Free: Contests & Raffles.
Did I mention a bench or steel plate for that matter? Shooting distance is simply a little math. Aloft of game gets killed every year at distance. This isn't a ethics post.
I can do math. A class is not about that. A class is about hands on shooting instruction. A class is about getting together with like minded individuals about a shared interest. A class is about making some connections and learning some things Google won't teach you. Provide some input or don't. Derail or for lack of a better term trash the thread or belittle the OP for wanting to better themselves and I'll send you packing. Clear enough?
Get into varmint shooting and it will provide you with the knowledge of not only shooting, but spotting game at range. Way back when I was a kid there was an outfitter in Wyoming who used to say that eastern varmint shooters were the hunters he trusted most at long range shooting. Les Bowman is his name and basically what he had to say was that varmint shooters knew their limitations better, more often than accomplished western big game hunters and almost invariably would either drop down on their butt and get solid using their knees, find something to put a glove or their pack on for a rest or would look for a location to fire prone. Wherein almost all others were ready to shoot offhand at distant animals. Varmint shooters also were experienced in doping wind under FIELD conditions and most importantly had learned patience. Not rushing the shot when it comes to shooting live game.Another old timer, Bob Milek, in a personal conversation added that varmint shooters knew their limit in the field better than most all others. And respected their limitations. I might add that team shooting off a solid bench in the field gives you the advantage of observing the flight of bullets by watching the shock wave when spotting from behind the gun. Hundreds and hundreds of bullets, and the shooter gets the experience of having held rock solid, held off just so or having dialed in the perfect shot and then missed - sometimes by a wide margin and analyzing how the bullet did not land where he could have sworn it would. It also schools a man on what loading precision ammo is all about. I will add this, even though it is not as applicable to long range shooting as it is for all field shooting, "walking varmint shooting" teaches a man to drop to sitting really efficiently, to spot a location that offers a solid resting position quickly, and if he is shooting prairie dogs wherein 500 to a thousand offhand or rested shots in a day are not out of the question, by the time you have been doing it for a few days you get so sharp that "your rifle becomes a part of you."I have shot high power, position, rifle silhouette and other games well enough to have trophies sitting at mom's house and can say unequivocally that in my experience there is nothing that is as good at making a guy good at every aspect of long range field shooting as varmint shooting will. And in the process it teaches you to use your binocular and spotting scope the way you need to if you are going to reliably find game in the field.
Maybe mountanman kid will give you a lesson he is the best shot I have ever seen
I have taught classes several times. They were designed and formatted for the average hunter, bringing personal, hunting weight rifles, hunting powered scopes. 2 days classroom (for the "math" and to evaluate general skill and comprehension). Day 3 to the field. All were able to place first shot in a deer kill zone area at 600 yards by days end. Some progressed quickly, others took longer. All would agree, the "curve" was less then to research, read, research and read some more as opposed to 3 days of on-hand. Most reported back after hunting season ended..most shots were around 200 yards ☺
Quote from: JDHasty on December 01, 2017, 09:16:53 PMGet into varmint shooting and it will provide you with the knowledge of not only shooting, but spotting game at range. Way back when I was a kid there was an outfitter in Wyoming who used to say that eastern varmint shooters were the hunters he trusted most at long range shooting. Les Bowman is his name and basically what he had to say was that varmint shooters knew their limitations better, more often than accomplished western big game hunters and almost invariably would either drop down on their butt and get solid using their knees, find something to put a glove or their pack on for a rest or would look for a location to fire prone. Wherein almost all others were ready to shoot offhand at distant animals. Varmint shooters also were experienced in doping wind under FIELD conditions and most importantly had learned patience. Not rushing the shot when it comes to shooting live game.Another old timer, Bob Milek, in a personal conversation added that varmint shooters knew their limit in the field better than most all others. And respected their limitations. I might add that team shooting off a solid bench in the field gives you the advantage of observing the flight of bullets by watching the shock wave when spotting from behind the gun. Hundreds and hundreds of bullets, and the shooter gets the experience of having held rock solid, held off just so or having dialed in the perfect shot and then missed - sometimes by a wide margin and analyzing how the bullet did not land where he could