Rinella even talked about this on one of his podcasts. He didn’t enjoy the O’Connor book Janis Putelis urged him to read for this reason.
Before anyone lops my head off I own a .270 and would have given a lot to hunt with Jack O’Connor.
The White Brick.
From Jack O'Connor's trophy room window he could see his neighbors chimney. It had a white brick in with the red ones.
He used to constantly pick up a rifle, aim offhand at the brick, and dry fire on it, calling his shot as the firing pin fell.
He also used to do the same aiming at hubcaps of cars driving by his home in Lewiston, Idaho.
Jack “attended the running Jack rabbit shooting school “ as a kid and as and adult.
I shoot horses, cattle, domestic sheep and whitetail deer,,,,,with dry fire snap caps in my rifle of choice.
I usually do that a few times times every day. Sometimes more, some days not. Currently my rifle of choice is a model 70 in 6.5x55.
It sits behind my bedroom door. I look out and see some animal, grab my rifle, open it, see the maroon snap cap and have a practice shot at them sitting or moving
Going back some years I began shooting wild boar under any circumstances. There were so many of them, I had depredation permits. I was very timid at first with running shots, but I took close ones at slow moving boar and they just dropped. It was dry country and often I could see the dust from my bullets, guiding me to the correct lead.
Over leading was a good idea at first, better a miss than a hit behind, but even then, a more powerful, yet reasonable caliber dropped them for a second shot.
As described previously I set up moving targets on a pully on old telgraph cables going to wild fire look out stations from days gone by.
Another habit I have is wandering about game country off season with “snap caps” and practicing every possible shot at game animals I encounter.
I am breaking no laws doing that.
Some people play video games. I go about dry firing and calling my shots as the firing pin drops.
Developing such shooting skills is a lifetime endeavor and requires a different mindset and firearms.
I prefer low powered fixed scopes, or variables that are 2 X at the low settings.
When actually hunting I take shots that are way under and easier than what I have practiced for.
I have almost 30 pairs of deer antlers on my garage walls. All are still attached to chunk of skull. All are Sky Island mule deer. Where I once lived, isolated mountains ranges that rose up out of the flat desert were called “Sky Islands”. I found that when just mildly surprised, these deer gave me about two seconds for a standing shot while they were assessing what was going on with me.
A few of those antlers might be called wall hangers. Most are fork horns, quite a few have just a small legal fork on one side and a spike on the other side.
The filled out tags are still attached with basic info plus some extra data regarding how I hunted and shot them. Two thirds of these deer were taken, could only have been taken, with my well practiced Two Second Offhand Shot,,,, in scrub oak, manzanita bushes and even cactus tangles down by the Mexican border. Sometimes the deer were standing, sometimes just moving, most were up close.
I have practiced all my basic shooting positions. The four techniques for moving game and recognize in an instant the four gaits tanimals use.
A another form of practice I have shot at endless ground squirrels offhand, sitting and running, rabbits too.
All that has come together in my shooting computer over decades. I have never wounded and lost a game animal.
