Training Drills for NRL Hunter and Hunting

[Macintosh]

@Lawnboi Not certain I understand perfectly, are you saying that you would recommend not even going to a match until you can hold 1.5 inch groups from any supported position?
I’m really only doing local matches, but I can tell you I cannot hold 1.5 inch groups from most positions on the clock, and while I certainly wouldn’t say I do well, I certainly have fun.

 

[Lawnboi]

@Lawnboi Not certain I understand perfectly, are you saying that you would recommend not even going to a match until you can hold 1.5 inch groups from any supported position?
I’m really only doing local matches, but I can tell you I cannot hold 1.5 inch groups from most positions on the clock, and while I certainly wouldn’t say I do well, I certainly have fun.

Negative. Go shoot matches, it’s the only environment that applies pressure under someone else rules, besides hunting.

As far as training I see a lot of people wanting to shoot far to train. Reading and spotting is hard and that needs to be practiced but if your shooting 3-4 moa at distance your not really gaining much in the way of learning. It can be almost frustrating.

Once you can shoot 1.5” in different positions everything seems to start to come together, and spotting and adjusting becomes much more intuitive. On top of the fact that you now likely know how to limit wobble and remain steady.

I’m not the best shooter. My first match I think I hit 13 targets out of 100. It was terrible. Once I started doing 100 yard paper drills and finding out that I’m just lucking into hits it really opened my eyes. I got my Kraft drills down to 1.5 inches and suddenly I could count on my shots, put more on target and actually adjust to make more hits.

Maybe I said it the wrong way, didn’t mean to. Just emphasizing how important knowing your cone of fire is before adding more variables.

 

[Megalodon]

Practice just building/breaking positions quickly. Set a target however bear or far you want. Turn your back to it and throw some kind of markers over you shoulder. Those are your spots to transition between. Obviously helps if you have some varied natural terrain to work with.

 

[Macintosh]

Negative. Go shoot matches, it’s the only environment that applies pressure under someone else rules, besides hunting.

As far as training I see a lot of people wanting to shoot far to train. Reading and spotting is hard and that needs to be practiced but if your shooting 3-4 moa at distance your not really gaining much in the way of learning. It can be almost frustrating.

Once you can shoot 1.5” in different positions everything seems to start to come together, and spotting and adjusting becomes much more intuitive. On top of the fact that you now likely know how to limit wobble and remain steady.

I’m not the best shooter. My first match I think I hit 13 targets out of 100. It was terrible. Once I started doing 100 yard paper drills and finding out that I’m just lucking into hits it really opened my eyes. I got my Kraft drills down to 1.5 inches and suddenly I could count on my shots, put more on target and actually adjust to make more hits.

Maybe I said it the wrong way, didn’t mean to. Just emphasizing how important knowing your cone of fire is before adding more variables.

Gotcha! That makes much more sense. For sure, doing kraft drills or something similar at zero-distance allows you to see the positions you are really weak at, and focus on those in practice, and as you are able to close those groups through practice you definitely see your match performance improve. That part I think is really fun.

Edit: also, for hunting, I like the 100 yard hunting rifle drill with the circles outlined in
Post#1 of the “equipment vs practice” thread. It’s basically a diagnostic tool just like a kraft drill, but the different-sized circles give you something of a “standard” for different positions. There’s no reason really not to use 4 kraft targets for this, just using your most common hunting positions under time. It shows what your real best-case ability is at various positions, so you can target weaknesses and address them, as well as track progress.

 

[KChunter71]

Equipment versus practice posts and Rifle practice/shooting

This isn’t in response to anyone I particular, but there is an up tick in the amount of “I want a XXXX distance hunting rifle” traffic the last few months. I am getting a lot of questions relating to this, which I do not mind helping, but thought a public post might help answer some questions...

rokslide.com

Thanks for sharing this thread! No idea how I missed it or over looked it.

 

[ddowning]

If you're just learning to shoot, dryfire with a dfat is incredibly valuable. I don't mean learning to shoot like we did with a bb gun when we were 4 either. I'm 39 and did the bb gun thing at 4. I was by far the best shooter of my hunting group for most of my life. I did not learn to actually shoot a rifle until 2018, and I did not become proficient until 2020. I haven't consistently shot matches since 2023 I have lost a lot of ability. Dryfire will teach you to aim, break a trigger, follow through, run the bolt, and build positions.

If you want to be truly competitive at matches, build trainers in 22lr and 223. Add 308 if you can afford it. Some are naturally gifted, but there are a ton of guys that put everything they've got into precision rifle shooting. If you want to win, you have to beat those guys. Shooting very small targets in practice will make you hyper focused on everything like calling wind and spotting and making corrections.

Everyone says to practice shooting at 100 yards, but there is a thought process in shooting long range that involves follow through and correction after spotting where your last shot hit. I like to do that around 400 yards at least. If you want to do it at 100 yards, the timing works better with a 22 lr. It helps to have a really good feel for time of flight to spot trace and splash.

I do recommend doing build and break drills. I normally shoot a max of 2 shots per position in practice. For NRL Hunter it is a good idea to practice the entire process from pack on to shot until it becomes very efficient.

There are a ton of things you can do to improve. Find the things you are bad at and break the process down into steps. Practice those steps until you are good. Don't spend much time (maybe 5-10%) trying to put it all together until you have mastered every step by itself.

Don't spend too much time working on gun/load. For NRL hunter if it will shoot 1.5 moa for 10 shots you can win with it. A lot of guys want sub 3/8" for 5 shots. 5 shots is not really statistically significant and you wind up chasing your tail. With heavy PRS guns you can get sub 1/2 moa for 10 shots but that is a VERY good barrel. Most PRS matches can be won with a gun that will shoot 3/4 or even 1 moa for 10 shots.

When you are top 5 or close a more precise gun will help. Until then the difference between a 1.5moa gun and a 1 moa gun is not holding you back like a skill deficit is.

Matches are a lot of fun, but the level of competition is far above what it was 5 years ago and is continuing to rise. Shooting to have fun is one thing. Shooting with the goal or intention of winning requires a pretty big time and money commitment.