Practice Shooting Like a Hunter, Not a Target Shooter

The most common problem rifle hunters face is that they can’t get off of the bench. Most will sight their rifle in before opening day while seated at a sturdy table, then head to the woods for the rest of the season. If that’s all the shooting you do outside of shooting at critters, you’re going to experience a few misses in your hunting life.

You don’t need to shoot thousands of rounds to become a better rifle shot—you just need to make your training a little more realistic. Below, I’ve got a few tricks and drills you can do with just 100 yards to work with. Best of all, you can shoot most of them with just a handful of rounds. Even if you only have a week to go before the first day of deer season, give some of this a try, and you’ll have a better chance at punching your tag.

Isolate And Shoot From Common Positions

The first thing you need to do when practicing with your rifle is to stop shooting with aids you don’t use in the field. If you hunt from a comfortable box blind with a shooting bench bolted to the floor, you can stop reading this right now. But if you need to make shots under all kinds of conditions, you should practice for them and have a good idea of your weaknesses.

You can do this by just shooting a few rounds at paper at 100 yards. Begin by writing down the positions and shooting aids you’re most likely to use in the woods. Positions might include standing off-hand or reverse kneeling with your knee supporting your elbow. Prone with a backpack works, too, as well as shooting aids like bipods, tripods, and trigger sticks. The trick is to only write down things that you actually use while hunting.

Next, hang a few paper bullseye targets at 100 yards and write down a different position on each target. Fire three to five shots from each position or shooting aid to the corresponding target. Downrange, measure the groups. With the way trajectory works, your groups will roughly double in size for every 100 yards you shoot, and you can use this concept to estimate your maximum effective range from a given position.

Compare your group size to about an 8-inch kill zone, and you’ll find out pretty quickly what positions are stable and which ones need more work. For example, if you shoot a 4-inch group from a seated position, you’d shoot an 8-inch group at 200, making your maximum effective range about 200 yards from that position. You may want to shave 50 to 100 yards from that estimate when you’re in the field to account for things like nerves or wind at greater distances. If you don’t like the groups you see, keep practicing every week until they get smaller.

Stop Shooting Too Much Ammo, and Stop Shooting the Wrong Ammo

When you practice shooting for hunting, stick with the same ammo you hunt with. If you deviate to other brands or shoot target ammo, you may see a different point of impact when you finally switch to the good stuff. The problem is hunting ammo is expensive, and it can cost a lot of money to practice with it. But you don’t need to shoot a ton of ammo to get better at shooting.

One shooting instructor I know only burns 20 rounds of ammunition every time he goes to the range. Go about two times per month, and you’re only out 40 rounds. He suggests going to the range like you’re going to the gym. Make a plan, and keep a record of things you struggle with.

One day, you might just want to work on off-hand shooting, the next you might want to practice calling wind at longer ranges. Whatever it is, have a plan, stick to it, and limit yourself to just 20 rounds under that plan. You’ll be surprised what you can learn with just one box of ammo. Shooting less ammo at the range will also force you to take every shot seriously. This feels more like hunting, where you only have one shot at an animal.

Your First Round is the Most Important Shot of the Day

When you’re hunting, your first shot is the only one that matters. You’re going to make that shot completely cold with no practice shots beforehand. That’s why it’s so important to make the first shot of any range session count.

Challenge yourself with a shot you know is hard to make, then focus on making that shot as if you’re staring at a 10-pointer on the last day of the season. If you screw it up, you’ll have a better idea of how that scenario might play out in the woods, and you’ll have more time to fix the problem.

Change Up Your Targets

Rifle hunters are some of the only shooters who don’t practice with realistic targets. Law enforcement and military shooters use humanoid targets, and archery hunters shoot 3D animal targets. Yet, rifle hunters shoot round bullseye targets over and over again.

This might not sound like a big deal, but round targets have a way of creating muscle memory that doesn’t always translate to the field. It could be the reason why a lot of hunters shoot animals too far back, as they’re used to shooting the middle of a target and end up shooting the middle of an animal.

There are a few ways to make your practice more realistic. The easiest is to buy deer-shaped cardboard targets. These targets are usually brown with outlines around the vitals. You can also use 3D archery targets. Most come with an insert in the vitals. Remove the insert and hang a steel plate behind the target, or blow up a balloon and stick it inside of the cavity. If you’re a bit more handy, you can cut your own targets out of plywood or old cardboard boxes. If you have a bit of land and with good backstops, try placing your animal targets throughout the woods and make your own “3D Shoot.”

Get Better at Shooting Off-Hand and Snap Shots

The dream scenario for any hunter is to have plenty of time to spot an animal and make a calculated shot. But that’s not how opportunities usually present themselves in the real world. I’ve watched a lot of animals walk because I wasn’t ready to shoot or I couldn’t make an offhand shot.

Offhand shooting and snap shooting are essential skills, even if you don’t plan on taking your first shot at a deer this way. You might wound a deer and need to make a quick follow-up shot without the support of shooting sticks or a backpack. Buy a shot timer and practice shooting in a hurry at 25-yard kill-zone-sized targets. Deer-shaped targets with no discernible markings are even better for this, as they force you to consider shot placement.

You should also take offhand shooting seriously. A proficient shooter should be able to make a kill shot on an animal from an offhand position at least 60 to 75 yards. Practice doing so out to 100 yards, and you’ll be ready for 90 percent of shots in thick woods.

Hunting can be practice, too, and I often credit squirrel hunting as the number one reason I can make a quick, accurate shot in the woods. Stalking for squirrels with a rimfire exercises every skill a big game rifle hunter needs. Even though the shots are close, you need to hit a roughly 1-inch target. You also need to get into positions to shoot quickly and quietly. The best way to get ready for November deer season is October squirrel season. In a month, you’ll do more hunting and shooting than you would in 5 years of deer hunting, and you’ll have a few pots of squirrel stew to show for it.

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