Confident Shooting Makes Better Hunters

October 08, 2009 |

As fall approaches hunters begin thinking of sighting in their rifle of choice.  Ethical hunters should do everything in their power to humanely harvest their quarry.  Sighting in your rifle helps ensure that your rifle will hit where it is aimed.  Ideally hunters would shoot year round and continuously improve their skills, but with busy schedules and rising cost of ammunition, this proves harder each year. 

Let’s cover a couple of items before beginning.  The first and most important consideration is safety.  Always use eye and ear protection, shoot in to a safe backstop, and of course, use proper ammunition.  If you have any doubts about ammunition, check with us here at Dury's or your local gun shop.  We want to take as much of the human error out of the equation as possible, so a good rest (such as sand bags) and solid shooting table are vital.  The often used setup of shooting off the hood of a truck using a rolled up jacket or sleeping bag may work in a pinch, but is far from ideal.

It is best to boresight rifles prior to sending rounds downrange.  This can be done one of two ways, either by removing the bolt and looking through the barrel to a target 25 or so yards away and then adjusting the scope crosshairs on to the target, or by using an optical boresighting device that is placed in the muzzle and has crosshairs that are seen through the scope, and then aligning the scope’s crosshairs with the device.  If boresighting is not possible you can put your first target at 25 yards and start shooting there.  The important thing is to try to make your first shot hit paper.  Once you are on paper at 25 yards or boresighted, you can move out to 100 yards. Preferably targets would have a 1-inch square grid.  

Place a sandbag or two under the forestock of the rifle and one under the butt.  It is important the barrel itself not be in contact with anything.  Sit up straight so your body will recoil with the rifle.  Don’t hunker down behind it as this will maximize felt recoil.  Make sure you don’t crowd your scope, leaving 3 or more inches between the scope and eye to prevent “scope-eye”.  Pull the rifle in to your shoulder and adjust the sandbags so the rifle stays on target.  Adjust the elevation by squeezing the sandbag under the butt of the rifle and center the crosshairs in the bullseye.  Once the crosshairs are steady gently squeeze the trigger.  Repeat this two times, aiming at the same spot of the target each time.  Retrieve your target and determine the center of the 3 shot group.  Adjust your scope to move the center of the group to the desired spot on the target following the instructions of the scope.  The majority of scopes move the point of impact ¼” at 100 yards for each “click” or mark on the dial.  Be aware that the cheaper the scope the less likely it is to be precise in its adjustments.  Continue shooting three-shot groups and adjusting the scope until consistently hitting where you want. If your shots are less than 100 yards, make the point of impact dead-on at 100 yards.  For longer shots, sight rifles dead-on at 200 yards or 1 1/2” high at 100 yards.

Sighting in your rifle is about determining where your rifle is shooting in relation to the sights (either optical or iron), not your shooting ability.  Don’t get caught up in group size unless it is over three inches.  Once your rifle is sighted in, get off the bench and shoot from different field positions.  Group size will be larger than your bench rested groups, but you will have begun your progression as a better shooter.