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This Article is designed to help you to become a better shot with a rifle and to give you some helpful tips for glassing with your new optics. It’s not book time but Trigger Time and time a field that will help us to achieve those goals, so on with the show.
“Beware of the man with one gun.” When was the last time you heard that, if ever? The last time I saw that was in a reprint of a story that took place in the early 1900’s. That saying means, “Watch out for the man who is so familiar with his rifle that it’s not often he’ll miss”.
Shooters are about as likely to hear that axiom from today’s outdoor writers pushing the latest and greatest rifles as the ladies are to hear, “Beware the woman with one pair of shoes.” What I’m talking about here is confidence with your weapon. Are you going to be confident this fall when you hunt your way, within range of your game, and it’s time to pull the trigger?
I remember a time when I was 12 and I bought 1,500 rounds for my lever-gun for only $3.00. All of those B.B.s probably didn’t last a week. Some pretty spectacular shots were made with that open-sighted, unrifled, and spring operated long gun! Obviously, the inherent accuracy of that .177 caliber fowling piece wasn’t the reason for those incredible shots, neither was my amount of expert training. I was very familiar and confident with that weapon from constant use.
In stark contrast to my B.B. gun was my experience with my dad’s .22 rifle. It was nicely stocked, in walnut, with a 26-inch barrel and a very smooth trigger. By all rights this should have been such an accurate rifle, and I never should have missed with the thing. For some reason I never was able to become confident with it, even though I would sometimes shoot 150 rounds through that single shot in one afternoon (I later found it to be key-holing ).
The reason we become confident in any rifle is by making a history of successful shots under certain conditions. Going from B.B. gun, to rimfire, to centerfire means increased ammo costs and further restrictions on shooting opportunities. Also, if you are like myself, the time constraints life asserts now are different than those of childhood. So, we shoot less, and shoot further, and pay thousands to do so. Where does that leave shooting confidence? It’s at the range and in the field, waiting for you. So choose your weapon, pick up your bullets, and start spending some good quality Trigger Time.
In the next few editions I’ll talk more about confidence, followed by: sight picture, shooting positions, using good judgment, and glassing techniques. I’ll purposefully be leaving out the things that most shooting books and magazine articles repeat so often. I‘ll concentrate on necessary skills that, by the way, I don’t believe can be replaced by more guns, gear, and gadgets. So until then,” Ride well, shoot straight, and speak the truth.”
-Dave
If you are interested in more artilces like this please visit our website www.RangerOptics.com, where you can subscribe to get more newsletters from Dave. Thanks.
Happy Hunting!
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