A few odd questions...

One of my friends shoots rimfire handguns competitively. He's an excellent handgun marksman and has told me that his scores improved considerably after he stopped drinking caffeinated soft drinks. Can't say myself - I mostly only drink water.
No idea how depressants would affect shooting.
The Mosin will work fine for deer. The safety on them is SAFE as all hell... but slow - you might want to just practice with it or you might want to carry with an empty chamber and work the bolt if possible. The rifles themselves are generally accurate enough and plenty powerful enough. You might check www.midwayusa.com or maybe www.aimsurplus.com for soft point hunting ammo.

David.Guire said:

Question 1) How do caffeine and nicotine affect your accuracy? I am a 4-cups-of-coffee kind of guy in the mornings and I couldn't help but wonder if I should try to lay off for my first season of hunting...?

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Many folks report an improvement of their scores if they abstain

Question 2) How do tranquilizers affect one's accuracy?

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It's unsafe to handle firearms while impaired

Not sure if operating a firearm on tranquilizers is a good idea. It would slow your reaction time and judgement resulting in pretty poor accuracy.

As for stimulants such as coffee and nicotine I would think thats more personal on how your body reacts to them.

Personally Im not leaving camp without either so accuracy isnt an issue...

1. i've never noticed a difference. sometimes i'll drink mostly non caffeinated drinks, other times i'll drink energy drinks, and i stay consistent either way. nicotine/dip hasn't really been a variable since it's a constant for me, but hasn't seemed to have a negative affect.

2. are we talking alcohol? not a good combination.

i would think nicotine would do a better job at it (if either had any effect) since it's a relaxant/sedative (other than being classified a stimulant) that encourages dopamine, and some other processes that i don't recall.

#1 - Caffine and nicotine are a constant for me, I'd probably get jittery without one or the other. My brother gets jittery WITH caffine tho.

#2 - Not a good idea, take some deep breaths/rest to relax instead. I need to, after a hike to my outdoor shooting spot.

#3 - Works good against 'German' deer!
http://neusramblings.blogspot.com/2009/11/trophy-doe-hunting.html

Stimulants do affect your shooting ability. I think it is a matter of degree and the kind of shooting you do as to whether it is important to you.

Best to minimize use of depressants and shooting sports. Consult with your doctor concerning perscription drug use and shooting sports. Easy to say if you take meds daily, I know....

The key is to avoid any and all chemical influences which may cause distraction. Golfers call it the yips. When I quit coffee I lost the yips.

Too many people these days tend to multi-task to the point where they are juggling everything all the time. It is easy to peg these guys at the range and try to avoid them. Slow and steady wins the race.

While not necessarily a 'tranquilizer' like say Valium, beta-blockers have been used by some shooters. It lowers the heart rate and blood pressure.
Of course, thousands of people take Beta-blockers daily for treating high blood pressure....meaning there are umpteen-thousands of 'drugged-up' people driving cars, flying planes, shooting guns, frisking people at airports, and who knows what else.

In shooting sports? Korean Olympic double medalist Kim Jong-su tested positive for Propranolol at Beijing and was expelled for drug use.

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1. Stimulants are bad for accuracy. A friend on the college rifle team said they always had a pot of coffee and a plate of doughnuts set out for the visiting team. If they were dumb enough to partake before shooting, they could fight the caffeine nerves and sugar jag.

2. Tranquilizers are bad for speed. An old old test run back before we got so cautious, had target shooters take a shot of whisky or a Miltown before shooting. With the right (small) dose, their slowfire scores improved but their rapid fire scores went way down.

I think body chemistry modification is undesirable in general.

I'd want a hearty breakfast before going hunting, but I would not load up on coffee.

the one thing i have heard that can help your shooting is Vitamin B-12 & B-6.....

as they aid in central nervous system function and fine motor control...

Coffee, like everything, in moderation would probably be fine. If your body is used to having certain things regularly, and you abstain from them, you're more apt to throw your body out of whack.

I'm a 2 cups of coffee in the morning, and a Coke Zero in the afternoon. Water, tea, or juice in the evening. I know pretty well how my body functions given the amount of caffeine it gets regularly. Now if I skip my morning coffe or my afternoon Coke, I'll get jittery and irritable, making my body work less effectively.

Come deer season, I'm not altering too much of my schedule/ routine other than getting out of bed a couple hours earlier than usual. I took a course in combat physiology, learned what the body goes through in high stress situations. One thing I learned was to not alter your routine if you expect to be in a high stress situation. Every comfort you can reasonalby have that brings a sense of normacy to your life, take advantage of it. Just don't over do it.

And yeah, guns and tranqs don't mix. If you feel impaired, or think the substance may cause impairment, either don't take it or leave the gun at home.

Caffene, tranquilizers, and shots of whisky...is this a beaver hunting trip by any chance?

I smoke pot, do a few lines of coke, and then a few hits of LSD before I go shooting. I don't hit anything, but it doesn't seem to matter.(I'm just kidding, don't call DEA)

Seriously, I personally wouldn't even think about touching a gun before my first cup of coffee in the morning. Drink it all day, every day. Doesn't affect my shooting.

