The best way to practice shooting FOR your hunt could be to shoot ON your hunt.
That may seem like a wild concept for rifle hunters, but if you are shooting suppressed and are hunting big mountain country, then shooting extra rounds during a hunt isn’t something that you should rule out.
Of course, shooting on your hunt doesn’t always make sense, so the next question becomes — How can I recreate realistic hunting shot scenarios to practice with my rifle?
In the video below, Mark from Exo Mtn Gear shares some tips for shooting scenarios that help you practice for “the real thing”. In fact, hours after filming this video, Mark put his practice to good use and killed a bear across the valley that evening.
DITCH THE BENCH
Shooting tiny groups from a bench at the shooting range has a place, but that type of shooting isn’t all you should do. Once you have your rifle set up, your scope zeroed, and your ballistics verified, you need to “ditch the bench” and start shooting from realistic positions.
Reality Check: Backcountry shooting involves steep terrain and uneven ground that force you to shoot from imperfect positions. As best as you can, you need to recreate those shooting challenges and practice them.
Even if you can’t regularly access steep angles to shoot from, you can practice positional shooting on a flat range. And you can also use dry-fire practice to recreate shooting at uphill and downhill angles.
UTILIZE YOUR GEAR AS A SHOOTING SUPPORT
A bipod. A tripod. Your backpack. Trekking poles. Your bino harness. A tree branch. A stuff sack for your extra socks and underwear.
These are all shooting supports (and there are others), which you can use to create stability for various shooting positions — whether you are lying prone, seated, kneeling, or standing. And whether you are shooting near, far, downhill, uphill, or on a flat plane.
But do you know when to use each gear item? Do you know how to create stability in various positions? And how to adapt from “ideal” when the terrain doesn’t allow you to create the ideal shooting position?
When you force yourself to practice from less-than-perfect positions, you’ll quickly learn what works, what doesn’t, and have the firsthand experience you need to recreate effective shooting positions while hunting.
As a general rule, always remember that you want to be as low as possible and have as many contact points as possible. So don’t just think about the front support of your rifle, but also consider how to create rear support with your body position, or the aid of gear that you have available.
VERIFY YOUR IMPACTS
As hunters transition from shooting at the range and begin to practice at extended distances and from realistic positions, they’re often shooting objects and looking for impacts, not measuring holes punched in paper.
If you’re only judging the success of your shot by a “hit or miss” indicator of impact — such as a spot on a target or the “splash” of dirt, dust, or other debris — you could be deceiving yourself about your impact position and shooting capabilities.
As shown in the video above, we commonly shoot rocks across the mountain. And in situations like that, it is important to measure the rock to estimate its size AND have a way of comparing your exact point of impact to your aim point.
The best feedback comes from recording your shots and being able to play back the exact impact in slow motion. We use digiscoping setups through a spotting scope or binoculars to capture and replay our shots and see exact impact positions.
SHOOT AS YOU HUNT
Whether you shoot on your hunt, recreate hunting scenarios for your personal practice, or are able to get realistic shooting practice through events and competitions like NRL Hunter, we can’t say it enough — “get off the bench” and make your practice as realistic as possible.
If you are looking for ways to incorporate hunt-specific practice into scenarios where you have a limited-distance “flat range”, we highly recommend the “Hunting Drill” by Carl Ross (print the targets).
Gear From The Video
- 22 Creedmoor 80gr ELD-Match
- 18" Proof Research "Pre-Fit" Barrel by West Elk Precision
- Expedition Chassis from MTNGear
- Zero Gravity Nano Suppressor by Airlock Industries
- Ti-X Action from Defiance Machine
- Timney Elite Hunter Trigger
- Ultralight Tactical Rings from Hawkins Precision
- Nightforces NXS 2.5-10 Scope
- Carbon Fiber Magazine from Seekins Precision
- Wiser Precision Ridge Warden Ball-Tilt Head
- RRS TFCX-13 Compact Hunting Tripod