When I was a kid, growing up in the semi-rural south, I was seldom in the woods without my BB gun, and later my .22 rifle.  I shot a lot, at all kinds of crazy targets, and almost always from offhand positions.  My buddies and I would often gather at some of the many trash dumps in the local woods, and compete against one another.  One of the contests I remember most vividly was to hang something from a piece of kite string, and try to cut it down.  You might be surprised at how often we could clip that string on the first shot. 

As a result of shooting like that, my friends and I became a pretty danged good marksmen.  We honed those skills picking off bushytails from the tops of the oaks and hickories in the swamps and bottoms, and found it easy to transfer that ability when it came time to pick up the deer rifle.  The deer rifle kicked harder, and cost more to shoot, but barring the occasional flinch from trying to use too much gun, we were just as deadly with the centerfires as we were with the .22s. 

Where’s this all going?

So I haven’t been keeping up with Dave Petzal’s blog lately, but since I have a down day today (raining and slow at work), I had a chance to catch up.  He had this great post about improving your marksmanship a couple days back, and it’s worth a read.  I couldn’t agree with anyone more…not that someone of Dave Petzal’s stature really needs validation from someone like me. 

My standing advice to anyone who wants to become a better marksman with their big game rifle is exactly the same as Petzal’s … Get a  little gun.  A .22 LR is easy on the budget, and easy to find.  Just use one that offers some pretty reliable accuracy.  Most of the .22 bolt actions are good, and it may be worth it to spend a bit more to get something like the CZ American or something of that class.  I recently bought one of the .17 HMR rifles from Savage (I’m a big fan of Savage rifles), and I’ve never had so much fun with a rimfire.  A benefit of the .17 is that you can practice accurately out to 100 yards, as opposed to the more limited accurate range of the .22 LR. 

Whichever way you choose to go, get the rifle and scope it.  Use a quality hunting scope if you can afford it.  If it’s the same scope as your hunting rifle, that’s a bonus.  Otherwise, get the best you can afford.  This is serious practice for big game hunting, not simple plinking.  You’ll benefit from better glass.

So anyway, once you’ve got a good rimfire and have it shooting well, then start shooting the heck out of it.  Practice field shooting, from all the positions you would expect to use.  Plan to burn up a brick or two of ammo every month.  It’s not that hard to do, since most shooters can’t seem to stop blasting away with the little guns.  It’s cheap, it’s fun, and it’s painless.   And when the time comes to place your crosshairs on that trophy deer, elk, or whatever you’re shooting… taking the shot will be like second nature. 

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