By Glen Wunderlich

Charter Member Professional Outdoor Media Associaiton (POMA)

It’s sight-in time!  Many of us will be pinning up targets and punching paper like we always do this time of year.  But, more than ever, it behooves each of us to get our chosen deer gun dialed in efficiently.  It’s never really a good idea to shoot more than necessary to get the job done but unproductive sighting-in procedures can lead to frustrating and expensive results.

Sore shoulders can lead to flinching.  Hot barrels will often shoot differently than cold ones – as in hunting situations.  Inefficient, ammo-wasting sight-in sessions could leave a prospective hunter with little or no ammo for hunting and needing more.  Good luck with that!

What follows is a method of extreme efficiency.  If you haven’t heard of the two-shot sight-in system, it works like this:  With your favorite deer gun that was sighted in last season, take a shot at a 100-yard bull’s eye.  Next, center the crosshairs on the same bull’s eye and adjust the scope’s turrets to move the crosshairs back to the bullet hole.  Theoretically, the next shot will strike the bull’s eye and you are ready to go hunting.

Although the two-shot sight-in can be quite efficient, it must be understood that several prerequisites must be in place to make it work.  You have to have a good-shooting deer gun already.  You have to have the same ammunition from the past session – and, I mean the same box or those with the same run number stamped on the inside flap of the box.  However, the most important factor in this system – and often ignored – is the operator.

In the game of pool, shots are called in advance of given opportunities.  In shooting, an experienced shooter also calls shots, but with a twist:  It’s done after the trigger is pulled, but before the placement of the shot is known.

To accomplish this feat, the shooter himself must be accomplished.  The technique requires a level of expertise ignored by casual shooters and it centers on a person’s ability to concentrate on where the crosshairs are at all times.  Most importantly, however, is where those crosshairs were when the gun went boom.

To become a good marksman, experienced shooters focus on a small part of the target.  Understand that nobody holds completely still; rather, crosshairs are actually bouncing around to a certain degree – even if we do not realize it.  Take any decent scope with magnification beyond 20x and try to hold it still against the shoulder.  You will notice the crosshairs’ movement.

Heck, a person’s heartbeat is a genuine factor – especially when it’s trying to pound its way out of one’s chest thanks to an involuntary infusion of adrenaline at the moment of truth.  Unless the hunter doubles as an Olympic biathlon competitor, who is trained in the art of a trigger squeeze at the proper moment, his prospects of accuracy are dim.

Through it all, we must seek a state of mind characterized by a reliance on ourselves amid myriad circumstances.  The word is confidence and it is derived through experience in accordance with results at the shooting bench.

Hail-Mary shots at unknown distances won’t get a hunter there.  Flailing away at running deer on a drive is an exercise fit for fools.  On the other side of the coin is the perfect shot – the one a confident hunter has called – originating in perfect practice.

Next week we’ll visit with a youngster who’s learned this lesson well.