Double Rifle Practice

[Cervus elaphus]

Agreed if the forend is not too bulky try two rounds in the palm of you left hand held in place by middle finger and lower grip the forend with thumb and forefinger as you break the rifle open your hand moves to chambers and uou pop both in at the same time. Put the two rounds in your palm as you close in...with practice it is the fastest reload and your eyes do not have to drop to the actiin.

His double has extractors so those empties will need to be removed from the chambers first by the right hand, same as an O/U shotgun with extractors?.

 

[Ike85123]

Th

His double has extractors so those empties will need to be removed from the chambers first by the right hand, same as an O/U shotgun with extractors?.

Thats why u dont trim your nails. Lol

 

[IvW]

His double has extractors so those empties will need to be removed from the chambers first by the right hand, same as an O/U shotgun with extractors?.

Just tilt the rifle after opening they drop out, it is a 500/416 NE nicely tapered not straight walled.

 

[Ed Lally]

My PH said "Carry your rifle wherever you go as it gets heavy quickly.". Not possible where I live without my neighbors freaking out. I purchased a 15 pound rubber coated steel exercise bar and cut it down to the length of my Krieghoff. Added sling swivels at the appropriate places and attached a sling. I hike for miles and get a few odd looks but no second glances. That and dry firing a lot, plus some range time off sticks and I am good to go.

 

[Cervus elaphus]

Just tilt the rifle after opening they drop out, it is a 500/416 NE nicely tapered not straight walled.

I was thinking straight walled. Thanks

 

[Cervus elaphus]

I booked my first elephant hunt for late august. I started training on Sunday. In addition to loosing about 40lbs,I need to become totally proficient with my rifle. With the exception of stopping a charging medium/small whitetail deer with my krieghoff double in 2019, I really haven’t shot it much in recent years.

I’ve got a lot of work to do on my unloading/reloading. After spending some time practicing in the house with spent brass, I think I can save time by using gravity to clear the spent rounds, but I need to practice on the range to see if that works with hot brass.
This video is from my first run Sunday. I dont even have an ammo belt yet which is why you see me digging around in my pocket for shells.

Y’all follow along and see if I get any better over the next several months.

If anyone has any recommendations for practice drills please share.

View attachment 397434

Have you considered using a thin short fingered glove on your left hand so you can hold two cartridges?. I was thinking of adapting a black golf glove. Smithy wears a glove in some video takes and seems to leave them off in the next one, which suggests to me there's a fair bit of editing going on.

 

[Ike85123]

Have you considered using a thin short fingered glove on your left hand so you can hold two cartridges?. I was thinking of adapting a black golf glove. Smithy wears a glove in some video takes and seems to leave them off in the next one, which suggests to me there's a fair bit of editing going on.

Ive never tried a glove. But seems like it would be slippery between leather and a shell ?
Maybe a thin cotton glove ? I like to feel the shells on my calluses.
Idk? I would rather just have cold fingers, than drop the shells. Lol
Actually after really thinking about it. I would probably worry most about scratches on my rifle, since i would lose some touch sensation.

 

[ActionBob]

I’ll give it a try again, but I’ve never really been able to get comfortable doing that.

I also find that quite clumsy. My thought is that it's much better to have a good comfortable grip on the gun and concentrate on making the best first shot possible, then getting off a good backup round if the animal hasn't dropped.

Then I like the concept of reloading, safety. Move if needed. So practice that reloading from your belt while scanning your surroundings.

 

[HWL]

This makes sense.

In the vast majority of cases, you gain nothing by changing your position.....

Wait and see, what happens....

By running you reveal your position, the animal probably still does not know.

Often you have a second chance from your undetected position!

A wounded animal feels pain and often tends to go down..... without an enemy behind it.

It will run "forever" when it feels you follow....

Once down, it will lay there as long as possible... given you a real second chance.

So, wait.....

Than carefully detect the place, where the animal was, when you shot....

Try to find signs of a hit, blood, parts of bone, hair, skin, broken branches, bloodtrail, direction....

Than follow carefully, as carefully as you can.

The kind of blood, the amount of blood and the places where you find it, are important informations.

You and your gun have to be ready for action with every step you take.

You are a lucky hunter when you find a dead animal.


... just my two cents


HWL

 

[calling4life]

Clay target thrower, have it throw rabbits for moving target practice.
You can also use a baseball/softball thrower with any number of types of balls, from plastic to foam to normal baseballs and softballs depending upon machine.

You can angle these however you want, from throwing targets perpendicular to you to throwing them right at you if you want.

Just a suggestion for some moving target practice, should you feel you need it. Especially if you have a helper, you could fire shot #1 at the stationary target, have helper send the clay target after so your 2nd shot is on a moving target.

Just got my shooting shed mostly completed, on to the brush management then I'm putting in a setup with one of these, thinking baseball thrower with foam balls personally, clay target thing does seem to perhaps be easiest though.

The shell holder on the back of a glove or on a wrist wrap doesn't seem like a horrible idea to try either. Wrist may involve less abusive movement which may help retain the rounds better... just spitballin here, I'll stop now.

Good luck and I hope things work out with the hunt.

 

[sureshot375]

In the vast majority of cases, you gain nothing by changing your position.....

Wait and see, what happens....

By running you reveal your position, the animal probably still does not know.

Often you have a second chance from your undetected position!

A wounded animal feels pain and often tends to go down..... without an enemy behind it.

It will run "forever" when it feels you follow....

Once down, it will lay there as long as possible... given you a real second chance.

So, wait.....

Than carefully detect the place, where the animal was, when you shot....

Try to find signs of a hit, blood, parts of bone, hair, skin, broken branches, bloodtrail, direction....

