Four Common Shooting Mistakes Hunters Make

Missing shots at game animals can be bad for your mental health. I know because I beat myself up whenever I do it. It's bad enough when the miss is total, and no blood is spilled, but wounding an animal without recovering it is a borderline depression event. Fortunately, the latter outcome hasn't happened to me in many years. Clean misses, on the other hand, seem to be occurring much too often, particularly in my predator-hunting adventures. A personal aversion to delivering anything less than a perfect shot and helping others do the same has shown me a handful of common mistakes I've made over the years, which I see others making regularly. Here are four of them.

NOT TRAINING IN FIELD POSITIONS

I'm typically at a shooting range once a week, and that amount of range time means I get to meet and observe a lot of other shooters. Without question, most rifle shooters spend their time shooting from the many purpose-built benches our range provides. The only shooters I typically see not using the benches are those involved in the competition shooting sports. Our range hosts PRS, F-Class, and 3-Gun matches, and I see these competitors shooting from positions other than on a bench. The number of hunters I've seen practicing from real-world positions is next to nil.

Shooting from positions likely to be encountered in the field is critical to skill development.

This tendency to skip reality is, without question, the worst error I see rifle hunters making. I'm sure none expect to take a shooting bench into the field with them. Yet, they never seem to see the need to fire any shots from positions they might use in the field. These positions could include the use of bipods from prone or sitting positions, as well as kneeling. The support posts that hold the roof covering the firing line are perfect for simulating shooting while using a tree or fence post for support, but I've never seen anyone do this. Skipping realistic shooting positions is a huge mistake.

IGNORING RIMFIRE

I get it; centerfire rifle ammo is expensive. So, maybe that's the reason people don't practice with their hunting rifles. That's where rimfires come in. An accurate .22 LR rifle, set up similarly to a hunting rifle, is one of the best investments a hunter can make. Sight it in for 100 yards; any practice with it will pay off when the big gun comes out. And not just because it's cheaper.

Due to their low cost and gentle manners, rimfires are ideal for skill building.

The quiet nature of rimfires and the lack of recoil go a long way toward training the habits and muscle memory needed to shoot well. Once the recoil and noise of a centerfire are removed, it's much easier for the shooter to concentrate on building a stable position, breathing properly, and trigger control. A useful training technique is to set up two identical targets at 100 yards, and fire ten shots at one with a rimfire from a realistic field position. Then, switch to the centerfire and put two shots on the other target from the same position. Do this five times from five different field positions, and you'll have used up 50 rounds of rimfire and 20 rounds of centerfire. Now, pull both targets and analyze the results.

TOO MUCH GUN

That's a lot of shooting for a reasonable cost. When I've done this exercise with others, it's common to see rimfire targets look a lot better than centerfire ones, even though centerfire targets are capable of greater precision. Usually, there are shots completely missing from the latter target. These misses are typically the result of flinching and/or jerking the trigger. These total misses seem to go up directly to the cartridge's size and power level for which the centerfire is chambered.

Using cartridges more powerful than needed for the job can lead to flinching and other bad shooting habits.

This demonstrates that magnum-level cartridges are harder to shoot well than standard-level offerings. It's not that they can't be shot accurately; it's just that it typically takes more training and effort to overcome the recoil and noise they generate and the body's instinctive reaction to avoid that sort of punishment. No question, there are times when the big boomers are needed. But from what I've seen, there are too many hunters shooting them at a game where they aren't necessary and where a more modest cartridge would serve them much better in their effort to place a bullet where it belongs.

POOR RIFLE FITMENT

Some of this inability to shoot centerfires as precisely as rimfires can be traced to the fact that as the power level of a rifle goes up, it becomes more important that the rifle fits the shooter properly. Combine a stout recoiling cartridge with a poor-fitting rifle, and the result is a hunter with the odds stacked against him.

A major advantage of chassis systems is their adjustability to fit the shooter.

Rifles are built to fit the average person, and if a person is average, they might work perfectly. However, most people aren't average, so a rifle system that can be adjusted to fit the shooter is a significant advantage. This adjustability will help not only with variations in physical size but also in compensating for the amount of clothing we wear to stay warm or cool. For example, in November, I'll normally remove two or more spacers from my MDT chassis-equipped hunting rifles to compensate for the heavier clothing I wear in the cold temperatures we experience in my area.

There you have it; the most common mistakes I see rifle hunters make which result in missed shots. Correcting all of them will inevitably result in more hits.

ARTICLES FROM AL VOTH

• Common Shooting Myths
• Rimfire Season
• Optics: Parallax and Optical Center
• Optics: Understanding the Optical Triangle
• The Ethical Shot
• Avoid Common Gun Mistakes
• Hunting Drills for Success
• Pursuing Precision
• Rimfire Season
• Airgunning With MDT
• Picatinny Rails Vs. Weaver Rails
• How to Keep Records on Your Firearms

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Al Voth calls himself a "student of the gun." Retired from a 35-year career in law enforcement, including nine years on an Emergency Response Team, he now works as an editor, freelance writer, and photographer, in addition to keeping active as a consultant in the field he most recently left behind—forensic firearm examination. He is a court-qualified expert in that forensic discipline, having worked in that capacity in three countries. These days, when he's not working, you'll likely find him hunting varmints and predators (the 4-legged variety).