Ep. 45: Essential Offseason Training: Mastering Precision Long-Range Shooting
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As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days in the field. This show is about translating my hard-won experiences into tips and tactics that'll get you closer to your ultimate goal, success in the field. I'm Remy Warren. This is Cutting the Distance. ♪

Welcome back everyone to Cutting the Distance podcast. This month I want to do sort of a three-part series on summer prep. Now I know it's not summer yet, but I want to lay out some things that we can do during the summer, including things that cover rifle shooting, physical fitness, and bow shooting. So a little bit of something for everyone. This week we're going to tackle precision extended range shooting. I'm going to be talking about how to do that.

I want to include everything you need to know to get set up and ways to practice. I want to cover the basics of shooting further and give you practical tips to make the perfect shot in hunting situations. But first, I want to share a story of a mountain whitetail hunt I took last season.

This hunt takes place in southwest Montana. Now it had just been the end of the first week of the rifle season and I'd guided the whole week, actually packed out quite a few elk and was fairly tired, but on my days off I do what I like to do, go hunting. So before the next group of hunters came in, my wife and I decided to go out and have a look around. I actually had a cow elk tag, so I thought, well, maybe, you know, we might see a cow,

Who knows? And she had a deer and elk tag and everything. So we just decided, let's go out and see what we can find. We got out there just right before daylight, normal glassing spot. I started glassing and was actually looking for elk and way off in the distance, about a mile and a half away,

on the edge of this one opening i saw some deer and i could tell that they were white tails so i got my spotting scope out started looking and there was a few does and two bucks in there start kind of pushing the does around chasing the does and there was one what looked like a pretty decent buck so we decided let's go get a closer look

We ended up moving pretty quick and cutting the distance about halfway, setting up the scope again. And I see that there's a pretty good buck in there for this, for the area that we hunt. We don't really get a lot of white tails. It's more mule deer country, but you can't really hunt mule deer unless you draw a special tag. So we're like, Oh, sweet. There's two bucks in there. Pretty good bucks. And I thought, well, let's try to get Danielle a deer while they're over there.

Trouble was they're moving around a lot and the hill that they're on was really steep and pretty high up there. So I didn't want to go on the hill that they were at plus the way the wind was going just wouldn't allow that approach. So we're going to come in. They were kind of on this north face and we were going to come in on the snowy south face where we could see the whole hill and hopefully get a good steady shot across the canyon.

It's the best way because you get, I've actually stocked animals on this particular hill before, and it's so steep that you can't really see them where they're at below you. So if they've moved and you don't have a good reference or aren't there quick enough, then they're just going to be gone. You'll never know where they went. But if you're across the canyon, you've just got this great view of the whole hillside and you can sneak in, slip in and make a shot across the canyon. So

We work our way up. By the time we get over there, it's a little bit later. There's quite a bit of deadfall we're walking through on that south side and just like a lot of snow as well.

actually the week before was super cold like the temperatures dropped and i actually think it's why maybe kicked off the rut a little bit early most of the time the whitetails don't start chasing like that till about a week or two later but they were they were getting pretty hot and heavy after it i was hoping that those does would keep in that area and maybe keep them distracted before they moved off into one of the timbered sides

So we work our way up. We're in the snow. We don't see the deer, but we get about to where I'd planned from across the way glassing of where we might be able to see them from. We sit down, get set up, and I see a buck pop out down below us. I get my binoculars on it, and it's not the bigger buck.

But I think, well, there is a doe with him. So maybe that bigger buck's right around here. So we sit and wait and watch. And as we're watching that, a bigger buck comes out up the hill a ways, chasing some other does and then stops and stands there. So I look at him and I'm like, okay, that's a little bit further than I was thinking. And I definitely wanted to make sure that my wife could get a good shot on the deer that we're chasing. So

I range the deer and I'm thinking now, okay, he's up toward the top of the mountain. And the trouble is by the time we get over to where he's at, he's definitely going to be gone bedded for the day. So I tell Danielle, I'm like, okay, that bigger bucks up there. We could wait and see what happens. Or, you know, you could take this, this other buck. She's like, well, we've come all the way. Why don't you try to get that bigger deer?

