The "instinctive" nature of a rifle

[Scott Tschirhart]

I read a story some years ago by Sam Fadalla in his excellent book on the Model 94 Winchester about some miners who were pretty darn good with their .30-30s because they lived with the guns. They seemed to hit well at any reasonable distance.

I read another account of some buffalo hunters who became so familiar with their Sharps rifles that they rarely adjusted their sights, and simply held off for changes in elevation due to varying distances.

I have experienced the joy of bowhunting with a longbow and learning the trajectory curve such that I could easily skewer a deer within any reasonable distance. I remember vividly putting a 33 inch Cedar arrow from my 90lb Howard Hill longbow through a doe at better than 80yds.

All of these examples probably involve someone who has shot so much that it is easy and quick to put that projectile where one wishes.

By contrast, I watched a good rifle shooter miss aoudad recently at 50 and again at 80 yds. All shots were stationary and not rushed. His rifle was a Browing A Bolt in .243 Winchester Short Mag with a fine 4.5-14x Leopold scope. I know it was properly zeroed because I saw him shoot it from the bench after the misses.

There is some disconnect here. That Browning is a fine rifle with a fine cartridge that will probably group into less than an inch at 100yds every day of the week.....from the bench.

Thinking about this phenominon hard for the past couple of weeks led me to the conclusion that I was doing it wrong again with my Sharps. In my quest to obtain additional accuracy at long range, because my African companion said that I need to be able to shoot out to 300yds, I mounted a target front sight on the rifle and a fine tang sight with fine adjustments.

Yes, I was pleased with the accuracy I was obtaining out to 200yds, but I lost something too. If I wanted to shoot at 200 and my sight was set at 100, I had to go through several steps to get there. I had to remember how many points to come up, and then adjust the sight accordingly (unscrew the eyepiece, adjust the staff, tighten the eyepiece) taking wayyyy too long for what I actually do with this rifle.

Additionally, my groups were not terribly different than what I was shooting with the plain old field sights that I had killed plenty of game with! With those obsolete sights, I simply put the blade in the proper place and squeezed the trigger. Taking more time for a long shot and less time for a close shot.

So, I decided to go back. Yesterday, the target sights came off the rifle, to be replaced by a Lawrence ladder rear sight and a plain front blade. I started working again at 50 yds and shooting as quickly as the sights were properly aligned. Groups were satisfyingly small for the short amount of time spent aligning the sights (less than two inches) and the rifle feels like it should again. No delicate parts to worry about....just point and shoot.

I believe there is an "instinctive" part to rifle shooting, and it comes ONLY through total familiarity with the weapon and the willingness to burn plenty of powder toward that end.

I may still need the use of an aperature sight for shots over 200 yds, or I may just pass on them, but for most of my shooting, I think I can get by just fine without them.

I will use bowhunter tactics that worked so well with the longbow, though I have more than twice the effective range that I ever had with a longbow. I do not feel disadvantaged in the least.

Just me and Big Nose Kate

[powderburner]

Good thoughts Scott .
I think that hunters rely too much on bench shooting teniques and not enough field shooting Ie, offhand , kneeling , braced up on a tree, or whatever ,and when they get to where they are going to shoot they have not trained their muscles to hold a rifle properly for the shot , ,Some do but the majority seem to hope technology will get them through... good post.
...Dean

[Scott Tschirhart]

Well Dean,

I think that part of it is that it is intensely gratifying to shoot little bitty groups at a bench, but it is not good for one's ego to shoot paper from field positions until you get some time behind the buttplate.

I have pretty much weaned myself off the bench entirely. I even zero my rifles from field positions.

We have a lot of folks here that are real shooters, and they could shade me any day of the week with these guns. I admire them and their dedication, but most folks don't spend that much time with a rifle.

[Orville]

Scott
Your right on, I use the barrel sights that came with the rifle for hunting. I find it very enjoyable to just shoot at unknown diestances with the barrel sights, rocks usally, I think that will do more for you when it came to hunting then any thing else.
I have suggest to some of my friends why no have a shooting contest with barrel sights only, 50 to 250-300 yds, and may do it if there are enough shooters around here without the target sights on their guns.
Golf balls about 50 yds no artificial rest.

[rdnck]

really works when you shoot the rifle enough to become one with it. The barrel sights on a Sharps are the finest hunting sights ever made. I started down that path with a 58 caliber Hawken with fixed sights a lot of years ago, and about 1985 started to use a copper penny in front. When I put the penny blade to work on a Sharps with the wonderful Lawerence rear, it opened a whole new world to me. Unfortunately, very few people want to learn to shoot like that, but those who do can make shots that amaze other people.

Scott is too modest. I promise you don't want him shooting at you with his Sharps or anything else.

Orville, by the way, what is a golf ball?? Shoot straight, rdnck.

[Scott Tschirhart]

rdnck,

I think he is talking about one of those hard eggs that you find in the grass of those big yards with the swimmin holes and sand pits in the big city.

I don't think you can cook one of those enough to make it soft enough to eat though.

I have often wondered what a Golf bird looks like though. Never seen one even in the magazines.

[rdnck]

Scott--I thought about it from that perspective for a while, but decided that couldn't be it. Orville definitely said "ball" not "egg", and I've never seen a bird with balls. Orville is obviously on to something. Shoot straight, rdnck.

[Orville]

Rdnck it's them little balls people use when they play pasture pool, they are about the size of a turkeys head, if you can hit one with your rifle you should also be able to hit a grouse in the head.
I suppose we could stake some trukeys behind a large log so you can only see their head when they raise up to look over the log, we would have to put some grain on the ground behind the log also, you keep the trukey you hit.

[Scott Tschirhart]

Orville,

Might be hard to find a log we could not shoot through!

[Brant Selb]

Scott, rdnck, Orville

I just walked in the house from an afternoon trying to hit one of dang little white balls, bird balls, turkey heads, whatever the hell you want to call it--it ain't easy and it was just sitten there, not even moving and I had one heck of a time trying to hit it! I quit! I'm sticking to rifle and gun shooting, it is much easier and far less stressful; the very idea of a grown man trying to hit an egg or whatever with a stick or a club, it's crazy I tell you, just plain crazy and as of right now, I won't do it again!

Brant

[Orville]

I don't think there's much danger of shooting through a 20-30 inch dry cotton wood log.

[Lee Stone]

Golf Course = A waste of perfectly good land that would make a good rifle range.

[SteveA]

Rdnck,
Have you ever seen a Secretary Bird fight a Cobra? Those birds have balls!

Steve

[rdnck]

Steve--I saw several Secretary Birds in the wild when I was in RSA. I did not see a cobra or any other snake while I was there. If I were to see them fighting, I think I would give the bird a hand--balls or not-- and shoot the snake as a matter of principle. Shoot straight, rdnck.

[Headhunter]

Shoot,

Yesterday at the range, about 6 guys were getting ready for deer season. Doing there final sight in. Towards the end of thier shooting, one of them put up a gallon jug filled with water setting on a post at 200 yards. Each of them shot at it 3 times having themselves some kind of contest.

Everyone missed.

I asked one of the guys I knew if I could give er a try. He said with that ol Sharps? And they all laughed.

Well, you know where this ones going.

Buckhorn rear, blade front. Touched off a 520 grain Government flying about 1350 From Cross sticks.

One of the guys said, that was a lucky shot. So, I chambered another one and hit the empty jug on the ground and sent it flying into the weeds. Hit a little low, but they don't know that.

Barrel sights are JUST fine for hunting.

Headhunter