Home on the Range #048 – Competition Shooting to Improve your Hunting

We often talk about hunting and being good stewards of the animals that we pursue in our outdoor exploits here on AllOutdoor. Part of being a good steward to the game we look to harvest is making wise decisions: don’t shoot at game in the brush or areas with a low percentage success rate, use sound equipment that will perform when you require it to, be confident and capable with your equipment, and most importantly, hone yourself so you are accurate enough to make an ethical shot while under pressure. So, where does that shooting prowess while under duress come from?… Sometimes it can be quiet range sessions or a lifetime of hunting and being exposed to varying situations. If you don’t have infinite range time or a lifetime of hunting experience, one way you can expedite that process – polishing your shooting skills for hunting – is to look at competition shooting. A lot of competition shooting is simply a “game” in every sense of the word, but much of the skills required to succeed are the same in hunting. Let’s take a look at how competition shooting in the summer can actually better prepare you for hunting in the fall.

“Home on the Range” Series Coverage on AllOutdoor

Welcome to our reoccurring series of “Home on the Range.” Here, we would like to share all of our experiences for those who may be homesteading, living off the land, hunting, farming, ranching, and truly investing in nature and the great outdoors. The ability to provide for yourself and your family can be tremendously rewarding and simultaneously difficult at times. So, in “Home on the Range” we want to share our different exploits so you can learn and hopefully we can receive your feedback along the way as well.

Competition Shooting – Skills that Transfer Over

What makes someone a great competition shooter is very similar to what hunters pride themselves in as well. Can you shoot quickly and accurately? Can you troubleshoot problems swiftly and get back in the game? Those are just a couple, but there are many more. While slow-fire practice helps establish the basics and familiarity with a firearm, it is extremely rare – while hunting – that you get to take 30 seconds to shoot a deer while taking time to focus on your breathing, the trigger press, shouldering the firearm correctly, and calming yourself down. More often than not, it is a hasty yet calculated shot. Calculated because you weighed the pros and cons. The potential positive outcome with the perhaps negative one. Then, hopefully if prior training, experience, and skill align, you can fill a hunting tag quickly and ethically. A swift harvest of a game animal is the greatest respect we can pay the beasts – large and small – that we hunt and harvest.

Precarious Objects – The skill to shoot from precarious objects like a barbed wire fence while hunting or a tank trap during a competition are equally valuable to a hunter and a competitor.
Fast Accuracy – Anyone can do a mag dump fast, but can you hit anything?… There in lies the predicament. Being able to shoot a plate rack with an AR-15 is a skill that could transfer over to being able to hit a whitetail deer sprinting across a field in front of you. Both require speed and surgical accuracy.
Cool under Pressure – Something that is difficult to replicate while hunting is the excitement you feel and that spike in adrenaline. Some people call this “buck fever.” If you get into competition shooting – you might get excited – but it definitely won’t be “buck fever.” Nevertheless, you can become accustomed to shooting under pressure and being cooler than the other side of the pillow.
Decision Making – In competition shooting, you need to figure out the best way to engage targets: for your safety, the best outcome possible, and the safety of those around you (judge, other competitors, etc). With hunting, you similarly need to make wise choices: whether to shoot at game or not, be aware of the safety of others hunting around you, and when shooting might provide the best outcome (an ethical harvest).

We are not insinuating that all world-class, competition shooters are great hunters nor are seasoned hunters great competitors, but the skills to compete and hunt at an elite level are very similar. Just like when professional athletes have an off-season they will cross-train to stay in shape and ensure their skills do not fall off. Similarly, we can do fun competitions like the Tactical Games, 3-Gun, USPSA, IDPA, or many others to keep our skills sharp and ready for fall hunting seasons. It might be something for you to consider as we approach many autumn hunting seasons opening soon. Simply, food for thought. As always, let us know all of your thoughts in the Comments below! We always appreciate your feedback.

Adam Scepaniak