Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Prioritize your time: Physical conditioning or shooting practice

I'll I can say is physical conditioning and big guns go hand in hand.

Boots are the only thing needed in this case. Can't have any footsie ouchies. The rest is just for show.

Mules can trot.

Boots are important. You may need "purchase."

Back to the topic...

Ain't no reason you can't do both at the same time, re: the Biathlon.

What if it ain't snowed yet?

That's a good one. "purchase"

Naw..Never wear boots,only tennis shoes till it get's to wet or snow hits.Always have a pair of Sorrels handy,though.

Jayco

I didn't coin that one. Saw it in a movie, IIRC, Paul Newman and a woman were getting down to it, and she said "why do you still have your boots on?"

His one-word answer was "purchase."

When at the range, sprint back and forth to your targets, and do at least 20 pushups before resuming fire.

People will look at you funny, but they ain't going to set up on the bench next to you either

I try to do both equally, unfortunately it never works out. I would love to get more range time but that seems more difficult than getting exercise. When I can't get out to the range I do dry fire drills with snap caps but nothing beats the real deal. I will say this for sure; strength training and cardio are a BIG help for hunting. I am sure there are a bunch of nay sayers on this site that will disagree.
I have "let myself go" after I separated from military as I was quite a disgruntled soul and can attest as to how much of a difference it makes. I was at one time 6'2" and 250lbs. Now at a solid 207 lbs shooting off hand and in field positions is a lot easier as well as dragging the critter out after making the shot. Yes, I still drag my deer as I sold my four wheeler a couple or years ago. Yeah when your shooting off a bench it doesn't much matter as you tend to be your own lead sled but off hand or off sticks it makes a big difference to have good cardio health. Just my nickels worth.

JBurns.....it has been brought to my attention that you do in fact like to do good things for kids, i.e. take underprivileged kids hunting, etc. If so, I want to give you a hearty THANKS on behalf of those affected, and offer my apology for jumping to some foregone conclusions. Please accept my sincere, and heartfelt retraction of something I obviously knew nothing about.
JGRaider

I don't doubt John Burns is a good guy at heart, but he sure likes to argue about some stupid [bleep]!

Being on the trail with rifle in hand is the best way to get in shape for hunting season and do your scouting at the same time. I am lucky, living in an area with many steep and nasty trails, less than 2 miles from a wilderness boundry and plenty of places to go shooting at. A four mile hike a day with medium weight pack and rifle is about all I need to do, that and find targets to shoot at various ranges while out there.

Yes he does...

Fits right in then. Plenty of folks here in that category

That is inarguable GW. Right on.

I shoot a fair amount over the winter, usually every weekend for an afternoon, 100 to 500 yards. Less in the spring as bear hunting and yard work start soaking up time. Summer less again as fishing, hiking, and more "honey do" list stuff take over.

Exercise is a year around thing, free weights and walking. After three knee operations I don't run a lot anymore.

We already do that at my range. We have a mandatory target change every 5 minutes and the range officer only gives you 90 seconds before he calls the range hot, whether you're back or not.

Really makes it tough to change the 500-meter targets. Sometimes at the end of the day when I'm tired, I just hide behind the berm and wait for the next target change.

I play basketball twice a week year round.

I hunt/guide a bunch with horse/mules. There is a bunch of extra work that goes along with them. But they make getting to some places easier. I take stock sheep hunting too, but we usually do have a small pack out to where the mules can get. Although this year we got the mule right to the sheep.

I pretty much never shoot at a range unless you mean out of the loft door of my barn to do some sight in work. That is pretty rare too, because I have my loads ready and I don't see any need to change them.

My "practice" is mostly coyotes, p-dogs, and any other varmints that need shooting.

I wonder if there is a answer here to some other Burns questions that have been asked at the fire.

Hard to argue by yourself. (not meant towards you GW)