Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Hunting vs. Shooting

I am a hunter. I shoot to practice for hunting and verify my equipment. I like shooting I don't have a convienent place to shoot. I will soon and am happy about it. The town here is putting in a range less than a mile from my house.
Trap and Skeet, pistol range, 200 yard Rifle range, and an Archery range. Should be open in a month or two.

My opinion also. Well done

I must be slow, for I still don't understand the context or the question well enough to answer it. Unless the OP is British, where the terms have more specific meaning.

Both...I think.

Pretty much a hunter from Oct to Feb. 18 of the last 20 shots (deer) didn't need any elevation adjustment or windage holds. Most were 100 yards or less. Maybe 8-10 trips to hunt coyotes outside those dates. I don't know the dial vs not on them, but I'd guess it's 50%...pretty much woods ain't and fields are.

March through Sept I'm a shooter, usually shooting 2 or 3 days a week. Some weeks a bit more, some a bit less.

Back in my days as a light weapons pop up target, I fancied myself as a shooter. Silly me…

After honing a few skills at AMU, Ft. Benning; I took a 25 year hiatus from hunting game. I took up hunting again in about 1988 and have been at it since. I know my limitations as a shooter and as a hunter so I’d have to say age has not been kind to either.

I like to hunt, but I shoot a lot more than I need to. Basically, I want to feel confident that while hunting, I make the shot a good shot. If there's any question in my mind about the shot I'm considering, I don't take it.

I used to have that Same issue.
Target shoot a lot more and really concentrate on that first shot!

HS 58

I shoot rifles considerably, due to it being one of my primary jobs for many years. For quite a while was shooting around 8,000-10,000 rounds a year of centerfire--which doesn't count my rimfire shooting, or most of the free ammo provided by various companies on "hosted" prairie dog shoots.

Am now about 3/4 retired from gun-writing, but still shoot quite a bit--as does my wife Eileen. Last year, from March until August, we filled up a quart jar with empty .17 HMR cases while shooting ground squirrels--and that was probably only half the rounds fired, since the others went flying off into the surrounded vegetation.

Have shot varmints out to 900 yards, but not so much anymore. Never did have much desire to shoot big game at really long range, but have shot some out to around 550. However, in the past decade haven't shot at any (including pronghorns, which we hunt just about every year) beyond around 350 yards. This is because we live in a fairly open area of Montana, but also am not much into "trophy hunting" as much earlier.

The longest shot either of us has taken on the "meat" animals we've been mostly hunting for the past few years was a 275-yard kill Eileen made a couple years ago when we each shot a whitetail doe on a local ranch. (Mine shot was at 230 yards.)

But we do both prefer to do a lot of ground-squirrel shooting, to keep our trigger fingers tuned up.

Neither.

Meat is murder.






P

I am definitely a hunter that shoots rather than the other way around.

Most of my rack is filled with rifles that are used to hunt deer and other stuff. Until I came here, I had never really done much more than plink with a .22 in the off season. I started seriously thinking about shooting at longer ranges with centerfire rifle less than a decade ago. Y'all suggested a Ruger American Predator in .223 and now that I'm retired, I'm going to spend more time with it and try to push my limits. Right now, I can hit a 12" gong at 450 yards.

This was a big part of my "escape from Planet 4MOA" as referenced in my threads earlier this year.

To keep it simple....hunting is what you do to find the animal.....then it becomes shooting. How you go from step 1 to step 2 changes as you age. The results of meat in the freezer is all that's important.

So, let's say you wish to employ your special skills in Africa. You hire a PH who has trackers on staff, boasting a nearly 100 percent success rate. You are: (A) a hunter, (B) a shooter, (C) a hunter and shooter, or (D) not legitimately either as your rifles have Leupolds on them.

