Shoot it would be hard to breathe in that blind, hope nobody ate beans the night before!

SO TRUE!

I've seen this and felt it myself. Never ruined a shot, but forgot ear plugs once that I told myself many times I would install before firing. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiing.

I liken it to what I do for a living. Train like you fight, fight like you train. If you practice very often, when the nut cuttin starts you'll have the mental and physical muscle memory to (mostly) overcome the emotion and the adrenaline rush.

Same thing happens to EVERY competitive shooter. They can hit every target at any distance on their home range consistantly. But when the entry fee has been paid, the safety brief is done and the lead starts flying things get dicey. Now you're trying to overcome the stress you put on youself to do well, people are watching and you're under a time constraint. In other words, stress. Adding the stress makes the good and great shooters revert back to their practice and training. Thy can block out th stressors and focus on the reticle, the target, believe their wind hold is right and maintain good trigger control. I've foun when I just tell myself its no big deal, I've done this hundreds of times I do way better than when I worry about the stressors I mentioned. I got into those matches because they are very fun and they have made me a more capable and more successful hunter.

I have rifles from cheap military surplus to those those that I have put more money in than I care to recount, but it is range time and time in the field that makes the marksman and/or the hunter. I have put down a bunch of game with rifles that never shoot better than 3 MOA at the range. I have never been much of a long distance shooter, only occasionally stretching out to 500 yards, with a fair bit more time spent between 200 and 300 yards, and a whole lot more between 25 and 100 yards. Other than load development and sight in I rarely shoot from a bench, I try to get as much trigger time in from field positions as possible and to learn what each of my rifles can and can't do so I can hunt with them accordingly.

If a person wants to chase tiny groups then an endless circle of practice and equipment tinkering and upgrades is inevitable, every time a limiting factor is encountered it must be overcome. Sometimes it is the man, sometimes it is the machine. Do everything the same time and time again, changing one tiny variable at a time, logging everything... So many variables, so little time...


Now, no matter what your budget is, showing up at hunting camp with a new in box rifle is not at good idea, and unfortunately I have had more than one guy do it.

-ww

My best 200 yard group was shot with my old 6.5 x 284 over in Notree's and that was about a hour before the match, 5 shots in .183. Match starts and I can't keep it under .200, didn't even place in the top 3.

Competition will really screw up your head! I'm no expert, I've shot in 20 or so, and I still have to fight it.

I don't think you ever really get over it. I've been highly competitive my whole life, combat matches, sihouette matches, benchrest, golf, disc golf, shuffle board and poker. But I've never been able to get to that point where I can compete with the big boy's.

About a week before deer season, my dad would go buy two boxes of shells. 1 box to make sure his rifle was still zeroed and 1 box for hunting, if he had to shoot more than a couple rounds to rezero his rifle.

In the 15 years I hunted with my dad, he dropped every deer he shot at with one shot, almost dead in its tracks. I can remember him shooting a Buck at over 400 yards once in West Virginia. We were shooting from ridgetop to ridgetop. Took us half a day to find a way over to the other ridge. The 30-06 bullet went through both lungs and the heart.

I don't target shoot my hunting rifles either. I do have some guns that I like to shoot for the sake of shooting, but I only punch paper to sight my rifles in. The rest of the time, my friends and I generally setup up cans, jugs, or clay pigeons at various distances.

Never found putting holes in paper all that stimulating.

Punching paper to perform load development and check zero is a chore. Hitting reactive targets is fun. One day last year I had my wife ringing steel out to 400 yards with her .223. Then I set up some milk jugs full of water. She really liked the milk jugs better. But I had to remind her that I don't have to drive out to the target to reset the steel. She said she'd make it up to me.

I'm one year behind Rusty & have to use a scope beyond 50 yards.

I tried shooting my AR-15 with an Eotech at 100 yards and couldn't line up the dot and target. The Eotech is now on my S&W AR 15-22 and my AR-15 has some magnifying glass on top.

The beauty of a sub-MOA rifle is you know its entirely up to you to hit your target.

I don't suggest getting old if you can avoid it and still be alive.

Texas Ed, reviews are a bit hard and somewhat awkward. I found this out when reviewing a FNAR. First, I am a pistol shooter and shot very view semi auto rifles. I knew a bit from reading posts of some good rifle shots on here. I got a Kahles fixed 10x and FiremanJG had to teach me to use it over the Internet.

I have got the FNAR running like a Rolex but I still have little experience to compare it to.

