Stalking fun shoot - anyone game?

caorach

Well-Known Member
There was a lot of discussion on the following thread:

Best grouping at 300M

I thought it might be fun to have a bit of a fun shoot. My thought was to shoot it just as if you were stalking and got a prone shot at a deer from 100 yards. If you don't have land suitable for a 100 yard range or have to shoot from a high seat then just go for what ever range you can or shoot from your high seat as the intention is for this to be a bit of fun.

So, you put a 1 inch dot on a white bit of paper and put it up as near 100 yards as you can and shoot it with your stalking rifle, your stalking ammo, your scope magnification set as normal for stalking, your normal stalking zero and preferably lying in a wet ditch in the dark with the rain running down your neck :D You shoot prone with a bipod as a maximum (i.e. you can shoot standing from sticks if you want but the most support you are allowed is prone with bipod, no bags or other gubbins) and you fire only 3 shots with the intention of hitting the black "bulls eye" with all three. A small group counts for nothing unless it is on the bulls eye. You make no other marks on the target as deer don't have aiming points on them that account for your rifle being zeroed at a distance different to the one between you and them. Those people zeroed at 100 will, of course, have a much easier time of it but maybe next time around we will change the distance if there is interest. Dialling the distance on your scope, if it isn't normally set to 100 yards, is a little against the spirit of the thing but on the other hand it is something you might normally do when stalking so I guess you can do it if you insist, but please say you've done it. You are only allowed to shoot three shots at ONE target, so no practise runs or re-starts because you pulled a shot, or there was a gust of wind or...

Of course feel free to shoot a different load or rifle at another target but the again only the first 3 shots at the target count and you must post each target that you shot on the day i.e. if you shot two different rifles then you post the first target, with 3 shots on it, you shoot with each rifle. No cheating.

Then you photograph your target and post it on the forum along with details of range, rifle, scope, zero distance, ammo, load or anything else you feel might be of interest or relevant. No one will laugh at you because I intend to shoot my target on Tuesday and so they will all be laughing at me. If I get really lucky I'm hopeful that some of my shots will be within 3 inches of the black dot and I'm buying a wide angle lens so I can get the black dot and all 3 bullet holes in shot at the same time.

The test is to see how the first three shots from your standard stalking setup, fired from a common stalking position will group and also how accurate they will be so play within the spirit of the thing and we should all have fun.

So, is anyone else game to give it a go?
 
Shame the days are so short and my weekends busy, or I'd be at it, it sounds a good challenge! Maybe I'll get time over the Christmas period.
Kev.
 
im up for it , but i can only go back 90yds in the back yard at the moment !

im confined to barracks as my farm alrams are up the spout so cant go back any further , and ill do mine off sticks too
 
Im up for it too, going over buckbones range on thursday il shoot a card and put on here regards biker1
 
Yep I'll give this a go. Got my level 1 at end of January so a little extra practise. I personally don't use a bi-pod any longer, if I have to lay in the SH1T I just use my rucksack. However since you have set the criteria I'll dig the bipod out, will also do a group off the sticks.
 
Might be able to give that one a run from one of my treestands after the first saturday in January as thats the "official" end of deer season in my county !

Might also try it as some folks are accused of around here . I'll pull my pickup out on the range in front of the benches and shoot out the drivers window at the target 100 yards away LOL's !
 
i'll have a play.my only problem is the rifle i use is a 20" bull barrel custom and weighs a tonne so i have to use a bipod.if this is an advantage i will also have a go with the hmr and compare.the hmr will fail as its best groups clean and cold are 1" without me trying to mess things up with my shooting.
 
To make it more realistic how about the shots need to be the first three of the day, no check zero, sighters, or warmers into the bank beforehand?
 
To make it more realistic how about the shots need to be the first three of the day, no check zero, sighters, or warmers into the bank beforehand?



I think that was the gist of it in the other thread ,thats what needs to be done no practice beforehand just turn up and shoot the 3, atb wayne
 
To make it more realistic how about the shots need to be the first three of the day, no check zero, sighters, or warmers into the bank beforehand?

That is spot on the money - you put up the target, lie down and fire 3 shots. No more than 3 shots and no second chances so the first target you shoot at has 3 holes in it and that's the one you post.

triggersqueezer - if that is the rifle you use then that is the one you should use as this is just a bit of fun and you clearly value the accuracy that offers in the field enough to not mind carrying it so that should be reflected in this exercise. However, feel free to shoot another target with the HMR, but remember you shot just one group of 3 shots at a 1 inch black circle on a bit of white paper. No practise, no sighters, no shooting a group and then changing a few things and shooting another. Part of the fun will be with those people not zeroed at 100 having to aim off on a white bit of paper with no clear aiming point - just like the side of a deer.

6pt-sika - Feel free to shoot from the tree stand or from your truck, again this is a bit of fun and to see what a "normal" group and level of accuracy looks like. Your place isn't the only one where shots from the truck are not unknown :)

woodmaster - if you don't use a bipod I think a rucksack would count as a "bipod equivalent" I just mentioned the bipod as this is to reflect practical stalking shooting so it would seem unreasonable finding people posting half inch groups that were shot with huge front rests and sand bags and so on. My view would be that rucksacks and the like are well within the spirit of the thing.

There is no closing date and this isn't a competition but rather is just a bit of fun to see the sort of groups that people really shoot rather than them having the choice of posting their best group chosen from many. So, if someone messes up and shoots a big group (I've a bad feeling now that I've started this that I am going to be that person with the red face) then we all get to learn from it and equally we can learn a lot from the people who will shoot good groups right on the black circle.

The spirit of the thing is 1 cold bore shot plus 2 follow up shots at a 100 yard 1 inch circle on a white page using your normal stalking rig from a simulated prone "stalking shot" using, as the DSC said when I did it, "a rest you would normally carry when stalking." If you carry a 40lb 50 cal Barret and use a PMII set on 25 times magnification in the field then that's what you use but the key is you only shoot one 3 shot group, no practise, no reshooting the group if you get a flier, no adjusting the zero and trying again. The first group you shoot gets it's picture taken and appears here, though by all means write some text to explain if you had a flier, or if you shot a half inch group on the black circle.
 
6pt-sika - Feel free to shoot from the tree stand or from your truck, again this is a bit of fun and to see what a "normal" group and level of accuracy looks like. Your place isn't the only one where shots from the truck are not unknown :)

The from the truck thing is kind of a joke as thas 100% illegal here regardless of whether it's a deer or a woodchuck . While I've not taken a pop at a deer from the truck I certainly have killed a number of woodchucks shooting off sand bags on the hood and when I was a youngster I rode around with my grandfather while he shot woodchucks out the window of his Jeep , The law was a bit more lax in the 1960's .

Around here now if someone says anything about a deer being shot from the truck window it's assumed it was someone that was road hunting or poaching .
 
outside of summer this method of testing accuracy/zero is all I have!

I zeroed the .222 into a golf course bunker on November 5th in the semi dark off quad sticks!

to make it more realistic why shoot a group?
surely you should get one shot.

post your pics of one shot cold bore, no bags/rifle jewellery at a target from a simulated stalking environment
 
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