I finally made it to the range today. This is the first time I have ever shot 'long' distance and/or a 'high' powered rifle (bigger than .223)
I was raised by a father who had nothing but .22's with iron sights, and due to landscape have usually been limited to handgun shooting.
I recently acquired my mother's 30-06; see thread here: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=306054
So I was a bit nervous about this. Been shooting forever, but this is something new. I was excited, but apprehensive as well. What if I SUCK!? oh well, who cares, gotta start somewhere. Off we go!
I brought 2 boxes of Winchester SuperX 150 gr silvertip with me. I started out shooting several inches to the right and several inches low. I did not keep the first target, but rather taped the second over it. The second target is the last one of the day and the one posted.
Somewhere around the beginning of the second box and the second target I developed a nasty flinch. I didn't have it when I started and I lost it eventually but for a little bit, it was really screwing me up. The 30 06 has a pretty good kick; more than I have ever experienced before. I found that as I was about to pull the trigger, I would jerk the gun to the left a bit. I caught myself doing it before I ever pulled the trigger, this is how I discovered the darn thing. So I took a breather for a minute and re-evaluated just what was going on. It was the recoil. The shoulder had begun to hurt a bit and I was getting apprehensive of that punch to the shoulder.
I realized that this must stop immediately or it was time to just go home. I began to draw the butt of the rifle in very close and very tight. It still punched of course, but I broke the flinch and allowed myself to focus on the target and trigger rather than the coming recoil.
I spent my sophomore year in high school in military academy, where I learned shooting techniques, including breathing. This began to come back to me in the middle of the second box and I began to fall into the groove. I would wait sometimes over a minute between each shot, just getting my breathing right and getting relaxed until the cross hairs were calm.
Overall I feel like I did pretty good, I believe the rifle is more accurate than I.
I was sandbagging up front, sitting at the bench, shooting @ 100 yards. Winchester model 70 in 30-06; Scope is Bushnell Banner 4X-12X. I rented a spotting scope for $1 from the range. I was the only shooter that was solo. All other benches had 2 man teams; one shooting, one spotting. The range was busy today, had to wait about an hour. Must be the impending deer season, as usually there is no wait.
Couldn't hit that doggone bull to save my life, but the groups looked pretty good.
Some of the random shots were due to the flinch. Some were casualties of fiddling with scope settings. Some just because I suck.
The three groups I circled were the last 14 or 15 shots. There were a few that got away from me there...
This is when I kicked the flinch, the breathing came into play, and we got down to business. I was attempting to center the scope. I did get it centered after over correcting to the left too far. But changes to the elevation didn't seem to be doing much of anything. I just couldn't seem to make the silly thing shoot lower than 1" above the bull.
All in all, I'm happy. I don't hunt, so being 1" off the bull doesn't bother me much. I know that if I have to break this out for whatever it will be "close enough"
What do you guys/gals think?
Another kind of weird thing. I found myself shooting through the scope with both eyes open. It seemed more relaxing and less straining. (this may have been forced because I was using the spotting scope through my left eye and coming off a hard squint took too long to unblur to see through the spotter) Dunno. But anyhoo I liked it better that way.
Does anyone else do this?
I was raised by a father who had nothing but .22's with iron sights, and due to landscape have usually been limited to handgun shooting.
I recently acquired my mother's 30-06; see thread here: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=306054
So I was a bit nervous about this. Been shooting forever, but this is something new. I was excited, but apprehensive as well. What if I SUCK!? oh well, who cares, gotta start somewhere. Off we go!
I brought 2 boxes of Winchester SuperX 150 gr silvertip with me. I started out shooting several inches to the right and several inches low. I did not keep the first target, but rather taped the second over it. The second target is the last one of the day and the one posted.
Somewhere around the beginning of the second box and the second target I developed a nasty flinch. I didn't have it when I started and I lost it eventually but for a little bit, it was really screwing me up. The 30 06 has a pretty good kick; more than I have ever experienced before. I found that as I was about to pull the trigger, I would jerk the gun to the left a bit. I caught myself doing it before I ever pulled the trigger, this is how I discovered the darn thing. So I took a breather for a minute and re-evaluated just what was going on. It was the recoil. The shoulder had begun to hurt a bit and I was getting apprehensive of that punch to the shoulder.
I realized that this must stop immediately or it was time to just go home. I began to draw the butt of the rifle in very close and very tight. It still punched of course, but I broke the flinch and allowed myself to focus on the target and trigger rather than the coming recoil.
I spent my sophomore year in high school in military academy, where I learned shooting techniques, including breathing. This began to come back to me in the middle of the second box and I began to fall into the groove. I would wait sometimes over a minute between each shot, just getting my breathing right and getting relaxed until the cross hairs were calm.
Overall I feel like I did pretty good, I believe the rifle is more accurate than I.
I was sandbagging up front, sitting at the bench, shooting @ 100 yards. Winchester model 70 in 30-06; Scope is Bushnell Banner 4X-12X. I rented a spotting scope for $1 from the range. I was the only shooter that was solo. All other benches had 2 man teams; one shooting, one spotting. The range was busy today, had to wait about an hour. Must be the impending deer season, as usually there is no wait.
Couldn't hit that doggone bull to save my life, but the groups looked pretty good.
Some of the random shots were due to the flinch. Some were casualties of fiddling with scope settings. Some just because I suck.
The three groups I circled were the last 14 or 15 shots. There were a few that got away from me there...
This is when I kicked the flinch, the breathing came into play, and we got down to business. I was attempting to center the scope. I did get it centered after over correcting to the left too far. But changes to the elevation didn't seem to be doing much of anything. I just couldn't seem to make the silly thing shoot lower than 1" above the bull.All in all, I'm happy. I don't hunt, so being 1" off the bull doesn't bother me much. I know that if I have to break this out for whatever it will be "close enough"
What do you guys/gals think?
Another kind of weird thing. I found myself shooting through the scope with both eyes open. It seemed more relaxing and less straining. (this may have been forced because I was using the spotting scope through my left eye and coming off a hard squint took too long to unblur to see through the spotter) Dunno. But anyhoo I liked it better that way.
Does anyone else do this?
