Had a very long (and epic) day scouting new possible long range locations yesterday.
First, my process for scouting:
- First thing I do is to have a basic idea where shootable public land is (BLM, national forest).
- Second, I go onto Google Maps, turn on the terrain feature, and start scanning (in map mode) for flat locations that are suitably remote, that have the potential to set up targets at long ranges, and have road access as well as access for target setup.
- When I find a spot, I go to satellite view and see what the tree cover looks like, are there roads cut that may not be on the map, are there buildings or other indicators of people (e.g. campgrounds, etc.)
- I validate that I will have safe shooting lanes (not over water, over roads, etc.)
- When I find a candidate spot, I get the GPS coordinates.
- When I find enough candidate spots in a given location, I plan a scouting trip.
Okay, why do a scouting trip, when you can just load up your gear and go shooting?
The short answer is that if you go on a trip with two purposes in mind, you do a half-ass job with each. On a scouting trip, I want to spend the maximum amount of time scouting for the best spots, not itching to find an okay spot then shoot at it. I learned this lesson when I found my current favorite shooting spot. We tried combining scouting and shooting, the hour was getting late, so we didn't go to all the marked spots. One we didn't go to, turned out to be my favorite, but it took a second scouting trip to validate it.
Also, just because a spot looks good on the map, doesn't mean it will work in practice. Here are the things that make a good spot:
- Access to the spot
- Access to target locations
- Usable shooting location - e.g. no ground cover, slightly elevated for target visibility, flat
- No people
For the trip I took yesterday, I had done a search on the eastern slopes of the Sierras near the Sonora Pass. I found a number of great candidates. The first thing I noticed as we came down through the pass was that there were A LOT of people - many more than I have seen there in the past. It turns out that national parks are limiting the number of people going in, so that means more people elsewhere. Never the less, we pushed on to the spots.
Here is one of the first ones we went to:
What was wrong here? Other than the roads, there was sage brush and this tobacco looking plant everywhere. Since you can't shoot from roads, this spot was out. As a matter of fact, EVERY OTHER spot was a bust. Gates to forest roads were closed, which eliminated most, but there were also issues with proximity to people and buildings. This is why you scout. So... see that big white mountain in the distance in pic? We said, "let's go find that."
And we did. Along the way we scouted some amazing shooting spots.
First, my process for scouting:
- First thing I do is to have a basic idea where shootable public land is (BLM, national forest).
- Second, I go onto Google Maps, turn on the terrain feature, and start scanning (in map mode) for flat locations that are suitably remote, that have the potential to set up targets at long ranges, and have road access as well as access for target setup.
- When I find a spot, I go to satellite view and see what the tree cover looks like, are there roads cut that may not be on the map, are there buildings or other indicators of people (e.g. campgrounds, etc.)
- I validate that I will have safe shooting lanes (not over water, over roads, etc.)
- When I find a candidate spot, I get the GPS coordinates.
- When I find enough candidate spots in a given location, I plan a scouting trip.
Okay, why do a scouting trip, when you can just load up your gear and go shooting?
The short answer is that if you go on a trip with two purposes in mind, you do a half-ass job with each. On a scouting trip, I want to spend the maximum amount of time scouting for the best spots, not itching to find an okay spot then shoot at it. I learned this lesson when I found my current favorite shooting spot. We tried combining scouting and shooting, the hour was getting late, so we didn't go to all the marked spots. One we didn't go to, turned out to be my favorite, but it took a second scouting trip to validate it.
Also, just because a spot looks good on the map, doesn't mean it will work in practice. Here are the things that make a good spot:
- Access to the spot
- Access to target locations
- Usable shooting location - e.g. no ground cover, slightly elevated for target visibility, flat
- No people
For the trip I took yesterday, I had done a search on the eastern slopes of the Sierras near the Sonora Pass. I found a number of great candidates. The first thing I noticed as we came down through the pass was that there were A LOT of people - many more than I have seen there in the past. It turns out that national parks are limiting the number of people going in, so that means more people elsewhere. Never the less, we pushed on to the spots.
Here is one of the first ones we went to:
What was wrong here? Other than the roads, there was sage brush and this tobacco looking plant everywhere. Since you can't shoot from roads, this spot was out. As a matter of fact, EVERY OTHER spot was a bust. Gates to forest roads were closed, which eliminated most, but there were also issues with proximity to people and buildings. This is why you scout. So... see that big white mountain in the distance in pic? We said, "let's go find that."
And we did. Along the way we scouted some amazing shooting spots.