C. Leupold users have to stalk very close and hold dead center to account for the margin of error.

I suppose I’m a hunter vs shooter. As someone mentioned shooting is not so convenient at this time though I have hopes for improved opportunity. My hunting experience has been with squirrel, dove, cottontail, bob white, turkey, whitetail and one unlucky forked horn mule deer with a broken left rear that walked into my arrow at 7 steps. My longest shot ranged was 240 yards on a whitetail doe though I’m sure a fair buck was taken at 250 to 260. I passed up a shot on 3 bucks that could have been triplets because they looked so small at 9X. Later the opportunity was ranged at just over 400 yds. And the rifle was a .270 Weatherby. A “gimme” shot, right? Not for me.

Still, I tend to hit the trigger at the right time and have missed few game animals with hair or wattles. All that the case I take issue with shooting large mammals at longer range than is required. My mindset is not geared toward pride in shooting a large game animal at, as an example, some extended range simply for the sake of shooting that large game animal at extended range. I recall seeing some hunting infomercial cleverly disguised as a real hunting experience where our hero was shooting a single shot handgun chambered for a bottleneck cartridge and wearing a Hubble clone scope with 892 hashmarks windage and elevation; not to be confused with a bottleneck hashhead shooting a handgun. IIRC Oh-Bubba-You’re-So-Big-And-Strong shot a Pronghorn doe at something over 900 yds.

His experience was epic. Up from the ground he arose, bipod equipped handgun with above described scope in hand. Fist pump, facial grimace, breathless drama. Admiring support group more than a little similar to golf fans heavy on amazed reaction. I fully expected him to jump over a sage brush as a tennis victor over a net. The exact accomplishment could have been manufactured with a doe pronghorn target set at whatever distance Hero desired. Were the need to feed a hungry family the rational behind the shot I might have a different opinion.but few hungry families are led by owners of high dollar single shot handguns scoped by Hubble. But I expound. Simply, I am more hunter than shooter.

I love to do both and am both a shooter and a hunter.

I hunted with a speargun only for years in Okinawa because I will always hunt.

I shoot for just the enjoyment of threading a bullet through the wind at 1000yds to a bullseye.

I have taken lots of game close with lead bullets I cast fired in iron sighted revolvers.

I have taken lots of game with the best rifles in the world at ranges a few here can't fathom.

Those that try to elevate one over the other seem to be trying to salve their ego for a lack of ability in one or the other.

Just my thoughts.

Hunter.

I've stated before my ideal moose (or whatever) season runs like this:

Pull a known and trusted gun out of storage, dry patch the barrel, check screws and stuff, fire one round to confirm POI, 1 round to drop the game, a third round into game for insurance, clean gun, put away until next year.

I have better things to do than mindlessly run lead down a barrel. I'm cheap too.

Getting to trust a gun and know it's potential, and what it likes may take a few to many more rounds, but after that, see above.....

This right here...

I figure the disciplines are not necessarily related. A fella won't get a crack at an elk at 10' unless he's a hunter if you get my drift.[/quote]

Agreed

I'm a still hunter. I've never tried sitting in a deer stand. I hunt predominantly on the West/wet side of the State, it's very dense and shots are pretty close. To be able to sneak inside of their bubble gives me the biggest thrill.
This last season my elk was at 30 yards, and my two black tails were at 20 yards and 100 yards. Furthest I've ever shot a buck antelope was 168 yards.

I like the idea of being accurate with a rifle/load at 1k yards, but I just don't have a need for it and consequently don't practice for it.

Stepping out of a truck at a landing and setting up laptop, spotting scope, snack table, etc etc to snipe an animal at 1000 yards holds exactly zero interest for me.

My deer hunting for about 40 years was exclusively done with either recurve or longbows.. Killed a lot of pigs off the ground, still hunting or stalking. And a lot from tree stands.. Deer were mostly from tree stands but still would classify myself as a hunter. Four or five years ago gave up bow hunting, pulling heavy bows just isn't fun anymore. However, I hunt in pretty much the same manner with a rifle, closer is better, lol..