Things you wished you knew when you started?

[066wally]

Just a few:
There's not a BEST cartridge, rifle, caliber, scope etc. for anything.
If it's junk, get rid of it.
Gun safes are cheaper by the dozen.
Primer and powder shortages happen when you need them most.
Beauty is as beauty does. (Actually dad taught me this fairly early),
Ballistic charts are close, the proof is In the shooting.
Most of my money will go in the bank (target backstop).
Shooting when in a bad mood is a waste of time and components.
If that one guy is at the range when I get there, just go home.
Skeet is way more social than trap.
Shoot more hanguns.

 

[adk hunter]

Shooting when in a bad mood is a waste of time and components.

I'll add Shooting when in a hurry is even worse.

 

[Capt RB]

I was taught to use the slowest twist you can get away with shooting bench with my grandfather. You can see how that works out at distance
Neck sizing. This is a tough one, I grew up shooting a 222 that might have had full length resized cases once every 6 or 7 shots on the case. Every bolt gun I owned had once fired neck sized hunting ammo. Today I only have a 270 and 308 neck sizing die. Learning to bump the shoulder back .002 was eye-opening for me. The second time I spent an extra 2hrours trying to get the ammo straight and concentric because the first time was as bad as that rifle ever shot.
To this day I still will find myself holding my breath. After 45years of trigger pulling that is my toughest thing to stay ahead of with. On the hide Lowlight talks about building the proper neural highways for the proper muscle memory. That has been an easy concept for me to grasp. I did a lot of visualization training for shooting sporting clays, racing motorcycles skiing etc. If and when I visualize my shot protocol before I start a shot string I do so much better for the string and usually for the day. This helps me break the shot at my respiratory pause after making sure that my npa settles where it should on that pause.
Slowing down!!! I shoot better when I go fast. To shoot slow well I must let go of the rifle close my eyes regroup. If I just sit there and wait I will tense up and end up muscling the gun onto the target and have inconsistent results. It was at a class for pistol shooting that this method came to light. Reinforcing how much the fundamentals are for all shooting not just long-range rifle shooting
Dot drills over group shooting. I can shoot good groups at times not always though. Dot drills are a better method for me now. It's easier for me to have better concentration with a fresh dot than group shooting, especially after a mental mistake.
Video yourself if you're not going to take a class. You cannot see yourself. I learned this years ago while ski instructing. A student would more easily grasp a concept or fix a problem with their technique once you show them on video.

 

[MadCowRacer]

I wish I would have known about testing for pressure and speed, then groups, and just dealing with the sd that results.

I'm not sure how many dollars I wasted shooting 3-5 shot ladder groups with a magneto speed wrapped on the barrel looking for pressure signs or wondering if there was another node at a higher speed.

Much less taxing on the wallet and mind to get a great group and then decide if that sd is something you can deal with, or if you should go back to the drawing board.

 

[YZ-80]

Can those that know please expand on the OP #4 lesson? I'm hoping to some day link up with some of you guys in the Gem state to actually get some real instruction (I have a list of excuses a mile long with young kids, sports, hall-passes, etc). But..... I have experienced inconsistencies that baffle me.
Currently I do 100% of my practice and killing with the same setup (pack as a front rest, rolled up coat over my left hand for rear support).
Someone please tell me I'm an idiot and that there's a better way.
My reasoning is that those two things will ALWAYS be at my disposal when hunting. So I figure I should practice the way I'm going to likely shoot at an animal (and therefor learn my capabilities/limits).

I think your reasoning is sound. My approach is to accurize and validate my load as much as possible from a "bench" configuration (heavy bag up front and support bag in the rear). Once I'm satisfied with the load I practice the way I plan to hunt, in my case prone off a field mat, front-loading a Harris Bipod. I cut myself some slack on the group size at distance off the bipod because I know I'm not as stable prone and instead of my .5 MOA validation requirement at 400 yards, I'll let myself get away with a minute, maybe 1.5 minutes. As long as I'm still comfortably in an 8" circle out to distance, I'm happy. Obviously, if I was going out further my requirements would be more stringent.

Anyway on the reloading deal, I've been at it now for 11 years. I have found it to be quite rewarding and as I've said in the past, I add incrementally to my skill set as I "evolve". This year, some of you might be excited (some not) to know I'm going to become a "neck turner"!

What did I wish I knew? - About this forum. A place where you can have threads like this, people learn from them and the discourse is polite and productive. Happy Sunday everybody!

-YZ

 

[manitou]

I wished I would have known that all the internet "experts" were not experts and that one disgruntled guy can post and it will be on four other hunting websites by the next week... posted by people with no experience with the subject matter.

 

[nocannons]

Just a few:
There's not a BEST cartridge, rifle, caliber, scope etc. for anything.
If it's junk, get rid of it.
Gun safes are cheaper by the dozen.
Primer and powder shortages happen when you need them most.
Beauty is as beauty does. (Actually dad taught me this fairly early),
Ballistic charts are close, the proof is In the shooting.
Most of my money will go in the bank (target backstop).
Shooting when in a bad mood is a waste of time and components.
If that one guy is at the range when I get there, just go home.
Skeet is way more social than trap.
Shoot more hanguns.

Skeet and trap comment is absolutely true. tried shooting trap one time with the big dogs. All the fun went away very quickly. To serious for me.

 

[thwatson2]

Wish I had joined forums like this, asked more questions, read more books from people who did know, and most importantly understood that a box of 20 bullets shouldn't last 4 hunting seasons. You must shoot, shoot a lot and as often as you can. You will learn the round, the gun, the scope, and recoil will become non-existent. Most importantly, it will ultimately address everything brought up in this thread.

 

[WYMIKE]

1) Temperature stabill powders.
2) Use high quality casing lube
3) Cleaning/tumbling brass and Annealing brass
4) Quality brass and then weight sorting brass
5) Better tools for trimming, primer pocket prepping, flash hole cleaning, and neck trimming.
6). The internet has increased my knowledge greatly on new reloading ideas. I started in 1976 at age 16.

 

[Bdubose]

My number 1 pick would be:

Temperature Sensitivity of different powders!

most of the rest is pretty easy to discover without too much expense. I spent a lot of time one summer working up a low ES/SD, sub-MOA hunting load only to find out it shoots almost 200 FPS slower in the winter! That's 8" at 600 yards! Glad I found it before elk season!

 

[JMW67]

I have learned a lot on forums, from mentors and at the range and learn more every day. A couple things I wish I knew more about in the beginning were:
1. Holding down the press handle when resizing for a few seconds to let the brass resize with less springback
2. understood the difference between focus and parallax
3. used annealing (correctly) with comparators to see what the resizing was actually doing to my brass
4. Understood the poi difference between shooting with different rear supports (bag v rock v fist)

There are many more, but Id love to hear what key points you missed for years that you wish you knew in the beginning. I know I'll learn some new stuff

velocity is cool accuracy is most important do not sacrifice it when a few more clicks of elevation solves the problem

 

[Fedwell]

I am an OLD Guy with an OLD saying...."When you stop learning you START Dying"

 

[Radman]

I have learned a lot on forums, from mentors and at the range and learn more every day. A couple things I wish I knew more about in the beginning were:
1. Holding down the press handle when resizing for a few seconds to let the brass resize with less springback
2. understood the difference between focus and parallax
3. used annealing (correctly) with comparators to see what the resizing was actually doing to my brass
4. Understood the poi difference between shooting with different rear supports (bag v rock v fist)

There are many more, but Id love to hear what key points you missed for years that you wish you knew in the beginning. I know I'll learn some new stuff

 

[Warrior27]

This is a great thread coming from a newbie.