“Backfire” hunting challenge fail

[wapitibob]

I suspect the guy has spent his time shooting from a bench, which is what I do. And when suddenly shooting prone at a level target, I've found myself way above the rifle, just like this guy appeared to be. At that point, it all goes in the crapper. Hunting shots from prone haven't been an issue because I usually sneak over a hill or ridge and end up shooting downward. If nothing else, it's a reminder I need to do a lot more prone shooting at the range.

 

[11boo]

I bought a light Remington 700 300 RUM when they first came out. Luckily for me, the rifle wouldn't eject spent casings. None. Bass Pro refunded my $

I shot my friends twice. No more.

 

[McCrapper]

This is why I found the "chip shot" thread humorous, a lot of false confidence when they probably couldn't outshoot this guy.

 

[Shō[t]gun]

I forgot the youtube channel but there’s a shooting club in Utah that does a milkjug challenge for long range. It’s pretty obvious from how a shooter sets up his equipment and position if he’ll be successful or not. It’s also entertaining to see the less experienced ones start twisting dials after each shot and blame the gun or conditions, but then the more experienced shooters will miss and not touch anything because they know hit % and variables at play. Milk jugs stop being guaranteed “chip shots” pretty quick in field positions and a little wind.

 

[TxxAgg]

This has Dunning Kruger written all over it.

 

[JohnJohnson]

We noticed dude is not the best. I want to see the best, perhaps Pieter Malan can do better than 70 percent?

I was talking about Pieter not being the best. I don't think I need to mention that Mike the Marine isn't even competent. Pieter could probably do better than 90% if I had to guess. I don't know if anyone is getting 100%.

 

[id_jon]

We noticed dude is not the best. I want to see the best, perhaps Pieter Malan can do better than 70 percent?

Matt Alwine shot 96% at the NRL Hunter grand slam last year. 72 targets over 18 stages. That's with a 16lb gun. Jon Pynch shot 95% with a 12lb gun.
I placed 20th in open light with 76%
These targets are not all milk jug sized of course, but very similar setup otherwise. Generally 1.5 to 3 or 4 moa.

 

[WCB]

I work in the shooting industry. 100% there is ZERO correlation between military status and firearm skills and knowledge and it amazes me how many former military members echo the same stance. "I was in the military so I know a lot about guns and ammunition..." IMO and experience as a general rule it is complete opposite.

They do that a lot. There's an epidemic of former military 35-50 year old guys with high levels of confidence in their shooting ability that are at odds with reality. These days even if they were an actual sniper I still reserve judgement because you can get a mixed bag there too.

Agree with the statement below. When I guided big game, upland, or waterfowl...I made sure to watch how a guy handled his firearm from the moment he took it out of his truck still in the case through practice shots or sighting in at the range. If the guy carried it like a seasoned carpenter carries his tools...good to go. If they handled it like someone holding a baby for the first time, that is the guy I looked out for. Of course if they handled it like a drunk seasoned carpenter holding a baby for the first time that was ultimate red flag.

I observed was no correlation between $$$ spent and results. There was sone predictability of results based on how comfortable someone seemed to be handling their rifle getting set up for the first shot.

 

[squid-freshprints]

Matt Alwine shot 96% at the NRL Hunter grand slam last year. 72 targets over 18 stages. That's with a 16lb gun. Jon Pynch shot 95% with a 12lb gun.
I placed 20th in open light with 76%
These targets are not all milk jug sized of course, but very similar setup otherwise. Generally 1.5 to 3 or 4 moa.

Just looked at the NRL events. Congratulations that's B.A.! ( I don't see many rigs like that on packs in season though, not to mention level of shooter

 

[id_jon]

Just looked at the NRL events. Congratulations that's B.A.! ( I don't see many rigs like that on packs in season though, not to mention level of shooter

It is definitely a game separate from hunting, but will teach you things that carry over. Lots of guys hunt with the rifles they compete with, maybe taking some weight out in some way or another though. There's a reason you don't see lightweight magnums there though

 

[ID_Matt]

Just looked at the NRL events. Congratulations that's B.A.! ( I don't see many rigs like that on packs in season though, not to mention level of shooter

Probably the more common rig you see hunting is the 6lb bare muzzle 300 WM with vertex scope and 3,000,000 tons of knock em down power, like the one in the video OP posted

 

[JohnJohnson]

I don't see many rigs like that on packs in season though

I hunt with what are considered precision rifles. I assume the NRL Hunter guys tend to as well. I suppose it would depend on the species of animal and style of hunting.

 

[Jbehredt]

I take care to always let me abilities exceed my confidence. Hunting, at work, driving, sports, in the bedroom

 

[CMP70306]

I don't have much shooting experience, but understand & endorse most of the advice & comments above, except for the more vague comments about poor shooting form that don't include specific details regarding the poor form. I just don't know enough to look at him and determine what all is the poor form I guess.

