The 1 Thing You Learned- Rifles

[Oregon Hunter]

I ended up getting screwed by having too small of a peep sight on my muzzleloader for an evening elk hunt in dark timber the other year.

Rifle down, you could make everything out on the bedded cow. With it up, it was a brown background through the peep. Ended up hitting the tree in front of it by about an inch.

Extremely frustrating as I’m the type to make sure my gear is 100% dialed. Had my sights loctited, practiced shooting with my pack on, made sure everything worked well and was accessible together, etc.

Oh no, what a bummer! I think the biggest takeaway is to take note of each lesson learned, and make sure to adjust in the future. Too many of us (myself included) keep doing the same things year after year.

 

[rootacres]

First off. . GREAT TOPIC! People (myself included) can get so wrapped up in gear and having the next cool wiz bang gadget that we forget the fundamentals.

There have been a couple major takeaways Ive had they didn't require me to go out and buy any fancy item.

1.) Most importantly PRACTICE. Whether its a rifle, bow, spotter, binos, repetition and practice make things repeatable. In moments of stress your body will naturally resort back to your lowest level of training. If you repeat sound practices enough your body will naturally default to that. Ive learned this especially through my competitive shooting, when adversity strikes my instincts take over, and I act without really having to think. It wasn't always like this but it has lead to more success in the competitive shooting world just as it has treated me well overall in hunting situations.

2.) If plan A on a hunting trip isn't working don't be afraid of plan B. On my first DIY hunt we weren't seeing the deer sign we expected. We spent 2.5 days in that area, pulled up stakes, drove 2.5 hours away to our other unit. Came in the following morning in the dark and started hiking, 48 hours later we were tagged out.


PRACTICE & PERSISTENCE

 

[TX_Diver]

1 or 2 day courses with a focus on marksmanship and a little bit of history/liberty mixed in.

Programs | Project Appleseed

appleseedinfo.org

1 day course was like $60 or something really reasonable for a full day of instruction.

Most are shot with rimfires at 25 yards but they have some known distance events that shoot to 600 I think also.

I attended a 1 day event shooting a 10/22 at 25 yards and thought it was great. I've attended a much more expensive LR hunting class in TX when I lived there, and that got me the chance to get dope and instruction out to 1000 but it was also 10x the price.

 

[Pilsner]

I remember hearing 20 years ago that getting 2 of the same rifles in different calibers would create an advantage because of familiarity. Wish I would have taken that approach. Newer shooters, this is a great idea....

3. Gotta have a 22LR in the same set up.
Spending a couple weekends squirrel hunting is the beat primer for any rifle season.

 

[robtattoo]

Kinda bandwagon jumping here ish... but I've finally figured out that although I have a gorilla's chest & shoulders ('k.... and belly) i much, much prefer a shorter LOP
In an awkward, hurried, facing the wrong direction shot situation, a short buttstock is far more preferable to a long 'perfect from the bench' stock. I've chopped or modified all of my guns to a youthish 12.5 LOP. The trick is, I think, to have a scope with a generously variable eye relief. I've dumped literally all but one scope this year, in favor of lower magnification, more forgiving eye relief models & from field positions, I've never shot better.

I also came to realize that 99% of my hunting is done with scopes set at 6 power or 3-4 power. My longer range rifle (max 500yds) now wears a fixed 6, the rest wear 2-7s or fixed power 3x or 4x

I still love clonking steel at 1200+ yards, but I also know that that's not hunting. That's shooting. Hunting, for me, is an under 500yd prospect. Even then, 5 would require absolutely perfect conditions & lots of time. Realistically, I doubt I'll ever take more than 1 shot in 50 over 200.

 

[marshland_max]

I was glad for this post form the OP. Its a great topic and in a year of chaos a good time to reflect.

First off I couldn't agree more with what's already been written.

I have long said that Rifles and Gear often aren't the limiting factors. Case and point, I have way to many rifles and a number of ones I built semi custom or had built custom. I have a lot of plain janes and a few lever guns. Id carry a what ever I could trying to get an edge of sorts. I never found solace in one particular rifle. I was always plagued with wanting something different and still am. Way to much $$$$ spend on something that mean so little in the hunt.

