Tonight on Realtree Global Hunting, we're back in Wales learning to shoot at distance with
Andrew Venables
of WMS Firearms Training.
Tonight, Andrews pushing Cai Ap Bryn
out to distances beyond the capabilities of many,
let's see how he gets on.
The last time we visited WMS Firearms,
Andrew Venables took Cai Ap Bryn of the Wild Food Catering Company
through shooting at night using some night vision.
Tonight, he's looking to take Cai out to distances
that would challenge most shooters and to get him to think about the differences
when shooting at those distances.
There's much more to take into consideration the further you head out.
However, Andrew specializes in these types of things
and always has plenty of advice.
Lets think about the next problem.
So,
We've been shooting at these targets from 100, it's gone pretty well hasn't it?
I think it's gone pretty well.
More than enough for a lession plan.
What we're gonna do now,
is have a go at the same targets,
but we're going to do from the level of the field over there.
it's 200 metres,
obviously we're not going to be standing off sticks to do the job
just on the grass bank over there, it's 200 metres.
We'll be using the prone position from there, I will show you a trick with the
sticks,
using the pickup truck as if it was a tree.
There is a trick you can use with sticks to make it surprisingly accurate.
But that's the next game plan.
You up for it?
Yeah.
Lets go.
Okay Cai, come forwards.
Now, if you think about where we were before,
we've got a situation here, where we'll do a bit of range finding.
We're now,
200 metres
from the target we were dealing with previously.
Is it going to be a good idea to shoot them off sticks?
I don't think so, not really no.
So what we need to do is find a stable shooting position.
We're going to have a look around on the grass here.
Somewhere there, seems to be okay, it's relatively laid flat.
You're on the bipod.
I think we said earlier in Scotland, I can't remember hunting with the bipod on.
I normally have a backpack or daypack.
So I'm just going to go off resting on the bag.
You've got the bipod, so if you want to deploy down there.
Okay Cai,
picking it up, properly sorted out now,
we need a good shooting position, we need the rifle set at the right range.
We need to pick a moment when the animals not about to walk off.
Obviously you've got to study deer for a long time to know when that moment is.
200 metres off sticks.
We're off sticks and now on the ground.
I'm going to effectively back you up.
Okay,
i'm loaded,
the winds blowing slighty from left to right,
I want you to aim at the left edge of the killzone of the deer.
Yeah,
At nine o'clock on the kill zone, not off it.
Okay, you ready?
Spotting.
Excellent.
Perfect for wind.
Just on top of the kill zone.
I'll give it one just for the heck of it.
Firing.
I aimed in the middle, you can see there,
that the winds actually gone off
about two inches.
Just to give you an example of what the situation is with the wind.
You've got to account for the stuff.
You aimed in,
got the shot on, I aimed smack in the middle of the kill zone
and my shot just about two-three inches to the right of where I wanted to it to be.
Always be aware at these ranges wind matters.
Absolutely smack in the middle brilliant.
I'm going to on on the left edge at nine o'clock.
You can see the same thing again, we're both in the kill zone.
we both accounted for the wind.
It's quite choppy and changable,
there's quite a lot of differences in the wind.
We need to get in the kill zone.
We don't want to be blown out the wrong side of it.
Great shot, firing.
Right on top of your mark.
I was aiming at the left edge of the kill zone, where were you aiming?
Left edge of the kill zone.
So you can see 200 metres,
we're dealing with at least 10 possibly 12 centimetres of wind.
it's quite a lesson in shooting isn't it?
It is indeed, yes.
And people talk about shooting deer at 300 don't they?
They do indeed.
Well, let's give it a go and see what happens today okay?
Yep, sounds good.
How did you think that went?
I thought that went really well actually,
good I'm glad your pleased.
I'll tell you what, it's interesting to see how difference the actual wind makes.
A lot of people reckon their rifle shoots flat
or it's not affected by wind.
Both the 243 and the 308 and this is only a 4-6 mile an hour wind,
we're being pushed off two to four inches to the right at that range.
You saw that shot, I didn't allocate through
I could see the difference, you could see it just out of the kill zone,
wouldn't have been pretty.
Again, not the game dealers best friend,
it bit more and it could have been very messy.
Okay,
We've done 100 off the sticks,
we've done 70 off the sticks, we've done 100 off the sticks, we've done standing,
we've done kneeling.
We've tried a bit of prone here at 200.
now a lot of people,
never get to shoot more than 150-200,
actually it's got a pulse is a reason for getting that close.
What do you reckon we have a go at 300?
And we see what happens
what you could do if you had a wounded beast that had ran out that extra 100 or something like that.
Or need to clear up a problem.
Yeah, I think we should give that a go.
Okay, lets see what effect the winds going to be doing further on that.
Yeah, and we can look at holdover and also maybe dialing.
Lets pack away and we'll get off.
Okay, Cai here we are
along way away, don't try this on an un-wounded animal.
We're shooting at the Roe Deer,
because that's what we happen to be sent up on.
Have you ever had a gilly carry a matt up a Scotish hill for you?
Never, it won't happen after this.
The grounds wet,
so we're being cautious.
Load up.
Look at the big roebuck with the antlers down there, the larger one on the left.
Yeah.
You're sighted in at 200 metres,
this is 300 metres.
Your round wants to go in about 10 inches low.
Or about 25 centimetres low.
The Kill zone,
on that roebuck,
is about 15 centimetres high.
