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Dedicated woods walk rifle, range, loads, etc?

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yellowhammer

40 Cal
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I asked this in another thread sorta off topic, so I would like to ask again here. Do y'all normally zero a dedicated rifle at a some set distance just for woods walks? My .50 hunting rifle is zeroed at 50 yds w/55 gr 2f. So, would I keep that charge and "Kentucky elevation" hold high or low, or adjust the charge up or down for range? Or, just zero at 25 yds, etc and hold dead on? Just askin' how y'all do it. Some of the targets I see on online vids are REAL close, so a 50 yd zero might be wrong. None seem beyond 50 yds due to the acreage & trail requirements probably. Never been on one, but looks like fun for an old man like me lol. Just curious.
 
Yes and no. It took a couple of range days but I was able to experiment and get a load that hit the same at 50 and 25. Check your load at different ranges, 10 and 25 yards. You might be surprised how close you are at the closer ranges from a fifty yard zero.

I have the ball printing directly on top of the front site at 50, it is very closes to that at 25. Closer than 25 I aim dead on for the ball splitting the front site. Longer than 50 I just guess a hold over, but woods walks targets in my area beyond 50 yards are not common.
 
My "target rifle" is a hunting rifle as well. It shoots 70 grains FFFg powder under a patched .490 round ball. In a line shoot, I damp swab and dry swab between shots. The gun shoots to point of aim at 25 and 75 yards, and two-three inches high at 50. when I go out to 100 yards, I increase my powder charge to 85 grains to regain point of aim. for a woods walk, where swabbing between shots is cumbersome, I load a .480 grain round ball with no other changes. It allows me to load easier for the 10-12 shots needed for a walk. Accuracy is close enough for most woods walk targets.

ADK Bigfoot
 
I shoot woods walk on regular basis. I normally shoot a .58 that is zeroed in at 50yds. I shoot 70 grains at 50yds, and out to 100yd 80 grains fff.
Depending on the yardage you can hold high, or add powder to flatten trajectory. I normally add extra, but if I forget to add, I hold high.
 
All my guns are sighted in for hunting, will hold high or low to compensate. Thought about having 1 sighted in specifically for wood walks but not really into the competition part, just do them because I enjoy shooting and good hunting practice. Figure I gotta hold high or low hunting, might as well do it everywhere.
 
Sometimes wood walks are sneaky and hang charcoal bricks is some such gotcha target, but generally are closer to at least kill zone of deer or human. A four inch group will hit most targets on a woods walk.
I’ve completed fair with smoothbore when many were shooting them new fangled guns.
Woods walks are usually just plinking
Since they generally require you to shoot off hand I find this abomination of nature far more of a miss factor then drop or overshooting
Let me get my soap box so I can lecture on the moral depravity of off hand shooting😂
 
What 64Springer says. If you have set sights, know your distance(s) for zero and know what elevation/hold you need beyond that. Then you need to be fairly good at judging distance.
I prefer to use sight hold adjustments even if I have an adjustable sight (as in my Traditions Hawken and CVA Mountain rifle). I discovered I was prone to forgetting to re-adjust my sights for short distances after having adjusted them for long distance.
 
Since they generally require you to shoot off hand I find this abomination of nature far more of a miss factor then drop or overshooting. Let me get my soap box so I can lecture on the moral depravity of off hand shooting😂

tenngun, I hear you. Skinny bag of bones like me finds it hard to hold off hand 🤣. Conversely, I know a great big obese guy with legs like tree trunks. He just stands there anchored on that big chassis cemented in place by all of that lard, props up his elbows on his enormous belly, and shoots like on a rest on a table.
 
Birdshot works great on those close targets! Just kidding.

The close small targets are the hardest and require a lot of practice. Holding over is not easy when targets are blocked from view. Try setting half the front sight blade above the rear sight while aiming. Lollipops at 7 yards can be tricky.
 
tenngun, I hear you. Skinny bag of bones like me finds it hard to hold off hand 🤣. Conversely, I know a great big obese guy with legs like tree trunks. He just stands there anchored on that big chassis cemented in place by all of that lard, props up his elbows on his enormous belly, and shoots like on a rest on a table.
Sounds like most of the people at Golden Corral.

If someone we're to hand out rifles, we'd have a world-class shooting team.
 
tenngun, I hear you. Skinny bag of bones like me finds it hard to hold off hand 🤣. Conversely, I know a great big obese guy with legs like tree trunks. He just stands there anchored on that big chassis cemented in place by all of that lard, props up his elbows on his enormous belly, and shoots like on a rest on a table.
That could have been me a little over 100 pounds ago. Nowadays a moderate breeze makes me wobble, but it's worth it to be wearing belts a foot shorter.
 
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