You know, cause it was just a little bit out of her range that she felt comfortable with. And I was like, oh, you know, I like to stock in and get closer. She's like, yeah, but you've got this gun that you set up for shooting far. You practice all the time. You could definitely shoot that deer. I was like, yeah. She's like, well then shoot it. I think she was just as excited to see, see the buck and wanted me to get a deer as much as I wanted her to get a deer. So I said, okay. I just said, all right, I'll shoot the deer.

So I got set up with my pack. The hill was pretty steep. So I took my trekking poles and crossed the straps of the trekking poles to make a good shooting sticks out of them. Then I used my pack on my back and then her pack under my shooting elbow with my knee up. I mean, I was just like locked in steady range, the deer, and he just was in that position. Deer do this. Sometimes there'll be chasing deer and then they just kind of stop and they just stare off into the distance forever. And he was just standing on the hillside, perfectly broad side,

stoic, not moving. I range the deer and then of course as soon as I range him and get set up he just starts walking again toward where those does disappeared. I know, all right, it's gonna be now or never. If he stops again this is gonna be the time. So he walks, walks, and then stops again. I range him, confirm the range, check my, I actually had my ballistic app open and just, he hadn't moved much but I made a quick adjustment on the dial of my scope.

settled in behind shoulder, slowly squeeze the trigger just like the thousands of shots I've taken practicing shooting. Pull the trigger and the buck just drops. Perfect shot. Well, as that happened,

after the report of the rifle, the other deer moved up from a canyon down below us halfway between the deer that I just shot and where we were sitting. And that deer just stops on the hillside, kind of looks around and then goes to feeding. And I'm like, look at Danielle. I'm like, do you want to shoot that buck? She's like, yeah. So we switched positions on the rifle, reload, I range the deer and

adjust the dial for this range. And I'm like, all right, the gun set is exactly where you want to shoot. Just put it right behind his shoulder, pick that spot. You just kind of talk her through the shot. She looks steady. She's steady. She squeezes the trigger. Perfect shot. Buck drops, rolls down the mountain.

We just, within, I don't know, a couple minutes of each other, just shot two bucks across the canyon with the same rifle, just adjusting for the two different ranges. You know, we're pretty excited. This is her second whitetail buck, and it just happened to be at the top of the mountain where she shot her first whitetail was at the top of the mountain in elk country where we don't really see whitetails that often.

I mean, there are plenty of white tails around, but to get them up in the mountains where you're normally chasing elk or mule deer is just pretty cool, pretty fun for us. So we go down and it actually takes us quite a while to get down through the, there's actually a creek in the bottom. It's pretty nasty with all the snow and deadfall and everything. Start walking up. We get to her buck, nice little white tail buck. And then we keep climbing up the mountain to where mine is.

And we decided that we were going to try to get them both together because I figured, well, we could cut mine up here, but it's downhill. So we drug my buck down to the other deer. That way we could just process them at the same time together and get a photo and everything and then pack them out. And it was pretty cool because my mom and dad actually happened to be up at the same time as well. So we

called them we're like hey we got I think I don't even remember if I had service I might send them an in-reach message bucks down and they ended up working their way over to us to give us a hand packing them out we cut up the deer pack the deer out and it was just a great day getting a buck like a double with my wife across canyon in the mountains on some whitetails

When I introduced this week's podcast, I think I called it precision extended range shooting. What I'm really talking about other terms for it could be long range shooting. It could be precision shots, farther shots, shooting further, whatever you want to call it. Now I know that there are a lot of, I mean, there's just so many sides to everything. You know, it's like, you can't talk about anything in hunting sometimes without it offending someone or someone else saying that it's wrong or this is right or whatever.

That's not what I want to get into. What I want to get into is how to make you a better shot so no matter what the yardage is, you can make a good, clean, ethical shot. So before we get into it, I will talk a little bit about the ethics and kind of define some of this stuff. If I think about when I started hunting, or probably when maybe most people that are listening to this started hunting, growing up out west...

