Thus I can practice less with the .375 or .458. In fact I think practicing excessively with a .458 will actually hurt, because developing a flinch is more likely. The .375 has WAAAAY less recoil and that is why I prefer it.
Quite right.
One guy I took some advice from is Peter Flack. He is no slouch with a heavy rifle, as you might expect, but he still advocates a program of working up to your heavy rifle in each range session. Using similar sized/stocked rifles, he works up from a .22 rimfire to a light sporter in a caliber like .243 or so, then a medium like a 9.3 or 375, then finally his heavy rifle (.450+). He limits the number of rounds of heavy ammo fired in each session to avoid developing a flinch.
I followed his program for the first couple of weeks of my "conditioning" program. After that, though, I found that going straight to my 375 each session was not a problem. But I wasn't practicing with a true heavy rifle, so I can't say whether that would be an issue. I expect it would.
Once I get a zero and a reasonable group, I don't shoot off the bench. Just sticks and offhand. I find that, to get a good natural point of aim, I need to face more toward the target with sticks than offhand. I don't care about little bitty groups, just reasonable ones. Also I don't care about getting the ;last fps of velocity. 2500 fps with a .375 is plenty for anything.
I agree and I agree again. Practice from field positions, not off the bench. I found shooting clay pigeons took my mind out of the dangerous idea of "shooting for groups". If I hit the claybird, which was smaller than a buffalo's heart, I figured I was good... whether at 10 yards, 50 yards, or 200 yards. And 2500 fps with a 300 gr A-frame is plenty of velocity.
