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Thoughts on shooting ...
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Booshway
Picture of andy*
posted
As stated in a different thread , these are just my thoughts. I do not claim to be a "expert" at anything.

Pick a gun that fits you. I'm not just saying one that fits your build or historical interest but one that you connect with.

Shoot it often , at different times of day and weather. Remember that your gun is not just a "rendezvous toy" so to speak.

Shoot it at places other than the range or club.
Take it with you on a hike . Shoot at that small rock or pine cone ... Practice with it often.

Find a routine on loading , shooting and cleaning. Stick with that routine until it is second nature.

I find that these practices have helped me into being a better shot. Also they have shown me more about any gun rather than , just shooting at the club , rendezvous or hunting.
Andy


Follow me I am the Infantry
 
Posts: 668 | Location: Everson, Washington | Registered: 27 June 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of MountainRanger
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I think that's the way to go. Add to that shooting out of a box, out of bag, horn and your rifle's ramrod too. Find different challenges like you said in different kinds of targets from paper to pine cones, shingles, and try some novelty targets like a Q-tip at 10 or 15 yards. Also, try shooting the different targets in different lighting conditions.


Sua Sponte
 
Posts: 460 | Location: SW Virginia (New River Valley) | Registered: 13 August 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Yeah, nothing beats practical application.

That's why I wonder sometimes about folk who ask about ballistics tables for their ML's...., and wonder about "drop" beyond the distance they have shot their rifle. The tables they find are done with W gun, and X load of powder, and Y roundball, with Z patch and lube. So who knows what muzzle velocity they are getting, and that's what will determine their drop...

OR they can go shoot the thing and find out how much it actually drops.

I mean I know my rifle shoots a supersonic round because I've had people listen for the "crack" when I shoot, and I sorta think I'm getting around 1300 fps, BUT I might be getting more or I might be just barely over 1125 fps. Nobody ever made a chart for my 38" barrel using 70 grains of 3Fg. I have a chronograph so maybe over this summer I will be able to chart my barrel with different loads.

However, I was able to put a ball through a doe at 110 yards on one hunt...so I don't worry.

I think shooting at unknown distances in slightly "odd" positions to mimic what you might need to do when hunting game is a good way to really get to know your rifle. Different times and different weather is also a good idea...though do all of the above once you have sighted the rifle in from a bench, and your loading procedure gives you consistently reliable ignition...then expand your skill set (imho)

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
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In all honesty, when I see someone posting charts and getting all scientific about how they're rifle is reaching such and such velocities, I just smile and move on to the next thread. Don't care to fill my brain with all that complication when I find shooting my flinter to be more relaxing than yoga!
 
Posts: 197 | Registered: 15 January 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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Very good thoughts, here. That's actually my favorite kind of shooting and one I seldom get to do much of nowadays. But there was a time...


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3559 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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"Beware the man with one gun, for he knows how to use it."

I don't know who first uttered that statement, but it has been repeated over and over again for many years by many firearms instructors.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
Picture of TurkeyCreek
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YEP! I agree with y'all. My shooting "bench" is either a log when shooting prone, a kneeling position or standing on my two hind legs, usually the latter two positions. I don't have my backyard "range" marked off, just walk out to about where I want to shoot from. I know it is about 50 paces from about even with my basement door, and so forth. And while I will shoot at a paper plate on cardboard to see where a gun is shooting, mostly I shoot at my hanging gong which is an old railroad track plate painted white (about 6" by 9" or so). I figure that type of shooting practice keeps it practical.


"They do not live their lives 'by your leave'! They hack it out of the wilderness with their own two hands, bearing their children along the way!" - Cora Monroe - "Last Of The Mohicans"
 
Posts: 186 | Location: Turkey Creek on Cimarron Drainage | Registered: 10 September 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Graybeard
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quote:
Originally posted by andy*:

Shoot it at places other than the range or club.
Take it with you on a hike . Shoot at that small rock or pine cone ... Practice with it often.



Very good advice, especially on the "stump shooting". This is the best hunting practice you can get. I do it with my longbow and muzzleloaders. It develops your range estimation ability and its excellent practice for offhand field shooting.


