Bone to pick with new rifle owners - 100 yards out of the box

I have seen this numerous times at the range. People get mad they can't hit paper at 100 yds out of the box.

One of the worst ones was a guy that was cussing the shop he bought a rifle from, he was there with his teenage son. The son was shaking shooting it, so dad tried and said well it's the gun or scope cause he couldn't hit the target either, and proceeded to swear about the guy at the gun shop being a this and that and a total idiot.

The kid was obviously scared of the rifle, or the recoil, or both. And dad didn't start him at a closer target. During the rant i overhead him say they would take the rifle back to the F-n shop and get something else since they needed it for the next weekend.
 
I too have watched a guy at the range with a brand new Christian Arms rifle right out of the box. He started shooting at a 10" gong at 340 meters. His buddy was spotting for him. after missing with a complete box of ammo, he was getting hot under the collar. I made it worse when I pulled out a Contender with a 10" barrel and hit the target. His buddy told him someone just hit the gong and he wanted to know who. I shot again and hit. He slammed his rifle back in the box and left. To be fair I shoot at this range almost every weekend from Fall until Spring and know the holdover for that gong with that pistol. Trigger time, trigger time and trigger time.
 
I will add my $0.02 into the mix. The following is a quick story about my last hunt.
I shoot to 600 regularly. I shoot from the bench, prone off of a bipod or a pack, and sitting or kneeling using a standard Bog Pod tripod or Rudolph sticks (https://www.rudolphoptics.com/products/rudolph-ph-shooting-sticks). I have shot animals at between 300 and 400 yards numerous times from various positions, most commonly off of a tripod or prone off of a pack. I am a "dial for elevation and hold the wind" shooter.
2 years ago I built a .300 Win Mag on a Savage action specifically to hunt Nilgai in S. TX, which is an annual executives trip in my company. Last January I shot a bull at 206 and shot a cow at 342 with that gun, both while using the Rudolph sticks.
Last week I was in Manitoba on a moose hunt. We hunted hard all week and on the last morning I had a bull step out unexpectedly as we were packing up for the morning (the hunt was from ground positions on remote lakes overlooking marshy areas surrounded by bush). He stepped out at around 450, got into the water and started swimming towards us. We were expecting him to get into the wild rice area at around 200 yards, which would have made the shot pretty easy. Instead, after a little swim, he turned back towards shore and walked back up the lake's edge. I had about a 15 mph cross wind, right to left, with an island of about 60 yards wide at 100 yards away.
In my rush to get positioned, I didn't get my tripod set up right and, as such, was not nearly as stable as I should have been. My first shot was at right around 360 yards (slightly quartering away, facing right) and missed completely. I shot right over his back. I missed because I let my excitement and "bull fever" get in the way of my process. The next two shots I got was when he got out of the water at around 425. Again, he was slightly quartered away (facing left). I missed both of those shots as well. In my continued excitement and getting into my own head about missing the first one, I completely forgot to hold for the wind. At that distance with the wind that was there, there was about 4.25 MOA of wind drift (180 grain Nosler Partition at 2900 fps). Add in my 1.25-2 MOA margin of error due to my continued poor positioning, and voila, two shots that ended up passing right in front of the bull as he stood there trying to figure out what was going on. At that point, he walked up the shore and into the bush.

So, sometimes it isn't inexperience that causes bad shots, it is bad decision making and "bull fever". A truly humbling lesson for me as I have not gotten that rattled on an animal since my first buck at age 12.
 
Has anyone had someone ask you to sight in their rifle for him?Had a guy I worked with ask that.
When you try to help them understand why THEY needed to sight their own rifle in and the final question is,"Will this Saturday be ok"?
Didn't hear a word!
My old gunsmith told me that this was a very common request for him to sight in their rifle after mounting a scope.
I love to shoot and I'm guessing about everyone on this forum feels the same but for some reason some people don't want to shoot their own rifle. Hard for me understand this.
 
I have a neighbor who won a xbolt I believe in 270 Winchester. He told me the guy at the gun counter who set his scope up said it only drops 7/8" of an inch at 1000 yards. So he zeroed it at 7/8" high at 100 yards. I'm not even going to talk to him anymore, I don't need that crap in my life.
 
