Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Competitive Shooting Trying to get started.....

My local gun club does High power shoots once a month and I am looking at getting started.
I have a 1903 SA rifle I got at the local pawn. Today I cleaned it, loaded some rounds and went out to shoot....it was horrible <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />
I set paper plates at 100 yds and could not hit a one. I think the rifle was shooting high. I loaded for the 150gr @ 2700fps I hear about for the military iron sights on these guns.
I am looking for tips and tricks to help me shoot better and make this rifle a better shooter. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" />

Thanks,
Dustin

First you have to zero the gun in properly. Just wanging away at paper plates won't do it. It may be zero'd at 600 or 1000 even.

Second for loading, assuming you don't have to shoot past 200 or 300, get 125 grain TNT type bullets and use those. Your shoulder will thank you. If you go out to 600, then you'll probably find that 150s are not quite up to the task though 155s aren't bad. And 168-175s are better at bucking the wind, but buck your shoulder worse too.

If I were to shoot XC full distance again I'd use 125s at 200 yard stages(standing and sitting) and 155s at 300 rapid, and 175s at 600 prone slow.(preferably a 175 VLD design on top of that)

Better shooter-- remember front sight focus is where its at. Nothing else matters as much as the front sight. If you can learn to use the sling properly and always press the trigger smoothly without jerk or flinch you'll go a LONG ways. Dry firing is a huge ticket to the game. Practice practice practice. I used to dry fire the positions 1-3 times a day when I had just started. That got me my first class card of Expert with the M14.

BTW nothing says you have a shooter in that 03. It could well be shot out etc.... prove the accuracy off a set of bags at 100 yards before you go much further. An inaccurate rifle will only frustrate your learning curve badly.

What club? There are folks from KS that shoot a bunch and post on highpower specific websites too that can offer much more knowledge. I used to be on those sites all the time when I was active in shooting. I'm over here because I want to learn about hunting more right now than shooting. Might try national match.us and some of the delphi highpower forums.

Best, Jeff