Practice

matt458

Well-Known Member
How often do you guys practice shooting, and what kind of courses of fire do you shoot?
My rifle club hold twice monthly 'sporting rifle' shoots from prone, kneeling/sitting and off sticks, I was wondering what others did?
Matt:)
 
As much as I am able with air rifle, rimfire and centrefire. Prone supported, prone bipod, sitting, kneeling and standing supported on sticks and unsupported. I know I'll never be a precision marksman, half inch groups are as good as I'll ever get, but seem to be good at snap shooting so I try and build on strengths and identify weaknesses from that base. I find rabbiting is great practice for stalking shots. Just trying to continually build up muscle memory and instinctive shooting technique.
 
I try to make sure I get out once a week to shoot vermin. That keeps my eye in well enough to not need to shoot targets often because I never really drop out for long enough to lose it.

If I go for a long time without shooting I don't like to use live targets as refreshers so I will then have a few range days shooting from various positions. I don't often get myself in that position though.
 
I practice off hand with rimfires every week or more. (Off the last few weeks due to a broken hand) I usually drag along a handgun for weekly practice as well. My favorite target is a 2" diameter piece of armorplate welded to a swinger arm. I paint it and shoot the paint off at 25 and 50M. I am lucky in that I have good, open shooting ground within minutes of my house and always have a goodly supply of ammunition.

For me, off hand practice can't be emphasized enough. Without it a shooter in my parts would be at a terrible loss. That was drilled into me again last fall when deer hunting. The shot was 200 yards with no way to kneel or rest the rifle in any way. I thanked the gods for all the off-hand practice rounds I'd expended during the previous year.~Muir

(I have never attempted to use sticks; I may like to try those someday.)
 
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(I have never attempted to use sticks; I may like to try those someday.)

I have the forest, I have the rifle, I have the sticks and if all goes to plan come the roebuck season you shall have the opportunity :eek::eek:

John
 
Shoot standing unsupported with a Rimmy and CF Gallery rifle twice a week plus bench the Rimmy at 50 yrds every now and then when I can ( when I'm not out stalking) and every other with my stalking rifle normally at 200yrds prone.

I try to shoot at 25yrd .22 prone targets at 25yrd standing unsupported with the rimmy then shot the same targets at 50yrds off the bench.

Shot at a 1inch spot at 200yrd with my stalking rifle, keep the zero set at 100 so have to compensate for drop.
 
I practice on every occasion mainly rabbits with the HMR off sticks and can head shoot out to 150m's so a deers heart is no problem.
Many of my clients have never used sticks and 75% of our shooting is off sticks so I tell them to do this to.
Also shoot many foxes and carrion crows with the 22 250.
All good practice.
 
Practice supported off roof or bonnet of truck at vermin.
Also shoot targets at various ranges off bipod.
Walk around with rimfire and sticks vermin controlling, however messed up twice this weekend shooting two fallow both hit too high.
Will be practicing more off sticks from now on.
 
Is the consensus when shooting off sticks to place your hand or glove between the rifle and the sticks? This would seem to make sense as we generally do this if resting the fore-end in other positions, but I have often seen others shoot directly off sticks. I wonder if this may shift impact, but I have never tested it on the range.
 
The problem I find is that most ranges now insist that you shoot prone with no standing shooting allowed unless it's in a reconised competition then it's OK :doh:.

As for sticks I use a single hazel stick with a "Y" at the top. made the first one Ohhh in about 1998 but teh "Y" is a bit narrow, too narrow to accept a rifle forestock :oops: I really should have stretched it. So now it's standing upright in a jug of boiling water and we shall see if I can stretch it a bit ;). Meanwhile the other week I cut to length another Hazel stick. This one was harvested about 5 or 6 years ago and left to dry and season naturally then was cut to the correct length and a rubber walkign stick protector added and retained by a Roofing felt tack. While not quite as stable as a Bi-Pod or Trip pod of sticks is easy to carry and remarkably light as Robbo commented on when he picked it up.

I noticed some likely sticks in the hedge row the other day so will making a trip to harvest a few to put aside for seasoning ;).

Now if it dries up a bit we should see a return of the Waskerly Wabbits and then with the .22 L/R and the Air Rifles I can get some field practice in controlling them and protecting our new plantings :). Being "Old School" ;) I have a couple of older springers. Being a Feinwerbau Sport model 127 in .22 and a BSA Meteor Std Mk5 in .177 and add the BSA Super Sport Five with it's sound moderator and hopefully we can get the job done :cool:.
 
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