They have at least one thing in common at least for me.....i can shank a shot doing both
Rifle shooting is no longer like golf.
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BrentM
Well-Known Member
Long range PRECISION shooting has always been about science. Internal and external ballistics is nothing but science. Dialing for drop has never been overly complicated but but you still have to have the skill to understand how the environment, position, and terrain effect the hit percentage. Wind is still a problem for 99% of the shooters. Also, just because people buy all the right tools to shoot long range does not mean they are proficient. I teach long range hunting and take people from zero range to 1000 in a couple days. That sure doesn't mean they are proficient.
pig ranch deadeye
Well-Known Member
you meant to say
you're
misterc01
Well-Known Member
Occasionally I at play at golf, and shoot for fun, and my competition is me - to get a little better each time and learn as I go. For me, they also separate endeavors. IMHO - Gulf is a pretty much a physical sport, and you can practice and get better, but there will always be a physical ceiling you hit and that will be your best game going forward. Shooting sports are both physical and mental, and the mental part is not confined to the period of time you are pointing and shooting. The pursuit of long range precision is a combination of shooting techniques, equipment and how well your ammunition performs. The ammunition part is either buy factory prepped ammo, or load your own, and the reloading part takes you into another dimension. I have the equipment to modify my golf clubs to get them to fit and work to the best of my ability – but as time passes, the physical part gets to the be the limiting factor. Shooting on the other hand offers opportunities to compensate for the passage of time – rests, lighter weight of equipment, scopes, etc. The distances you choose to shoot at can change, and as the time passes usually also changes - closer is better. With golf, as the destine the ball travels when you whack it shortens, then your score goes up. When shooting, distances from 100-400 yards pretty much always stays in play, and you can always get higher magnification scope, or those years of practising hold overs makes it automatic.
I carry a range card and circular slide rule in case of battery failure.
I'm 64.....embrace it as a new challenge. Or don't! Personally....it's the way to go....100-600....just isn't a challenge with all today's Hi-Tech gear!
Jeffpatton00
Well-Known Member
I often compare shooting to golf, at least in the respect that in both sports you're trying to put a small, fast-moving object into a very small spot a long distance away. More importantly, your single biggest competitor is yourself. True, lots of math and lots of gadgets involved in LD shooting, but if I don't perform my own tasks perfectly, every time, I could be Albert Einstein with an unlimited budget and I'd never get a hit. Also, you're outdoors in both sports, usually with folks you enjoy being with. The downside to shooting is that it usually doesn't involve a swanky clubhouse for beers afterward.
Haven't seen one of those in ~ 30 years.
judgebill
Well-Known Member
I don't play golf but know a lot of golfers. They seem to enjoy the game, at least they continue to play. I have been shooting over 70 years now and obviously enjoy it. Bottom line; if you enjoy whatever you are doing you will continue doing it. Comparing attitudes toward any two matters is pretty much a waste of time. If you enjoy golf, play. If you enjoy shooting, shoot. And, I suppose, if you enjoy arguing/whining about either, you must enjoy such an experience as well.
misterc01
Well-Known Member
Just curious - what hi-tech gear is needed beyond rifle, scope, ammo, practise, maybe drop chart or dope card, eyes and ears? Wind speed - estimate trees, shrubs and grass. Distance - estimate with scope. Bullet drop - estimate with drop chart or dope card.
RAGGED EDGE
Well-Known Member
Nobody ever gut-shot a big game animal with a golf ball. Most golfers do it to get away from their "significant others".
I can see similarities between the two and the technological advances have similarly helped both average shooters and average golfers.
Golf used to be entirely a game of feel with the technological advances only being in the clubs. Wood shafts and heads at first, then steel shafts and heads, then graphite shafts, then titanium heads, then the USGA imposing a limit on a club's MOI. Add in the use of a laser range finder, or using GPS on a phone to find your yardage if you can't see the pin, use an anemometer to find wind speed, huge advances in biomechanical science to optimize the swing... Of course the pros can't use anemometers and range finders when playing, but they have access to so much science through their sponsors and I'm sure they utilize every bit of science, maths, and statistics in their game that they can, or at least I would if I was a pro.
Shooting is somewhat similar. Rifles started out with smooth bores, lower BC bullets, less efficient powder, no ballistics calculator solutions but only a written down dope from shooting experience. Way back in the day, shooting, even for the best, would have involved a lot more feel. Then enter today's rifles, powder, and bullets that are incredibly high quality and available to most consumers, sometimes straight from the factory. Anemometers, crazy accurate range finders, ballistics calculators, fantastic tools for measurements of loaded cartridges and their velocities.
The advances in technology of both of these sports have (or can) turn the game of feel into a science. It depends on how complicated you want to make each if these games.
In the end, I agree with a couple of the comments on the fact that the pure ability of being proficient in the game (pulling the trigger without flinch or hitting the ball where you want to) is much harder to do with golf. It still requires more feel and has, I think, more of the human element involved if a person is allowed to have every tool in existence at their disposal. The departure of the two being more similar in terms of "feel" happened a long long time ago.
Golf used to be entirely a game of feel with the technological advances only being in the clubs. Wood shafts and heads at first, then steel shafts and heads, then graphite shafts, then titanium heads, then the USGA imposing a limit on a club's MOI. Add in the use of a laser range finder, or using GPS on a phone to find your yardage if you can't see the pin, use an anemometer to find wind speed, huge advances in biomechanical science to optimize the swing... Of course the pros can't use anemometers and range finders when playing, but they have access to so much science through their sponsors and I'm sure they utilize every bit of science, maths, and statistics in their game that they can, or at least I would if I was a pro.
Shooting is somewhat similar. Rifles started out with smooth bores, lower BC bullets, less efficient powder, no ballistics calculator solutions but only a written down dope from shooting experience. Way back in the day, shooting, even for the best, would have involved a lot more feel. Then enter today's rifles, powder, and bullets that are incredibly high quality and available to most consumers, sometimes straight from the factory. Anemometers, crazy accurate range finders, ballistics calculators, fantastic tools for measurements of loaded cartridges and their velocities.
The advances in technology of both of these sports have (or can) turn the game of feel into a science. It depends on how complicated you want to make each if these games.
In the end, I agree with a couple of the comments on the fact that the pure ability of being proficient in the game (pulling the trigger without flinch or hitting the ball where you want to) is much harder to do with golf. It still requires more feel and has, I think, more of the human element involved if a person is allowed to have every tool in existence at their disposal. The departure of the two being more similar in terms of "feel" happened a long long time ago.
While it's pretty easy to measure our distances down to the yard, the wind call is still subject to interpretation. At long range/extreme long range your wind call is what makes or breaks your impact. You have to shoot beyond 750 for the "feel" to really come into play.
