Sighting In

Aspen Hill Farm

New member
Joined
Jun 22, 2001
Messages
47
Location
Michigan
The time is getting close for my safari so I went to the range this weekend to sight in my rifle. I had changed scopes from a Bushnell 3x9x42 to a Leupold M8 6x42. I also took my .22 to keep me from developing the "recoil flinch". That was a good idea on my part!

Anyway, the result, both rifles are sighted in and I have time for a couple more trips to the range for a little more practice. I am also taking my bow and I shoot that year round, proficiency with the archery gear is not a problem.
 
Ann,when is your hunt starting and what are you going to be hunting?
Sounds like you have everything planed out real nice.
Please post pictures for those of us that will never get a chance todo a hunt like that.
Looks like you are gearing up for a great season. Just hearing about all the draws and hunts everyone else is palnning is getting me more excited by the day---I love it.
Good luck to you .
 
Anne, Now that your comfortable with both guns being zero'd and any problems with accuracy will not be "mechanical" I suggest you shoot from improvised rests and with a time constraint.

Such as with the gun at your side and the safety on have somebody say "now" and then you should be able to put a bullet in the "paper plate" sized target at 75 yards with an inprovised rest in under 20 seconds. Many of the best trophies my hunters ahve taken were taken just that way. My tracker or I spot game and have about 10-15 seconds to judge it while the client is searching for a rest and when I say shoot the guns goes off the game runs off.

This practiced ability to use what is available and aquire the target in your scope is critical for many of the best trophies. The big guys got big becuase they don't hang around waiting to die!

I think that is one of the top five complaints I have of clients: Waiting to long to shoot and blowing the chance. I have significant information on this in my book "Africa the first time" available through my web site at www.customosteo.com

jj
 
MuleDeer...

I leave August 1st and am hitting Namibia, RSA and MAYBE Zim, going for plains game, nothing dangerous this time, but ya know....there's always next year!

JJ,

Unfortunately the range available to me does not allow any shooting off handed or off anything else but the bench or the ground. Last fall I used this same rifle on a caribou hunt and shot both animals as they were running. Once I was standing and the other I was sitting "indian style" on the ground in the pouring (cold) rain. I had little time to judge either stag but placed very good shots on both.

Each stag was under 100 yards and more than 70 yards away.

My main issue was that I replaced my scope and I knew this would make the rifle way off. I had a friend talk me through a mechanical center and went from there. I had never sighted in a rifle before. I love it when I learn something new!

Time constrainrs should not present a problem as by career I work in Law Enforcement and we qualify every month with our duty weapons. As you can imagine, this is done timed and requires quite a bit of flexibility. I have had 16 years of practice! The nice thing is people can talk at me, yell at me, etc and I can still shoot. I'm the same way with my bow, so I am pretty lucky, I USUALLY get "buck fever" after the shooting is over too. Nerves of steel??????? Ha ha, I wish.

:eek:
 
Ann, It sounds like you are in for one heck of an adventure. Like Deb says, you have to bring back lots of Photos and post them everywhere.

As for nerves of steel, sounds to me like you have em. Just don't let the knees of jello make you think not. That afterglo of combat is nothing to be concerned about. It's how you perform under stress that defines the who what and how. Sounds to me like you have a pretty good handle on that. Now our expectations for your success are pretty high. I think you will probably live up to them. :cool:
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Time constrainrs should not present a problem as by career I work in Law Enforcement and we qualify every month with our duty weapons. As you can imagine, this is done timed and requires quite a bit of flexibility. I have had 16 years of practice! The nice thing is people can talk at me, yell at me, etc and I can still shoot<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Ann, i think JJ's advise is very valuable. I am in LE as well, monthly training the works, but things are different in the bush, believe me. Without generalizing, as to include all LEO's (you for eg.), i have seen great shooters during LE practice, fail badly in the hunting grounds. THERE IS A GREAT DIFFERENCE. IMHO you experience as a hunter is more valuable than the LEO practice/experience.

Further more, i get the impression that many hunters feel comfortable if they know that there will be some form of support in the sence of a bench or shooting stick available when they hunt here. Point is, as JJ said, time is often crucial, and you'll find that there may not be time to set up the support. This obvioulsy depend on where and what you'll be hunting. Each specie has it's own do's and dont's. With some species you may have all the time in the world to place a perfect shot, with others again, by the time you spot it, it is almost to late to aim and shoot.
 
ABS, I'm doing the best I can with the available resources. Hopefully, some day, I will find a range that allows some experimentation! I don't think I'll find one in the next two weeks.
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
110,817
Messages
1,935,490
Members
34,889
Latest member
jahmes143
Back
Top