300 yards was kind of like that magical mark that that's a far shot, but it's a doable shot, you know, shot that you can make. And it's kind of in some instances was the range that a lot of elk or deer might particularly be at.

Now that 300 yard, you know, if I remember back, I probably would, some of my rifles, we would sight in at like three inches high at a hundred or four inches high at a hundred. And then we kind of just eyeball or guess the yardage of the animals because what we didn't have was laser range finders. They either didn't exist or we didn't have them or the technology wasn't good enough to even really work that well. So,

We would just estimate range and line up our shot and shoot. And things would look either too far or too close. And over the years, either me or even just in general people, there was probably a lot of more missed animals or even potentially wounded animals just based on like guessing the range. There's so many times where I'll be walking up a canyon and think, how far is that?

you know, oh, that's got to be 400 yards and it's 250. Or you look at it and you go, that's got to be 300 yards and it's 700 yards. In the mountains, man, it can be very difficult to judge ranges, especially when you're looking across a canyon or on the same hillside. You know, on the same hillside, things always look a lot closer. But when you're looking across a canyon, things often look further. So

You know, we didn't have this ability for what I would consider precision shooting. It was a lot more guesswork and a lot less 100% knowledge of where your bullet's going. So when I talk about longer range shooting or precision extended range shooting, I'm

I'm not necessarily talking about shooting a thousand yards, but I am talking about at every yardage you're shooting, knowing exactly where that bullet's going. So whether you've got a hundred yard shot, a 300 yard shot, or a 500 yard shot, you know the drop of your rifle, you know your hold and your point of impact and where that bullet is going to end up. And because of that, you can take a more precise, more ethical shot.

Now, I definitely have seen the rise in popularity over the years of, you know, extreme long range shooting, shooting at eight, 900 yards. And I've also seen the rise of just the backlash and the opposite of that as well.

you know where i personally stand i mean when i'm hunting i like to get as close as possible but when i'm shooting or practicing i love to keep an enjoyment of shooting my rifle and shooting it at far ranges keeps it interesting exciting and is fun and makes those close shots seem super easy when you're out practicing a lot and shooting way further distances

let's just break down some of the yardages and what maybe will kind of classify them so i would say it depends where you're from but 300 to 350 yards we'll call a far shot and then 350 to 500 maybe we'll call that long range

And then, you know, 500 plus, we'll just call that really long range. So me personally, I think that with the modern rifles, with the right rifle for the right application, you know, the right caliber and the right bullet and everything's right.

500 yards with most rifles is very doable shot these days with the right practice, knowledge, and everything. Yes, guns can shoot further. Yes, that is far, but that's kind of like my personal benchmark of what's too far for me personally.

Can I shoot my rifle a thousand yards? Yes, I can. Do I shoot animals a thousand yards? Me personally? No, I don't. Is it possible? Yes. So there's always these back and forth, but I don't want to get too deep into that. I just want to acknowledge that and then kind of move on because I think that what the real value of what I'm talking about here is just understand your rifle and

equipment to make those good shots. And that way, if you are out and have a hunting situation where a deer or elk or whatever steps out at 350, 400, 422, you can make a precise exact shot. And because of that, you will be more effective at both harvesting and more successful because you know that you're going to hit what you're shooting at.

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Go to fishingbooker.com today. That's fishingbooker.com. We're going to first start with the equipment portion of it. Let's break it down into the categories, I guess, first. We're going to go, you need a rifle, obviously, and that rifle is going to have ammunition. And then you need a scope on top of that rifle. You also need a range finder and something to steady your shot. Let's start with the rifle. Most rifles out there now

They're built fairly well. You know, I prefer a more precision type rifle. So when I practice and shoot out at the range at further yards, I've got a sub, all my rifles are sub MOA. So what an MOA is, is a minute of angle or essentially in layman's terms, an inch at a hundred yards. So it's kind of a standard. It's actually not exactly an inch, but we don't need to go into too much detail for what we're talking about.

