Target Practice
Target practice is critical to your deer hunting success. The last thing you want is to miss an awesome opportunity because you weren’t prepared. Furthermore, you don’t have to jeopardize your budget in the process.
Dial in for gun season with these target practice steps:
- Review gun safety
- Develop your form
- Dry fire exercises
- Boresight (if you have an optic)
- Visit a gun range
If you follow all these steps exactly, you shouldn’t have to spend much on target practice. The exact amount depends on your ammunition and local gun range pricing. Let’s dive into the steps.
1. Review Gun Safety
The first step, rightfully so, is understanding gun safety. Before I ever handle a firearm, I make sure to read the firearm’s operation manual, provided by the manufacturer. An example of a manual for the Stoeger P3000 Pump-Action Shotgun, recommended in the Deer (Gun) and Upland Game budgets, can be found here.
If you haven’t already, check out A Hunter’s Guide to the NRA Gun Safety Rules. Once there, it will explain the National Rifle Association’s rules for handling your firearm safely, and how the rules can apply to common hunting scenarios. There are 12 rules in total. The first 3 rules are deemed most important, but all 12 are important. The first 3 are:
- ALWAYS Keep the Gun Pointed in a Safe Direction
- ALWAYS Keep Your Finger off the Trigger until Ready to Shoot
- ALWAYS Keep the Gun Unloaded Until Ready to Use
2. Develop Your Form
Apart from gun safety, another objective of your target practice includes developing your form. Your form should be focused around limiting the amount of variability and by doing so, increasing your level of consistency. I won’t get into the details, but what follows are a few basics that can make a big impact.
The first target practice objective is breathing. Flushing a pheasant or having a huge buck head your direction can spike your heart rate. Stay calm and breath steadily. You want your body to be in a relaxed state when you take your shot. This can be achieved by staying in control, breathing slowly, and firing on the exhale.
The next target practice objective would be your anchor points and trigger pull. For anchor points, the more, the better. Where the butt of the stock nestles into your shoulder pocket, your hand positioning near the trigger assembly, your jaw touching the stock, and the distance from a reference point to your nose, should be the same every time you shoot. Also, notice that I didn’t mention squeezing the trigger. The action of your pointer finger should be in one direction, pulling in line with the firearm. If you squeeze or pull off-center, you risk pulling or pushing your shot.
The last major impact to your target practice efficiency is support. Relying on your muscles to repeat posture adds variability to your form. The prone position is considered the most accurate position because your entire body, apart from your shoulders, and arms, are grounded through your elbows. If kneeling, sit on your right heel if you’re shooting right-handed, and have your left elbow sitting on your left knee. Standing is the least accurate position. If you keep your elbows tucked in all three positions, it will help reduce variability in your shots.
3. Dry Fire Exercises
A dry fire exercise is the act of shooting your firearm without it being loaded or a round chambered. They can be an affordable way to practice your form from the comfort of your home. However, I must reiterate the importance of gun safety. If you have not thoroughly reviewed the gun safety rules, you should not conduct any dry fires.
The largest risk here is that you could accidentally having a round chambered. If you’re uncomfortable with the idea of a dry fire exercise after reviewing the gun safety rules, you could always chamber a dummy round. A boresight works great for this application because you can visually see that there is not a hot round in the chamber. Alternatively, you can use a designated dummy round, such as the Lyman A-Zoom Snap Caps. Apart from dummy rounds, another method you could resort to is practicing dry fires while using a cable lock.
4. Boresighting (If You Have an Optic)
If you aren’t using an optic with your firearm, you can skip the boresighting step. I find hunting with an optic to be a luxury, not a necessity. However, if you have one, boresighting can be an effective way to increase safety and decrease the amount of ammo you shoot at the range. The intent of boresighting is to align the site with the barrel. By doing so, your groups start closer to your aim point, requiring less iterations of adjusting the optic.
When in the Army, we would bore sight our M4’s with a laser boresight. The ones we used were in the shape of a round, and then chambered so that the laser emitted out through the barrel. We would then aim the rifle at a wall, preferably at least 25 yds away. Then, we would align the optic with the laser’s dot on the wall. The boresight we used was similar to this Sightmark Boresight. They offer a boresight for a 12 Gauge shotgun, which would fit the shotgun mentioned above.
If you don’t have a laser boresight and you’re shooting a rifle, you could visually use the barrel. The first step here is to hang a piece of paper on a wall with a dot drawn on it. Then, remove your rifle’s bolt so that you can look through the barrel from behind the firearm. Make sure the rifle is secured and won’t move around or wobble. Then, adjust and orient the barrel until you see the dot through the barrel. The last step is adjusting the optic until it is aiming at the same dot the barrel is centered on.
In case you don’t have a laser boresight and you’re shooting a shotgun, you likely won’t be able to look through the barrel from behind the firearm as you would with a rifle. In this case, make sure the optic is set for its centers. To do this, count the number of clicks that range from left to right, and up to down, and set the sight for half of the clicks.
5. Visit a Gun Range
When it comes to your actual practice, nothing beats the real thing. I attend a gun range before the start of gun season. As you gain more experience, you won’t have to shoot as many rounds before the season opener. For your first season, 20 shots should be enough. The Federal Power-Shok Rifled Slugs come with 5 slugs. I recommend picking up 5, leaving you with 5 slugs for gun season.
One of the Safety Gun rules is to wear eye and ear protection as appropriate. Most gun ranges will require eye and ear protection. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources operates some gun ranges in Iowa, and they require the protection. Most sunglasses should fit the ticket, and if you aren’t sure, ask the staff. I usually bring my own foam ear plugs because they are extremely affordable, but the range will likely have some for you to use.
Start with 3 or 4 groups. If the groups aren’t bunched up, your form needs addressed. As you shoot your groups, adjust your windage and elevation. Your firearm’s manual, or optic’s manual, will include instructions on how to do so. This should be able to be accomplished within 5 to 6 groups. And then use what’s left of your 20 shots to confirm your sight.
At the range, you’re likely to see a lot of people using a lot of different equipment. You’ll see bipods, tripods, sandbags, or contraptions that anchor the firearm for you. These will help you sight your firearm in but won’t improve your form. And, they can get expensive, depending on the equipment.
Also, when deer hunting on public land, we’re not necessarily trying to be snipers. Ever since I started “bowhunting” with a gun, my success rate has drastically improved. My longest shot during gun season is 20 yds. You’ll often see and hear about people taking longer pokes on field edges, but the majority of my success on public is found in the thick stuff. I recommend you sight in at 50 yds with your shotgun. Such a short range shouldn’t require any extra equipment as mentioned previously. Plus, if you review your ammo’s ballistics, you will be able to account for the drop in a 100 yd shot if it presents itself.
Recap
When the opportunity presents itself on your hunt, you need to prepared. Part of your preparedness includes practicing with your firearm. Target practice includes the following steps: review gun safety, develop your form, dry fire exercises, boresight (if you have an optic), and visit a gun range. The best part is that you shouldn’t have to spend any more than $30 on target practice. Don’t blow your budget and set your sights on a successful hunt.
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