have sworn it would. It also schools a man on what loading precision ammo is all about. I will add this, even though it is not as applicable to long range shooting as it is for all field shooting, "walking varmint shooting" teaches a man to drop to sitting really efficiently, to spot a location that offers a solid resting position quickly, and if he is shooting prairie dogs wherein 500 to a thousand offhand or rested shots in a day are not out of the question, by the time you have been doing it for a few days you get so sharp that "your rifle becomes a part of you."I have shot high power, position, rifle silhouette and other games well enough to have trophies sitting at mom's house and can say unequivocally that in my experience there is nothing that is as good at making a guy good at every aspect of long range field shooting as varmint shooting will. And in the process it teaches you to use your binocular and spotting scope the way you need to if you are going to reliably find game in the field. Bob was a good man
Quote from: mountainman on December 01, 2017, 09:44:23 PMQuote from: JDHasty on December 01, 2017, 09:16:53 PMGet into varmint shooting and it will provide you with the knowledge of not only shooting, but spotting game at range. Way back when I was a kid there was an outfitter in Wyoming who used to say that eastern varmint shooters were the hunters he trusted most at long range shooting. Les Bowman is his name and basically what he had to say was that varmint shooters knew their limitations better, more often than accomplished western big game hunters and almost invariably would either drop down on their butt and get solid using their knees, find something to put a glove or their pack on for a rest or would look for a location to fire prone. Wherein almost all others were ready to shoot offhand at distant animals. Varmint shooters also were experienced in doping wind under FIELD conditions and most importantly had learned patience. Not rushing the shot when it comes to shooting live game.Another old timer, Bob Milek, in a personal conversation added that varmint shooters knew their limit in the field better than most all others. And respected their limitations. I might add that team shooting off a solid bench in the field gives you the advantage of observing the flight of bullets by watching the shock wave when spotting from behind the gun. Hundreds and hundreds of bullets, and the shooter gets the experience of having held rock solid, held off just so or having dialed in the perfect shot and then missed - sometimes by a wide margin and analyzing how the bullet did not land where he could have sworn it would. It also schools a man on what loading precision ammo is all about. I will add this, even though it is not as applicable to long range shooting as it is for all field shooting, "walking varmint shooting" teaches a man to drop to sitting really efficiently, to spot a location that offers a solid resting position quickly, and if he is shooting prairie dogs wherein 500 to a thousand offhand or rested shots in a day are not out of the question, by the time you have been doing it for a few days you get so sharp that "your rifle becomes a part of you."I have shot high power, position, rifle silhouette and other games well enough to have trophies sitting at mom's house and can say unequivocally that in my experience there is nothing that is as good at making a guy good at every aspect of long range field shooting as varmint shooting will. And in the process it teaches you to use your binocular and spotting scope the way you need to if you are going to reliably find game in the field. Bob was a good manIndeed. I met him in The Sportsman in Livingston and then would see him at SHOT Shows when I was in the industry. My grandfather kind of started the Livingston Sportsman's Club. He bought two traps and sunk them in concrete and would hook them with his wrecker and take them out to the Yellowstone River a couple evenings every week. He would also buy a half boxcar of clay targets and cases of shotgun shells just get reimbursement for the cost of shotgun shells and targets. That kind of made me a minor celebrity when I went out to the gun club. Mike Venterino lived outside Livingston at that time, he still may. I still have a dozen of the wooden shotshell cases that the shells came in back in those days. There were hundreds of them in grandpa's basement when I was young,, if I had only known what they would be worth today. I would corner Bob at the SHOT Show and tell him of my trials and tribulations w/my super 14 223 barrel and he would offer helpful hints. He was on "Team TC" and would take all the time in the world with me, kind of alluding, but not saying...". The last time I saw him he asked me if that 223 Contender barrel was figured out yet? I told him: I'm over it, I gave it to one of my employees and bought an XP 100. Bob said: Now your cooking with gas! There was more to the conversation, but that is what I remember. He liked to shoot prairie dogs and we went to Roundup/Musselshell to a friend of mine's ranch once for an afternoon. He had a scoped pistol and I had my model 65 in 218 Bee with a receiver sight on it and he thought it was really cool that a young guy with a Riimaki Sako in 222 and a Savage Anshutz in 222 Mag wanted to go screw around on a PD town with a model 65 for a day.
