Good news, bad news

There is nothing like being humiliated by an activity that many do well and yet you struggle at it. I bet he is embarrassed beyond belief, cannot understand why he is not able to be even somewhat capable at such a "simple skill" like shooting. I bet he is a decent athlete which makes it even worse. You have a really difficult job cutting through that personal feeling of failure in order to get his focus and buy in on how to shoot. Patience and calm guidance will win the day. I am impressed with your persistence and when he finally makes the shot, the personal reward will be worth it for both of you! You will eventually be acknowledged by him for all the kindness and help you have given him.
 
Mountainman said:
So a friend of a friend calls me and wants me to mount a scope on his new rifle, zero it and work up a load for him. Now there's few things I enjoy more than load work up and getting paid to shoot. Rifle is a Browning A bolt 3 Hunter and is a quite attractive rifle with a walnut stock. It's chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor, okay I can live with that and have loaded for them before, in fact I have a couple great loads with 110 and 124 grain Hammers. He has no rings, no ammo, no brass and he hands me a scope in box I've never heard of. Firefox or ..... hell I forget, fire something, 4-16 power and looks like something I wouldn't put on a 22. I just handed the box back to him and said no. Turns out the guy hasn't done much (according to him, I'm guessing none) shooting. Wants to go hunting with his cousin and will be shooting out of a blind. How far? I don't know. Call your cousin. Turns out max distance is 75 yards. So the fun begins, you don't need a 16x scope, you don't need handloads to shoot 75 yards. I have a decent scope I will sell you. I will mount it and zero it with quality factory ammunition that you can buy anywhere.

So not so much fun as I thought, but since I'm home alone I'll get to go shooting on July 4th :)

The guy also wants to go shoot with me one day so this should prove interesting. At least I can make sure he knows the basics so his cousin will survive the hunt.

It's not a job, it's an adventure

Regards
Click to expand...
When he is shooting the CM I would load him with 85HH over 43.5 of Varget. Very little recoil At 75 yards it's more then enough.
 
Well I haven't been boring y'all with updates every range trip as progress has been slow up until last week. I could tell he was suddenly more comfortable behind the rifle and his 22 groups had got to where I had moved him out to 50 yards. So last weekend I loaded up some anemic loads for the Needmore. 95 grain V-max over 37 grains RL15 and zeroed the rifle (kinda like shooting a 22 hornet). First thing I did was hold the rifle out at arms length and cap one off one handed to demonstrate the total lack of recoil. So three range trips this week and I let him fire one round out of the 6.5 at 100 yards after each 22 session. I saved his target from day to day. This morning was his 3rd shot and all three went into about 1 1/2". He had a grin on his face you couldn't erase with a chainsaw. I'm going to load him up a box to practice with. He'll have to practice when I go as he doesn't have a range membership but he says he's getting one now. Was a good morning.

I should have labeled the target but if you look at his shots they were 1,2,3 from right to left.

Needmore.jpg
 
So, the Goose at the Gunshop sold him a Creedmoor.Grumble Grumble,

Aside from us not liking the BS and hype it's probably going to work out OK but there's the first hurdle just being tallied into something because they wanted a sale.

Good on you for helping.

I hope he bags that Deer and gains done confidence. Even more so Competence and knowledge to be successful in his endeavours.

Maybe go along with him to select a hunting knife cause he might get sold something that he will need to change out.
 
CBH Australia said:
So, the Goose at the Gunshop sold him a Creedmoor.Grumble Grumble,

Aside from us not liking the BS and hype it's probably going to work out OK but there's the first hurdle just being tallied into something because they wanted a sale.

Good on you for helping.

I hope he bags that Deer and gains done confidence. Even more so Competence and knowledge to be successful in his endeavours.

Maybe go along with him to select a hunting knife cause he might get sold something that he will need to change out.
Click to expand...
Knife? You think he can skin and quarter?😳
 
CBH Australia said:
So, the Goose at the Gunshop sold him a Creedmoor.Grumble Grumble,

Aside from us not liking the BS and hype it's probably going to work out OK but there's the first hurdle just being tallied into something because they wanted a sale.

Good on you for helping.

I hope he bags that Deer and gains done confidence. Even more so Competence and knowledge to be successful in his endeavours.