For example this year I shot my antelope with my LR rig at 150 ish yards.................lugged that heavy high power sucker for days and could have just as easily used my 30-30 win 94 or something LW and similar. Then proceeded though the rest of the home whitetail season with my same LR rig only to shoot once again at 80 yards a buck........(Couple of years back in MT had a more medium range rifle with me and found my self wanting more reach that's how I ended up building another rifle) I love that 7 mm I use it a lot. Its it and Ideal rifle IDK...

Fast forward end of season with my 7 year old on a trip we went on to get his first deer. I had him set up with a Henry Single shot 30-30 w/ a youth stock. I hand loaded a load for him, 125 gr sierra at 2400 fps . A low power 1-4x20 Leupold scope and he made a great one shot bang flop kill at 90 yards with such a simple effective and inexpensive rig. To boot the damned rifle , scope and mount is all steel / walnut and worked perfect and is of good quality. for an 1/8 of what I have in my rifles. My son was elated and I was super happy and he says "dad my rifle dropped her better than yours does" - That couldn't have been a truer statement.

I can't be more guilty of over spending on rifles, optics, and worthless gear and it means nada for the 30 seconds you get to shot in the field. Rifles and Optics are by far the worst rabbit hole in the industry if you ask me and if we lived in different times I would move a lot of my rifles down the road in favor of one or two and minimalize.

Nearly 16 years ago I got it right, one 30-06 with one 2.5-8x36 scope and I should have never ever gotten another rifle to try and replace it. Nothing has done a better job, but they all cost me thousands upon thousands of wasted dollars I could now use to take my kids on trips.

Here's my take away

Bring and use a camera, not a cell phone. I'm still working on this!

Kids change everything! Spend money on good warm clothes and boots for them!

Invest in experiences NOT in material things is the lesson I have learned.

Cheers and thanks for a great post

 

[TheGDog]

I did the math one time... and Sniping the small Beards Limes from my tree, or sparrows... at 20yds with a simple BreakBarrel High-powered .22 cal AirRifle.. visually speaking... is about the same as what it'd look like to your eye... as placing the crosshairs on a deer-sized torso at 200yds. So it's a cheap form of practice in terms of you learning how to control you. The mechanics of your body, your breathing, etc. And... the trigger pull is kinda stiff on that AirRifle so it's actually an even better training aid since it's much harder to hold everything steady and the reticle on your desired aiming point thru the trigger squeeze... when it's a hard heavy trigger pull. Also that BreakBarrel is a bit heavy too, which is also a help for training since if you can hold a heavy setup decent enough freehand to make a certain shot... you most certainly can do that same shot with a better, nicer, lighter trigger pull and lighter rifle. And then you start trying to up the ante by placing even smaller targets up to hit... such as old AA batteries. Or... you put on a can and like try to put your pellet thru the a certain spot on the can, such as in the middle of a Letter "O" ... or you try to put the pellet right thru the sun icon on one of those orange aluminum bottles of ShockTop. Then you start practicing shooting off your minimalist shooting sticks, just like what you'd take with you into the field. And in field positions. But like I said, it's a heavier porker of a rifle, with a significantly stiffer trigger pull, so it helps you learn how to linearly increase the force on your trigger finger nice and steadily in a linear fashion, is if you were a robot, steadily increasing the force until it finally breaks, and without you introducing any waggle to the barrel from your trigger finger. Which is significantly harder to do with a crappy trigger like that. So once you master it with an inferior piece of equipment like that, it's a cake walk when like using the rifles with the AccuTrigger.

 

[kickemall]

I was glad for this post form the OP. Its a great topic and in a year of chaos a good time to reflect.

First off I couldn't agree more with what's already been written.

I have long said that Rifles and Gear often aren't the limiting factors. Case and point, I have way to many rifles and a number of ones I built semi custom or had built custom. I have a lot of plain janes and a few lever guns. Id carry a what ever I could trying to get an edge of sorts. I never found solace in one particular rifle. I was always plagued with wanting something different and still am. Way to much $$$$ spend on something that mean so little in the hunt.

