A beginner's guide to hunter division shooting

Which rifle to shoot?

You can bring your own rifle if you have one, or you can see if the club can spare a loaner. The term "loaner" may have a negative connotation, but rest assured that the SVAC does not loan out anything that is subpar!

Club loaner

If possible, communicate with the match organizer to see whether you can use a loaner in a match. Depending on availability, the SVAC may have PCP (PreCharge Pneumatic) rifles or piston rifles to loan to new shooters.

For beginners, PCP rifles are easier to shoot, and as a result more gratifying. If you do not know which one to start with, start with a PCP rifle!

Many club loaners are already "set up", this saves a lot of preparation that is necessary to enjoy shooting in a match.

Bring your own

Some shooters already own air rifles, and may want to use a match to check out the capabilities of their own equipment. This is perfectly fine! However, to make the match enjoyable, we recommend some equipment options and certain steps.

Equipment:

• A rifle scope with 16x magnification that has an adjustable objective (AO) that can adjust for ranges down to 10 yards. It is best to use a rifle scope that has a "mil-dot" reticle.

• A stool where you can sit on comfortably (but without any back support)

• A bipod that supports the rifle comfortably when you sit on the stool

• Tip: the height of the stool should let you naturally and comfortably rest your elbows on your knees while aiming.

Optional:

• Scope tape. A scope tape is a strip of paper that sticks on the AO ring (front or side focusing) so that focusing can range the distance to a target.

• "DOPE" (Data On Previous Engagement) sheet. This is another sheet of paper that shows where to aim to account for projectile drop.

If you have access to a location where you can safely and legally shoot an air rifle from 10 yards to 55 yards, it is relatively easy to make a scope tape and DOPE sheet.

Before working on the scope tape and DOPE sheet, you need to first "zero" your scope. This means you need to adjust the elevation (vertical) and windage (horizontal) turrets until the projects lands at the center of the reticle. For most airgun configurations, 25 yards is a good distance for zeroing.

After the scope is zeroed, then you can create your scope tape and DOPE sheet. Here is how:

• Set the scope to 16x, and put a strip of paper around the AO ring on the scope

  • Tip: use white masking tape so the adhesion is not permanent!

  • Tip: use the finest tip permanent marker to write on the masking tape

• Place a fresh paper target starting at a known distance, starting with10 yards,

• Adjust the scope objective until the image is clearest and without parallax error (shift you head side by side and the reticle should not move relative to the target).

• Take note of the AO ring position for this distance.

• Shoot a few pellets (3 to 5), and take note of the average position of the POI (point-of-impact) relative to the POA (point-of-aim)

• Increment the distance to target by one yard, and repeat the steps (except the first one) until you have all the data points from 10 yards to 55 yards.

But what if you do not have access to a shooting range? Things get a little more theoretical and it is explained in another article.

Shooting a target

This part only describes what to do when you are ready to shoot a reactive target. Obviously, you can also practice with paper targets using these steps!

Start with placing your stool and bipod. You want to shoot in a position where:

• it is natural and comfortable

• your elbows rest on your knees

• your neck is not strained

• you can aim, close your eyes, relax for 10 seconds, open your eyes, and the aim is maintained (for the most part)

Next, use the AO ring on the scope to adjust the sight picture until it is as clear as it can get. This can get quite tricky when the target is further than 25 yards or so! Unless you own a very fine rifle scope, it is a good idea to only move the AO ring in one direction while you are trying to get the clearest sight picture.

Why?

This is because the AO mechanism is spring loaded and most affordable scopes have some play. To ensure the actual position of the focusing optics matches the position of the AO ring, it is best to compress the spring of the AO mechanism when seeking the clearest sight picture. On most scopes, front focusing or side focusing, this means going from near distances to far distances.

Yes, this does get a little tedious when you turn the AO ring too far and the sight picture starts to blur. Then you have to adjust the AO ring to a near distance that blurs the sight image, and slowly turn the AO ring to increase the distance. You can rely on muscle memory of when the sight picture starts to blur to know approximately how much to turn in subsequent attempts.

Once you determine the distance to the target, look up the DOPE sheet for the amount of projectile drop. This is the difference between POA and POI, measured using the markings on the reticle.

Now you can cock the rifle, load a pellet, aim (taking into consideration of projectile drop), release safety, and gently squeeze the trigger!