Spring gun revival (again.....)

[ChrisC]

There's a big difference between target shooting and hunting. All my shots when hunting are pretty much instinctive. I may take 6 shots in a 2 or 3 hour session.
Not sure how I'd fare taking 40 shots over an hour at knockdown targets I'm not familiar with.
I'm familiar with shape and size of my quarry but an unknown size of steel plate with an unknown size of kill area at a guestimated range would certainly make it hard for me to judge distance and place a shot accurately.
I'm aware shooters do get familiar with courses so get to know the target size and distance.
Last I heard, digital rangefinders weren't allowed in competetive shooting but are invaluable when hunting

i've done a lot of hunting in the past but it's slowed down a bit now i'm not on the farm. I agree that quite a few shots are 'instinct' as you'll be lucky to get your crosshairs onto a squirrel for more than a couple of seconds so 'pre-shot' mental calculations (wind/range/cover) have to be done whilst making sure the bugger doesn't do the inevitable vanishing trick. I've found that HFT shooting has honed my 'mk1 eyeball' rangefinding a treat and because of the need for super accuracy, made me keep my hunting kit as accurate as my comp kit. Personally, i started with shotties at 8 and went onto HMR and rimmie before joining the Navy and being in the stations 25m prone team. Came out and had a decade out of shooting before getting bitten by the air rifle bug but have kept my hand in with Shotties and .223/.270. The vast majority of my shooting has beeen FT and HFT but i still have a dabble with other bits n bobs. I've owned loads of boingers over the years but admit that i can't shoot them for toffee.....well that's not strictly true.....i just didn't devote enough time to learn each rifle, got frustrated and went back to the PCP. I suppose it's because i was shooting so many comps that i thought i should be shooting a comp rig as much as possible.

IIRC the maddest thing i bought was a Longbow venom but still couldn't master springers...even with a 1k boinger.

[robs5230]

i've done a lot of hunting in the past but it's slowed down a bit now i'm not on the farm. I agree that quite a few shots are 'instinct' as you'll be lucky to get your crosshairs onto a squirrel for more than a couple of seconds so 'pre-shot' mental calculations (wind/range/cover) have to be done whilst making sure the bugger doesn't do the inevitable vanishing trick. I've found that HFT shooting has honed my 'mk1 eyeball' rangefinding a treat and because of the need for super accuracy, made me keep my hunting kit as accurate as my comp kit. Personally, i started with shotties at 8 and went onto HMR and rimmie before joining the Navy and being in the stations 25m prone team. Came out and had a decade out of shooting before getting bitten by the air rifle bug but have kept my hand in with Shotties and .223/.270. The vast majority of my shooting has beeen FT and HFT but i still have a dabble with other bits n bobs. I've owned loads of boingers over the years but admit that i can't shoot them for toffee.....well that's not strictly true.....i just didn't devote enough time to learn each rifle, got frustrated and went back to the PCP. I suppose it's because i was shooting so many comps that i thought i should be shooting a comp rig as much as possible.

IIRC the maddest thing i bought was a Longbow venom but still couldn't master springers...even with a 1k boinger.

I think part of it (and a big part at that) is knowing your kit inside out (learning the rifle as you say). I rarely if ever have more than one hunting springer. All my rifles, pcp and springer have the same scope so I'm familiar with bracketing my quarry. I also tune my springers to my liking. I