Originally Posted by
Father Forkhorn
Have you got a .22 or even an air rifle? A few practice sessions with one of those, zero the deer rifle and shoot a few more practice rounds rounds through it and you'd be good to go. As I thought about it , doing those things with your son and maybe running through an online hunter safety course with him would send that message far better than anything else, IMHO.
I hear you, and I’m probably guilty of overthinking all of this—it’s the way I roll. I just want to get so comfortable shooting my rifle that it feels like a reflex. So I can do a better job, in the moment, when the adrenaline is pumping, focusing on all the other variables, like whether it’s a deer I want to shoot, whether I have a clean, ethical shot, etc. The business about remembering to disengage the safety, acquiring target in the scope, not jerking the trigger, and all that—if I can make all of that second-nature, then I want to do that.
I’m betting all of this sounds really stupid to experienced shooters/hunters. Like I said, complete noob here.