For example this year I shot my antelope with my LR rig at 150 ish yards.................lugged that heavy high power sucker for days and could have just as easily used my 30-30 win 94 or something LW and similar. Then proceeded though the rest of the home whitetail season with my same LR rig only to shoot once again at 80 yards a buck........(Couple of years back in MT had a more medium range rifle with me and found my self wanting more reach that's how I ended up building another rifle) I love that 7 mm I use it a lot. Its it and Ideal rifle IDK...

Fast forward end of season with my 7 year old on a trip we went on to get his first deer. I had him set up with a Henry Single shot 30-30 w/ a youth stock. I hand loaded a load for him, 125 gr sierra at 2400 fps . A low power 1-4x20 Leupold scope and he made a great one shot bang flop kill at 90 yards with such a simple effective and inexpensive rig. To boot the damned rifle , scope and mount is all steel / walnut and worked perfect and is of good quality. for an 1/8 of what I have in my rifles. My son was elated and I was super happy and he says "dad my rifle dropped her better than yours does" - That couldn't have been a truer statement.

I can't be more guilty of over spending on rifles, optics, and worthless gear and it means nada for the 30 seconds you get to shot in the field. Rifles and Optics are by far the worst rabbit hole in the industry if you ask me and if we lived in different times I would move a lot of my rifles down the road in favor of one or two and minimalize.

Nearly 16 years ago I got it right, one 30-06 with one 2.5-8x36 scope and I should have never ever gotten another rifle to try and replace it. Nothing has done a better job, but they all cost me thousands upon thousands of wasted dollars I could now use to take my kids on trips.

Here's my take away

Bring and use a camera, not a cell phone. I'm still working on this!

Kids change everything! Spend money on good warm clothes and boots for them!

Invest in experiences NOT in material things is the lesson I have learned.

Cheers and thanks for a great post

This is truly the best advice that someone could listen to.

 

[Oregon Hunter]

I was glad for this post form the OP. Its a great topic and in a year of chaos a good time to reflect.

First off I couldn't agree more with what's already been written.

I have long said that Rifles and Gear often aren't the limiting factors. Case and point, I have way to many rifles and a number of ones I built semi custom or had built custom. I have a lot of plain janes and a few lever guns. Id carry a what ever I could trying to get an edge of sorts. I never found solace in one particular rifle. I was always plagued with wanting something different and still am. Way to much $$$$ spend on something that mean so little in the hunt.

For example this year I shot my antelope with my LR rig at 150 ish yards.................lugged that heavy high power sucker for days and could have just as easily used my 30-30 win 94 or something LW and similar. Then proceeded though the rest of the home whitetail season with my same LR rig only to shoot once again at 80 yards a buck........(Couple of years back in MT had a more medium range rifle with me and found my self wanting more reach that's how I ended up building another rifle) I love that 7 mm I use it a lot. Its it and Ideal rifle IDK...

Fast forward end of season with my 7 year old on a trip we went on to get his first deer. I had him set up with a Henry Single shot 30-30 w/ a youth stock. I hand loaded a load for him, 125 gr sierra at 2400 fps . A low power 1-4x20 Leupold scope and he made a great one shot bang flop kill at 90 yards with such a simple effective and inexpensive rig. To boot the damned rifle , scope and mount is all steel / walnut and worked perfect and is of good quality. for an 1/8 of what I have in my rifles. My son was elated and I was super happy and he says "dad my rifle dropped her better than yours does" - That couldn't have been a truer statement.

I can't be more guilty of over spending on rifles, optics, and worthless gear and it means nada for the 30 seconds you get to shot in the field. Rifles and Optics are by far the worst rabbit hole in the industry if you ask me and if we lived in different times I would move a lot of my rifles down the road in favor of one or two and minimalize.

Nearly 16 years ago I got it right, one 30-06 with one 2.5-8x36 scope and I should have never ever gotten another rifle to try and replace it. Nothing has done a better job, but they all cost me thousands upon thousands of wasted dollars I could now use to take my kids on trips.

Here's my take away

Bring and use a camera, not a cell phone. I'm still working on this!

Kids change everything! Spend money on good warm clothes and boots for them!

Invest in experiences NOT in material things is the lesson I have learned.

Cheers and thanks for a great post

I love your advice and want to thank you for sharing it! Sometimes it seems like we get so caught up in getting the best, fastest, highest BC, longest range, brightest optic..... A lot of us are lucky and get to hunt for fun instead of only to put meat on the table because we're starving. Sometimes we forget about the fun element of it.

