Martin J Dougherty - Sporting Guns: Weapons, Skills and Techniques for Competitive Shooting Sports

SPORTING GUNS

SAS and Elite Forces Guide

MARTIN J. DOUGHERTY

There is more to hunting than marksmanship. Understanding the quarry and its environment enables the hunter to maximize his advantages with the right camouflage and decoys.

Gun sports range from casual plinking at targets to Olympic-standard shooting matches, and from fun activities like Cowboy Action Shooting to realistic combat simulation events.

Gun Sports and Sporting Guns

T he term sporting guns is generally used to refer to all firearms that are not intended for use as weapons against people. That does not mean that they cannot be pressed into service for home or personal defence, or accidentally harm someone, but their primary purpose is not for combat. Similarly, gun sports include pretty much all firearms activity that is not primarily intended for hurting people or training to do so.

Beyond that, the field is very varied and gun sports differ sufficiently from one another that an entirely different set of skills may be needed. Gun sports range from target shooting for amusement or competitive purposes to hunting and vermin control. Some of these activities are not, strictly speaking, sports hunting can put food on the table, and keeping down vermin protects crops but they do fall within the same general set of activities and use the same tools.

Choosing the Right Gun

The equipment required, as well as the skillset in use, varies from one field to another. Any gun can be used for a bit of target shooting, but for serious competition a specialist firearm is needed. Target pistols and rifles are extremely precise instruments that might not take kindly to being dragged through the wilderness in search of game, even if they are effective in that role. A gun designed for putting down large targets such as turkey or deer might not be well suited to hunting small game, and might constitute overkill for vermin control. There are also legal considerations. Permit requirements and local gun laws can force the choice of weapon. In some areas, for example, it is legal to hunt with a shotgun but not a rifle. If it is necessary to bring down quite robust targets, such as turkey, from a fair distance, then a shotgun might not be ideal. The way around this is to use specialist ammunition that extends accurate range and knockdown power while remaining within the bounds of the law.

Types of Sporting Gun

From top: bolt-action rifle, semi-automatic shotgun, double-barrelled shotgun. Each offers the user clear advantages in the right role.

The majority of sporting guns are not ideally suited to home defence or personal protection applications. Any gun is better than no gun of course, but in most cases it is better to have a gun for sport and a gun for defence rather than compromising effectiveness in one area in case your chosen weapon has to be pressed into service for the other.

As a general rule, shotguns are used for hunting birds and small, fast-moving animals, and for sports that parallel these activities such as clay pigeon shooting. Shotguns can be used with specialist ammunition for hunting larger game in areas where rifles are not permitted, or to avoid having to carry more than one gun on a shoot. Rifles are generally used for longer-range shooting, with heavier calibres used for deer and similar large game, and smaller calibres being more suitable for smaller game. Some very large calibre rifles are available for hunting dangerous game, but this is a specialist activity.

Rifles are also popular for target shooting, as are pistols. Indeed, target shooting is the main sporting activity undertaken with handguns, although some hunters prefer to use them either for their ease of carry compared to a rifle or to increase the challenge. Within these general categories there is an almost infinite variety of equipment that can be tailored to both the application you have in mind and your preferences as the user.

Thus a sporting gun should be chosen based on what you intend to do with it, but it is always worth remembering that gun sports, with a few exceptions, are not just about shooting. The gun you choose is the gun you will have to carry and buy ammunition for and clean and obtain the right permits for and a host of other tasks that are not really anything to do with actually firing it.

User Friendly

When you choose a piece of equipment you should be mindful of who its for. The absolute best gun for, say, shooting waterfowl, may not be the best gun to carry and use on a waterfowling shoot. Your kit must be suited to the user, and not to some abstract standard of what is better.

Some shooters, like people in every other field, will define themselves by the equipment they have. Brands are important, price tags sometimes even more so. Some shooters will cite chapter and verse from reviews or shooting books as proof that they are somehow superior because they own the piece of equipment being praised or know the technique described. This is a rather false standard, however. The real test is how well you can perform with the equipment you have, and whether you find the shooting experience enjoyable, fulfilling or successful in other ways. It is results, not possessions, that count.

On a Shoot

Many hunters choose to work with an experienced guide, who can show them where to find the game they seek and offer advice as needed. Guides may be experts-for-hire or an experienced hunter might take on the role for his friends.

In order to obtain good results it is necessary to work towards them. That means mastering your gun and instinctively knowing how it performs, but also knowing what you need to do in order to make an effective shot. You can hone your precision shooting to a fine pitch on the firing range, but if all the ducks fly away when you come crashing through the undergrowth then your marksmanship is worthless. A little time spent on fieldcraft rather than attaining an incredible standard of marksmanship under perfect conditions will pay dividends.

Thus the sporting shooter that understands his equipment and the requirements of his sport and has the right skills will vastly outperform someone who lacks specialist knowledge even if his opponent is a better marksman under perfect conditions. However, the basic principles of weapon handling and marksmanship are common to all gun sports putting the shot where you want it is what its all about.

Safety

The first duty of any gun book is to reiterate the principles of firearms safety. Like the safety briefing aboard an aircraft, these can often be treated casually. Thousands of people die every year in shooting accidents, yet almost every incident could be prevented with basic safety measures. These are:

Secure Your Guns!

It may seem obvious that loaded guns should not be left lying about, yet it does happen. A weapon that is not in use should be securely stored, not only to prevent accidents but also to make it difficult to steal. A gun rack in a locked room, or a gun safe, is sufficient to control access to a weapon which should of course be stored unloaded. Ammunition can usually be stored with the weapon, although in some localities there are legal requirements to store ammunition separately.