Hunting/Outdoors Mentor Misses

[Hams42]

I am in the process of planning out a new load for one of my rifles and it caused me to think about how I was taught to shoot and the ammo we would use growing up.

I am very particular about my ammunition these days. In fact it's just as much of a hobby as shooting is. I've started down the rabbit holes of making my rifles as accurate as I possibly can.

Dwelling on this made me think of growing up and the arguments that I have with my hunting mentors my dad and uncle in current years . All growing up my dad would buy us the cheapest hunting ammo that was on sale. We would sight in 3 inches high at 100 yrds (regardless of caliber) and call it good. Once we shot up that box it was on to the next box of cheapest ammo. It was more times than not a completely different brand or bullet type we were lucky if it was the same grain bullet. I really dont know how I was hitting anything back then.

Fast forward to last year. I had a friend who has recently gotten in to guns and went on his first hunt last fall. He was talking to my uncle and my uncle gave him the advice to buy the cheapest ammo to sight in with then expensive stuff to hunt with. I eventually took my buddy to the store we picked out a decent bullet and went to the range. His gun shot it well and I told him to stick to this exact round because jumping around to different loads means you hit different places.

Now this post is not supposed to be me saying that I'm so much smarter or know more than my dad and uncle but just something that makes me chuckle.

What sort of things did your mentors teach you that were wacky, inaccurate or just flat out wrong?

 

[Pucky Freak]

Overwhelming I was blessed with multiple good mentors. No one is perfect though.

“You should have shot”. Got that a couple times rifle deer hunting after I said I saw a moving animal for just a few seconds.

No tree stand harnesses. I fell out once - I was 13 or 14 I think. It’s a wonder I wasn’t seriously injured.

 

[R.K.]

Overwhelming I was blessed with multiple good mentors. No one is perfect though.

“You should have shot”. Got that a couple times rifle deer hunting after I said I saw a moving animal for just a few seconds.

No tree stand harnesses. I fell out once - I was 13 or 14 I think. It’s a wonder I wasn’t seriously injured.

On that note- kids bounce. Adults splat. Glad you learned the lesson in your “bounce” years.

I have done something similar to OP in the past, but felt it was more responsible- buy cheap ammo of similar ballistics to practice with, then clean and re-sight with the expensive stuff (if any adjustment was needed) before hunting season. Now that my practice ammo is $40/box, I just dry fire a lot.

I owe a lot to my hunting mentors- mainly my dad. He wasn’t the best hunter out there, but he was top notch on safety and (though he never used the word) ethics. I never realized just how unsafe some people were until high school, when someone tried to get me to shoot over their head at a running deer.

Doing the right thing and being unsuccessful is always better than being successful in a dangerous, illegal, or unethical manner. So I guess I’m thankful I had good mentors.

 

[Big Sky Guy]

I am in the process of planning out a new load for one of my rifles and it caused me to think about how I was taught to shoot and the ammo we would use growing up.

I am very particular about my ammunition these days. In fact it's just as much of a hobby as shooting is. I've started down the rabbit holes of making my rifles as accurate as I possibly can.

Dwelling on this made me think of growing up and the arguments that I have with my hunting mentors my dad and uncle in current years . All growing up my dad would buy us the cheapest hunting ammo that was on sale. We would sight in 3 inches high at 100 yrds (regardless of caliber) and call it good. Once we shot up that box it was on to the next box of cheapest ammo. It was more times than not a completely different brand or bullet type we were lucky if it was the same grain bullet. I really dont know how I was hitting anything back then.

Fast forward to last year. I had a friend who has recently gotten in to guns and went on his first hunt last fall. He was talking to my uncle and my uncle gave him the advice to buy the cheapest ammo to sight in with then expensive stuff to hunt with. I eventually took my buddy to the store we picked out a decent bullet and went to the range. His gun shot it well and I told him to stick to this exact round because jumping around to different loads means you hit different places.

Now this post is not supposed to be me saying that I'm so much smarter or know more than my dad and uncle but just something that makes me chuckle.

What sort of things did your mentors teach you that were wacky, inaccurate or just flat out wrong?

I think this is more common than I realized.

I don’t reload but I’m pretty atune to factory ammo shooting vastly different from one another. During COVID I was using Barnes 6.5cm ammo. Shot really well with my rifle at the time, Sako Finnlight. Was a bit low so bought some more boxes to take to range before season. I’ve read different kits can shoot different so wanted to verify zero. To my surprise the groups were off several inches and much bigger. Got to looking and the brass was Sig and the box had the “made in the USA” logo covered with a golden circle sticker. Previous boxes were Barnes brass and didn’t have that golden sticker. Now I check every time I switch lots. Sako ammo has proven very good.