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Has anyone had someone ask you to sight in their rifle for him?Had a guy I worked with ask that.
When you try to help them understand why THEY needed to sight their own rifle in and the final question is,"Will this Saturday be ok"?
Didn't hear a word!
I've had two acquaintances who would pay me $50 each every hunting season to take them to the range and help them verify zero of their rifle.

I never understood why it was so hard, but they just needed handholding I suppose. And I wasn't going to turn down $50 and free ammo so I did it for several years. I would shoot a group, show them it still shot fine, make them shoot a couple groups and show them it still shot fine for them too, and off we went. Every deer season.
 
Has anyone had someone ask you to sight in their rifle for him?Had a guy I worked with ask that.
When you try to help them understand why THEY needed to sight their own rifle in and the final question is,"Will this Saturday be ok"?
Didn't hear a word!
I won't even sight in my son's rifle. He and I, same rifle, same load, are 1 inch apart at 100 yards. I shoot to the left with his, he shoots to the right with mine.
 
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The guy came back the following afternoon with the rifle and THREW it across the counter at me, screaming "you made me miss an elk!". Of course he didn't shoot the rifle or take it to a range, he just went to someone's ranch and tried shooting a critter at 300 yards straight out the box.
I love it that there are 3 lines of thought in America regarding guns. Democrats seem to think anybody who picks up an AR15 is deadly to a mile and can shoot a million billion trillion rounds per minute at that accuracy level.

Many gun buyers seem to buy rifles based on that and can't hit crap. They believe nobody can hit anything because the guns/gun stores fault. It could never be a complete lack of experience or lack of practice.

Then there is the small group that actually shoots and knows how to hit what they are aiming at.

He started shooting at a 10" gong at 340 meters. His buddy was spotting for him. after missing with a complete box of ammo, he was getting hot under the collar. I made it worse when I pulled out a Contender with a 10" barrel and hit the target. His buddy told him someone just hit the gong and he wanted to know who. I shot again and hit. He slammed his rifle back in the box and left.
That's funny…..Some fancy shooters were setting up their IPSC steel at the range. I think they thought I might have a hard time hitting with my Contenter….which I did until I pulled out the tripod. Then I was taking 300yd headshots in a 4-12mph wind! That was fun!
 
My old gunsmith told me that this was a very common request for him to sight in their rifle after mounting a scope.
I love to shoot and I'm guessing about everyone on this forum feels the same but for some reason some people don't want to shoot their own rifle. Hard for me understand this.
your rifle and your ammo, hell yeah I'll go shoot it.
 
Gamesniper19, great post!

Not only are those "wannabe" long range newbie hunters/shooters wasting your time, and causing suffering to animals in the field… they are doing the same on these forums…

Many Uneducated wannabe/newbies in today's shooting sports/forums are not willing to, capable of, or WANTING to learn…before they shoot, take to the field, or attempt to take an animal while hunting.…Or to understand their equipment

Why do some of them NOT want to "learn" about hunting/shooting, through experience?

Because, they don't truly LOVE the sport. They want to buy their way into being "a respected Expert"

Even if they don't make money hand over fist…money is their "membership card" to this sport…(and everything in life)…It is not

Others have been taught that in our "Society of Instant Gratification", that no dues have to be paid (experience built up through trial and error), for knowledge and skill…they lay some money on the table, and that is where their knowledge and "Street Cred" is earned

Also, many people really have the such limited mechanical knowledge or "street smarts", when it comes to shooting, hunting, or being in the field. Because that is an acquired knowledge, from time spent in the sport, on the bench, and dare I say…common sense from previous experience

And why are many not willing to spend the time accrueing knowledge in the field?
…they just watch how to do it on YouTube instead

And do I need to mention all of the G's, Trolls, spammers/scammers, and bots on all of these forums, wasting our time?…

Bottom line is…these people need go spend some time on the bench.…Go spend some time in the woods, prairies or mountains, take some pictures…and enjoy this sport for what it is…

Not to pay for, and pretend to be, something they are not.
 

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