I see it every year at the shooting range, some guy is tweaking his Remington Sendero or Tactial SPS outfitted with the best 6x18 power scope or similar. Where the heck are THESE guys going? Afghanistan? Oh wait, maybe it's one of the guys headed off to the oilfields to protect oil wells and be paid 10k per shot if they ever have to shoot...yeah, riiiight. Are they snipers in civilian clothing? No, these are the guys who think the equipment will overcome their shooting shortcomings. OK, to be fair, not all of these guys fall into this category-there are those who actually hunt places where super long shots are required. I still don't think the hardware is necessary but, hey, they're the ones that have to carry all that heavy crap!
These guys are similar to another set of folks I 'observe' frequently. This is the 'all my rifles shoot 1" at a hundred yards (or better) crowd. Now I can honestly say that many rifles, especially with a little tweaking, can do this...but how important is this REALLY? Think about it, this measurement is only derived from multiple shots at a known distance. In addition to that, this is RANGE shooting. If either of the two above mentioned types stopped there, they've only done half the job they should as a hunter! Why? Because there ain't no dang shooting benches in the field!
How many shots will you get at an animal? Well, if it's more than 200 yards away, possibly several-which is why I'm willing to give some of the long range hunters more of a pass for having equipment that can maintain accuracy after barrels get hot from shooting (Sendero crowd). However, more often than not, three shots is on the high side of opportunity. This is because that big ol' boar in the mudhole can go from wallow to warp speed before most have time to actually shoot more than twice! Even a lightweight mountain rifle will maintain point of aim accuracy, with only slight variation, for three shots, possibly more.
So what to do? Know the animal. How big is the kill zone? It might surprise most to know that it's a lot bigger than they thought. Practice. Get off the bench, practice actual field shooting where you have to rest against a tree, boulder, backpack, shooting sticks, etc. Remember shooting technique. This is all about squeezing the trigger, breath control and proper shooting postions. Carry a shooting aid like the sticks mentioned previously, and do spend a little time at the range to be sure your rifle is sighted in.
If you do all the above, you probably won't need more than one shot to bag your animal of choice. Funny, snipers say one shot, one kill too..
