The MeatEater

No matter how much you think you’ve mastered it, shooting a shotgun is a perishable skill. Like swinging a golf club or shooting a bow, you’re always better when you practice. The key with any kind of practice is to isolate your weaknesses and try to improve them.

Personally, I’ve found that getting regular shooting instruction a couple of times a year is the best way to stay sharp. But for all of those times in between lessons, you can still get out there and have meaningful practice at the range. Here are a few ways hunters can use clay shooting to get better at taking real-world shots they’ll see in the field.

If you’re like me and you don’t travel to shoot birds in Europe, you’re probably never standing, gun at the ready, as a bird flies into view for you to shoot. In most hunting situations, you’re lying in the mud, breaking through branches, or caught wrong-footed with a ham sandwich in one hand and a GPS unit in the other.

That’s why you should practice like you play. Whether you’re hunting ducks or pheasants, try shooting clays from a low gun position. This forces you to work on your gun mount and incorporate it into shots. I find a sporting clay course is the best place for this if you hunt a variety of birds.

Waterfowl hunters can up the realism further by starting in a seated or lying down position. If your club allows it, bring your blind chair to shoot clays, or shoot from a layout position by making a simple backboard (basically a cornhole board you can lean against while lying on the ground). Safety should be your first priority, though, and you should check with wherever you’re shooting if it’s allowed to shoot from a lying down or seated position.

The best wingshooters I know have a lot of practice on real birds as well as clays. One duck guide I’ve spoken with said that doves get him ready for teal and teal get him ready for big ducks. There are offseason hunting opportunities to sharpen your skills on birds that will even help fill the freezer. The first is feral pigeons. Pigeons decoy like mallards and taste a bit like a dove. They’re a pest on dairy farms and grain fields, and you can generally get permission from farmers to shoot them year-round with no limit. Try making or buying yourself a set of pigeon decoy silhouettes, and use the same layout or panel blind you would to hunt geese.

Upland hunters can get a bit of practice by participating in field trials for dogs. Field trials for organizations like NAVDHA are held with live planted birds like chukars. They need shooters to walk with the dogs and shoot the birds when they flush, which can give you a bit of practice and some groceries for later. Offseason hunts also allow you to test out shooting with new gear you might not be familiar with. If you’re changing things like your bird vest or hearing protection, give it a try on a pigeon hunt or field trial first.

One of the quickest ways to make shooting clays more challenging is to change your gun. Instead of toting a 12- or 20-gauge, drop down to a .410. The .410 can expose a bad flinch, and it will make the easy shots hard. With less shot in the air, you’ll need to do everything right to hit a clay. When you switch back to your 12 gauge, it’ll feel like you can’t miss.

Sometimes you need to make a shot quickly, especially in thick cover like grouse woods. Most American shooters are good at instinctive shots because we “walk up” our birds rather than standing in one place and having them driven to us. Still, the quickest way to screw up an instinctive shot is to get in your head and aim.

Once you’re in your head, it’s very hard to get out of it. One trick I’ve found is to close your eyes. Make sure you're in a safe environment, ideally at a stand, gun mounted, safety on, finger off the trigger. Also, using a type of hearing protection, like electronic ear plugs, where you can hear others is nice to have should someone need to communicate with you. With your eyes closed, call pull, then open them and shoot the clay. This will force you to react quickly to the clay after it’s in the air and hopefully cure you of overthinking.

A fast-moving crosser is one of the more difficult shots to hit, especially for a waterfowler. It has always dogged me because I’m naturally more of an instinctive shooter, and it took me a long time to learn when to use a repeatable process like swing through or sustained lead. Still, the better you can get at crossing shots the better off you’ll be when you’re shooting at the real thing.

If you struggle with crossers, station training is the best way to get better. Essentially, you start your clay thrower slightly quartering away from you and slowly increase the angle once you master a given angle. At the end, you should be shooting a clay flying 90 degrees in front of you at about 20 yards. Increase the distance to 30 and 40 yards once you master that shot.