Maybe go along with him to select a hunting knife cause he might get sold something that he will need to change out.
Click to expand...
I'll go out on a limb here. A Creedmoor is a fine deer cartridge. Some of you guy out west that shoot into the next zip code may not think so. We have had very good luck with the cartridge. We have harvested many animals including a 450lbs hog and a Bison that my wife dropped in it's tracks DRT. Most of our shots in this area are 100yards or less. Millions of Whitetails have been taken with a 243. A 6.5 CM is just a little bigger. Recoil is light enough so it's a joy to shoot and that causes us to practice more and more. To us, hunting is getting close to the game and putting the bullet exactly were we want it to go. Maybe we get more instant kills because of where we can put the bullet. My CM did fine last year on a cow Elk that was nearly 600lbs. Went fifty feet after I put a 124 HH behind the shoulder.
 
Mountainman - Kuddos to you! I really enjoyed re-reading this thread again. A couple of other ideas for the newbie. I still do this myself, and I have been shooting since I was 3 years old. I currently have my 6.5 Creedmoor in the corner in the bedroom. I do a nice smooth shoulder mount at least 3 times a day. On at least 2 of them, I mount with my eyes closed and then open to look through the scope. I have put too much work into this gun not to hunt one of my deer with it.

Second, I would advice this guy to get as much trigger time as he can. Not just blasting away, but disciplined trigger time. I really like your one shot training! I would also tell him to get an inexpensive 22 rimfire with a peep sight. I am a strong believer that a peep sight is very good for training someone who is shooting with a scope. It will train that eye to go for the center.

I also think if possible get him out on the trap range with a shotgun. I bet he is still having issues with stiffening up. Some 22 pistol shooting to get over the idea that recoil is something "bad." Recoil is just a part of shooting.

If none of that works, send him up to me in Idaho and I will have him shoot my 45/90 with the 404 Hammer and no muzzle break. After that everything he shoots will feel like a BB gun. :cool:
 
Contrary to some, I personally like my CM. It's a mild, low recoiling very accurate round. Don't care much for all the hype and marketing and hooplah. It IS a fine cartridge within sane limitations (where 90+% of game animals are shot). M2CW
 
I'm a first responder and was called in twice last night. Too hot to go shoot now. I'll get out tomorrow morning. One other thought. Make sure this guy doesn't crank his scope too high! I've been seeing this trend for the last 15 years. My old mentor said 1 zoomie per 100 yards. If you are shooting 100 yards or less 1 power, 200 yards - 2x, 300 - 3x etc. Three times in the last 15 years I have been with 2 guys and one gal who couldn't find the deer or elk because their scopes were cranked up too high.
 
gltaylor said:
Contrary to some, I personally like my CM. It's a mild, low recoiling very accurate round. Don't care much for all the hype and marketing and hooplah. It IS a fine cartridge within sane limitations (where 90+% of game animals are shot). M2CW
Click to expand...
I couldn't agree more. It's a fine cartridge that does exactly what it was designed to do. Just ain't gonna own one myself because so many people around here that believe all that hype think I should. Yeah, yeah, I know.............contrary old fart. :) I is what I is.

gonna build a 6.5 x 55 just because
 
So, GL and Mountainman what bullet weight do you like for hunting deer out to say 400 yards with a 6.5. I just stacked up all the boxes of 6.5 Hammers I have. I'm trying to get my deer load set. There is a part of me is leaning toward the 85 gr. zoomie the other part of me is leaning toward the 124HH. The third tug is something in between.
 
les said:
So, GL and Mountainman what bullet weight do you like for hunting deer out to say 400 yards with a 6.5. I just stacked up all the boxes of 6.5 Hammers I have. I'm trying to get my deer load set. There is a part of me is leaning toward the 85 gr. zoomie the other part of me is leaning toward the 124HH. The third tug is something in between.
Click to expand...
I found some 99 grain HH bullets a while ago I forgot I had. I reckon I'll load some of them for junior's rifle come hunting season. :unsure:
 
gltaylor said:
We have the tradition of "blooding" the cheeks of a first kill new hunter....don't know about the biting of the liver:sick:
Click to expand...
They do the Blooding of the hunter in South Africa.
My first African kill I was blooded.

Raw liver, that had me going Green before I got to your post🤢🤮 you nailed it

@Gerard Dilgard , the Creedmoor is here to stay but I'm still thinking the 7mm-08 will do all they want where the
243 was lacking.
Anyway, it's there for those who want it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top