 

[Oregon Hunter]

I did the math one time... and Sniping the small Beards Limes from my tree, or sparrows... at 20yds with a simple BreakBarrel High-powered .22 cal AirRifle.. visually speaking... is about the same as what it'd look like to your eye... as placing the crosshairs on a deer-sized torso at 200yds. So it's a cheap form of practice in terms of you learning how to control you. The mechanics of your body, your breathing, etc. And... the trigger pull is kinda stiff on that AirRifle so it's actually an even better training aid since it's much harder to hold everything steady and the reticle on your desired aiming point thru the trigger squeeze... when it's a hard heavy trigger pull. Also that BreakBarrel is a bit heavy too, which is also a help for training since if you can hold a heavy setup decent enough freehand to make a certain shot... you most certainly can do that same shot with a better, nicer, lighter trigger pull and lighter rifle. And then you start trying to up the ante by placing even smaller targets up to hit... such as old AA batteries. Or... you put on a can and like try to put your pellet thru the a certain spot on the can, such as in the middle of a Letter "O" ... or you try to put the pellet right thru the sun icon on one of those orange aluminum bottles of ShockTop. Then you start practicing shooting off your minimalist shooting sticks, just like what you'd take with you into the field. And in field positions. But like I said, it's a heavier porker of a rifle, with a significantly stiffer trigger pull, so it helps you learn how to linearly increase the force on your trigger finger nice and steadily in a linear fashion, is if you were a robot, steadily increasing the force until it finally breaks, and without you introducing any waggle to the barrel from your trigger finger. Which is significantly harder to do with a crappy trigger like that. So once you master it with an inferior piece of equipment like that, it's a cake walk when like using the rifles with the AccuTrigger.

It's funny how the shooting community is coming full circle and moving back to the pellet guns and 22's that we started with. I think after building up super fancy magnums, we realize that $3 a shot does not allow for nearly as much trigger time as a 22 round. You're right, hitting a golf ball at 200 yards with the 22 requires just as much skill, form, and practice as hitting a 10 inch gong at 1000 yards with a centerfire rifle. Might as well practice our shooting form with cheaper ammo and do it more often.

 

[Oregon Hunter]

Kinda bandwagon jumping here ish... but I've finally figured out that although I have a gorilla's chest & shoulders ('k.... and belly) i much, much prefer a shorter LOP
In an awkward, hurried, facing the wrong direction shot situation, a short buttstock is far more preferable to a long 'perfect from the bench' stock. I've chopped or modified all of my guns to a youthish 12.5 LOP. The trick is, I think, to have a scope with a generously variable eye relief. I've dumped literally all but one scope this year, in favor of lower magnification, more forgiving eye relief models & from field positions, I've never shot better.

I also came to realize that 99% of my hunting is done with scopes set at 6 power or 3-4 power. My longer range rifle (max 500yds) now wears a fixed 6, the rest wear 2-7s or fixed power 3x or 4x

I still love clonking steel at 1200+ yards, but I also know that that's not hunting. That's shooting. Hunting, for me, is an under 500yd prospect. Even then, 5 would require absolutely perfect conditions & lots of time. Realistically, I doubt I'll ever take more than 1 shot in 50 over 200.

Lately I have been finding the same thing with my scopes. Got many high power ones, yet I seldom use them in the upper power ranges.

Anyone have any real experiences with how far you can shoot a deer, antelope, and elk, at certain power ranges? For example, I'm looking for what is the lowest power you would need to shoot a deer at 500 yards?

 

[TheGDog]

Lately I have been finding the same thing with my scopes. Got many high power ones, yet I seldom use them in the upper power ranges.

Anyone have any real experiences with how far you can shoot a deer, antelope, and elk, at certain power ranges? For example, I'm looking for what is the lowest power you would need to shoot a deer at 500 yards?

I'm sure the veteran hunters do it with regular ol 3-9x40mm all the time. But that's very subjective. Like if your Vision is bad now and you have to wear glasses 24/7. Changes how close you can get up onto a scope safely. So I'd imagine you need for mag to offset that problem. Also I imagine it depends on how good of a rest you've got to work with. For me the higher power, like when working with small targets like Ground Squirrels at distance for example, they make me aware of just how much you're imparting shake into the rifle. So you can take corrective actions in your stance, making the needed triangles with your body parts to take the shakes out. Opening your legs apart more to let your beginning 50+yo belly hangout unimpeded so your breathing doesn't push upon your legs and impart movement thru your torso that way.