We're talking about holding an inch group at 100 yards. And then generally that kind of factors out as the distance goes, it maintains that inch per 100 yards.

But I think, you know, most production rifles now should shoot at least at that. If you've got a rifle that shoots one MOA, you're probably pretty good at shooting out to 500 yards or even practicing at further ranges. But the better the rifle, the better your groups will be at those extended ranges. Now, a lot of that is also going to come down to matching the right ammunition to your rifle. And what that is, is you got to think about it like this.

You know, every gun might shoot a little bit of ammo a little bit different, but you also need to find a bullet that not only shoots well out of your rifle, but has good performance when hunting. Me personally, you know, I have shot pretty much every caliber out there, almost every make of rifle, and I've shot a lot of different bullets. I've shot everything from match grade precision ammo to, you know, crossbow.

core lock hunting bullets and I try to find the sweet spot in between for the rifle that I shoot I look for ammunition that is both accurate but also has what I would consider killing power so a lot of the really high BC bullets don't really and there's a lot more on the market now than you know when I started out but

The ballistic coefficient of a lot of bullets that shoot really well for further ranges may not necessarily be the best for hunting. So I try to find that good mix of a bullet that shoots well, has a good ballistic coefficient, but also has great hunting performance. You know, I think once you've got your rifle, uh,

the thing that has advanced the technology of just precision shooting at any distance, in my opinion, outside of the rifle has got to be the optics, both on the rifle as well as the advancements of range finders. If you know the exact distance of your target and you have a scope that you know the holdovers or can adjust for that exact range, overall, you're going to be a lot more accurate. So

When we're talking about scopes, there's a couple different options out there. I like any scope that has... I actually use an adjustable turret scope, so I've got... I shoot a lot of Vortex stuff. One of the scopes that I've used for years was the Vortex Viper HSLR, which is just kind of a lighter version, a 5-16 power magnification adjustable turret scope.

and mostly a locked windage cap and exposed elevation turret. So the elevation turret, if you're kind of new to this whole thing, I mean, I start talking about this stuff. This is stuff that I've talked about in every hunting camp ever. So it's stuff that I feel like a lot of people know, but also I know a lot of people listening to this podcast are kind of like new to some of this stuff.

And maybe a lot of you, maybe you've been hunting a long time and, you know, see people with this kind of stuff, but don't really know enough to jump into it or haven't taken the time to research a lot of it. So I'm going to kind of do some basics, but also just some info for everyone as well.

So actually the scope that I just started using now, and you know, some of these, you can invest as much as you want into long range setups. There's guys that have $20,000 long range rifles that are made for specific tasks for shooting targets at really far ranges. But then there's that kind of in between where you're a hunter and you're just looking to be as precise as possible at ranges that you feel comfortable at. And

at. And that might not necessarily mean shooting 500 yards. It might mean shooting 300 yards, but shooting that 300 yards exact every time.

Scope that I've been using, you know, recently I've talked about the, you know, I work with Vortex, the Razor HD LHT, which is their light hunter tactical. So it's got features of a tactical, but also really good for hunting lighter weight, locking elevation and windage and all that kind of stuff. A lot of the features that you want in long range shooting or precision shooting, but in just more of a hunter model.

So there's those kinds of scopes where you can adjust the turret. And what that is, is I'm adjusting the actual main crosshair for the exact yardage that I'm shooting. Now there's other scopes that are really great for hunting that are more of a holdover scope. So there's different kinds of reticles. Every rifle scope manufacturer now pretty much has one. They've got different names. Some of them are like stadia lines in there where they're like the

BDC or the loopholes like a Boone and Crockett reticle or something of that effect. And what that is, is at a certain magnification, there's your main crosshair and then there's other lines or marks on below that main crosshair that represent different yardages. And there's so much technical stuff when it comes to some of this. So I'm trying to do a brief rundown overview right now, but

For most of those, it's not a first focal plane scope. So what happens is as you adjust the zoom, you know, the value that those represent changes. So mostly they work when they're on full magnification. But that's another great option, especially if you don't want to have to get super technical with a moving turret and everything.

all that kind of stuff. You can shoot your gun at high power magnification. There are lines in your scope that will represent varying yardages based on your bullet, your rifle caliber, and whatever. And those scopes can be put on any gun. And then through practice and shooting, you'll know what each one of those lines represents. So when you're out in the field, you can use that as your holdover. So you'll hold over the back of the animal and use a different crosshair in the scope for different yardages.

