The weather has cooled finally here in Phoenix and high school football is over, so I'm back into shooting mode again. With Michael having done all the work for load development for the .458B&M, I can focus my efforts now to becoming a more proficient big bore shooter. So I decided to come up with a time/accuracy exercise today.

I loaded up 6 420gr CEB Safari Raptors and 6 450gr Safari Solids. I shot these in 3 separate four shot groups. 2 solids down, 2 raptors on top. I used the trick of holding the 3 in the magazine down with the first round and pushing the bolt forward to catch the rim between the extractor and bolt face.

Target was at 25 yards. I did not use sticks for any shot, all shots offhand. I had my son start the stopwatch with the first shot and stop on the fourth. The first and third group timed right at 7.7 seconds. Shooter error cycling one of the rounds in the second group led to 8.9 second time.

I don't know where these shots would print off the bench at 25 yards, so they may be low just because of where the scope is set. I was more interested in the groups.

Any comments/advice for this fairly new big bore shooter and would be first time buff hunter are appreciated.

That is a good start.
You did well.
Only one shot was a "shootaway" or shot.
Now get it zeroed and go back and shoot some more offhand.
Practice makes perfect.

I'd all those "Minute of Buffalo"!

quote:

That is a good start.
You did well.

I concur..... Well done........

Sling?........

Michael

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I don't know where these shots would print off the bench at 25 yards, so they may be low just because of where the scope is set. I was more interested in the groups.Any comments/advice for this fairly new big bore shooter

Knowing where your rifle is sited in is very important . Most scoped rifles will be some where around a half inch to and inch low at 25 yards depending on how high the scope is mounted and where you want it to hit farther out.

Knowing where your rifle hits is important in sorting out what shots are you and what's normal for the rifle.

Fast and accurate comes with practice, I mount and aim a firearm hundreds of times with out shooting for every shot taken.

Some times dry firing most of the time just making sure I am on target. Slow and good form at first. It is amazing how accurate and fast your shots can be when you have developed good habits.

I am more interested in making good first round hits. Groups are for the bench.

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Originally posted by p dog shooter:

quote:

I don't know where these shots would print off the bench at 25 yards, so they may be low just because of where the scope is set. I was more interested in the groups.Any comments/advice for this fairly new big bore shooter

Knowing where your rifle is sited in is very important . Most scoped rifles will be some where around a half inch to and inch low at 25 yards depending on how high the scope is mounted and where you want it to hit farther out.

Knowing where your rifle hits is important in sorting out what shots are you and what's normal for the rifle.

Fast and accurate comes with practice, I mount and aim a firearm hundreds of times with out shooting for every shot taken.

Some times dry firing most of the time just making sure I am on target. Slow and good form at first. It is amazing how accurate and fast your shots can be when you have developed good habits.

I am more interested in making good first round hits. Groups are for the bench.

Phil............... Incredibly good advice............ Listen to this and heed it. Back in the days when I was doing so much handgun shooting, matches, this that and the other, I would spend hours upon hours of gun handling alone, never firing a round. Gun in holster, draw, dry fire, and start over, 1000s of times, about every day..... Finally it figured to about this, 90% of everything, proper gun handling, and 10% actual shooting, if you handled the gun properly, throwing up, get on target, click, 100s of times +, the shooting part came easy........... Speed, shooting, and everything else follows proper handling and procedures................ Make some DUMMY rounds with the bullets you would use for DG... and work the gun as well each and every time......... Hard...... No play......

M

Good habits as are bad habits are hard to get rid of.

Develop good habits and the you well notice the bad ones and you can work to correct them.

Once you have developed bad habits you become to think of them as normal and it is very hard to get rid of them.

Slow and for form speed well come later.

I have had many students who have develop horrible flinches swear up and down they are not

Even if they are hitting the ground in front of the target.

Because that what they have become use to.

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Originally posted by michael458:

quote:

That is a good start.
You did well.

I concur..... Well done........

Sling?........

Michael

Of course. Between that and standing, recoil is not an issue.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:

quote:

I don't know where these shots would print off the bench at 25 yards, so they may be low just because of where the scope is set. I was more interested in the groups.Any comments/advice for this fairly new big bore shooter

Knowing where your rifle is sited in is very important . Most scoped rifles will be some where around a half inch to and inch low at 25 yards depending on how high the scope is mounted and where you want it to hit farther out.

Knowing where your rifle hits is important in sorting out what shots are you and what's normal for the rifle.

Fast and accurate comes with practice, I mount and aim a firearm hundreds of times with out shooting for every shot taken.

Some times dry firing most of the time just making sure I am on target. Slow and good form at first. It is amazing how accurate and fast your shots can be when you have developed good habits.

I am more interested in making good first round hits. Groups are for the bench.

Thanks p-dog, I've got a great spot in my house to practice this. Big window to pick things out in the backyard. 10 minutes of doing that every evening and I think you'd develop that good habit in fairly short order.

Thanks all for the comments.

I'd suggest using a sling and adjusting it till your "natural point of aim" occurs i.e everytime you mount the gun with your eyes closed the sights are aligned with the target. Play with it and you'll find the position. Once the crosshairs are on the target squeeze but dont jerk the trigger. It looks to me like your groups are more about trigger control than positional errors. You should be able to keep everything in 2" at 25 yrds even shooting fast.-Rob