I want to learn firing guns without owning them

When my wife and I were young we rented a small cottage on a 600+ acre farm. The landlords allowed an older gentleman (early 70s or so) to distance-shoot groundhogs on the property. He would bring a folding table/bench, wind vane with anemometer, and charts for adjusting the scope for wind and bullet drop. I dont know much about rifles, but I remember that it was bolt action, very long, extremely HEAVY, and the barrel was super thick. The scope was a thing of beauty. He hit his target almost every time, most of them being at or beyond 1000 yds, and it sounded like a canon going off. I was in my early 20s and wasn't super interested because it just seemed so tedious, but now that im older, I wish I'd paid a little more attention when he was showing me his setup.

 

Those are the best experiences anyone can have. I wish I know or knew someone who’s got experiences with long range shooting. Knowing someone and paying someone is completely different. Everything I know is from trial and error, especially with reloading, there’s no room for error.

 

Is 500 meters, dinging bulls on a "human" sized target good enough? Actually, the head and shoulders of a human target. I usually managed to either put my groups in the head or heart, 3" groups or so. This is with an issue M-16A1, mind, not some rigged up, sighted rifle. 2 sets of 3 rounds each to sight it in was all we got.

Most Marines from my era could do this. Most amazing I saw personally was one of my Drill Instructors. Grabbed a rifle from a recruit that was all over the target, at the 500 meter line, mind you, and held it like a pistol, stock along his arm. Shot a 4" group. Offhand, not prone or whatever. Just an amazing demonstration of ability, AND what the rifle was capable of.

Now I have a Remington M4, in 7mm Remington Mag. I can ding 1000 yard targets all day. Same with my Lee-Enfield issue sniper rifle. Iron sights at 1000 meters is a piece of cake. Kicks like a SOB, though. I have a real good quality muzzle brake on my 7MM, doesn't kick any worse than a .22, really. SOUNDS like a 105 Howitzer going off, but no real kick to it

Have fun. Be glad to give advice. I was a Rifle/Pistol Marksmanship instructor for a while, BTW.
Pat☺

 

We used to do that at the Cheyenne range at Ft Carson with my mk18 pistol. Good times.

I miss guns.

 

I don't really hunt anymore, but, love the shooting sports!
LandCruiser: why do you miss guns? Do you no longer own any? That is assuming you did...

 

I live in the PRC.

All I have is an old G19 and 590a1 here.

 

nuff said

 

6 or 7 years ago there was an outdoor range just over the border into Arkansas (closed now). They had steel gongs all the way out 700yds to shoot and rented machine guns. What's nice about ranges that rent machines guns is they don't care about rapid fire and also aren't as strict with the longer distance ranges.

I took my Springfield M1A and couple other rifles (couple AR15's and a Mini 14) there. I could get my AR15's and Mini-14 to 400yds without having to adjust the elevation on my irons using sandbags off the bench. I got my M1A all the way to the 700yd gong using iron sights and South African Surplus 7.62x51 ammo supported on sandbags. I walked the shots into the gong by cranking up the elevation knob based on shots into the dirt.

Anywho - I amazed a few guys that were shooting a scoped 300 Win Mag off a Lead Sled.