At home on the range

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There is some really spectacular spots in Australia; I don't mean one or two, I mean hundreds and thousands of amazing places that allow a people-free experience in wilderness areas and I'm very fortunate to have been to many such places. Being a fellow who loves to off-road, camp, hunt, hike and kayak I tend to seek out far-away places that allow me to do those things without the interruption of other people.

I mention hunting above, which I do with firearms. I've done some bow hunting here and there but I'm a trained long-range shooter and so tend mostly to use firearms for hunting. I'm also not keen on seeing an animal suffer and, with bow hunting, an animal isn't always dispatched rapidly. In a survival situation I'll do it, but for sport I don't see the point.

I've been long-range shooting for a very long time, and it's been a really interesting journey from being a reasonable hunter to a very accomplished long-range shooter.

There's many elements that come together to shoot accurately and repeatably at great distances and the training process is complex and pretty full-on; it's not simply sending rounds down range, there's theory as well, a lot of science, physics and mathematics, ballistics and aerodynamics; it means understanding concepts most probably don't think about...but there's also a lot of practical work and that has taken me to some really cool places.

Above is one such place I go to practice. There's not much out there, no people, and it's the sort of environment in which I feel at home. In the image above you might be able to make out targets, I've blown it up a little below and placed arrows pointing to them; each arrow points to a row of three steel targets. This is one of the ranges on which I do some long-range practice, I've been going there for years.

This location is private property and is used for various purposes by the owners. I am fortunate to have virtually unlimited access, a right earned after years of responsible use of the property, and I go here a several times a year to practice shooting at long-range...and to have a little break also; it's such a relaxing place to be.

Not a week goes by where I don't do something firearms related whether it's dry-firing my rifles to practice my breathing and trigger-pull, to drawing my handguns from the holster to maintain the muscle memory required it do it smoothly and quickly, and to acquire targets more rapidly. But I can't send rounds down range at long-range every week as none of the local ranges have enough distance. At the property you see in this post I'm able to shoot at well over one mile (1609.33 metres) easily as there's loads of room...and no one there to get in the way.

I also do a lot of test and evaluation work there which is what the image below was all about. I was testing three different rifles and wanted to recreate identical testing scenarios hence the one scope that was switched between them as the testing ensued. It's the perfect location for such things.

Combining theory and practical shooting is essential for a long range shooter and it's something that never stops. Practicing wind-calling accurately for example, it's a critical factor. If a long-range shooter cannot do so to an accuracy of +/-1mph then shots may miss, hit probability diminishes, and that's not acceptable. It's the same with managing recoil, the body-positions used, gathering and inputting data, breathing and trigger-pull, operating the rifle-system and associated equipment...it's like anything, if unused skills get rusty, so I use them.

I feel at home on the firing range, it's somewhere I've spent a lot of time. It's a familiar and comfortable place to be; but to have the chance to call a place like this location, one of my rifle ranges, is a real privilege as I get to combine off-roading and camping with my shooting and, at the right time of the year, there's game to shoot here too so hunting is on the agenda. It's a pretty good situation to have for a bloke like me.