doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com So, how poorly do 'most' hunters shoot?

First, I have to second the preceding comments about run of the mill rifle shooters and range estimation. I belonged to a private club and was continually appalled at people who would show up at the range the week before a hunt, throw no more than five rounds downrange and, if they could see the shots on paper, all was good. In the field, anything that is visible in the scope is a good shot. I hear eastern deer hunters saying their rifle is sighed in for 200-300 years (Really?) Shotgun in hand, the tendency is to point the thing and wait for the bird to intersect the line of sight. That's the great unwashed mass. There are also some who are very proficient, scary good, even, but they are the minority.

People that normally bird hunt, but who don't practice much, usually seem to me to do surprisingly well and I have to wonder how good they would be if they did practice. Among them I consider myself perhaps marginally more competent, but they often express amazement at my shooting. It makes me wonder what the margin is between average and good wing shooting is.

I am about 40% on grouse and about 60% on woodcock.

Target shooters are golfers with guns.

I used to be a very good shot, one season I killed the first 23 ducks I shot at. After my cataract surgery the first season I missed the first 17 in a row and had to give up International Skeet. Since then I've concentrated on hunting skills and have learned to pass on shots that are out of my network. I find that now I'm very good if I can get them inside twenty yards and pick my hunting places and shots to assure conditions that a favorable to my ability. I've learned my shortcomings and have adapted. Suprisingly my numbers of birds haven't fallen very much and I have to eat a lot during the season to stay in my possession limit. I still shoot skeet from the low gun and stay in the twenties on am American skeet field but it has been a long time since a 25 straight.

Shotgunjones - Thanks for that - your technique is indeed what I 'try' to do ...... and it does work ..... for medium height birds. I still find that I really struggle with the high ones. I know from when I have shot similar height birds as crossers, they need a LOT more lead (compared to medium height birds) - and that's what I find defeats me on the really high incomers. (its the same on clays).

Fore!

Back in 2006 I wasn�t a bad shot, especially on upland game birds. Then the doctors in Chicago ran out of treatment options for my wife�s cancer so, on their counsel, we moved to Texas and MD Anderson Cancer Hospital. After arriving in Texas both my target shooting and hunting dropped off dramatically, I had too many other things on my mind. It wasn�t until late 2011, about 6 months after my wife passed away, that I finally went hunting again, thanks to some kind hearted members of this board. Nobody commented but I will, my shooting was terrible! However, along with rebuilding the train wreck that my life had become, I�ve been slowly climbing back up the learning curve practicing on clays and this season missing shots on quail. I�m hoping I�ll finally be prepared by next hunting season.

Steve

Re incomers, one problem is that if you wait too long, you run out of swing. Another is that, especially with a sxs, the bird can end up hidden under the barrels if it's a straight incomer. If you're swinging through, pulling the trigger about the time it disappears should give appropriate forward allowance. But there's a hard to get past tendency to stop the gun when you no longer see the bird.

How well do hunters shoot? Of the 20,000-odd hunters Tom Roster has run through his CONSEP program, something like 2/3 of them can't hit 3 or 4 out of 8 crossing clays at 20 yards. Which means that if you're a pretty mediocre skeet shooter, you're better than that.

Well, that may indeed be true but, all I have to say about that is, shame on them. Daddy drilled into me as a kid that "Anything worth doing is worth doing well". That includes killing birds with a shotgun, in my book.

SRH

Quality practice and keeping the ole head screwed on straight, I doubt would ever be a bad thing. But, I think there's so much more to hunting than kill stats. If it were a hundred percent game, I wouldn't bother with it. I think it's really special to be on a good streak, mostly because it won't last.