Secondly, you don't want to appear to be hawking your favorite rifle no matter how much you like it.

As you get more experience with a rifle you really like you learn to work around small problems that might well drive someone else crazy. For example, no matter how practical and useable the AR15 is, I have not found ONE that has made my favorite list. This makes you slow to really recommend or tout your favorite rifle cause you have figured out one size doesn't fit sall

Rusty,

I think the negative reviews being more numerous may be because guns are expensive and if something goes wrong people want to complain. If it goes well then I guess there is no news.

I don't think most people mind "hawking" what they own, actually I think people generally want to have confirmation that they have a good thing and then they go tell everyone that is looking for a pistol, shotgun, or a rifle about theirs.

This shows up on the forums as someone asking a question for recommendations. I'd bet that only 25-50% of those questions end up in an actual gun purchase. They guys that get a lemon come back to complain and the guys who don't rarely seem to post anything about their new gun.

Maybe they don't want to talk about how they (the human) shoots. Maybe if there are no problems they have less motivation to speak about it.

I'm not one to ever judge someone interest in firearms and abilities to shoot. But I've always thought SUB MOA discussion is overrated.

What impresses me most is the first shot at incredible distances (for that shooter could be 100 yards for some and 1600 yards for others) and hitting what they intend to hit be it a 1/4" target or a 12" gong.

This is me. I shoot at least twice a month and feel I am an excellent shot from sand bags. I would say I easily put 1000 rounds per year through my rifles. BUT when I shoot at an animal, even a doe, I have a hard time making a good shot. I will shamefully admit right now that I shot a doe in the heart this year. It was facing me. I was trying to make a neck shot. Blind luck.

you don't have to burn out the barrel in every rifle you own to make sure you can shoot them.

Agreed. I don't shoot near as much as some guys I know, but I use quality equipment that I can routinely count on working when I need it to, and have spent enough time behind a rifle that I don't overthink things. But the foundation for my confidence comes from guns that shoot better than okay, sub MOA is a foundation I insist on for anything I intend to stretch the distance with.

I will run through my rifles before any important trips to see if they're still all doing what they need to do.... some need a good cleaning to get back to normal, some need to be cleaned and have some rounds put back through it to get back to normal, some are perfect and I'm not going to touch them until after I get back from a hunt.

Stress is multiplicative not additive.

Stress A (bench vs field)/ Stress B (excited vs calm) / Stress C (fatigue vs fresh) --> A*B*C not A+B+C

Just my thoughts ...

Agreed. A little bit of quality practice is far better than a large amount of bad practice.

In November I did some mowing of the range and adjusted some target locations. After two hours of work I figured I was there and couldn't leave without firing some rounds. I observed a 10 to 12 mph left to right wind. I loaded 10 rounds in the mag, dialed up for 200 yards, fired, hit, 300 yards, fired, hit, 400, 500, 600, 700, one shot one hit each. I pulled the mag, unloaded the remaining four rounds, packed my gear and headed home...maybe because I just batted a thousand I didn't want to ruin it.

I used to shoot a lot more than I do now simply because when I lived in Alaska hunting season is never really over, always had a rifle in the vehicle/4wheeler/snowmachine...whatever, and you can pretty much kill anything you see while out an about, so I shot year round. Now that I live in the city world shooting can be a real pain in the azz, as you have to go to the ranges around town or spend $100 in gas and go to the lease which doesn't happen too often. Sure do miss the freedom of land without fences!....grin

there's really not enough difference in the function of my long distance guns to justify shooting all of them all the time. All Remington 700s, all the same trigger pull (except 1, it's frog hair light) and the only difference is a cpl have B&C reticles and the rest have dials. I pulled out my AWR to check it back in Oct and who would have thought I could still hit something with it

This year I didn't hunt nearly as much as most years and did not shoot as much either. From a clean gun, 3 ahots at 100 yards, 3 shots at 325 yards, then one deer at 35 yards, coyote at about 160 yards and a missed trotting yote at about 250 yards. Then season ended. The 2 groups were sub MOA, the others were minute of deer, minute of yote and a miss. Guess should have shot more

I just shot hogs and a bobcat this year...'twas more a year of bullet performance on lined up pigs.

That would be me. .

True. But I shoot for the enjoyment of shooting. If I burn the barrel out I will get another.

I have never missed, always the fault of my sorry equipment, optics, ammo. I love being honest and admitting the truth. Now to take my nose to the belt sander.