Accurate Hunter

By Craig Boddington — While bench shooting has little to do with shooting from field positions, it is excellent training for shooting basics such as breath control and smooth trigger press. Focus on holding that last breath, and maintain a smooth, consistent trigger press so the shot goes with the crosshair dead steady on the aiming point. If you run out of air before you get the shot off, relax and start over! Follow-through is important: The trigger squeeze doesn’t end until the bullet exits the barrel, so maintain trigger pressure throughout the shot.

By Craig Boddington — Traditional rifle competition is based on the four “NRA” positions of prone, sitting, kneeling, and standing. Always and forever, these form a good basis for all rifle shooting. However, hunting is our focus here, and there is no rulebook for field-shooting positions. What matters: Get steady enough to make the shot count.

By Craig Boddington — Optics have improved dramatically during my career. I’m a child of the scope era, but when I started hunting, we used fixed-power scopes because variable-power scopes weren’t yet perfected: shifts in point of impact were normal with changes in magnification. Reliable variables have been with us since the 1970s, but for many years the practical limit was about “three-times-zoom.”

By Craig Boddington — Long-range shooting is hardly new. Long-range competition was popular in the 19th century, but field shooting at longer ranges was unusual. The accuracy was there, and optics, though less common, existed. Telescopes, binoculars, and riflescopes saw use in our Civil War, and a few of the bison hunters used scoped rifles. But there’s a big difference between a target on a surveyed “known distance” range and an animal standing “somewhere out there.”