Than follow carefully, as carefully as you can.

The kind of blood, the amount of blood and the places where you find it, are important informations.

You and your gun have to be ready for action with every step you take.

You are a lucky hunter when you find a dead animal.


... just my two cents


HWL

This is how I hunt, but it seems like a lot of professional hunters like to keep dangerous game in sight. I’m hoping with an elephant that there is no tracking involved.

 

[sureshot375]

I also find that quite clumsy. My thought is that it's much better to have a good comfortable grip on the gun and concentrate on making the best first shot possible, then getting off a good backup round if the animal hasn't dropped.

Then I like the concept of reloading, safety. Move if needed. So practice that reloading from your belt while scanning your surroundings.

I think I’m just going to reload from my ammo belt. I have many years experience reloading break action shotgun with my right hand. I think if I combine this with unloading with gravity, that I can be back on target just as fast as reloading with my left hand.

 

[sureshot375]

Clay target thrower, have it throw rabbits for moving target practice.
You can also use a baseball/softball thrower with any number of types of balls, from plastic to foam to normal baseballs and softballs depending upon machine.

You can angle these however you want, from throwing targets perpendicular to you to throwing them right at you if you want.

Just a suggestion for some moving target practice, should you feel you need it. Especially if you have a helper, you could fire shot #1 at the stationary target, have helper send the clay target after so your 2nd shot is on a moving target.

Just got my shooting shed mostly completed, on to the brush management then I'm putting in a setup with one of these, thinking baseball thrower with foam balls personally, clay target thing does seem to perhaps be easiest though.

The shell holder on the back of a glove or on a wrist wrap doesn't seem like a horrible idea to try either. Wrist may involve less abusive movement which may help retain the rounds better... just spitballin here, I'll stop now.

Good luck and I hope things work out with the hunt.

this sounds like fun.

 

[Ike85123]

this sounds like fun.

When u can hit a flying baseball with a dr. Forget about hunting, enter the olympics. Haha

 

[Ray B]

One thing I like to do for familiarization/practice is to load/unload in a dark room so there are no visuals- strictly by feel. then when in the field you don't have to look at what you are doing to load and you can keep your eyes on the animal or other important things.

 

[Ike85123]

This is how I hunt, but it seems like a lot of professional hunters like to keep dangerous game in sight. I’m hoping with an elephant that there is no tracking involved.

Might not be alot of tracking involved with a great first shot. But be prepared to walk miles a day, for days and days, unless you settle or find your ele quicker !

 

[HWL]

This is how I hunt, but it seems like a lot of professional hunters like to keep dangerous game in sight. I’m hoping with an elephant that there is no tracking involved.

First and foremost I would talk to your PH.

May be he has good reasons to run after an animal,... you should figure out.

But even then it is your decision, because it is your hunt, your money and your life witch is on the line.

I personally never ever would run after an animal, because with ever step you run, you give up control of the situation.

Don't become a blind runner.....

HWL

 

[Cervus elaphus]

Clay target thrower, have it throw rabbits for moving target practice.
You can also use a baseball/softball thrower with any number of types of balls, from plastic to foam to normal baseballs and softballs depending upon machine.

You can angle these however you want, from throwing targets perpendicular to you to throwing them right at you if you want.

Just a suggestion for some moving target practice, should you feel you need it. Especially if you have a helper, you could fire shot #1 at the stationary target, have helper send the clay target after so your 2nd shot is on a moving target.

Just got my shooting shed mostly completed, on to the brush management then I'm putting in a setup with one of these, thinking baseball thrower with foam balls personally, clay target thing does seem to perhaps be easiest though.

The shell holder on the back of a glove or on a wrist wrap doesn't seem like a horrible idea to try either. Wrist may involve less abusive movement which may help retain the rounds better... just spitballin here, I'll stop now.

Good luck and I hope things work out with the hunt.

All good advice calling4life. Before I went hunting I used to take the 12g and practice on clays, it certainly sharpened up reaction and swing speed on a fast moving target. When I was younger I played a lot of badminton and where I played before a game I had a fast game of table tennis which made badminton seem like slo-mo, something to do with muscle memory. Cheers

 

[Ed Lally]

+1 ActionBob. A good shot can only be made with a proper grip on your rifle. Holding two shells and trying to properly grip and control the firearm under recoil may take your focus from your shooting to trying to retain control if the shells I have tried several methods if reloading my Kgun: from ammo belt, two shells between the fingers, from a stock shell holder and from elastic wrist straps with the shells perpendicular to my forearm and also parallel my forearm. I find the best for me is the wrist strap with shells pointing toward my fingers and the shells under my wrist. I practice by dryfire, then muzzle up while breaking the action to drop the casing, then muzzle down, pull two shells and reload. Any method you chose is good if you practice. This just works for me.

 

[Longwalker]

lots of good advice here. I'll only add my own experience with double barrel shotguns with two triggers made the transition from shotgun to rifle very easy. So many people who never used a double gun have trouble with two triggers, or reloading quickly and efficiently. A few hundred or thousand rounds with a shotgun builds muscle memory that helps a lot. And 12 ga target loads costs a small fraction of the cost of rifle cartridges.
I disagree with those who say to fire rear trigger first to avoid "doubling". If you are strumming both triggers when you shoot, you are doing something drastically wrong with your grip and trigger finger. A firm grip and good trigger finger position will eliminate any such doubling problems. The instructions that the Merkel factory included with my double rifle specifically calls for the rifle to normally be fired right barrel first ( front trigger) then rear. It's more natural and works well. In any case never, ever, put two fingers on the two triggers.