A couple more new shooters/hunters or people that have hunted but we’re not skilled shooters, that were trained in this drill that used it this year so far. All performed correctly. I’ll have a couple of very new hunters and shooter in the next few weeks on their first animals. They have been almost solely trained on this drill…. I will report how it goes on their first animals.
As an update-
I was directly involved with 20 elk killed this year, as well as deer. We had more first time hunters and very seasoned hunters and shooters that have
not been trained/practiced on the Hunting Rifle Drill than any year prior.
Every person that had at least two days with my group practicing the Hunting Rifle drill, or who practiced and trained themselves on it killed their animals without issue.
Every person that had not been trained on it, had significant issues getting on the elk, building a position quickly enough, and quickly and competently manipulating the rifle. Once they did get into position, there were issues with those people finding the animal in the scope, using too much power and losing the animal, quickly and correctly reloading the rifle after the first shot, etc, etc. We had more sub optimal shots on animals this year than our group has had in any 3-4 year period combined in the last decade.
All animals that got touched were recovered, though there were a couple tense moments for the hunters.
The difference between very experienced hunters that had not specifically practiced the hunting rifle drill- regardless of other shooting practice or competition experience; and those who specifically have trained the hunting rifle drill were stark- to the point that those we were hunting with/on asked that only those who had been trained/practiced correctly come in the future.
