I'm just a simple ole' 30.06 kinda guy, also a Nam grunt.
I sight in at 2"high at100yds. and then I practice at 50,100,200&300yds with my 3x9 turned down to 3x.
I've never killed an animal at over 230yds. but I've killed a few dinks at over 300meters...
..prefer claymores & booby traps the best...