How much do you practice?

[MT Beard]

This is something I've been curious about for awhile. How much practice do you get in prior to the hunting season? I'm not talking shooting groups, and forget the bench! We're talking shooting from hunting positions. I got roughly 300 practice rounds in from offhand, kneeling, and sitting combined. About 100 of those I was wearing my hunting pack. Target was a life size deer silhouette at 100 yards. Still feel like I could have used more.

What say you? What is your practice regimen?

[SeabeeMan]

Wow, nothing like that. I do a lot of squirrel and rabbit hunting, most of which is pretty casual. It's the same area I deer hunt, so I guess I figure if I can hit animals that small on the same terrain and types of movement, I should be ok with whitetails. If I were going out west or to Alaska with my brother in law, that would be a different story and more practice would be needed.

[dk17hmr]

Maybe upwards of 2000 rounds a year......field positions are different for everyone. For me prone with a bipod is about 75% of my hunting shots.....about 90% of my time at the range is laying on my belly. My off hand shooting is usually speed shooting with a carbine or semi auto handgun (at p-dogs or bouncer targets) which is about the other 25% or my hunting shots.

I have a couple bench rest rifles and that's really the only thing I shoot from a standard bench unless I'm working on a load. More often you will see me laying in the dirt or in the bed of my truck shooting steel at long range.....a 1MOA plate at 1200-1500 yards makes a deer at 300 look huge.

[chambers]

Well for several Montana elk hunts we practiced shooting 200, 300, 400 yard shots with bipods, kneeling, laying down, shooting sticks, shooting off sand bags laying down, shooting off trees. Gun used was 300 win mag, some weeks we shot multiple times a week and every weekend. Practice does pay off. We shot elk at 400 yards and had no problem. Probably shot 600-700 rounds with 300 win mag for three people to prepare for one hunt, had one hunter start from nothing and became a great shot. We did shoot a lot smaller calibers like 30-06 and 22-250 just for ease of shooting smaller calibers in addition to large guns.

[geargnasher]

Excellent topic that doesn't surface much.

I have a little routine that I don't practice as much as I should, but still do on occasion, if only for fun. Basically, I do a little "run 'n' Gun" exercise where I trot about a hundred yards (sometimes go in circles if space is limited), or enough to get the blood pumping really well. Then I go through a rapid series of shots similar to Dave Petzal's little hunting accuracy challenge from Field & Stream a few years back. I take one shot each from standing, kneeling, prone, and rested against a tree (not necessarily in that order) at a 50-yard target. Then I do it again at 75 and 100. Whatever feels appropriate for the land I'm hunting. Sometimes I just go out, flip a quarter for the range, and pop one off. Doing this really puts one's limitations in perspective, and that's a good thing to have in the field.

Gear

[MT Beard]

A lot......field positions are different for everyone. For me prone with a bipod is about 75% of my hunting shots.....about 90% of my time at the range is laying on my belly. My off hand shooting is usually speed shooting with a carbine or semi auto handgun (at p-dogs or bouncer targets) which is about the other 25% or my hunting shots.

I have a couple bench rest rifles and that's really the only thing I shoot from a standard bench unless I'm working on a load. More often you will see me laying in the dirt or in the bed of my truck shooting steel at long range.....a 1MOA plate at 1200 yards makes a deer at 300 look huge.

Ha! You're right, hunting positions are different for everyone. I like to still hunt whitetails in thick cover and rarely have a shot longer than 40 yards and most of those are from the kneeling position. There is rarely a chance of me getting a prone shot, that position gets maybe 15 practice rounds. The bulk of my practice is at 100 yards, sure makes a 50 yard shot seem like a chip shot. Can't imagine what that would feel like going from 1200 to 300 yards!

[dk17hmr]

........ Can't imagine what that would feel like going from 1200 to 300 yards!

About like shooting 120-150 yards with a compound bow then bringing it in to 30 yards.....another thing my buddies and I like to do before season

[MT Beard]

That's a good point Gear. Getting my heart rate up is something that I need to add into my practice schedule, as I'm sure my shooting with an elevated heart rate is not as good.

I wanted to ask you all because at the range this year I saw exactly ZERO folks shooting without using the bench and I generally get out there once a week. This is the Deer Creek Range just outside of Missoula with a membership north of 3,000 members.