So your elevation point is going to be that angle on the back off his neck.
We're aiming off now not dialing.
You've got to get about 10 inches visualised over where the bullet will land.
We've got the wind to consider as well.
That's right,
now this is why we don't try this on moving animals really.
You're going to have too aim on that deer,
a good,
five centimeters or couple inches
to the left of the Kill zone,
to stand a chance of dropping a round into the kill zone.
Okay, I'm watching, the cameras are rolling,
lets see what happens.
Spotting.
Okay, it has got it in the middle.
I'm going to fire.
You got the leg. Tha'ts gone down too low, so we're aiming off.
It's not clever is it?
Try one more shot yourself.
That's good, it's on the shoulder, it would have dropped it immediately.
I'm going one more.
And that's in the bottom of the kill zone.
So I'm shooting lower than I thought, you've got pretty much on.
But I think we've established again for the cameras, try to aim off
in a situation like this is not necessarily the best thing.
Let's look at another solution now okay?
We're going to think about dialing.
If you take the scope cap off the top.
You've got the ballistic set up for the rifle,
we're looking at 300 metres.
We've go the wind coming in at 9
I'm just using a solution here, it could be a piece a paper, it could be anything.
I mention to you at 14 clicks eariler,
You're already up 5, I want you to come up 9 more clicks.
Infact for your rifle I'd come up 8 more clicks.
For the wind,
we're still going to aim off.
Because there's not time to do both, in a hunting situation it would be
silly to think there was time to do both really.
what we're going do now is just aim at nine o'clock on the edge of the kill zone.
You've seen where the wind was, the first wind caught us a bit far out.
I'm watching for you.
Aim at nine o'clock just on the left edge of the yellow kill zone.
Spotting.
Heart shot.
Kill zone shot.
You can see the difference can't you?
It be rude not to go again wouldn't it?
You go.
Spotting.
Heart shot.
Firing.
Heart shot.
There's a clear message there isn't there?
There is indeed.
Never muck about aiming off
at long ranges
unless it's an emergency situation, a bit of knowledge of how to do that can help.
if you get time to dial it, you saw the difference didn't you?
Between speculation
and accuracy.
Definitely.
You wouldn't feel great about shooting a deer at that range for our first two shots would you?
Definitely not.
I took it's leg out,
you took its back out, if it was a deer it would have been a real mess.
But for a backup shot this kind of knowledge is priceless.
As you were saying,
this is ideally just for the welfare of the animal, you would never
really take a shot at a animal at this, a healthy animal would you?
I wouldn't recommend it particularly not on roe deer sized animal.
I know that inparticularly, well I just came back from Africa where the
rules of engagement are sometimes a little different.
On a hind cull when things are pushed, when there's a welfare issue in taking
out a number deer relatively quickly.
I know that they're are teams of people who do get set up
and if you get two people who know what they're doing who are both set up
who get like us on the top of the hill,
to be fair, to people can make
killing shots on deer, but this is a professional thing this is not
speculative, amateur, I wonder if I can hit it.
If you know you regularly hit ten a inch disk
five or six hundred metres, that's time to consider
culling at maybe 250 to 300.
Because you've got that get out of jail card involved.
Now Cai lets see what happen.
This is the deer,
we were running at from 200 metres.
Just from over there on that grass bank.
We set up at five clicks,
which pretty much gave us a 200 metre zero.
Do you remember where you aiming for in the wind? nine o'clock, just about here.
Once again we still had the wind on, we were having too aim here
at the back edge of the kill zone at 9.
This is the deer we shot at from 300 metres.
If you remember what I said was
will have a guess,
we've got about
10 inches to make up in elevation,
we've got about
this much to make up in windage,
so I said let's aim up here somewhere
and see what happens.
What happened to your first shot?
It just dropped straight down into the back.
What happened to my first shot, burying in mind that I'm suppose to know all about this.
Took of it's leg.
The reason for that is that we weren't aim at the deer, we were aiming off at some random part away.
In this grayness up here, it's not good for precision.
What we did then,
we both did a quick follow up shot
in the light of your first shot,
you've improved the aim off
and if I remember you put
I think it was that one, I think you shouldered it.
And I, in the light of my first poorly delivered shot
made a second shot and it's one of these ones in here.
In truth I don't know which one
it might even be that one.
So in the aim of an emergency it's better than nothing.
Better than running after it with your finger nails.
But any thought of taking on anything at longer ranges
you've got to think and you've got to have a reference point
we dialed for the distance, if you remember, you came up I think
an extra 8 clicks, which made it 13.
I came up an extra 9, which made it 14 clicks up.
And we put in
one, two, three, four
might even be five there.
That's a pretty good group at 300, that's 300 metres.
We were both aiming there then if you remember, yeah we were.
Some of the shots were a little more left and right then others.
but we were still aiming effectively to gut shoot it.
To get it in the kill zone.
People who really practice, people who prepare for stuff like this,
you may get pushed into the old situation here
culling or abroad if you taken the hunt in somewhat Mongolia or Kazakhstan.
But for long range shooting, it's not hunting, hunting
getting close enough isn't it? That's true. If it's long range shooting
preparation and practice is everything.
I agree and after that today its really opened my eyes
how wind affects it.
Adjusting the dialing to know what you're doing
to have the knowledge to do it.
Thank you for that Andrew,
it's all a lession, the main thing that this target tells us
is that the kick is much better than we are.
Some great advice from Andrew and some good shooting from Cai.
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