Everybody knows about trap, skeet, and sporting clays, and those are all good games to get sharp for the season. But there are some more informal games to mix it up a bit. The first is Annie Oakley. To play, two shooters stand side by side, while a third person throws a clay—ideally something that will loaf in the air for a bit. The first shooter takes a shot and ideally breaks the clay. Once that happens, both shooters try to hit the broken pieces before they hit the ground. You’re awarded points for the first clay and every piece you can hit after.

Another good game is Knock Out, but you need a small group. The shooters stand in a line with a trap set up to cross a clay in front of them. When the clay passes the first shooter, he takes a shot. If he hits the clay, he can stay in. If he misses and the next shooter hits it, the first shooter is eliminated. If the first and second shooters miss, but the third hits, then both of those shooters are eliminated. The last shooter standing wins. It helps to play both games with electronic ear protection, so you can hear commands and trash talk. And they’re both great ways to replicate the pressure and anticipation of hunting birds in a group.

Janis answers YouTube listener-submitted questions and comments from his 2026 high country mule deer hunt. He covers gear used, tactics, training, preparation and lots more in this companion podcast to the Mountain Muley Honey Hole 12 in '26 film.

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As promised, our self titled “Arkansas Flatlander”, Brent Reaves, is taking us back to the mountains. Here comes the second half of his bear hunting trip with his good friend John Pantuso. Experience the highs and lows of archery hunting in this week’s recounting of their grand adventure together. It’s time for MeatEater’s “This Country Life” podcast.

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Here we go.

You voted for the best classic and best new-school whitetail cartridges, and now it comes down to a caliber battle between the seasoned veteran and the ascending star. Both the .30-06 Sprg. and the 6.5 Creedmoor ran away with their respective categories, but now it’s time to see who comes out on top in this heavyweight matchup. Cast your vote below, and we’ll announce the winner next week. Otherwise, you can read to see what each cartridge brings to the table and how they stack up.

The .30-06 has been around for more than a century. It's seen hunting and shooting trends come and go, yet it remains a relevant cartridge in an age of self-driving cars and hunting rifles that look 3D-printed. With similar muzzle velocities, the .30-06 and 6.5 CM might look like equals, but the .30-06 is moving more weight.

In fact, Sig Sauer’s Platinum hunter pushes a 180-grain .30-06 Nosler Accubond out of the barrel at 2750 fps, while that same bullet in a 140-grain 6.5 CM comes in just below at 2700 fps.

At 500 yards, the 6.5 CM retains better velocity (2015 fps) compared to the .30-06 (1916), though they both only drop about 54 inches. At that distance, the two perform identically and more than enough to put down a whitetail.

To borrow a sports quote, “Availability is the best ability,” and no other rifle cartridge has more availability and offerings than the .30-06 Sprg. You can find them just about anywhere ammo is sold and expect to pay $35 and upwards for a box of 20.

Who knew that you could enjoy shooting your hunting rifle without flinching? Not .30-06 owners. The 6.5 CM is pleasant to shoot and an absolute confidence builder. I’m a huge fan of both cartridges, but the 6.5 CM’s 15 ft-lbs of energy produces significantly less recoil than the .30-06’s 20 ft-lbs of energy, making it far more enjoyable to shoot. I don’t care how badass you are or that you cut your teeth on a .300 Win. Mag., it’s hard to hit a target when you flinch.

While the .30-06 offers an abundance of ammo options, 6.5 CM tends to be more accurate when it comes to factory ammo. This isn’t to say that .30-06 factory ammo isn’t accurate, but the 6.5 CM’s more modern design usually performs better off the shelf.

Still, for a pleasant-shooting rifle that can easily take down a whitetail out to 600 yards, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better shooting setup that excels in a variety of scenarios. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t hesitate to let my kiddo shoot a 6.5 CM. I’ll wait a few more years on the .30-06.

So, cast your vote below, and let us know which one is the best whitetail cartridge of all time.

Randall Williams and the MeatEater Crew discuss: putting a baseball stadium in a national park; a very fat buck; a grizzly bear stealing an elk; Steve and Rob Sand discuss his very wet buck; Bryan Burrough shared about his new podcast Gunfighters; and more!

