I went for a shot over a burrow with a friend on Sunday arvo, and it got me thinking. He is one of these chaps who insists on absolute, bees dick accuracy before he can have any confidence in the rifle. Bipod, varmint rifle, set up on bench in perfect weather conditions ... the works. It's like he's making calculations to get a projectile to the moon rather than 80 yards to the wee furry recipient. Perfectionist in every aspect.

On the other hand, I use a sling and a variety of sits for most of my shooting. I like to know where it's going, but can't really come at the bench rest or too much much whiz bang technology, even when zeroing and setting up.

Am I doing it the hard way? I'm just interested to see what the rest of you blokes think / use to make your lives easier when shooting. How much is too much?

(Off topic - my mate's wife, who teaches at the same school as myself shot her first rabbit on the same day. The following morning she wandered into the staff room and said she felt so much better for killing, skinning and cooking something herself. Of course eyebrows were raised amongst my colleagues, but perhaps there's hope for the teaching profession yet?)

Well you simply can't beat a decent rest and bags for setting the rifle up initially.
It takes most of the variables out of the system and allows you to see how well your hardware is actually performing.

But as for hunting?....Meh...across the bonnet of the car works for me, even offhand more often than not.

It's not like you're competing for money or hunting to prevent your family from starving, you're doing it simply for fun.
Twiddling knobs and rooting around with rangefinders, holdovers etc is not my idea of fun.
I do that shiz at the range first.

FWIW I hunt with a guy like that occassionally too.
I generally have 3 shots away and any game on the ground before he's finished tweaking up the power and parallax rings on his scope....... it freaks him out a bit but meh!

It's about what floats your boat!

I found that shooting off the bench honed my shooting skills. I learned sight picture and trigger control. And being able to put five rounds into a known and predictable area gave me heaps of confidence. In the field this would pay off big time. I knew axactly where the bullet would strike and when to 'release' the shot. I 'see' the bullet path 'through' the target as I fire. But all that fiddling around (which I love ) is done on the range.

any platform will do as long as it is stable and allows repeatability. if you cannot hold the rifle steady you will not be able to get correct feedback .you need to eliminate as much human error as possible.
rob

nothing beats lots of shots IN THE FIELD and then lots more,uphill, downhill, in wind, out of wind across gullies, across flats, through bush just keep the barrels warm with as many as possible,use your big bangers for rabbits,goats whatever you can find,for the hunter hunter paper shots dont count for much at all.

quote:

gryphon1

Good point. Paper shots do add practice and count a lot for me when balanced with field shots as you describe. I had forgotten the importance of that.

Cheers

Shooting off the bench tells you what the rifle is capable of, but shooting from hunting positions is what will really give you the confidence to hit things in the field.