[Wolfer]

I'm not sure I have a regimen. Once loads are worked up and guns sighted in I never shoot off the bench. It's been a couple years since I shot off the bench. I'm a fairly avid coyote hunter and while I rarely shoot one during pup raising time my hunting season lasts for several months.
I often hunt with different guns and will check sights regularly.
I do this from a field position, pick out a small rock on yonder hillside and try it. If the first shot from a cold barrel hits the rock I feel we're good to go. I generally empty the magizine just because I like the smell of powder smoke.

Since I have several rifles and never know what I'll choose to hunt with late summer/ early fall may see me go thru 100 rds or better.
Right or wrong I've always felt cast boolit guns shot best with a barrel that's been fouled in the last week or so I tend to keep the fouling fresh.

Pistols, while I used to shoot 3000 to 5000 rounds a year to stay in tune I haven't been shooting that much the last few years. I still shoot pretty regular but if the first six are where I think they need to be I often quit.

Im lucky that I can shoot in my yard, back when I had to travel to a range I tended to shoot more per trip.

I believe that shooting one round per day is better practice than shooting 365 rds the week before season.

On hunting rifles I'm not too concerned with group size anymore. What interests me is how far the hole is from where the sights were when the trigger broke in a field position.

[dtknowles]

I have not hunted for years but I like to shoot from positions. I almost always shoot a few rounds offhand at the plates at 100 yards. Last weekend it was only three rounds but I was 3 for three offhand on the 8 inch plate at 100 yards. If I miss I usually take a seat and shoot a couple from sitting to confirm I can still hit or I rest against the post. We are talking rifles here, I shoot my pistols mostly offhand anyway.

Tim

[DIRT Farmer]

I shoot my flint rifle that I hunt with offhand. I used to shoot match with it offhand, once or twice a month with pratice in between. Shooting match will introduce the stress like hunting, shooting with a friend for quaters will liven up pratice.

[Bazoo]

I rarely shoot from a bench, even when sighting in a scope or irons. I normally prone across my pack if im going to sight in. But have done it setting. Mostly though, I practice any shooting standing offhand, or setting.

[Lead Fred]

WE have established trail walks for rifle and pistol. We use them quarterly. Come rain or shine. One year we had to stop shooting and go out and paint the gongs orange so we could see them in the snow storm.

[monge]

I try to practice every chance I get 1000+ rounds a year but I got to say every hunt is different weather and shooting position.ALL effect your shot .

[JSH]

Serious trigger time with good accuracy intentions with what ever caliber cartridge or range is practice. It is a learned behavior that pays off in the long run. Even archery or golf will help with your firearm related accuracy, follow through.
The pray and spray crowd seem to back up their inadequate accuracy with the thoughts of needing more firepower.
Jeff

[btroj]

Much of my rifle shooting is done offhand anyway so not much. Other than one rifle I just don't shoot off a bench much at all.
Even plinking at a can at 100 can improve your field skills

[mattw]

I get between 100 and 150 12 gauge slugs fired over summer and fall and a couple hundred 265gr. .41 magnums. Some years that feels like it is about right and sometimes I feel that I need more. I do shoot many more .41's over the summer, just not the big boys. To hard on the frame to use a regular diet of those with a basically full case of H110 Data powder behind them. But they sure are fun!

[nekshot]

I am always screwing around with loads and that calls for shooting at least every other day. Hunting practice as you are asking about I did more than my share in my twenties and it gets really boring after awhile. I go thru about 1500 primers a year and a couple pound of black. I find I still can out shoot any of the folk I hunt with in any situation, and that is because I practiced so much in my twenties but I am slowing alittle. I find the crossbow really fun now also!

[44man]

Almost none unless a friend comes to shoot. I know what my guns do. I suppose I shoot less then anyone here.
Yet once I get to having fun, rounds go fast. My friends shoot my guns as much as I do. At a dime a shot, they are free to have fun.
Speed shooting is different but I hunt. It is your game that might need a million shots.
Only thing is my age where I shake more but practice does not solve it.
If your loads do 4" at 25, you will NEVER get 1" even with 1000 more shots. It is why my minimum with a revolver is 1" at 50. A revolver can sit in the safe 3 years but I know there will be a dead deer if I take it out.
Yes, I have done 3/4" at 100 off hand but might not ever do it again but a deer has a much larger kill zone. I need some kind of brace now but 100 is nothing if held steady.
After well over 61 years, I think I can pull a trigger.

[44man]

Working loads means more but once experience to read a target comes, it takes 5 shots to see what you have. FIX it.