I posted this in another thread, but so much of it involves the same thing.
Some guns are easier to shoot in field hunting conditions than other guns.
An optic can make things easier and sometimes it can make things more difficult if the wrong optic is chosen.
Learning how to use nature’s field rests, and also carrying practical field rests and learning how to use them, can make shooting on demand much easier when moving away from the bench and into the field.
Styles of hunting, can go from basically shooting off a bench at 100 yard animal with feeders going off, to very difficult hunting in high country when you don’t have any horses or animals to help carry things out and you’re packing everything on your back.
People who are already familiar with weapons, and shoot different guns, can move to hunting sometimes with relative ease or sometimes with difficulty.
I do not buy into the thinking that a person needs so many hours of practice before they can go hunting with type “X” weapon.
I have taken non-shooters, and beginning shooters, and in a relative short period of time can have them hitting 10” targets out to 500 yards on steel with relative ease.
This is with both rifles and single shot specialty pistols
When you move out of just shooting, and into hunting there’s some other skill sets that need to be learned, but it’s not as difficult as some of us make it sound.
It is much easier to teach someone to shoot adequately with a rifle, single shot specialty pistol in a straight wall cartridge in a contender or encore and than it is to get them proficient with a revolver or semi automatic for hunting.
One of the big things I emphasize is learning how to use good functional field rests for hunting.
This applies not only to a rifle, but also to handguns.
I am not proponent that the only way to hunt whether with a rifle or pistol or the true definition of a rifle hunter or handgun hunter is shooting off hand.
If you want to do that I’m perfectly OK with it, but if I can get a rest of some kind, I’m gonna get a strong solid support as I can get.
It makes my shot placement more sure, and it extends my ability in terms of distance.
Every person is different.
Some people, will require a lot of practice before they can hunt with a specific weapon, while others can be ready and proficient with much less time.
I treat people as individuals, and take them wherever they are at and work from there.
If I was new to hunting and read some of the thoughts that are expressed on forums like these, I would be discouraged at times.
I have worked with first time hunters, who were still basically new to shooting, and helped them from the range into the field, and help them take their first animal.
I know some of you guys do this, and I want to encourage more of us to be doing this when possible.
Several years ago I took of man in his early 30s who had never hunted before.
He had some guns and shot every once in a while, but wasn’t necessarily good.
He had a customized Mauser that his grandfather had given him, and he really wanted to take a big game animal with it.
It was a 30-06, so we bought ammunition, and worked with him on the range and practiced and practiced.
The gun was hard to shoot, and it recoiled hard for him. It also had a very heavy trigger.
I also had him shoot some of my single shot XP-100's while we were there. And I had him run out to steel with it out to about 500 or so yards with my XP-100.
He applied and got a buck antelope tag. My main purpose was for him to get his first animal. I had another friend with me he was also helping there were a number of bad shots, some due to the gun being difficult to shoot, and other to excitement. His fundamentals had gone to pieces and he was yanking on the trigger because the gun was going to hit him and his body was trying to protect itself, and you know what happens then...bad shooting.
After a morning of frustration and four failed opportunities we found buck that was just over 200 yards away after we had done some crawling.
While we were going to the location before we found the buck, I encouraged him to quit trying with that rifle, as he was extremely frustrated.
I had him dry fire my center-grip 6mm Creedmoor XP100 pistol. It has a very light trigger, and he had shot it before.
This time, with a gun that was easy to shoot and with the trigger it did not take much effort, he put a clean kill on that buck in a little bit 208 yards and had the success of a lifetime. Although he did not use his grandfather‘s rifle, he overcame his mistakes with a different weapon, and was able to take the first big game animal lovers life, and had extreme joy in the process.
I am convinced that if his grandfathers rifle had been a modern one, with a short action cartridge, that had a better stock design, and a better trigger, he would’ve closed the deal with that rifle on the first attempt.
In this case, he could be both precise and accurate with a single shot Specialty Pistol compared to the rifle that he actually owned.
Not all weapons are created equal.
), and the majority of average shooters probably do not have any consistent competitive experience. 
Never could figure out how to use a tripod, that third leg just seemed to get in the way. I guess they're just too complicated for an old dog, but never thought of shooting off the legs rather than the top, either. Front and rear support would be great, especially from standing position. May have to revisit them.