Quote from: JDHasty on December 02, 2017, 12:18:00 AMQuote from: mountainman on December 01, 2017, 09:44:23 PMQuote from: JDHasty on December 01, 2017, 09:16:53 PMGet into varmint shooting and it will provide you with the knowledge of not only shooting, but spotting game at range. Way back when I was a kid there was an outfitter in Wyoming who used to say that eastern varmint shooters were the hunters he trusted most at long range shooting. Les Bowman is his name and basically what he had to say was that varmint shooters knew their limitations better, more often than accomplished western big game hunters and almost invariably would either drop down on their butt and get solid using their knees, find something to put a glove or their pack on for a rest or would look for a location to fire prone. Wherein almost all others were ready to shoot offhand at distant animals. Varmint shooters also were experienced in doping wind under FIELD conditions and most importantly had learned patience. Not rushing the shot when it comes to shooting live game.Another old timer, Bob Milek, in a personal conversation added that varmint shooters knew their limit in the field better than most all others. And respected their limitations. I might add that team shooting off a solid bench in the field gives you the advantage of observing the flight of bullets by watching the shock wave when spotting from behind the gun. Hundreds and hundreds of bullets, and the shooter gets the experience of having held rock solid, held off just so or having dialed in the perfect shot and then missed - sometimes by a wide margin and analyzing how the bullet did not land where he could have sworn it would. It also schools a man on what loading precision ammo is all about. I will add this, even though it is not as applicable to long range shooting as it is for all field shooting, "walking varmint shooting" teaches a man to drop to sitting really efficiently, to spot a location that offers a solid resting position quickly, and if he is shooting prairie dogs wherein 500 to a thousand offhand or rested shots in a day are not out of the question, by the time you have been doing it for a few days you get so sharp that "your rifle becomes a part of you."I have shot high power, position, rifle silhouette and other games well enough to have trophies sitting at mom's house and can say unequivocally that in my experience there is nothing that is as good at making a guy good at every aspect of long range field shooting as varmint shooting will. And in the process it teaches you to use your binocular and spotting scope the way you need to if you are going to reliably find game in the field. Bob was a good manIndeed. I met him in The Sportsman in Livingston and then would see him at SHOT Shows when I was in the industry. My grandfather kind of started the Livingston Sportsman's Club. He bought two traps and sunk them in concrete and would hook them with his wrecker and take them out to the Yellowstone River a couple evenings every week. He would also buy a half boxcar of clay targets and cases of shotgun shells just get reimbursement for the cost of shotgun shells and targets. That kind of made me a minor celebrity when I went out to the gun club. Mike Venterino lived outside Livingston at that time, he still may. I still have a dozen of the wooden shotshell cases that the shells came in back in those days. There were hundreds of them in grandpa's basement when I was young,, if I had only known what they would be worth today. I would corner Bob at the SHOT Show and tell him of my trials and tribulations w/my super 14 223 barrel and he would offer helpful hints. He was on "Team TC" and would take all the time in the world with me, kind of alluding, but not saying...". The last time I saw him he asked me if that 223 Contender barrel was figured out yet? I told him: I'm over it, I gave it to one of my employees and bought an XP 100. Bob said: Now your cooking with gas! There was more to the conversation, but that is what I remember. He liked to shoot prairie dogs and we went to Roundup/Musselshell to a friend of mine's ranch once for an afternoon. He had a scoped pistol and I had my model 65 in 218 Bee with a receiver sight on it and he thought it was really cool that a young guy with a Riimaki Sako in 222 and a Savage Anshutz in 222 Mag wanted to go screw around on a PD town with a model 65 for a day. JD-How long ago were you an instructor for the patrol? WSP? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Awesome information and what I was looking for! Thank you forum and for the efforts to keep on topic. Not to open a can of worms, but all classes seem to require an owner supplied rifle for the class. I do have a capable firearm(Remington model 700, 7mm mag), lethal to my current abilities ~ 350 yards. It's harvested +20 large game animals, though purchased in late 90's, I'm not sure it has the sub MOA capabilities so many new rifles tout. It's topped with a Leupold VX-II with dial scope. I'm a proficient shooter, took the rifle marksman award home, at every boy scout camp I attended! With that said, how do I read through the fluff online and find a hunting rifle capable of hitting 1000 yds, while setting personal ethics limits out to 5 and 600 yards? I've perused Rbros, Gunwerks, Christiansen arms websites and while I drool at those rifles, I'm hard on equipment given the terrain and effort expelled on hunts. Will "sub par" rifles without the price tag seen above perform? I'm hard headed/loyal and will stick with the 7mm mag caliber, so what are the elements to consider when buying a long range rifle? Precision of barrel, muzzle break, ammunition, ect?I don't reload yet, so would likely be utilizing factory made ammo. What would building vs buying an Rbros rifle save? Thanks again for all of the information. I will be utilizing much of it and such great offers by many of the forum members on here.
Tagging along and wondering if anyone has any thoughts or feedback regarding the Burris Eliminator scopes.