Experience is the best teacher, hunger good sauce.
Osborne Russell Journal of a Trapper
 
Posts: 212 | Location: SW Montana | Registered: 17 December 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
Picture of Leonard
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Must be nice, sigh.

The only place I have to shoot is at my gun club. I'm considered a "real primitive" due to my flintlock smoothbore, lol. Only a handful of us at best with non-inline muzzleloaders.

$40 per year (plus mandatory NRA membership on top of my NMLRA membership) lets me shoot at paper at fixed distances (25, 50 and 100 yards). If I wasn't a senior, I would be paying $65. I have to get out there early to get my "spot" before it gets too crowded. Not quite as bad as golf, but still ....

If I want to shoot my bow for practice, I have to join another club ($36) - shooting a bow in my city's limits is against the law, even in your back yard. So I have to shoot out of sight in my basement - all of 12 yards.


Roaming around a woods and shooting sounds like heaven !!!
 
Posts: 46 | Location: Iowa | Registered: 28 November 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of MountainRanger
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Understand, Leonard. In my Izzak Walton League Chapter, we started out with one black powder shooter, other than those "primitive" hunter who love to discuss their scopes and technical data like on another great post here. That was five years ago, but now, there are actually five others besides me, and three of them shoot flint, although they have only hunted with their rifles... never have been to a shoot. Well, we are discussing among us the possibility of having a powder, patch and ball match. Waiting for the board of directors to give us a Saturday or Sunday all of our ownselves for matches. Maybe I have begun growing on the club like a wart!!! hehe

Have you checked Muzzle Blasts web site for clubs in your area?


Sua Sponte
 
Posts: 460 | Location: SW Virginia (New River Valley) | Registered: 13 August 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Graybeard
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quote:
Originally posted by Leonard:
Must be nice, sigh.

The only place I have to shoot is at my gun club. I'm considered a "real primitive" due to my flintlock smoothbore, lol. Only a handful of us at best with non-inline muzzleloaders.

$40 per year (plus mandatory NRA membership on top of my NMLRA membership) lets me shoot at paper at fixed distances (25, 50 and 100 yards). If I wasn't a senior, I would be paying $65. I have to get out there early to get my "spot" before it gets too crowded. Not quite as bad as golf, but still ....

If I want to shoot my bow for practice, I have to join another club ($36) - shooting a bow in my city's limits is against the law, even in your back yard. So I have to shoot out of sight in my basement - all of 12 yards.


Roaming around a woods and shooting sounds like heaven !!!


I feel for you. I moved out of state for a while and have lived places that had limited shooting opportunities. We are very fortunate here. There's a free/public gun range on one end of town, a private gun range on the other end of town in addition to a free/public archery range in town and a lot of public land where shooting is allowed. Many people around here don't realize how lucky we are.


Experience is the best teacher, hunger good sauce.
Osborne Russell Journal of a Trapper
 
Posts: 212 | Location: SW Montana | Registered: 17 December 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I suppose that I'm one of the lucky ones with a firing range in my back yard. It is only 60 yards, but that's okay.

My backstop of piled logs was right on my property line. I had a small problem with a new neighbor who built a house in the woods behind me. He didn't mind the shooting, but he sure is particular about property boundaries and exactly what is his and what is mine. He has a bulldozer, so I told him to push my backstop several yards into my own property. He did, then he built a strong barbed wire fence. I have not heard from him since then.
The local gun club here is full and has not been open to new members for years.
There is a public range about 20 miles from here. It cost just $3. for all day there. It is an honor system. There is no official there to monitor things. That is where I go when I need a 100 yard range. It is a nice facility with covered shooting benches, unfortunately people leave their trash all over the place. Old targets, soda cans, brass, etc. I have picked up a lot of brass there for reloading.

But, the point of this thread, I believe, is to have a gun that you like, one that fits you, and then get to know it throughly.

Among other duties, I used to be a pistol and shotgun instructor. I carried my own revolver that I liked a lot. I practiced often and got to where I could hit a can or baseball size rock thrown in the air about 3 out of 4 times. Then, the department switched to semi-automatics and required that we carry the issued weapon. I didn't like that bulky .40 Baretta and did not shoot it anywhere near as well as I did my old S&W model 19.

