Hunting Season Nears, Practice you Need:

Guy Miner

Master Loader
Apr 6, 2006
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Washington's bear season starts August 1st:

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Man, you aren't kidding Guy. This Summer has been a whirlwind for me. I have a fairly big trip coming up in September and still have a rifle that needs a new scope and get rezeroed.

I haven't had nearly the opportunity to warm barrels this year as previous, but I hate missing out on trigger time!

Good luck as the fall hunting season approaches. Buddy in Alaska is getting ready for sheep.. Lucky devil!
 
Hate to rat on someone.. not a forum member.. but outfitter told him, be prepared for a 200-400 yards shot (elk).
Shooting 30-378Weatherby.. so a chip shot right?

Guide put him on a ElkBull and told him Shoot it…850 yards.

Buddy knew he needed a 9” hold over at 400. Instead of sneaking up closer,!or checking his dope tables adjusted for altitude (6000), he took 11 shots guessing 36” would be the right hold over. Bull never knew he was being shot at. If I recall right he needed a total of 112” hold over at 850.

Practice we must, at ranges we shoot confidently, and don’t have so much pride to not ask the guide for help. I’d imagine a elk guide would have an idea about what hold overs are needed at extreme ranges…

Oh, that weatherby ammo is $140 a box.
$7/shot….

$80 lesson that really shook his confidence.

Got his bull the next day at less than 100 yards. Sounded exciting. Two bulls fighting on the top of a plateau.. he runs up the mountain and boom, there they are 80 yards. 1 & done. The Overdriven PT did its job.

Practice we must!


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mjcmichigan":2olwenhj said:
Hate to rat on someone.. not a forum member.. but outfitter told him, be prepared for a 200-400 yards shot (elk).
Shooting 30-378Weatherby.. so a chip shot right?

Guide put him on a ElkBull and told him Shoot it…850 yards.

Buddy knew he needed a 9” hold over at 400. Instead of sneaking up closer,!or checking his dope tables adjusted for altitude (6000), he took 11 shots guessing 36” would be the right hold over. Bull never knew he was being shot at. If I recall right he needed a total of 112” hold over at 850.

Practice we must, at ranges we shoot confidently, and don’t have so much pride to not ask the guide for help. I’d imagine a elk guide would have an idea about what hold overs are needed at extreme ranges…

Oh, that weatherby ammo is $140 a box.
$7/shot….

$80 lesson that really shook his confidence.

Got his bull the next day at less than 100 yards. Sounded exciting. Two bulls fighting on the top of a plateau.. he runs up the mountain and boom, there they are 80 yards. 1 & done. The Overdriven PT did its job.

Practice we must!


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Man, that hurts my heart.

850 yards is a long poke.

Glad he was able to get on them close the next day.

My experience with most guides is they usually aren’t gunny folks like us so dope and all that falls squarely on the shooter.
 
at 850 , my 338 lapua has 150" of drop . at 400 it has 21.5" of drop . you can see how things really grow .
 
I've got no intention of shooting game at 850 yards. Or missing it either! LOL! If it's that far away, it's safe from me even trying. :grin:
 
Yep, and practice the way you're actually going to, or likely to, shoot. The bench is to show you how the rifle shoots, everything else is on you, (me.)

For me whether sitting or still hunting/standing, very seldom that I have the time or can afford the movement to do a sling wrap. So when practicing sitting and standing shots, the bulk of the time is done with no support when standing, or as solid as I can make things off my knees when sitting. Sling wraps can produce better targets for me, but does nothing when it's crunch time if I haven't practiced how I'm actually likely to take the shot.
 
ST, I’m with you on that.

Jim, I can’t imagine trying a hold over like that… I think I’d learn to dial my scope reliably…not to imply anything.. just commenting that’s a ton of hold that I’d want a lot of practice doing before it counts!

One thing Guy does that I appreciate is he shows us he practices from different positions. I’ve seen his pictures sitting and standing. Where I hunt, a long shot is 300 or less, with many under 100, often from a makeshift blind. Fir most my hunts, a lean into a tree with a hand works fine.

I hope to get out west some day for Antelope and Elk.

Thanks for the reminder to get out and practice!


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my opinion ; shooting far , you have to dial elevation . I use the Boone and Crockett reticle on some of my regular hunting rifles . this reticle works out well to 500 or 600 yards . I haven't used any of the longer yardage drop style reticles ,such as the Ziess 800 and 1000 , so I'm speculating . I think there would be to many variables to get consistent hits at these longer distances .


getting off topic here a little ;

3 or 4 few weeks ago , I had 7 minutes of wind dialed when shooting 2000 yards . that's just about 12 feet of wind drift . I also had 66 minutes of elevation , that's about 114 feet of drop . this stuff is amazing to me .
 
Practice makes perfect, one must do this religiously to be successful. It just takes 1 shot to go from great hunt to bad hunt.
 
I'd like to say I shoot a thousand rounds at the range for every one in the field... I probably don't get quite that many but it's a goal.
 
HodgemanAK":2p7t33sd said:
I'd like to say I shoot a thousand rounds at the range for every one in the field... I probably don't get quite that many but it's a goal.

It's a good goal, and just a way to remind ourselves that we ought to be good marksmen. (y)

Guy
 
Well Guy last night shooting Trap I shot a 124x125 and ran the last four traps for 100 straight in singles for league scores. Headed to the Iowa State Trap shoot Saturday to shoot singles.
Have not shot a rifle in over a month. :(
 
Well Iowa State shoot did not go well and I’m still trying to figure out what went wrong. League at a local club I finished up it was 16 yd Singles league finished with a 247x250 and I’m happy with that. I was hoping to beat my best League score a 248x250 but it was not to be.
I feel fall coming with the days getting shorter time to start shooting Rifles and work up some new loads to Me.
 
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