Here are three of our favorite rifle shooting drills to practice in the off-season. We return to the hunting grounds with renewed enthusiasm and enhanced skill!

Drill No. 1: Hit the Can
Hang six soda cans from trees. Then, have a competitor call out a certain can and start a stopwatch.
The Goal: Simple—become an offhand ace. Why? Because one day soon you’re going to get caught with a big buck standing close, ready to bolt, and nothing to rest your gun on.
The Rundown: Get a real-gun-like airgun, a tin of pellets, some string, and six pop cans of varying colors. (Beer cans work, too.) Hang them at different heights and distances from trees or stakes around the yard. Then, standing with gun at the low ready, have a competitor call out a certain can and start a stopwatch (or a countdown). You have five seconds to find the can, shoulder the rifle, and make a hit. Practice aiming not at the entire Coke can, for example, but at one of the Os in Coca-Cola. If you hit the can, continue. If you miss, pass the gun. Wager a buck to see who can rattle the most cans in a row.

Drill No. 2: Know Your Rifle
First zero your rifle with your preferred hunting bullet.
The Goal: Memorize precisely where your rifle puts a particular bullet at any range out to 400 yards, so that when your dream critter shows briefly in the distance, there will be no guessing or math. Just bang, flop.
The Rundown: The only way to really know where your rifle hits is to first zero it with your preferred hunting bullet. (I prefer a 200-yard zero.) Then shoot it in 50-yard increments from 100 to 400 yards, noting exactly where it hits and the necessary compensation via ballistic-reticle hash marks, come-ups, or holdover. Create a cheat sheet to keep it straight.
That done, the drill is simple. Set up targets from 100 to 400 yards in 50-yard increments. (Paper is fine but reactive targets are way more fun.) Now shoot the targets, alternating from short to long: 100 then 400, 150 then 350, 200 then 300, 250 back to 400. Repeat until you no longer need the cheat sheet. If you do no other shooting this off-season, do this.

Drill No. 3: Fire the Laser!
The Rundown: Using a laser-equipped rifle and target, set up in a part of your house that offers the longest shot, and concentrate on perfect trigger control. You want to hit the center every time, and to do that requires a pull that’s smooth and straight back. Any yanking will be seen via the laser. Take 10 “shots,” twice a day, several times a week. The trick is to practice enough to where a perfect trigger pull is so ingrained that it crosses over to all of your hunting guns.
Bonus: Trigger work is just a start. With a laser, you can drill for fast target acquisition, offhand shots, timed shooting, and even close-quarter battle (CQB) work.

What do you think of these rifle drills? Have you tried any of them? How do you practice your rifle skills? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Article Source: Field & Stream