Something I have learned about reacquiring moving targets from shooting thousands of rounds (actually hundreds of thousands of rounds) at skeet/clays range: get the gun out of the way. Learn to locate, reload, remount, and reacquire the follow up target all in one smoothe motion.
Shooting from a bench is different than shooting in the field. The kudu was uphill and 440 yards. The gun almost certainly was not perfectly seated in my shoulder given the angle. And that fine bull wasn't going to stand there and look at us all day while I fiddled with changing the bipod or searched for a better prone position. At 20x all I had to do was cut a weak fart and I'd lose the target. Maybe the tracker should be carrying a shooting bench? I put the shot where it should be. It is immaterial whether or not I was able to see the bullet actually hit. The bull elk above was shot in thick stuff on the move maybe sixty yards uphill (VERY uphill ... I had to tie him up to field dress). Shot offhand and it disappeared. If you expect to "spot" that shot and see the bullet hit and animal go down, then you are the one who needs some experience ... in the field. In ideal conditions I can and do spot the shot even if recoil does not allow me to see the animal go down. I dropped a warthog a few weeks ago from a great rest at 200 yards (that one I never lost sight of). PH asked me where I shot it. In the neck ... and that is a small target. And it was indeed shot in the neck. My first buffalo was mortally hit through the heart with one shot at 110 metres. It didn't go right down but I got off the sticks to reload quickly. No need for a second shot but the herd boss was making things interesting fast. Called that shot too. And my recent buffalo on the run behind the shoulder through both lungs. Called that shot. And both shots into gemsbuck about to run me over. Before we looked at it I told the PH it was shot in the heart ... twice.
Good to know. Thanks.
I'm perplexed. Seeing some mixed messages here. Is it wrong or okay to push down on the barrel (with hand or sandbag) when sighting in the rifle? Doesn't that alter barrel vibration dynamics? When shooting off the sticks or bipod, is the forearm resting "on something with [enough] give?"
Not push down, cradle forearm in your hand as you would resting over a rock or fence post, etc. This is what the bulls bag does and much more easily.
Thanks. Guess I misunderstood your post. I thought you were saying a bag should be on top of the gun which admittedly didn't make a lot of sense. How would the shooter see over it?
Funny guy. I suspect most on here who shoot magnum cannons have had to deal with flinch at some time. My 30-06 doesn't thump that hard. Sometimes I wonder if too much time at the range is detrimental? My philosophy has always been get the gun zeroed and leave it alone till heading into the field. Getting pounded a lot is the way a flinch is developed. You're right about the snap cap reps. Best if you don't know they're snap caps. Have someone load the gun for you? Occasionally shooting trap/skeet I'll get a bad primer and the flinch is exposed, but jerkimg the trigger with a shotgun is acceptable form for moving targets. However, I had some problems with duds at the rifle range and no flinch.
Perhaps. When I was in the US military we qualified and that's it. I carried a .45 every day on the job the next three years and never fired it at the range again. When I qualified with a pistol and calibre (1911 Colt) I'd never handled before, I shot the third best score ever at Ft Gordon. The best score was shot by a woman who'd never handled a pistol before in her life! But she probably had eyes like Ted Williams. In Africa I shot a black wildebeest with my PH's 270 WSM @ 350 metres (370 yards?) behind the ear and in a stiff sidewind. Never shot the gun before and it's crisp light trigger was significantly different than my old 30-06 Springfield's. Next shot with it took a kudu in the boiler room at 440 yards. Then five more animals the next day all at 250-180 yards. All but one dropped on the spot. I credit that unfamiliar gun almost entirely ... and abundant field experience to some extent. Buck fever is a thing of the past for me ... distant past.
Cool, When I was active duty in the Marines, we shot far more often then that. Rifle Qual was once a year but I fired god only knows how many rounds thru an M16A4, and a 240g out the back of a V22 osprey.