My question is this however, for the average/below average experience shooter (like me) looking to shoot for hunting accuracy, why wouldn't you zero your rifle at 250 yds? I assume this guy's rifle was zeroed at 100, because I thought there was mention of misses due to improper elevation adjustment for targets over 100 yds?

With a 250 yd zero, a quick ballistics calculator on a 300 win mag 195 gr eldm for "accuracy of water jug" shows no need for elevation or wind compensation with 90 deg 5 mph cross winds out to about 325 yds it seems. So, even with somewhat rushed shots under 325 yds, there is nothing to think about, adjust, or screw up.

I am fairly certain that I would really suck with that 300 win mag, especially after a few shots.

But am I wrong that with a 250 yd zero, reasonable winds, a decent scanning range finder, a dialed in reliable ffp scope with known reticle graduations (Jason mentioned above falling back on these as needed), a stable shooting rest, and a soft recoiling lower caliber rifle setup, shouldn't even a relatively inexperienced guy be able to be pretty deadly out to several hundred yards in these conditions?

So the biggest thing is when you go to dial, with a 100 yard zero you are pretty much flat shooting to slightly low everywhere from muzzle to your target. This is essentially your base as you really can’t zero much closer without raising your down range impact above your POA and most ranges are based around the 100 yard target. It is generally a good rule of thumb to zero your rifle and set your zero stop at this range.

From there if you would prefer to have a 250 yard zero then dial up 2.25 MOA and have at it. This is what I typically do with my rifle, I run an NX8 which has a center crosshair with +/- 2 MOA as an easy reference point. This gives me a 340 yard PBR inside of that box so I would only need to dial past 340 yards, not very common here in PA.

I shot my friends twice. No more.

Did they break a leg and you have to give them the ol’ Larry the Cable Guy horse treatment and the first one didn’t work?

 

[AkMtnRunner]

Marine Mike is actually Formidilosus in his Clark Kent disguise just to prove his point.

But seriously, this is where the ‘Marine Mike’ meme has begun.

 

[Leaf Litter]

Tons of people jumping to ridiculous conclusions on here. Nobody truly knows why he missed, but I'd guess "the yips" had more to do with it than anything else. Once you know the camera is rolling and that a half million people might see it, the pressure starts to build.

But that's just my guess.

 

[Maverick1]

I shot my friends twice. No more.

You shot your friends? Twice?

 

[Maverick1]

Tons of people jumping to ridiculous conclusions on here. Nobody truly knows why he missed, but I'd guess "the yips" had more to do with it than anything else. Once you know the camera is rolling and that a half million people might see it, the pressure starts to build.

But that's just my guess.

Which has more pressure? Shooting at a target when the camera is rolling? Or taking a shot at a live animal with a tag that has taken 18-20 years worth of points to draw?

 

[ddowning]

I have gongs out to 1000 right off my deck. When "shooter's" show up and ask to hunt our ranch it's the easy button to have them simply wack the 8 inch gong at 600 yards. One shot hit, first shot, all conditions. When they miss I let them walk it in but...come back next time.-WW

8" at 600 is probably between 70% and 85% for very good shooters in a cold bore/cold shooter scenario. The only way I can see it being much better is if your range is flat for a mile in every direction to give a steady wind from shooter to target. Hold a Kestrel in the air and shoot. Even then you need a very accurate rifle to have a good chance of a hit. An average rifle isnt going to hold a 30 shot cone smaller than 8" at 600 yards. Even a true 1 moa rifle leaves you <1" on both sides to miss if we are talking 100% hitting the target. Even with a true 1/2 moa gun, there are only a handful of guys in the country that have above an 85% chance of hitting that target, at that range, in a location they have never shot at before. That's not to mention the rarity of a true 1/2 moa gun.

 

[ddowning]

This is more my style, MPBR shooting is what I was raised on. We would shoot for a 200 yard zero and basically hold 6” above poi at 300 yards, if it was over 300 we would get closer. The shooting/hunting world has come a long way and I see the benefit of of hash marks and dialing but it is always comical watching some of these hunting videos on YouTube. I watched a video last year of 2 guys hunting together. They had a black bear at 250 and steadily walking closer, the shooter kept asking for ranges from his buddy and constantly dialing his scope, every time the bear would offer a shot the shooter was busy dialing, he finally catches a break at like 150 yards and shoots over the bear. The way my “simple “ rifle is set up, my eye never would have been out of the scope once I knew that bear was inside 250 yards upon initial ranging. Now all that being said, my next rifle will have a Swfa scope on it and It will have dialing capabilities, but I’m guessing most of my shots at game will still be inside of 300 yards.

You have it right. If you combine both methods, you can become pretty good in hunting situations. Inside mpbr it is pretty quick. Once you get past that you need a little more time.