 

[AirborneEScouter]

Most people know this, but test firing your rifle when at new elevations. I'm at 900' and hunt at 3,400' - I know bigger differences like 7K+ matter from where I'm at but didn't think a couple thousand feet would matter that much. My rifle was an an inch and a half low or so at 100 yards when I tested it prior to hunting this year, was pretty surprised by that. It also could have been from zeroing my rifle with the suppressor on, taking it off, and then putting it back on but I haven't tested it since getting back to 900'. I also learned to bring a lens cleaner with my this year, my optics were in rough shape and I was struggling to get them clean with the clothes I had on my body. Luckily nothing presented itself prior to running back to my truck.

 

[TheGDog]

Luckily nothing presented itself prior to running back to my truck.

Psssh.. "running back to my truck"... must be nice! Not gonna lie... feel a burning inside whenever I see on hunting shows and videos and other peoples pics that they get to drive their vehicles right on up to where they take an animal. Like I said.... "must be nice".

 

[Rocket99]

Similar lesson regarding getting on target quickly.

Turn your scope down to the minimum power........

This....100%


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PONYBOY]

Wow - Tons of posts, hope this isn't repetitive. This year I was reminded that shooting in a live hunting situation isn't that same as shooting at the range in a controlled situation. YEAH YEAH, we/I here this all the time but this year I learned the lesson in real time and it left a lasting impression....

Shot a ton this year and went into the mountains over confident. Found a GREAT buck and instead of just being patient and building a rock solid shooting position, I rushed the shot thinking I had it.... Well, I missed and lost him. He wasn't going anywhere in rush, if I would have taken just a little longer to build a solid position it would have all come together.

Luckily I located a nice buck the next day and got it done, but I let the real big boy slip out. Won't make that same mistake again.

Best

 

[AirborneEScouter]

Psssh.. "running back to my truck"... must be nice! Not gonna lie... feel a burning inside whenever I see on hunting shows and videos and other peoples pics that they get to drive their vehicles right on up to where they take an animal. Like I said.... "must be nice".

It is nice. It's also Kansas

 

[TheGDog]

It is nice. It's also Kansas

No worries man, just venting re: the frustation of being over here where in LA/OC.. where they have these nice rugged mountains... with perfectly fine dirt roads thru them.... but you, me and the guy nextdoor don't have keys (aka privilege) to the gates any and every road seems to have over here.

My guess re: LA is that at some point they probably got tired of broke-n-po immigrant hunters driving deep into them with crappy hoopties (old clunkers cars for those that don't know the lingo) having them breakdown and them probably electing to just leave them in there. And/or illegal dumping perhaps... like so many people seem to like to do with dumb shit like couches and old TV's, beds, boats, entertainment centers, etc. Seems like their default goto move is "F**k it NOBODY gets to USe IT!!!".

It's just real frustrating is all.

 

[Whisky]

NO WILDCATS!!

Didn't read a single post on here. But for me, the one big lesson I learned is, the BS that comes with reloading for a wildcat, not worth it.

 

[Oregon Hunter]

I'm sure the veteran hunters do it with regular ol 3-9x40mm all the time. But that's very subjective. Like if your Vision is bad now and you have to wear glasses 24/7. Changes how close you can get up onto a scope safely. So I'd imagine you need for mag to offset that problem. Also I imagine it depends on how good of a rest you've got to work with. For me the higher power, like when working with small targets like Ground Squirrels at distance for example, they make me aware of just how much you're imparting shake into the rifle. So you can take corrective actions in your stance, making the needed triangles with your body parts to take the shakes out. Opening your legs apart more to let your beginning 50+yo belly hangout unimpeded so your breathing doesn't push upon your legs and impart movement thru your torso that way.

I've got a 4.5-14 on my 6.5 Creedmoor, and I want to do a test this summer to see how far I can hit a vitals size target at different powers. I wonder if I could get to 500 yds at 10x?