Now, the other thing we're going to talk about, laser range finders. I mean, to be able to shoot precise, you need to know the exact distance.

and knowing that exact distance, and then knowing what that exact distance represents in your rifle. So that's the other step of it is either having shot it and knowing what those ballistic lines mean, or also using in conjunction, if you're going to be shooting a lot, either a ballistics app or what we call a dope chart or a drop chart, which shows the drops and how to compensate for the drop. So that's the equipment and everything in a nutshell.

Now we're going to get to the fun part of the actual going out and shooting your rifle. When it comes to taking a shot, there are four basics that pretty much doesn't matter the range, whether you're shooting it 100 yards or 700 yards are the same. So you first have to know the range. Then you have to know your holdover or your drop compensation. Then you have to steady the gun and then you just have to shoot the target.

put the crosshair where, or by shoot the target, I mean put the crosshair where it's supposed to be and squeeze the trigger. If everything else is in line and you do that correctly, you will make a perfect shot. And it really is as simple as that. The real challenge part is understanding or making sure everything involved in putting that bullet where it needs to go or the rifle is set up in a right way.

As a guide and outfitter, before we would go out and hunt, we would always have people shoot their guns at the range before we go out. And that's, I think obviously you should do that anytime you travel or whatever, you want to just re-verify the zero.

Not only am I re-verifying the zero or having people re-verify the zero of their rifles, but my real intention is to watch the way that they shoot and see how their gun performs. And many times, that's why I've shot so many different rifles, because I pretty much always shoot everybody's rifle that comes out anyways. But most of the hunters that would hunt with us pretty much had never shot more than 100 yards before.

or live in a place where they can't shoot more than 100 yards, but they're coming on an elk hunt where, you know, the average elk shot might be 250 to 300, and that would be a long shot or three times as far as they've ever shot in their life. Most people, most hunters have probably shot most of their animals or whitetail hunts within 50 yards or less. So then to come out and, you know, be expected to shoot far when you've never done it before is a long, long ask. But we would always...

watch and see how everybody would shoot. I mean, there's so many times where I'd see, you know, somebody shooting at paper, a hundred yards, and it's just kind of the gun being all over the place and really just looking at the way that they shoot and, you know, the rifle and their setup and their scope and just seeing like, okay, their equipment is not that great. And the way that they're steadying the rifle is not that great.

But then what I would do is I always have my rifle there, one of my rifles, and I've got a 500 yard gong at our range. So, you know, like different yardage gongs and say, okay, what we're going to do, we're going to shoot my gun. First day, it's like, it's got a muzzle break, has zero kick, like honest to God, you will not feel this gun go off.

If you're going to pull the trigger on this rifle, you have to listen to the way that I tell you to shoot it. Otherwise, it's just wasting my ammo. And everyone pretty much agrees like, yeah, I'll shoot that. Sounds good. And I'm like, okay, and we're going to shoot at that 500 yard gun. There's no way I can hit that. Because what they don't realize is the center of the target is the same size, no matter how far or whatever. As long as that crosshair is set right, you should hit what you're aiming at.

And I'll know if you don't, or if you move, or if you didn't make a good shot because it won't hit where it's supposed to go. So I set my rifle up and say, okay, here's how you steady the rifle. You can shoot it like this. You put the sandbag and the stock is rested on something. The forend's rested. Okay. One hand on the gun. You're going to slowly squeeze the trigger. I set the scope. And every time anybody's done that, they've center punched the 500 yard gong first shot. Every time everyone goes, wow, that's incredible. I need one of these.

