The discussion on muzzle brakes got me thinking,we have the recoil proof shooters who abhor muzzle brakes,we have the crowd that has light guns for caliber,it's true that in the field,recoil is not noticeable & I agree,my question is how much do you shoot to get ready for your dangerous game hunt?

I might not be a tough guy because I leave the muzzle break on my 375 Ruger Guide Gun shooting and hunting, but I can shoot it with pleasure and keep a 3-shot group within 1/2" while load testing at 100yds. My opinion I would rather shoot comfortable and accurate then have big ball syndrome.

First trip to Africa less than a box from a brand new gun - 375 h&h cz ahr.

Second trip zero and I also took a new 30/06 wayne built for me on a Ruger.

Third trip was practice trip to Botswana before a lion hunt in burkina. Probably a box but I shot a lot of stuff at Kanana in Botswana. Cz ahr on the trip.

Fourth trip - probably 200 rounds mostly off hand. Cz ahr and I could comfortably hit a 8 inch gong off hand at 125 yards.

Fifth trip - zero on 375 h&h but I switched from my cz to a blaser and 2 boxes on my 375 Ruger.

Now I probably would shoot 200-300 rounds but my hunting has become minimal (I go on trips I just don’t shoot much) and I really like shooting my hunting rifles (1-2 times a week).

Mike

I shoot at least every two weeks and usually bring 2-4 different rifles on every trip but, just with the 375 getting ready for an Africa trip, I shoot:

First trip, 400 - 500 in the 6 months before the hunt.
Second trip, 200 - 300 in the 6 months before the hunt.
Third trip, 100 in the 3 months before the hunt
Fourth trip, 300 - 400 rounds in 3-4 months (working on high velocity loads)
Next month's trip, 100 rounds in the last 3 months

3 rounds in each of my two rifles to check the new reloads.

That is it.

But, I literally shoot thousands of rounds throughout the year in various rifles.

For my pre 64 M70 308, ZERO!
Have not changed the Leupold 4x scope in over 20 years. If I do my job, it hits the game.
Such a rifle instills great confidence in the shooter which leads to a good ratio of shots fired to game killed.

With my other rifles, it depends on what is to be hunted and where.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill73:
The discussion on muzzle brakes got me thinking,we have the recoil proof shooters who abhor muzzle brakes,we have the crowd that has light guns for caliber,it's true that in the field,recoil is not noticeable & I agree,my question is how much do you shoot to get ready for your dangerous game hunt?

I practice several months every weekend and fire at least 20 rounds a session from my hunting rifle. For those .338wm and above, I reduce velocity 200 to 300 fps for practice. This speed reduction really reduces recoil. Then I check impact point before leaving with full power loads and go hunting.

I don’t think it is a function of some magic number of rounds shot to all of a sudden be prepared. I think I would define what prepared meant for a DG hunt and go from there. For me, I would want to know my rifle functioned and fed flawlessly, that my gun was proficient/accurate with the chosen load, and that I was comfortable in most any shooting position I might see on a given hunt in a static calm state, as well as rushed under stress. If it was a new rifle I was getting familiar with that round count would be higher. I haven’t made the Africa trip yet but this is how I would approach it, and have approached preparing for any big game hunt.

I start shooting about 4 months before a trip. First 3 months, I usually shoot ever other weekend. Each trip I shoot a box or so in each rifle, usually a 375 or 9.3 for the light gun and 416 or 500 for the heavy gun.

Last month before the trip, I shoot every weekend, usually a box in each gun.

If I'm using my doubles, I tend to shoot a bit more as well as doing some dry fire / reload practice with snap caps, just to be proficient with the rifle type.

For the total year prior to my first safari I shot and hunted with the rifles I was taking to Africa. Shot 6 shots a week out of my Lott and hunted with my 375 H&H. This was deer and elk. Made many trips to the woods and carried and shot my 375.

Great replies,I shoot & reload fresh rounds for the guns that I will take with me,the ammo is usually the last 20-40 rounds left in a batch of 150 or so,I will start shooting the guns at least 6-8 weeks before the hunt,I also load lighter loads to warm myself up to the guns,I always take two,I start off the bench to ascertain accuracy,then go to off hand,I do not like using sticks under 100 yrds,I will shoot off hand until I am comfortable to 100 yrds,I like hunting up close,anything further out ?I will use sticks.
Here at home,hunting pigs etc?I have gone to hunt with no practice & had mixed results,good & bad,in winter my range is too cold to shoot at.shooting a couple of rounds on location to check zero etc does not always work for me.
I would love to hear from hunters with light for caliber rifles & how do they manage to train for a hunt?
My Heym 470 was 9lbs 6 ozs,it took some getting used to

I’m closer to Saeed’s method.