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In this episode of Back 40, Jake Hofer sits down with Bill Winke, Jeff Sturgis, Adam Keith, and Aaron Warbritton to tackle four decisions that could be costing hunters more deer than they realize. From knowing when to make a move to recognizing when it’s time to change your approach, each guest shares lessons learned from years of chasing mature whitetails and the mistakes they still see hunters make every season.1

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You probably have some words of wisdom from whoever taught you how to hunt, and I’m willing to bet it still sticks with you in some way. My grandfather loved to still-hunt with a rifle. When I first started learning how to do the same, he told me if I wanted to see deer, I would have to slip through the woods with the wind in my face. But if I wanted to kill a deer, I’d better have it blowing in my ear. I have to say, my most successful still-hunts usually happen on a good crosswind.

Whether you learn from a parent, mentor, mishap, or the deer themselves, there’s always a lesson to be learned if you’re listening. Here are a few deer hunting nuggets from the MeatEater Crew to remember when you hit the woods this fall.

Most hunters don't try hard enough to truly learn where big bucks like to walk. This might seem simple, but we often hunt deer where we want to hunt them, and not where they want to be. To compensate, we call and use scents to try to convince a buck to orbit into our world. A better bet is to scout deer sign, employ some type of mobile setup, and go to the deer. This is especially true for anyone hunting pressured bucks.

One of the most common traits of consistently successful deer hunters is that they get the details right. They pay attention to the little things that ultimately stack up to something meaningful. It’s the reason why some people almost always fill their tags and why some only do when it’s their lucky day.

At the same time, it's important not to let this go too far or overthink it. You can become so obsessed with getting every little thing that you sabotage yourself. So keep this balance in mind. Work hard, do as many of the little things right as you can, but remember that deer hunting is supposed to be fun. Sweat the small stuff, but not at the expense of your deer hunting joy.

One of my oldest hunting mentors told me, “move your eyes first, and then your head, when scanning the woods for a deer.” This is an exercise in stillness I still practice today. My advice now is to learn to be a woodsman. Know the tracks and scat of all the animals. Learn how to read and interpret the sign. Listen to all the calls. Identify the plants deer eat. Not only will this make you a better hunter, but your experience in the woods will be so much richer.

My best advice is to hunt when and where others ain't. The most basic form of that is hiking further than everyone else or crossing a stream that nobody wants to cross. But it can also be hunting on a weekday when the woods are quieter. Or pushing your "rutcation" up to late October instead of early November. Or getting out there when the weather is the bad-kind-of-good, like a 70-degree bluebird day. The deer will still be there, but most hunters won’t.

If you’re not a very good deer hunter or you don’t have great spots, there is a way to beat the odds by sheer will. Just hunt a lot. Spend more time in the stand. Volume hunt the heck out of your hunt days. I learned early on that I wasn’t a better deer hunter than most people, I just hunted more than them. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, but all the hunting turned me into a competent whitetail hunter, and spending a ton of time in the woods is never a bad thing.

Everyone loves to hunt whitetails during the rut. It can certainly be one of the most exciting times in the deer woods. But for me, while I love seeing bucks chasing does, the post rut is my favorite. This is the time I feel more confident in being able to pattern a big buck when they ease up their chasing and start feeding again.

In this series, we look at the classic, discontinued, or longstanding guns that hunters still use in the field today (hence the name). Whether they’re out of production or not, you can still find them at gun shops and hunting camps all across the states.

The year is 1936, and one of the finest, purpose-built, bolt action hunting rifles ever made has just appeared on gunstore shelves. Until then, hunters were carrying a mix of lever-action rifles, sporterized surplus rifles, and some of the earliest commercial bolt actions. The Winchester Model 70 was about to change all of that.

Ninety years later, the Model 70 still occupies space in the frontal lobe of many big game hunters’ minds. Those who have Model 70s cherish them. Those who don’t, want one. Even at a time when cutting edge tech and “long range” rifles seem to dominate the hunting world, the Model 70 is still what many think of when they think of a big game rifle.

