Agree, but to be crystal...so long as 'competing' includes competing with yourself, your own gear, your own gongs/targets, your own field situations, for hunting will make you a much better hunter and shooter, finding your own setup, your own limits with whatever gear you want to play with at the time, sky's the limit. But you can shoot lights out to ridiculous ranges without ever entering a match of any kind.
My career is in training public safety agencies (not in shooting). What we have found is a fresh set of eyes, or exposure to someone else doing things differently forces you to evaluate what you are doing, and how you are doing it to see if it is the best way. I think the same could be said for shooting.
Sounds gross to many but hey if you dig it, go for it. You'll maybe get better than other people at whatever that task is. Irrelevant for a hunter who competes against himself and live animals. The rarity is those who are top competitive shooters AND killers combined. The norm is pick a horse and get to the top for you, the most successful deadliest hunters will likely never have competed against anyone in a match setting. That's life, it's not gonna change. Levi Morgan will never equal a Chuck Adams, Archie Nesbitt or Tim Wells afield. One of them shoots high level against people AND is deadly afield (that's the rarity) but all three who've never shot match will destroy Levi afield. You get stuck shooting matches against people too much and you'll be taking away from things you could be doing to improve your chances of putting meat in the freezer and horns on the wall. I only use this example as my trophy phase was when I was hardcore archery so I knew some players there no different what tool you use. The deadliest of those guys doesn't even use sights but I digress...all three of them figured out their game from pure hunting drive/focus. They would never have become that if competitive shooters. Rare are those who are top at both. Most land good at one or the other.
Ya, were you beside them afield? How's their walls and freezers compared to the shooting match competitors? Both disciplines can give you trophies lol.
No my statement was correct. Wanna get better at something do more of it, if you wanna get better at competing against others in a shooting match then do so. But you can get really good at shooting on game and hunting by doing all the same work outside of a match setting on shooting and more time hunting. Placing bullets isn't the hard part, but it is much harder when it's a live animal for the majority, very common for those who's pressure, whole different ball game on the animal with one tag, one chance...not spot the first one, take a measure then send another...like the animal is going to stick around on your face up lol. No, as said before our brains are visually/spatially wired, you won't be taking a first one and then measuring the miss and doing it again on animals...your brain already has the next hold figured, no measuring needed but if you're trained to do that you'll lose time if you flub the first on and try to measure on a critter that's now moving away, will you be confused, what to do now? I could go on and on. We can all run the same gear and learn the same methods of the day. A shat ton of it is useless for hunting, you said so yourself that very rare is the guy who consistently kills past 600 so whatever is going on beyond that is marginal if not detrimental to the killers focus in both setup, gear and practice. Competing against people can work against you in prep for hunting as the focus is in the wrong place. It's a well known phenomenon, range pro's fall apart afield, killers fall apart at a match.
the practice is the key, the method is more fun to you so you do more practice, if a guy has more fun solo competing against himself and does the practice...will be just as deadly, so my issue is with saying competition against other people is the best way......that's horse shit
Get any hunting done from 2014-2018?
Get any hunting done from 2014-2018?
Great candid response, same with the guy about gatekeepers etc...that's why WeiserBucks and me aren't into groups period, they're everywhere. Really like your last line, you can do all you need to be deadly afield right there. Zero competition against others required and the chill mid pack and have 'fun' is the key. You're better off having fun in practice than stressing to win imo...one will aid you in hunting prep one won't. I guess some perform better under negative stress perhaps but I'd argue more perform even better off positive stress.
You're freezer is gonna be happier for it too lol, thanks for remaining candid. Lot's of points proven there. You likely excelled as well but that was your focus and so you should have.
well my trophy phase was in archery but same shizzo applies, I guess lets see their walls compared to Jim Shockey's walls would be the fastest way to confirm what I was saying, the bowhunting world was where I was heavy when I was in trophy phase and there was one guy I could think of that competed and killed pretty well combined, Levi Morgan but 3 guys that he will never touch in his lifetime for hunting that never competed in anything, Chuck Adams, Archie Nesbitt and Tim Wells, hell one of them is a better shot on game than the rest of them and doesn't even use sights, they did their own thing and as was stated that guys high level at both will be the norm? no...guys will be high level at one or the other is the norm, rare are those who are high level at both, so that's not the majority as was alluded nor was competition against other people is the best way to become a better shooter...maybe for competing against other people