Caffeine and nicotine both make my hands (and the rest of me) a bit shaky. I find that my steadiness improves if I don't smoke or drink soda for at least half an hour before I shoot.

I've never shot after drinking more than one beer (and that was about 40 minutes before I got to the range) but that's because I know that alcohol affects sight, judgement, balance, judgement, perception, mood, judgement, and makes you have to pee a lot, which can be a pain at the range. I don't take any kind of depressant type medications but have in the past. I would suppose that depending on the type of medication and the effect it has on you that it wouldn't be a big deal unless it affects you enough to alter mood, judgement, or other important faculties, it's not prescribed to you, and you're not abusing it.

If you need a cup or two of coffee in the morning to wake up, I don't see a problem as long as you don't drink a lot of caffeine containing drinks throughout the day, even for hunting season.

your body is constantly adding (and subtracting) chemicals from its system. mix it up with outsiders and there can be no blanket answer.
it is for you to set up a control test over a period of time and likely you will find that caffeine dissipates within 3-4 hours but suppressants and pain killers 'fog' the sight. and if you have been taking them regularly, this effect can extend for many days. male enhancers are in this category also. think about it--if it affects your blood supply/blood pressure--its gonna have some effect on your vision...

Different people will react differently. I generally do better if I stay away from caffeine for a couple of hours before shooting. Not that I always do that but I usually do better without it. I suppose smoking tobacco might help calm the nerves to a point for some people and might be fine for target shooting but it sure would alert game to the presence of humans in the area if you were hunting. I bet the strongly flavored dip like wintergreen would do the same. I wouldn't recommend taking tranquilizers before shooting simply because your body chemistry changes all the time and a dosage that's fine one day might impair you on another day. The beta blockers (propanolol, atenolol, etc.) don't have the same kind of undesirable side effects on most people, and they can steady your nerves and hands. A lot of musicians and other performers use them before going onstage. I don't drink so I can't say much about that except mixing firearms and alcohol is not recommended by anyone I ever met, including the law.

I don't smoke and I don't take tranquilizers, so I have no opinions on those. Altho if they are prescription tranquilizers, I suggest you ask your doctor before you quit using them. Since a prescribed dose is supposed to make you normal, as opposed to bein' wired and stressed out or a druggie getin' high, I'm thinkin' others in the woods would be safer if you stayed on your prescription. If it's recreational use, don't mix it with firearms......period

As for caffeine. Hunting is more than just shooting. In a target match a slight tremor and being off by a fraction of an inch can mean the difference between first and last. In a deer blind, being more alert to movement in the woods and thus being quicker to get your sights on target can go farther towards success than that same fraction of an inch from dead center. It's also been proven most folk think clearer and make fewer mistakes after a cup of java than before. Many times one needs to make a decision on whether or not the animal is what they want and whether or not they have a clean, safe and legitimate shot. Many times one only has a few seconds to make those decisions. Besides......I doubt that a cup or two of coffee will make you shake more than the adrenaline rush when the big boy steps out from behind the bush.

Then there's what can go by when you're sleeping on stand.

Come deer season, I'm not altering too much of my schedule/ routine other than getting out of bed a couple hours earlier than usual. I took a course in combat physiology, learned what the body goes through in high stress situations. One thing I learned was to not alter your routine if you expect to be in a high stress situation. Every comfort you can reasonalby have that brings a sense of normacy to your life, take advantage of it. Just don't over do it.

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QFT

If you are going to be doing anything where you need to concentrate, (shooting, school exams, a heart transplant, whatever) don't do it when you are withdrawing from caffeine, nicotine, heroin, anything.

I'm not suggesting that anyone combine narcotics like heroin with firearms, but the point is anyone will perform better when they are not having any symptoms of withdrawal. This would be true whether it is a hard drug or caffeine.

Me personally, I would much prefer my cup of joe in the morning rather than going without, and I'm not going to stop drinking coffee. But that is me.

And if hunting is a good reason for you to stop smoking, stop, but stop well ahead of the day you are going to be hunting.

Drugs, prescribed or otherwise, are detrimental to shooting.

That stated, I can't live without several prescibed drugs, even then I react differently when doseages are changed without my prior knowledge. This recently happened to me causing a severe reaction which resulted in upsetting many people here and others in my life. The Moderators correctly dealt with me on that occasion! I am very glad it only happened when I was not driving and not in possesion of a firearm.

Other drugs, that I live on but am attempting to stop, is narcotic pain killers. Understand, I am not an addict. I do have severe pain caused by several incidents, one is a recently broken back T5 & T7, the other is severe shooting pains in my legs and feet caused by a farm accident when I upset a John Deere Model 70 tractor on top of me, crushing both legs and burning the left leg. I carry the drugs with me for when the pain gets too great. I also inform Match Directors and others when I am having problems. Most are already aware of my conditions.

My shooting SUCKS !!! But I know I have the capability to shoot because I have been able to shoot a 5-shot group at 1000 yards under 5" center-to-center.

Here's looking forward to better days !!!!!!!!!!!!!!