The Model 70 didn’t get there by accident. In the early days, it was a handmade rifle for the mass market. It came out at a perfect time, when skilled labor was cheap and quality trumped quantity. Winchester listened to hunters and shooters who wanted an accurate, well-built gun with a crisp trigger, fully capable out of the box. It has won medals at shooting competitions, has served on the front lines of the Vietnam war, and remains a fixture at hunting camps around the country. Here’s why the Winchester Model 70 is still in the field.

One could argue that one person really gave the Model 70 staying power: Jack O’Connor. But there’s a lot more to the rifle than the man who made it famous. We’ll get back to Jack below, but first we need to talk about the Winchester Model 54.

In the 1920s there was an arms race between American rifle companies and an absolute flood of military surplus bolt-action rifles. After the first World War, a cottage industry of craftsmen sprung up to convert or “sporterize” cheap surplus bolt-actions into proper hunting rifles. They’d take off the bulky military stocks, rebarrel them, and perform other fit-and-finish wonders to give hunters light, trim, affordable rifles. Better yet, the guns out-performed most commercial lever-action hunting rifles because they fired bigger, more powerful cartridges.

Big American gun companies had to adapt or get left in the dust. Soon Savage, Remington, and Winchester were producing bolt-action hunting rifles based on the tooling they used to make military rifles during the war. To get ahead of the competition, Winchester worked for three years to develop the Model 54 and the .270 Winchester cartridge. A lot of the rifle was based on military actions, but it was a tried and true hunting rifle that improved upon what both the sporterizers and other gun companies could do. Financial trouble hit Winchester and the whole country in 1929, leading the Olin family to buy the company. Under new ownership, they went back to the blueprints for the Model 54 to design something even better.

Bolt action shooters wanted one thing out of their hunting rifles, and that was accuracy. To improve upon the Model 54, Winchester started by tricking out the trigger. They took the concept of their Model 52 rimfire trigger and adapted it to the larger centerfire rifle. The result was a crisp, light trigger that was also adjustable for weight and overtravel. Winchester also improved upon the action screw, moving the front action screw behind the recoil lug to distribute stress during recoil more evenly. This helped the rifle stay accurate after being fired over and over again.

By this time, shooters were also starting to use rifle scopes and Winchester took notice. They profiled the bolt handle and safety on the Model 70 to be more scope friendly. This would give buyers a rifle that was target-level accurate, optics-ready, and thoroughly modern right out of the box.

The attributes described above might sound boring to us today because most of our hunting rifles have those features. But the Model 70 set the pace that all bolt-action hunting rifles were to follow for the next 90 years. At the time, features found on the Model 70 could be found on high-end sporters coming out of the UK and from premier custom shops in the US. But the Model 70 gave every American hunter access to performance.

At the same time, the Model 70 had a champion and unofficial PR agent named Jack O’Connor. O’Connor, writing for Outdoor Life, was probably the most famous gunwriter and big game hunter of the late 1930s into the 1970s. He took his famous Al Biesen stocked Model 70 all over the world, and every month, American hunters got to read about their exploits.

O’Connor wasn’t the only one pushing the Model 70. By the 1960s, the Model 70 had worked its way onto military shooting teams and later into the hands of USMC snipers in Vietnam. One of those snipers, Carlos Hathcock, pushed the rifle to further fame, when several books came out about him and his fellow scout snipers. The scout snipers’ Model 70s, glass bedded and topped with Unertl scopes, became the most bad ass precision rifles of their day.

In the minds of shooters, this all added up to proof that the Model 70 was one of the finest, most capable bolt actions ever made. To back that up, the Model 70 did perform. It was accurate, built to an heirloom quality, and reliable with a rugged Mauser-style action. Winchester went on to chamber the Model 70 in dozens of cartridges from the .22 Hornet to the .458 Winchester Magnum. Everything was going great, but it would all change in 1964.