And it's not necessarily anything that their rifle can't do, but it's just having it set up in a way that I know when I adjust the gun and I know that yardage and I've shot it a hundred times more than that, but at that target, you know where that bullet's going to go. And that's all that it really amounts to. So having the rifle where you can set it up and have something where, you know, the difference between shooting at 200 and 300 yards is,

is substantial enough that if you have a good point of impact reference, whether it's you're adjusting your main scope or having some kind of reticle in your scope that shows you your hold, you're going to be a lot more precise at shooting it every yardage, every distance.

So the key is to get out and start practicing some of these things. Practice shooting. When you go out to shoot, shoot at some of these further distances and shoot at targets or gongs or whatever at the distance. But you're going to first set up your rifle and understand the drop of your rifle and the ballistics of your bullets.

that correlates to your rifle and your point of impact for the varying yardages. So that can be done either through a ballistics app. There's so many different ballistics apps out there. I know everybody that shoots a lot has a ballistics app that they swear is better than the last.

Maybe it just depends on the gun and the bullet and there's different formulas and all this stuff. And many of them you have to adjust and build out yourself anyways. Stuff like there's Apple users that use like shooter app. I've used for years one called Strelok because it was free and worked really good on my phone with my rifle and had good luck with it. And other people have had terrible luck with it.

So there's so many just different applications and other things, but having something like that, even most rifle scope companies have some form of ballistics calculator there where you can kind of use your bullet data, use your elevation, use all that kind of info, the inputs to get the right output. And then you're going to take those outputs and practice them in the field and see exactly where you're shooting at different yardages.

So many hunters are guilty of this. And I think it's a time thing, but also, you know, they go out, they shot the rifle last season. They shot it at the range a couple of times before they went out hunting. Then they go out hunting all season. They put it away. They go out and they shoot it the day before they go hunting. Okay. It hit paper. We're great. We're good to go. Doing that is fine. And some people are successful, but if you go out and actually practice it, varying yardages at varying distances and varying elements in varying terrain, you're

you are going to be so much more successful when that shot opportunity happens. You don't want to be the guy that tells a story of how the one got away. You want to be the guy that tells a story of how you spotted something, you got in, and you know that when you get in within range, when you pull the trigger, whatever you're shooting at is going to be hit perfectly and drop.

And that right there is what I would consider the ethical portion of this. You know, so many times people talk about the ethics of long range shooting or shooting too far or whatever. But what I'm talking about is the ethics of being a hunter that knows that when you go out, whatever you're shooting at, if you're going to pull the trigger, it's going to get shot perfectly and be a quick humane kill. And that comes through repetition and practice. And I can't stress that enough that

Yes, for many people, rifle shooting is easy and can be boring and expensive if you're just shooting at 100 yards of paper and trying to get a group. I personally don't like sighting in rifles that much. I don't like shooting at 100 yards. To me, it's like trap shooting. It's like you aren't good unless it's exact, and it can be tedious and a little bit boring. But what I like to do is I like to go out into the field and take practice what would be more like

sporting clays where I actually like to practice in the field at varying yardages, shooting at different targets, whether it be a gong thing that I set up or even just what I would consider like shooting roving where I'm shooting at small rocks or various objects in the distance at varying yardages in hunting type scenarios or terrain. Now, obviously there's a lot of factors that you have to consider for this safety being the number one.

fire danger being number two. And once those things have been considered, you know, having a good backstop and other things, it's perfectly safe. I like to get out and it's a great way to make one or two, you know, like even if you can only make one trip during the summer, you can shoot at a range, you know, practice with your rifle as often as possible. But if you can make a trip where you can go out and shoot varying yardages in the mountains at different types of ranges, you

you are going to be a lot more successful in the long run.

Now, what happens if you do not have a range available to you where you can shoot further distances, or you don't have the ability to do those kind of roving type shots at varying different targets or whatever? You know, I think one thing that can really help everyone out, and I've done a podcast on shooting positions and steadying the rifle. I can't remember what episode it is. You have to go back and find it. But I think that there

There are things that you can do at even 50 or 100 yards and some of that is going to be one, shooting your gun and knowing where those different lines or how to adjust your rifle and figuring out the ballistics for your gun. You can do that, you know, with a chronograph and your bullet information and your scope and getting all that dialed in with your ballistics type stuff and just knowing the ballistics of your rifle.

