Originally Posted By: SnowmanMoOriginally Posted By: reb8600Both are important. If you concentrate on the cross hairs and not the target, it is most likey a miss. Same if you turn it around. In my experience, most people that miss their target whether it be an animal or paper cannot tell me exactly where their crosshair was on the target. You cannot look at one without looking at the other.
I am jumping in with the other guys. Many scopes today offer focus options so that you can get your crosshair and target pretty much in focus at the same time. Like Reb said, you focus too much on one and chances are you're going to miss. It is a little different than iron sights.
It is also critical that you mount your gun the same way each and every time. You zero your scope based off of the way you are looking through it. Might not seem like you could look through a scope crooked, but you can. That is often why a gun zeroed for one shooter doesn't work well for another. So I find that if you get a consistent weld, you'll get a consistent sight picture and you'll put down more fur.
Lastly, no matter what you focus on, there is nothing that beats practice, practice, practice. I know that it is tough for folks in these chaotic times to get to the range and justify burning powder when supplies are lean. But if you're not practicing, you're going to miss a LOT more. Practice the way you are going to hunt. I have found my POI shifts from bags on a bench to my tripod to my sticks. Mainly it's the way you are mounting the gun and looking through the scope. Granted, it might not be a lot f shift, but if you didn't know, it could result in a miss or worse, a bad hit.
Perfect advice from Snowman and others. My mind is focusing on the target before the shot. I just insure that the crosshairs are on target as I squeeze the trigger. Practice is absolutely critical. If you can't make it to the range, "dry fire" drills can be beneficial. While predator and big game hunting I regularly practice "dry fire" or live fire at random targets. Field practice is very beneficial for increasing your speed of setting up for the shot and improving your accuracy. Inexperienced hunters have difficulty on quickly setting up AND making an accurate shot. Inexperienced shooters may be quick OR accurate but they won't be both.