Long Range Shooting Tips for Beginners: Terms, Equipment, and Target Shooting
Long range shooting is a truly enjoyable sport and one that gets even better with improved accuracy. All it takes is one experience where you're able to hit your target from a distance to give you a satisfying sense of achievement, so we've put together some beginner long range shooting tips to help you choose the right equipment and locations for shooting long range.
How Is Long Range Shooting Defined?
- Short range shooting: when the target is less than 300 yards away
- Long range shooting: when the target is between 300 yards and 1,200 yards away
- Extra long range shooting: when the target is in excess of 1 mile away
Long Range Shooting Equipment for Beginners
If your goal is to start hitting long range targets right out of the gate, you'll need the right equipment. First off from our long range shooting tips for beginners, choose a heavy-barreled rifle with a solid trigger along with a bipod and good quality stock. This will give you the ability to position your shot correctly and ensure that when you pull the trigger it will be a smooth motion that is both quick and purposeful. You'll also want to invest in a high-quality magnification scope so that you can view your target clearly and improve your accuracy when shooting long range.
Additional long range shooting tools you may wish to purchase:
- Windmeter. Measures wind speed and direction to improve aim
- Rangefinder. Measures the distance between two points to determine the range
- Binoculars. Magnifies long range targets for better visibility when setting up your shot
- Scope level. Helps with shot positioning to improve accuracy
Where Can You Engage in Long Range Shooting?
Perhaps the greatest difficulty in shooting long range is finding an appropriate place to practice safely without endangering animals or humans. Most professional ranges in the United States are only between 100 and 200 yards long, which means that most sport shooters will need to look for either private land or BLM land instead.
