Up close and personal
Patrick Hook says that you can have the best kit in the world but failing to practise shooting at closer ranges means that you are likely to miss
Ihad a call the other day from a mate who is a very experienced shooter. What he wanted to know was basic, but something he hadn’t had to think about for years. He’d got a job on in which he was going to have to shoot a fox right in among some farm buildings, so wanted a reminder as to where he should aim. Full credit to him for asking – far better to do so than risk missing or wounding an animal.
Although the majority of hunters are relatively competent at the ranges their rifles are intended for, it’s surprising how few really know where to position the crosshairs when their quarry unexpectedly appears at a very close distance. Some will aim straight on, others will hold high, others will hold low. So which is correct, and why?
Let’s begin by looking at a hypothetical scenario. Imagine you’ve seen a fox a few hundred yards away and you have put your rifle on your sticks ready for a shot. You then try to call it in when, all of a sudden, another one that you weren’t aware of dives out of the bushes almost at your feet and skids to a halt, say 25 yards away. The wind is in your favour, but the fox is about to turn and run – so you need to line up and fire, quickly. The issue is, where to aim?
Reflex
A very similar situation happened to me recently. Fortunately, my reflex response was to hold slightly high and the big old dog fox – who’d seemingly appeared from nowhere – fell on the spot. The reality was that as I was using an add-on night-vision unit, the scope’s centreline was only 2in above that of the barrel, so I didn’t need to make much compensation.
This certainly wasn’t the case when
I and my shooting partner, Paul, were using big dedicated NV scopes, though. We both loved them for the clarity of the optics and especially for their light-gathering capabilities, which was staggering. You only needed infrared when it was really dark; the rest of the time you could see very clearly with no assistance. Any fox between 75 and 250 yards was in serious trouble. But we kept missing the close ones.
It was only when I began to see a pattern forming that I stopped to consider why it
was happening. My rifle was zeroed at 100 yards, while Paul’s was at 150 yards. The centre of the lenses on mine was about 3½in above the bore, but Paul’s – which had an enormous objective – was nearer five.
Add to that the fact that the extra zero distance meant it shot approximately half an inch higher and you had a recipe for disaster when things were really close – unless you made the right aim-point compensation.
If we take Paul’s rifle as an example, at the muzzle it would shoot low by the barrel to scope height, and at 75 yards – half the zero range – it would shoot low by half this figure. To put some numbers on the illustration
– a target at 25 yards would be at 1∕6th of the zero range, so the point of impact
“It’s far better to ask for help than risk wounding an animal”
would be low by 5∕6th of the barrel to scope height. This equates to 4.16in – so if he aimed ‘normally’, he’d end up shooting low by this figure. Little wonder that he struggled to hit the close ones.
Ditched
So the answer is to hold high – but making yourself aim into thin air is not intuitive; you literally have to force yourself to do it and this is easier for some than for others. In the end, it was the main reason we ditched the big dedicated scopes with their incredible field of view, crystal-clear picture and superb light collection, and went instead for simple rear add-ons.
If you think that you might have occasion to shoot at close ranges, it’s well worth shooting a few test cards next time you zero-check your rifle, simply to be absolutely certain where the bullet will go.
Start by getting the point of impact right at your chosen distance – 100 yards in my case – then, without altering the scope, bring the target back to 75, 50 and 25 yards, aiming at the usual place and firing as many, or as few, shots as you feel are necessary at each stage.
Make sure you label the holes with a marker pen so you can refer to the card and remind yourself what happens at each distance. It will also allow you to shut up the pub bore if he tries to tell you that you’re doing it wrong.