Practice makes perfect

Whenever anyone scoffs at Poole’s contention that he can take deer at hundreds of yards, he just points to the three deer he killed last season. Every one was from right at 500 yards or better.

It takes more than proper equipment to make deer die at extreme ranges, so time on the range is a critical part of the equation.

“I do a lot of shooting,” Joe Poole said. “I try to get my son to shoot 10 shots every day.”

Poole said he has sent plenty of rounds through his Sendaro, but that gets expensive.

“At $75 a box, you don’t want to be burning up a lot of them,” he said.

So what is the option?

Believe it or not, Poole turns to the lowly .22-caliber.

“I tell my son the .22 is the best thing you can learn to shoot with,” he said.

The reasons are simple: It’s inexpensive and it allows fine-tuning of shooting technique.

“I spend the whole summer shooting a .22,” Poole said. “I go to the pond and shoot turtles.

“Everything is based on the same thing: holding the gun still, putting the scope on the target and squeezing the trigger. It’s repetition.”

And there’s one more benefit — building muscle.

“The .22 has one of the hardest triggers around, so it builds up finger muscles so it’s easier to pull a light trigger,” Poole said.

About Andy Crawford 279 Articles
Andy Crawford has spent nearly his entire career writing about and photographing Louisiana’s hunting and fishing community. While he has written for national publications, even spending four years as a senior writer for B.A.S.S., Crawford never strayed far from the pages of Louisiana Sportsman. Learn more about his work at www.AndyCrawford.Photography.

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