Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters JOC: Range Accuracy vs Hunting Accuracy

If I know it to be the case I coudl even care less if the game moves off further, and then stops, as I KNOW I can make a shot given a rest, without a doubt, vs a freehand one...

I often think, that when competitors comment, that while they may be average or even above average offhand shooters, its not the 90-95% of the offhand shot results that bother them, its the fact that no one is 100% when offhand and why risk it....

Obviously if I knew that offhand would net me ONLY 2 results, dead kill or clean miss, it wouldn't bother me to use it, misses don't bother me much at all.

Wounded and not finding them does. Maybe its why the older I get the harder I work at finding wounded animals for folks and actually have a damn fine track record of it... one lost in the last 5 years or so... of all the ones that no one else could find. And I think if they had not stomped all over that deer before calling Tiger and I, we'd have found that one too, alive but could have bayed it up.

I had to laugh at the "when gophers charge". I said the same thing when those little rascals run right at you like they are charging. Mine is a Win. 9422. Just took a gopher at ~ 30 yards a little bit ago that was eyeing the yard.

Excellent post, Doc. It was JOC's writings that got me started using the sitting position and the military style shooting sling many years ago.
It really helped out over the years. Killed a buck at about 300 yds. way back in the late 60's from a sitting position. Killed my last desert buck at 25-40 yds. on the run using both a sitting position and a shooting sling. Yes, I'd could have tried a standing position, but I wasn't sure how my attempts to hit him would be and a sitting position didn't take much longer to assume.
Two things have always impressed me about field shooting vs. bench shooting. Game tends not to stand around much. So the faster one can get the shot off, the better one's chances of getting the shot off at all. When bench shooting, one has all the time we want to fire the rifle. Unfortunately, that can lead to some bad habits.
I can consistantly hit an 8 inch bull at 100 yds. much faster by going into a sitting position w/ a Ching Sling, than trying to do it off hand. That's because I settle down much faster.
Another thing that helps alot more than I ever thought it would is some extra rifle weight. Unless I'm shooting from prone, over a rest like a pack, it makes alot more difference than I ever thought it would.
BTW, in the Outdoor Life Shooting Book, published in 1957, JOC points out that while the .270 was his favorite, it wasn't his only favorite. He pointed out that at that time he had three .270 rifles. But he had three 30'06 rifles. And, as he put it, that's exactly how he felt about it. E

I've had more than one guy tell me that they aren't very good on targets but are crack shots on game. This is usually at a public range where they couldn't keep three shots on a pie plate at a hundred yards.

deflave may have been suggesting alcohol in jest, (maybe no). Years ago, at police matches the Border Patrol guys had a "cooler". They often won. They claimed about a two-three beer buzz made for calm nerves. We TEXAS guys would have been fired for drinking on the job. One of my friends visited a friendly doc, who prescribed a tranquilizer so, as friend tells it, " On 50 yard slow fire (10 shots ten minutes) I was laying the shots in there. Just one problem. When the targets went away, I still had three in my revolver, but I didn't care."

So much for that brilliant idea.

Best,

Jack

I can see the calming stuff... if you've never had match with wind at the knees, you need to... crazy stuff. But once you figure it out mentally you become and remain one bad mofo.

RE guys that claim they are great on game and suck on paper.

I know a guy like that, but he never says a word. I've seen him a lot on my own range years ago, just was mediocre on paper. Such taht a 300 yard shot IMHO would be iffy.

I've seen him shoot game to. Flat amazing, long shots. Quick shots. Thread the needle shots. Never have seen him miss. Taking shots I wouldn't risk...

Not sure what that says, but often wondered if he wasn't a CIA "operative" secretly.... LOL.

Not this boy, I have rifles near by desk and practice dry firing offhand near everyday.

Those aren't crack shots.

They're lucky hunters.



Travis

That's not a joke at all. Atkins wrote about his tests and I've found them to be 100% accurate.

I've also read there was a "drinking tent" at many a match back in the day. Including Camp Perry.



Dave

One of my older friends in the outdoor-writing business was a serious handgun competitor for many years, his specialty some now-gone match shot with one hand at a bullseye target. Eventually he started to come down with a case of target panic, and consulted his doctor. The doc first asked if he drank, and Charlie said, "I never touch the stuff." The doc said well, that eliminated alcoholic shakes, but suggested just a little alcohol before a match might help.

Charlie tried several kinds of liquor, thanks to various friends, and found he could stomach Christian Brothers brandy better than anything. Some experimentation showed that drinking X amount (from what he said probably a couple of shots) around 15-20 minutes before he was scheduled to shoot helped the most. But he had to get the shooting DONE then, because 15-20 minutes later he was pretty snockered. His wife was helping tell the story, and said if they had to leave within an hour or two after a match she always had to drive.

One day he shot in a BIG match, and by that time he and his wife has the formula down so well they'd buy a pint of Christian Brothers and mark each of the dose-levels on the label with a pen. He took his dose and shot, and then went to sit with some friends.

Within a few minutes, however, somebody came on the loudspeaker and asked if Mr. ---------- (my writer buddy) would please come to the scorer's tent. By that time he had difficulty standing up, so his wife and a friend took him, each holding an arm.

When they got to the scorer's tent, the head scorer asked his name, which my friend managed to pronounce, and the scorer congratulated him, saying he'd just shot a new national record. Then he looked at the official form asked what team Charlie shot with. His wife immediately said, "Christian Brothers!"

When you can hit a rock in the air, you have become handgunner first class...

Nothing improves a guys shooting better than lying.




Travis

I haven't fired a rifle from a rest in at least a year. I'm always shooting offhand.

Well, that's freaking stupid.....obviously so. Not surprised you'd condone it though.

The way to do it is to wait until it's at its apogee. It will slow and then for a split second be motionless in the air before falling back down. That's when you hit it. I used to bust a lot of bottles in the air back when leaving glass strewn over the shooting area was normal. Cans aren't optimum as the wind will move them but rocks take a nice predictable trajectory.

Also used to hit pennies thrown in the air with a .22 rifle after some guy showed me how to do that.

Must have been a great photographer to grab that photo!

I especially like the composition and color balance....

I'm not surprised you've never read a book.

I'm also not surprised you can't go 9 for 10 offhand on an 18" gong @ 220yds.

Feel free to roll film and prove me wrong.



Dave

I think the photographer was drinking Tumbleweed...




Dave

Which always provides great color AND taste balance....

I should know not to look at some posters crap.....