<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=05Dzk8_1Eze4Ypg00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=05Dzk8_1Eze4Ypg00" width="1800" height="1200" ></figure>About 22 miles east-southeast of Great Falls, Montana, the small town of Belt serves as the jumping-off point for Bergara Academy’s Long-Range Shooting School.From Belt, the lodge and range sit another six miles beyond the pavement, surrounded by the kind of Montana scenery that can make first-time visitors temporarily forget why they came.Students trade stories about the mule deer and pronghorns they spotted on the drive in, but they all arrive with something else in common: They want to become better long-range shooters.I did, too—although perhaps not for the same reasons.I have little interest in turning a hunting shot into a 10-minute math problem while consulting weather apps and a small constellation of satellites. But as an avid hunter who occasionally ventures beyond the familiar confines of the whitetail woods, I share the desire to shoot confidently and responsibly at longer distances.That made me exactly the kind of hunter Bergara Academy’s beginner long-range shooting class is designed to help.Chad Schearer is Bergara’s director of media relations, host of Shoot Straight TV and lead instructor at Bergara Academy.When I contacted him about sending one of Hook &amp; Barrel’s shooting experts to attend the class and write an article, his immediate response caught me off guard.“But I’m not a shooting expert,” I said.“This class isn’t for experts,” he replied.“Our beginner class focuses on how to handle longer shots in real-world hunting situations. It’s perfect for you.”I’ve known Chad for 15 years and have hunted mule deer with him twice. More importantly, he knows me. He knows I’m primarily a whitetail hunter who occasionally ventures out West.If he thought I would enjoy and benefit from the class, I couldn’t offer much of an argument.I booked my plane ticket that day.Most Bergara Academy students fly into Great Falls, where Chad meets them for the drive to the lodge outside Belt. Students are also welcome to drive or rent a vehicle, particularly if they plan to explore more of Montana before or after the class.Our group gathered that night for an excellent elk roast prepared by Chad’s wife, Marsha, his Shoot Straight cohost.Marsha doesn’t instruct at the academy, but I wouldn’t challenge her to a shooting competition or try to match her hunting skills. When it comes to cooking, there isn’t even a contest.We were also fortunate to have an easygoing and remarkably diverse group. It included father-and-son veterinarians, an engineer with Kawasaki USA, a United Airlines pilot, the president of a whiskey company and an active-duty U.S. Army Green Beret who trains fellow soldiers in marksmanship.That range of backgrounds and experience ensured our group never lacked for great conversation.It also reinforced one of the most important points about the class: You don’t need to arrive as an accomplished long-range shooter to belong there.Our first full day of instruction began with approximately two hours in the classroom, where we learned about the rifles and scopes we would use.This was not simply a commercial for particular products. Instead, Chad concentrated on fundamentals that apply to virtually any rifle setup: establishing a proper shooting position, pressing the trigger cleanly, maintaining a full field of view through the scope and acquiring the target quickly.The classroom session also cleared up concepts I had never fully understood, including the difference between first- and second-focal-plane scopes.In a first-focal-plane scope, the reticle appears to grow or shrink as magnification changes. This allows its measurement marks to remain accurate throughout the scope’s magnification range.In a second-focal-plane scope, the reticle stays the same apparent size. The drawback is that holdover and windage marks are accurate only at a designated magnification—usually the scope’s highest setting.Second-focal-plane scopes are common among hunters, while many long-range shooters prefer first-focal-plane models because the reticle’s measurements remain accurate at any magnification. That advantage matters most when using the reticle for elevation and wind holds rather than dialing corrections with the turrets.It was exactly the kind of foundational lesson the class handled well: technical enough to explain why something matters, but practical enough that we could immediately apply it on the range.From there, we headed outside to fit the rifles to each shooter and confirm our zeros. Bergara provides the rifles, optics and ammunition, and every student was assigned a rifle for the duration of the class.The process moved quickly enough that experienced shooters weren’t left standing around, while students who had never mounted or adjusted a scope received the help they needed.After lunch, we headed to the range for roughly five hours of hands-on instruction.I mentioned earlier that I have very little interest in turning a hunting shot into a math problem.But once the distance stretches to 300 yards and beyond, math becomes part of the equation whether you like it or not. Bullet drop, wind, elevation and environmental conditions do not disappear simply because a hunter would rather ignore them.What impressed me most about the Long-Range Shooting School was how Chad and his sons, Walker and Wyatt, balanced the two sides of that reality.They explained enough of the underlying principles for us to understand what was happening, then showed us practical ways to arrive at the information we needed without making every shot feel like an advanced calculus exam.One of the best examples came from the rangefinding binoculars we used on the firing line. After ranging the target, the binoculars accounted for the ballistic information programmed into the system and provided the elevation correction needed for the shot.From there, we could use that correction in one of two ways: dial the rifle scope’s elevation turret or hold the corresponding mark in the reticle.The instructors taught us how both methods worked, along with the advantages of each.Dialing allowed us to place the center crosshair directly on the target, while using the reticle offered a faster option when time mattered.The technology shortened the path to a shooting solution, but it did not replace the need to understand the correction, make a wind call and execute the shot properly.That distinction matters. Long-range shooting technology can provide a hunter with remarkably good information, but the shooter still has to use it correctly.Because everyone couldn’t shoot simultaneously and still receive individual attention, we worked in pairs. When I wasn’t behind the rifle, I made wind calls and suggested elevation corrections for my partner, Mark.To my surprise, I felt more pressure making calls for him than I did taking my own shots.That pressure served a purpose.Chad explained that one of the hardest things to simulate in training is the adrenaline, heavy breathing and shaking that can accompany a shot at a trophy animal—or making the call for a partner.Partner work introduced an element of responsibility, while individual and team shooting competitions raised the stakes enough to make the targets more difficult to hit.Combined with hands-on experience shooting from challenging positions and at varying distances, those exercises made me a far better shooter.By the final day, I was consistently hitting steel at 1,400 yards.To put that distance in perspective, the calculations we worked through in class showed that the bullet required roughly 63 to 67 feet of elevation correction at that distance, depending on the ambient temperature. In the field, the rangefinder did that math for us, and after dialing the correction into the scope, I could put the crosshair directly on the steel.An Expert's ViewKenneth Piper Jr.<blockquote>It still blows my mind that our barrels were effectively pointed about 65 feet above the target. The misses were equally instructive, showing just how dramatically a change in the wind could affect a bullet at that distance.</blockquote></div></body>

Block Source: hookandbarrel.com

Misinformation

Clickbait

Old or repetitive news

Explicit content

Location not relevant

About 22 miles east-southeast of Great Falls, Montana, the small town of Belt serves as the jumping-off point for Bergara Academy’s Long-Range Shooting School. From Belt, the lodge and range sit another six miles beyond the pavement, surrounded by the kind of Montana scenery that can make first-time visitors temporarily forget why they came.

What I Learned at Bergara Academy’s Long-Range Shooting School

NewsBreak

About 22 miles east-southeast of Great Falls, Montana, the small town of Belt serves as the jumping-off point for Bergara Academy’s Long-Range Shooting Sch

What I Learned at Bergara Academy’s Long-Range Shooting School

Comments