Since I retired I still carry a modern self-defense handgun, but I seldom practice with it anymore. Instead, I target shoot muzzleloaders on my back yard range.
I hunt almost exclusively with either my .50 percussion longrifle, or my .62 flintlock fowler. Unfortunately, I don't know of any other muzzleloader shooters around here.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by TurkeyCreek:
YEP! I agree with y'all. My shooting "bench" is either a log when shooting prone, a kneeling position or standing on my two hind legs, usually the latter two positions. I don't have my backyard "range" marked off, just walk out to about where I want to shoot from. I know it is about 50 paces from about even with my basement door, and so forth. And while I will shoot at a paper plate on cardboard to see where a gun is shooting, mostly I shoot at my hanging gong which is an old railroad track plate painted white (about 6" by 9" or so). I figure that type of shooting practice keeps it practical.


Thanks for the idea there TurkeyCreek. I was wondering about how I could rig up a gong and I have a couple or three old track plates in the garage I had forgotten about.
 
Posts: 17 | Location: Northeast PA | Registered: 28 June 2016Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I have a few of those old RR plates, they make great clangers and even have holes for hanging chains already in them! Last forever, too.

For better match shooting I'd add working on footwork/placement, dry firing practice at home, and exercise! I shoot much better in the spans I've been going to the gym, splitting firewood, anything that builds the muscles.
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Iche Iia
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After reading the above post, I have to agree that practice is the only way to get good. Along with sticking with one gun. I am bad about that; I have a .62 smooth bore (no name so far) that hasn’t gotten use to me yet so I work on it a lot. I have a .50 cal. Mountain Rifle (Sweet Thing) that is a nail driver and I shoot it right much too. But I also have a little .36 cal (Little Bit) that is my favorite and it is the one I use for all the matches I get into.

So, you can take it from that, I shoot a LOT LOL
I’m lucky, I’m retired and our club range is only about 20 minutes from here (and I have the key!) I started target shooting late in life. War time shooting can take a lot of the “fun factor” out of it and it took a while to pick one up again. Now, I could kick myself for letting myself fall into that trap. All it meant was “they” won by keeping me away from a hobby I did really enjoy.

Anyway, not to dwell on that crap, I go to the range at least once a week. Always on Sunday with my son and sometimes during the middle of the week and when I do, I shoot a lot. But I only take one gun with me at a time. I tried that deal of taking an arsenal with me and shooting everything but I quickly found out that you don’t learn squat. We (The James River Black Powder club in Virginia) have an excellent range with 25, 50 75, and 100 yard targets and we hold the black power State Championship shoot each year. We also have the best Woods Walk around. I can say that for sure because I set it up LOL. So, yes, I am lucky in that regard and I do take advantage of it.

Black powder shooting is not easy, so the best thing that I can tell anyone is; pick one gun, bench it and find out what grain powder and what patch and lube it likes. Then, shot it……..a lot. That is if you don’t want to stay in the “also ran” category. But most of all, have fun. That is what all this is about in the first place.


Iche Iia

"Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he's too old to fight, he'll just kill you."
 
Posts: 379 | Location: Prince George, Virginia | Registered: 04 April 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of MountainRanger
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Iche
I'd like to come over for that state shoot in October. I belong to the state muzzle loader association, and one of our members in our club is a state rep. I have the state organization's match schedule with the map to your range. Hopefully, that will work out. If you have that booklet, check out our club's shoots. Next big one is in September... the grocery shoot. We're the Wilderness Road Muzzleloaders.


Sua Sponte
 
Posts: 460 | Location: SW Virginia (New River Valley) | Registered: 13 August 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Iche Iia
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Love to have ya! This might help. https://www.facebook.com/James...BlackPowder/?fref=ts
If you need anything else just yell.


Iche Iia

"Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he's too old to fight, he'll just kill you."
 
Posts: 379 | Location: Prince George, Virginia | Registered: 04 April 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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I'd just like to know, if a muzzleloader will fire with the wind to your back, or if upon firing, does the wind have to change direction.
 
Posts: 25 | Location: northern Mn. | Registered: 31 August 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Iche Iia
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Got to think on that'un


Iche Iia

"Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he's too old to fight, he'll just kill you."
 
Posts: 379 | Location: Prince George, Virginia | Registered: 04 April 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Huh?


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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