Originally Posted By: Evil_Lurker ...If you can't shoot a respectable group from the bench, the chances of making kills in the field are pretty much zero at any kind of range.
I'd much rather hunt with someone that spends a lot (or even all) of their time at the bench than someone that hasn't fired his rifle in the last six months. One guy's serious and the other one is clueless.
Well... I'm not trying to pick on anyone. And I realize that there are always various shades and exceptions to everything. But my hunting partner of more than 25 years, Tim, absolutely defies everything you just said. He has not shot a group off a bench or done any form of "target" shooting in I don't know how many years. At least ten years. Probably closer to fifteen years. And I bet you could count all the groups he has EVER fired off a bench on your fingers and toes. He really just can't stand shooting targets and will freely admit that he is terrible at it. To him, shooting targets is worse than watching paint dry, it's more like having to paint the outside of the house. Spending free time wasting money on ammo to shoot targets is an alien concept to him. He is "that guy" you always hear about that claims he can't shoot good at targets but can shoot great when it counts. He checks zero by shooting at a dirt clod or a rock off the hood of the truck. And he only does that if he misses a couple shots he thinks he should not have. Sometimes it might be a couple of years in between those two minute "zero" sessions off the hood of the truck. Actually, for quite a few years he has been shooting my rifles most of the time and just doesn't even think about zeroing them
.
He's a pretty good live game shot in the field though. Thoroughly competent, to say the least. Even when he hasn't picked up a rifle for six months or more.
Really, as far as that goes, Tim and I both have only fired a rifle once, since our last coyote hunt which I think was in Feb. or maybe March. When we get out calling again in October, I bet we do just fine killing called coyotes. Despite the fact that we basically have not used a rifle in six months and I haven't fired a group on over a year and he hasn't fired one in probably fifteen years. But, then too, I'm speaking of shooting called coyotes. Those shots are mostly slam dunks, so it's not like we need much of a warm up for them.
- DAA