Now the best way is to actually have the opportunity to prove that and maybe you can only reach out to 300 yards or find the longest range you can wherever you're at and check some of those ballistics because they will be off a little bit no matter how good the ballistics calculator is. But for the most part out to 500 yards most of them are pretty dang close or close enough for government work.

Maybe you might be talking like a 16th of an inch off or something, but for practical applications, the real thing that you want to practice is the other parts of getting the shot. So remember, we go back to those four things of making any shot, knowing the range, knowing the holdover, steadying the gun, and then shooting the target. Well, the last two you can practice at any range, steadying the gun and shooting the target. And that's going to mean, you know, if you're taking a shot

that's at a further range, the gun has to be more steady than at a close range because you have less margin of error. So figuring out and practicing studying that rifle in shooting positions at the range at your range where you aren't just shooting from a lead sled or a bench, but you're setting up your pack here, you have maybe something to study the rifle bipod, something to study the butt of the rifle, getting the full gun steady, where

Where when I take a shot, I like the gun to be pretty much set up where if I wasn't on it or touching it, it can still be pointed at whatever I'm shooting at. Then I just can slide in, do the work of pulling the trigger, but everything else is set up as far as the drop, the holdover, the gun steady itself. So practice getting that gun steady no matter where you are and then knowing your different drops and then understanding how your bullet drops. And you can even do that

If you're shooting at 100 yards, you know, try shooting the different lines and seeing where that's grouping and how high it is at 100 and just understanding and getting a good visual picture of the ballistics of your rifle. And by doing that, you're going to be more efficient in the field and you're going to be more precise at varying ranges, whether it be 200 yards or 500 yards.

But that's just going to really extend your effective kill range and make you more successful when it comes to the chance of finding something, pulling the trigger, and making a clean kill. This summer is really going to be the time to do the things you can to practice to make you more efficient in the fall. And that's really what I want to cover. So if you're a rifle hunter, you've got a rifle tag on.

Take it upon yourself to say, okay, I'm going to understand my gun better this year. I'm going to practice shooting more this year. It's like, even if you shoot great groups, every time you go out, just go out and take some shots. Maybe it, I know it can be a pain in the butt to have to find a range to get there, to get all your stuff, whatever. Maybe it's just formulating a plan of saying, okay, I'm going to go out and I'm going to shoot one round a week at the target and make sure that that one shot you take is

is a perfect shot. But having some form of regular practice throughout the summer and committing to it, that's what I'm talking about, is just committing to a few small things you can do to make you better when the fall season rolls around.

talking about committing to things to make you better. We're going to also cover this month, a few other things that, you know, it's stuff that this is all stuff that I do throughout the summer, try to find time and make time for it to be better when hunting season rolls around. So next week, we're going to talk about some fitness stuff, some things you can do because a lot of the hunt comes down to your physical preparation, whether you're in shape or out of shape,

It doesn't matter. This is for everyone and it's things that you can do to make you better when the season comes around so you can just get over that next ridge or be better than you are right now. And then after that, we'll cover some things you can do for shooting your bow in more inclement weather or more like situational archery shots.

I also really appreciate all the, you know, we did the Q&A last week and I've got a ton of more questions this week just from stuff that people have sent in. So keep those coming because we will jump on another Q&A here pretty soon. I'm trying to save some of my favorites and answer those. But yeah, you know, I mean, it's crazy out there right now. There's a lot of stuff going on and

2020 is shaking down to be one of the most interesting years as far as just things that are happening outside of the norm. But I think there's some great opportunity this fall, and I keep looking forward to that. And I've been doing a lot of just like being prepared for when I get my opportunities this year and things that I can do to stay sharp and stay on it. I keep trying to do those things and focus on

the time that I'll have spent in the field ahead. So until next week, shoot straight and we will catch you later.

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