Snap shots ?

[Ds J]

We went shooting yesterday (hunting is on foot; shooting is off a bakkie). I missed a shot at a red hartebees because I misjudged the distance; I then missed a second shot on a kudu bull because I had to snap the shot.

It happened like this: it was coming to last light and we were on our way back home. At a gate the farmer's son said "kudu". I looked towards my right, saw that the bull were at 80-100m and that he was already looking at us. Not good!  Since I am a right handed shooter, I had to turn around and put my back against the cab of the bakkie for support and shoot off hand.

The crosshairs settled on the belly of the kudu, I swung a little too far left and saw the fence next to the kudu. It was clear that I had no more time left, so I swung back to the right and squeezed the trigger just a tad too fast. I missed him completely by a very small amount and had to watch the white tail disappearing into the bushes. The farmer swa the bullet hit the dust behind the kudu. (It could even be that he was already moving by the time that I squeezed the shot, and that I shot into empty space where he just stood.)

All of this happened in less that two or three seconds. I would not have taken the shot if the rifle had swung over the belly of the kudu again.

Is there any way to practice shots like this?

How many shots does the average hunter take for every animal that comes home?

[Kola]

I practice this with an air rifle, plinking at random targets.

What I do is to pick something, then bring rifle up and onto the the target like I would do with a shotgun when wing shooting.

Am not a fan of using snap shooting in any hunting situation but have used it successfully when after a wounded animal, like a gemsbuck a client wounded.

We had to give up looking for it for the day due to light fading and were driving back to camp when it jumped out right next to the road and angled away from us.
I jumped off the cruiser, in the jump managed to get a round out of my pocket and loaded and took the shot, hitting it from the back left, breaking its neck.

Practice and a LOT of luck came together.

Wing shooting also helps for this.

There are probably better ways to practice this, but over the years this has worked for me.

[Treeman]

I use old suspect cases - primers that have deprimed, and odd bullets I get from folk. I also use a collection of loaded ammo that comes my way in too low a numbers.
I used to take balloons to the range when the Westly blew and shoot them before the 25 m mark, I musta looked a real wanna be Rambo  .
Regardless, I am a reasonably capable snap shot shooter and shoot warthog in this manner quiet often, Cody by chance shot a warthog yesterday a first in just this manner. The hog came out bush straight at us, saw us, stopped for a second and died.
Cody is sooooooooooooo proud, but thought he was in trouble directly after the shot - and yea, he practiced pellet gun, but not for hunting, just as something to do.

[Ds J]

Where does one focus - on the front sight / crosshairs, or on the target, or how?

[Treeman]

I am shooting rifle with scope and the hardest part is finding the picture(target in scope). I actually need to do it and note what I do as to tell how I do.
For now, just look through scope with both eyes open, takes some doing but you will quickly learn to see cross and target with both eyes open. I then it seems close one eye for shot, all in one quick motion. I do not know if I even find cross anymore but just look at picture like "of it all" like a photo would be from behind - a scene with a circle with a cross in it, I then bare down on the cross on the dot - animal. Its like tramping clutch and changing gear in a car while not over reving the motor - you just do it after a while.

[oafpatroll]

I've done 'some both eyes open at speed' experimenting with a low magnification WA Tasco that I mount to my semi auto 12G when slug shooting. It seems to work well enough but I'd need to practise a lot before trusting it on a hunt.

[Treeman]

I've done 'some both eyes open at speed' experimenting with a low magnification WA Tasco that I mount to my semi auto 12G when slug shooting. It seems to work well enough but I'd need to practise a lot before trusting it on a hunt.

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Somehow you kind of just know after a while.Like Cody said "I just knew dad"