Improving Marksmanship

A fair amount of knowledge, skill, and experience is required to become a successful hunter. One of the essential skills is good marksmanship, which is accurately and consistently hitting the target where planned. When hunting, accuracy is critical for a clean kill.

Protect and make the most of your natural tools for hunting—your senses as well as your intelligence and knowledge. Build upon that knowledge to improve your skills.

• Schedule an examination to test your vision and the possibility of color-blindness. Color-blind hunters may have trouble identifying game and hunter orange and must take extra safety precautions.
• Always wear prescription glasses if you need them.
• Always wear protective shooting glasses with high-impact lenses to protect your eyes.
• Develop good “peripheral vision.” While hunting, move your eyes slowly from side to side. Not only will you see more game and locate other hunters, but your natural vision also will become more alert to the area just outside your direct line of vision. Tunnel vision, or focusing straight ahead, can be unsafe.
• Use proper hearing protection.
• Practice your marksmanship under conditions similar to hunting conditions.
  • Outfit yourself in your hunting clothing and gear.
  • Practice correct shooting positions.
  • Select a wooded area to condition yourself for the environment.
• Cultivate extra patience and self-control. Because of your gun’s shorter range, you need greater knowledge of the game and more patience while stalking and waiting calmly for that better shot.

Be sure of the target and what is in front of it and beyond it. If you cannot see what lies beyond the target, do not take the shot.

Becoming a Responsible Muzzleloader Hunter: Four Steps

1. Practice at the firing range until you know your firearm’s capability. Know what size target you can hit reliably at various distances, your firearm’s range, and how much your bullet drops.
2. Practice your range estimation skills on targets at known distances.
3. Practice marksmanship in all shooting positions.
4. Study game anatomy to excel at shot selection.

Never fire beyond your effective range.