I shoot a lot of other rifles, but the big African guns get just enough that I’m sure they are functioning ok and that the current lot of ammo is on.

It’s maybe 3 rounds with a rifle that has known loads and is still on.

If it’s a new load, probably a box or so.

I do shoot the big rifles every now and then when not preparing, but if it’s a couple of boxes a year, I’d be surprised.

Of course, I shot the barrel out once of my .416 when I started this, so it’s not like I haven’t shot them a lot.

Probably 1000 rounds of all rifle over a year, just under 10k of pistol, and probably 5k of shotgun a year otherwise.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill73:
Great replies,I shoot & reload fresh rounds for the guns that I will take with me,the ammo is usually the last 20-40 rounds left in a batch of 150 or so,I will start shooting the guns at least 6-8 weeks before the hunt,I also load lighter loads to warm myself up to the guns,I always take two,I start off the bench to ascertain accuracy,then go to off hand,I do not like using sticks under 100 yrds,I will shoot off hand until I am comfortable to 100 yrds,I like hunting up close,anything further out ?I will use sticks.
Here at home,hunting pigs etc?I have gone to hunt with no practice & had mixed results,good & bad,in winter my range is too cold to shoot at.shooting a couple of rounds on location to check zero etc does not always work for me.
I would love to hear from hunters with light for caliber rifles & how do they manage to train for a hunt?
My Heym 470 was 9lbs 6 ozs,it took some getting used to

My 500NE is 10.25 lbs. Would love to have gotten it down to the 9lbs 6 oz you quote on your Heym. The stock fits me well so a bit lighter should be no issue.

Not enough. But try to shoot 500 or so in a .22 and then 100+ out of my hunting rifles. More importantly is to get the feel of the rifle by dry firing a lot. Make the rifle part of your arm that way.
It would also help a lot to shoot off sticks. I would work on shots out to 200yds. You rarely ever get a shot longer in Africa.

I dry fire off the sticks a lot. I just shoot about 12 round or less with my 577NE at the range to check my loads. That's my formula for one shot kills on buffalo. So far, so good.
PS. I shoot a lot of gophers.

I shoot a couple times a month just because I enjoy it. We try and go every weekend prior to a planned hunt. The wife will shoot 10-20 rounds, at least half off of the sticks with whatever rifle she plans to use. She will also shoot 50-100 rounds each session out of a bolt action 22mag off the sticks. Gives her great marksmanship practice as well as working the bolt and staying on target without beating her up. We place a lot of emphasis on the cold bore shot on guns we are taking on the hunt.


Safe shooting

On average I shoot about every two weeks, mostly at the range, mostly from a bench but alternating with a bipod, over a backpack, and a little sitting and free hand at closer range using .243W, .270W. 30.06, .300 WM and .375 H&H, sometimes individually but mostly some combination of the above. This is all practice shooting and all such shooting I do is preparation for all my hunting which is mostly rabbits, hares, deer, goats and pigs, sometimes also Chamois and Tahr but not that often, and the occasional overseas jaunt for Dangerous Game. I know per year I shoot around 1500 rounds and the fewest of those are with the .375 H&H. I think the constant rifle handling and use makes transiting from one to the other feel quite seamless.

The first time I went on an African hunt in 1971, I had been living in Germany from Autumn 1969 until Spring 1970. During that time I had belonged to two gun clubs, one of which had a skeet and trap range and a 100 yard moving target range. The other had a 50 yard smallbore range and an Olympic Rapid Fire Pistol range, all of which I made frequent use of.

Previous to that I had been a member of the All-Marine Corps Reserve High Power Rifle team and had shot in matches all over the country.

When I returned home to Tennessee, I continued with the International Skeet and smallbore position, and resumed high power rifle competition.

International Skeet, for those not familiar with it, requires the shooter to stand with the shotgun in the "ready position" with the butt stock touching the hip bone until the clay target is visible outside the trap house. The targets are thrown faster, which also means that they have to be harder to withstand the additional force applied when thrown from the trap machine.

For this reason, great importance is attached to mounting the gun correctly, so that the shooter is looking down the rib in the same way from shot to shot.

