There’s a widely adopted practice in the bowhunting community when it comes to preparing for fall hunts.
Think about the range that you expect to shoot an animal during your hunt and practice at double that distance with your bow. Then, when the moment of truth comes on your hunt, you’ll be prepared for most any situation. If you can double your effective range, and there should be great care taken to be both accurate and consistent in hitting your target that aligns with your animal’s vital area, then you can take ethical, killing shots in the field with great confidence.
For some reason, the ‘double your distance’ mantra used by bowhunters is not as popular nor adopted with gun hunters preparing for hunts.
“There are a lot of people saying ‘I can only shoot 200 yards at my property, so that’s what I’ll plan on,” says Trent Marsh, Indiana hunter and Marketing Director with Riton Optics. “There’s nothing wrong with shooting in the space you have, but don’t be afraid to push that distance out, visit a gun club or a rifle range with regularity, and bump that yardage up.”
Marsh says that there’s never been a better time for long distance shooting, what with the incredible performance of modern ballistics and optics, as well as the resurgence of the myriad of six-millimeter calibers.
“Not that long ago, if a guy got a two or three MOA [Minute of Angle, or 1/60th of a degree, which equates to a tolerance of roughly 1 inch off center at 100 yards] rifle, he thought that was a pretty good shooting gun,” he said. “Now you’ve got very affordable guns coming out of the factory able to shoot single MOA, and some are even sub-MOA. I think there’s way more sub-MOA guns than there are sub-MOA shooters.”
Marsh has seen a mindset shift that as guns have become more capable, people are taking advantage and understanding they can enjoy the same benefits by getting themselves in tune with improved optics.
“If you can routinely ring a six-inch steel gong at 600 yards, a 200 yard shot on a white-tailed deer is going to seem like a piece of cake,” he said. “But don’t assume that just because you’re getting a lot more magnification, that it’s going to be easier to shoot at distance. Shooting on a bench is a lot different than the demands of needing to make a shot in the back country in a matter of 60 seconds. There’s not a great benefit in a hunting situation to run to the highest magnification you can get. For most hunting applications, I don’t advise going over 16 power. A good 4-12, or 3-15 is plenty.”
Marsh also says hunters need to pay attention when choosing their reticle style. Make sure you are using a reticle that you can navigate for hunting. Many of the higher magnification riflescopes for competition shooting have robust reticle designs in them, with MRAD [milliradian, an angular unit of measurement for compensating for drop or wind at distance] or MOA adjustments in the design.
“That can get really busy really quick,” Marsh says, “especially under the stress of ‘oh my goodness, there’s that bull that I’ve been hunting for four days.’ All the sudden you hold on the wrong reticle portion and blow the one shot that was offered. In a lot of those instances, keeping it simple is advised over getting too complicated.”
The old hunting adage of spending as much on your riflescope as you spend on your rifle still applies. We’re living in a place and time where optics have improved so much.
“Affordable optics today perform every bit as well as premium optics from 30 or 40 years ago, because the floor has come up so high that it’s not just a price tag and it’s not just a magnification,” Marsh said. “Focus on the specific features and benefits that you need for your situation. Whether it’s optics for shooting, everyday carry, or hunting, your mission drives the gear you use. It’s not going to be what somebody else said worked for them on an internet forum or what the salesperson tells you at Cabela’s or whatever the case may be. You need to take a good look at what it is that you’re going to be doing and what you’re going to be trying to accomplish with that rifle and optic pairing to decide what the best option is for your use.”
Marsh says a great case-in-point is a brand new 30-06 rifle and the common question of what scope should be used on it.
“The two extreme examples I always give are, ‘Well, are you going on an antelope hunt or are you going to Quebec for a bear hunt?’ Because that rifle will do both,” he said. “But the optic that you put on it tells a very different story. You put a 4-16 on it because you went antelope hunting and then you took it on a bear hunt and you can’t figure out why you can’t see anything through the scope in the Canadian bush. You didn’t pick the right optic for what, for what the actual use of that rifle was. You can turn the right answer into the wrong answer really quick based on how you outfit that particular firearm.”
For shooters, practice makes perfect, but step it out as you build skill and proficiency. Larry Bird was famous for starting his shooting practice with layups, then stepping further and further away from the basket. Rifle hunters should take the same approach with their guns at the practice range.
“If you’ve not done long range shooting in the past, it can be very frustrating and demoralizing to just decide, ‘All right, today’s the day I’m going to the range and I’m going from a hundred yards to 500.’ That’s going to end in heartache for a lot of reasons,” Marsh said. “Like I said earlier, there are way more sub-MOA rifles than there are sub-MOA shooters. I’ve spent enough time on the range with enough people over the years to realize that there’s not many people that can outshoot their equipment.” Start close, then build your way out. Build good practice habits with good form that translates to good shooting and later to lethal hunting.
Just like a bowhunter plans to shoot at 40 yards but practices to 80, you can make your shots seem much easier by practicing out to longer distances. A final tip from Marsh is to invest in an air gun. A spring gun or a pre-charged pneumatic gun can help you practice for pennies on the dollar.
“If you’re screwing something up as a shooter, I would much rather learn that at two cents a trigger pull versus $1.50 a trigger pull,” Marsh said. “It doesn’t have to be crazy long distance because if there’s something off in your trigger press, if there’s an issue in your cheek weld, if you don’t know how to mount a rifle properly, that air rifle will absolutely show you what it is that you’re doing wrong.”