The Model 70 is still in production today, and it closely resembles its original 1930s design. Before we can get to that happy part of the story, though, we need to talk about 1964—the year time stopped for Model 70 evangelists.

In 1964, higher labor costs and market pressure pushed Winchester to redesign the Model 70. To many, this was apocalyptic. The biggest change was a push-feed action vs the controlled round feed action of before. This saved the manufacturer extra steps in machining to fit the bolt face to the barrel’s breech face. Winchester also went from machining receivers from solid bar stock to machining them from a forging. But these cost-saving changes didn’t matter as much to the broader public as many think. Winchester ended up selling more post-’64 Model 70s than they did the original pre-’64s.

In 2013, the company decided to take the best of both designs and combine them into the Model 70 we have today. Modern Model 70s are made mostly overseas with more precise manufacturing processes than the pre- or post-64 models. This gives the rifle tighter tolerances and a higher level of precision. Modern CNC machining also let Winchester return to the beloved controlled-round-feed action. There are also several modern upgrades that keep the gun relevant today.

The most glaring factor when shopping for a used Model 70 is the post ‘64 cutoff. But I wouldn’t get hung up on this. The biggest sticking points with pre- vs post-64 guns are the controlled round feed and quality of construction. Winchester Model 70 purists are going to probably hate this, but in this writer’s opinion, early post 64 guns are still solid hunting rifles. Their triggers are crisp, they’re nice to carry, and they are more accurate than most people can shoot.

The gun world is full of stuff like controlled round feed vs push feed, and usually these arguments are bogus. The controlled round feed is reliable and thought to be absolutely necessary for something like a dangerous game rifle. But tests have proven controlled-round-feed rifles are not infallible. Push feed rifles are also incredibly reliable and accurate because the bolt face supports the cartridge better than a controlled round feed bolt face. Take, for example, the Remington 700. It’s a push-feed, it’s super accurate, and it’s reliable enough for the military.

If you need a controlled-round-feed rifle to sleep at night in your tent on a cape buffalo hunt, I say you should settle for no other rifle. For the average American big game hunter, though, controlled round feed doesn’t give you an advantage. Controlled round feed rifles do give you that sexy Mauser-action look, which I can understand has its own cool factor. You’re just going to pay more for it.

The value of a pre-64 Model 70 lies within the fact that it is a finely-tuned, handmade machine. It’s the sort of thing that carries well-deserved gravitas. They were built at a time when you could give a human being a bar of solid steel, a Bridgeport mill, and a handful of files, and end up with a beautiful rifle. These guns were not made by CNC machines, AI, or corporate bean counters. They were hand fitted by craftsmen who conjured rifle accuracy through black magic and feel. Collectors love them just as they love vintage Rolexes, Randall Knives, and air-cooled Porsches. Like all of those things, pre-64 Model 70s are expensive, especially if they’re chambered for more off-beat cartridges like .250-3000 Savage.

If you own a post-64 be proud of it. Compared to the tupperware rifles of today, a blued-steel and walnut post-64 Model 70 is of better quality than the purists bemoaned years ago. And if you’re looking for a solid deer rifle at a reasonable price, a post-64 Model 70 chambered in .308 could be your gun. Those who put a premium on high-craft should track down a high-condition pre-64 and expect to pay between $2,000 and $5,000 for standard chamberings and up to five figures for more exotic stuff. If you want high-performance, and perhaps the best of both worlds, buy a brand new Model 70 from Winchester. The best thing about Model 70s is that they all put meat on the table because they’ve all been doing it for years.

Photos by Matthew Every

October is here! Tune in for fresh, boots-on-the-ground reports from hunters across the country. This week, Josh Teulker (Indiana), Alex Comstock (Minnesota), and Josh Profit (Kentucky) join the show to share what they’re seeing, hearing, and experiencing in the woods right now. From shifting food sources and changing deer movement to fresh sign and current conditions, we break down what’s happening across whitetail country and what hunters should be watching as we head into the first week of October. Tune in for real-time whitetail intel and a better idea of what could be happening in your woods this week.

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