High power rifle competition involves shooting standing and rapid fire, standing to sitting, at 200 yards at a bulls eye with a "10" ring 4" in diameter, using a rifle with non-optical sights.

In rapid fire, the shooter is in the standing position when the targets appear, and must assume the sitting position, fire two or five shots, reload with eight or five rounds and fire the remaining shots in a time limit of 60 seconds. 20 shots for record are fired in each position.

At three hundred yards the rapid fire exercise is continued, only there the rules call for standing to prone and the time limit is 70 seconds. The size of the scoring rings of the 300 yard target is the same as those of the 200 yard target. Again, 20 shots for record are fired.

Finally, the shooter is required to fire 20 shots for record, slow fire, with a time limit of 20 minutes, at 600 yards, at a target whose "10" ring measures 12".

Rifle used are either the "service Rifle", which includes any rifle, self loading or manually operated, presently or formerly used by the US military, including the M16, M14 and M1 semi-automatic weapons and the Springfield 1903 and 03A3 rifles. These must be in unaltered form and fire standard service ammunition, with a minimum trigger pull.

The other classification is the "NRA Match Rifle", which can be any center fire rifle, semi-automatic or manually operated, firing ammunition of the shooter's choice. Accessories such as thumbhole stocks, hook butt plates and palm rests are not allowed.

At the time, military competitors were required to use the service rifle, and I, as a member of the Tennessee State Team, used a service rifle in team matches. In individual matches, I used a Winchester Model 70 bolt action rifle.

Shooting the rifles I actually carried with me to Africa, I used reduced loads with cast bullets to allow maximum shooting with minimum cost. For my heavy rifles, my .505 , .458 WM and .375 H&H, I practiced close range shooting with the same gun mounting procedure as I used in International Skeet. With my plains game rifle, a Winchester Model 70 in caliber .300 H&H, I practiced slow fire standing.

All of this experience proved useful during the five weeks I spent hunting in Kenya that year.

Depends on the rifle I will be using.

For my boomers (.416 and .375) I generally shoot only once (if I hit bullseye), or as many as need to bring the rifle back to zero.

For my deer/elk rifles (.243, .308, .300 Win Mag) I usually shoot a box or so, just for the fun of it.

For my "toy" rifles (.22, .223 and .450-70), I just verify zero and shoot for practice until I burn up my shells.

BH63

I go to the range once or twice a week, all year, every week that I am home. At each range session I start by shooting at least two cylinders or two magazines through each of 3 pistols at 15 and 25 yards.

Then I'll move over to the rifle range and shoot at least 10 shots through each of the two or three centerfire rifles, from field positions, at the 200, 300, and 430 yard gongs. Or offhand at the 100 yard gong.

All of my hunting rifles have just about the same weight and dimensions, but a month or more before any hunt, one of the rifles that I shoot weekly will be the one that I will be using on the upcoming hunt.

Then I'll go over to the Skeet range and shoot 2-4 rounds of Skeet.

My first Cape Buffalo hunt is in August.

I purchased a new to me No 1 in 450/400 NE about 16 months ago and have right at 600 rounds through it so far.

I purchased a 470 NE DR about a year ago and put 300 rounds through it and decided I wasn't going to use a DR for my first DG hunt (didn't want to accept the limitations the first time out).

Then I picked up a 458 Lott 3 or 4 months ago and put 75 rounds through it and moved on to a 450 Dakota a few weeks ago. I have 40 rounds through it and 35 more loaded and ready to go.

I figure all this big rifle shooting is good training. I need to decide for certain which rifle I am going to take (will probably take the 450/400 and the 450 Dakota) and will put at least another 300 rounds combined through them over the next 4 months.

Ive never seen a modern big bore rifle of a 41 or 44 mag pistol with a shot out bore!!

Those who think you don't flinch when hunting are terribly mistaken, a flinch is a flinch and if you flinch on a target you will flinch on a animal no matter what you think, seen it too many times..A flinch is hard to cure, it takes time and effort and as a rule all of us will develop a flinch at some point, some more than others...Its the number 1 reason for wounding game and missing game.

I shoot just enough to ensure that my rifles are properly sighted in just before I leave.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
3 rounds in each of my two rifles to check the new reloads.

That is it.

But, I literally shoot thousands of rounds throughout the year in various rifles.

That last sentence by Saeed is truly what counts.
I shoot year round, dozens of different rifles and calibers. Getting ready for a hunt or a friendly competition I may shoot more but what it boils down to when getting ready for a hunt is how much I shoot year round that keeps me in practice.
It helps that I can shoot off my porch or stroll down to my range.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
3 rounds in each of my two rifles to check the new reloads.

That is it.

But, I literally shoot thousands of rounds throughout the year in various rifles.

I agree I check zeros on the rifles I take hunting.

Shooting one rifle isn't that different then shooting another.

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
3 rounds in each of my two rifles to check the new reloads.

That is it.

But, I literally shoot thousands of rounds throughout the year in various rifles.

That last sentence by Saeed is truly what counts.
I shoot year round, dozens of different rifles and calibers. Getting ready for a hunt or a friendly competition I may shoot more but what it boils down to when getting ready for a hunt is how much I shoot year round that keeps me in practice.
It helps that I can shoot off my porch or stroll down to my range.

I was gong shooting this am at 500 yards at PRG and a guy showed up to watch. During a break he was asking all kinds of questions to me and a guy who is the Sr Natl XTC champ. I invited the guy to show up and shoot with us. He said, "Shooting is probably the best way to learn to shoot."

I looked at him and said, "It isn't the best way...it is the only way!"

The XTC guy busted a gut over that one.

I shoot about two times a week out my shop door, testing loads and reloads I boresight at 65 yards and shoot a few rounds to know Im on....I always end a shooting session with 10 rounds as a rule, and all offhand..I go out to the desert with my mobile bench rest maybe once a month for sight in and testing...I hunt coyotes and Jack rabbits and shoot mostly off hand..I like to shoot running Jacks better than rock chucks, but I shoot Rock chucks in my pasture, and ocassionally a Badger or coyote.

Off hand shooting skills focused. After developing a load that shoots 1 moa or better off the bench then I practice off hand shooting to ensure all shots are well within a 6" diameter target at 100 meters.

An example using my 9.3x74R Ruger No.1-S, a favorite in the collection, with 286gr NP's at 2500 fps muzzle speed.

I shoot a lot of different rifles at the range every few days. Scoped Big Bores I sight in and that's it. My only open sighted rifle is a 500 Double so I shoot that off sticks at 50 yards quite a bit before hunting with it.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:


Shooting one rifle isn't that different then shooting another.

I have to disagree. Certainly an extreme example but a 22LR semi auto is quite different that a 500NE double rifle.

Then there are differences with how a scoped 30/06 feels on the sticks than the way the 500NE double feels. There is a bit of getting proficient with each one that needs a little practice. My son, whom is going with me this year for a buff bull, is a chip off the old block in that he likes to shoot the big bores with open sights as well, so there are differences with shooting the scoped light rifle compared to the open sighted boomer.

My biggest concern is to be proficient with quickly getting onto and making an accurate shot from the sticks.

For example, my son hasn't shot from sticks much. Some but it's been a while. He is struggling a bit with quickly getting the sticks in position and making an accurate shot. Little things you often don't think about like what if the sticks are not spread apart far enough making them too high ... easy and quick fix being to take a step backward and lean them into to you a bit more. Or simply opening them a bit more to lower the height. Effortlessly making adjustments like that takes a little practice. Nothing excessive but certainly one wants to be proficient prior to the first time the PH puts the sticks up and says, there's your buff, take him!

quote:

Originally posted by 4sixteen:
Off hand shooting skills focused. After developing a load that shoots 1 moa or better off the bench then I practice off hand shooting to ensure all shots are well within a 6" diameter target at 100 meters.

An example using my 9.3x74R Ruger No.1-S, a favorite in the collection, with 286gr NP's at 2500 fps muzzle speed.

that is pretty damn good; I just got back from the range practicing offhand at 100 and 50. At 50 then were all within three inches of my POA but at 100 I only put six often within three inches of my POA. I can generally keep my shots inside an MOA shooting sitting with a sling, but I need to practice more offhand. For all the time I spend LR shooting, the best practice for hunting is probably offhand at 100 - if you can control the trigger then, everything else is a piece of cake.

A guy that can put ten shots into a six inch circle at 100 yards shooting offhand is going to be sharpening a lot of knives...

No practice before a hunt since I shoot all year. If I'm headed for Africa the sights are adjusted for factory ammo. I leave unused ammo behind.

Dave

50-100. Unless something gang agley.

Its always a surprise how many people show up in Safari camp with a new gun they have never shot and its not sighted in..We always sight in on arrival..Its also amazing how many can't shoot that new DG rifle, best to know who your guiding..Most of our hunters are good enough shots..