Use a rangefinder to train your eye to gauge distance. Remember that, shooting uphill or down, the important measure is the horizontal distance to the target.

The throaty squeal came just in time. But it wasn't from the swarm of cows 300 yards off. The bull was on this side, up-canyon! Racing across-slope, I galloped over a finger ridge to confront an alder thicket too dense to slip through quietly. The vegetation suggested a spring. He could be right here.

A rustle above. Our eyes met. He was close. The rifle lifted by itself, but there was no shot alley through the brush. Foolishly, I fired anyway. The blast of the magnum seemed to wake, but not alarm him. I ratcheted the action as his chest came into the sunlight. He turned away as I shoved the bolt forward. . .

. . .And stove-piped a case.

Whether I double-clutched in my excitement or just didn't yank the empty hard enough to ensure ejection, I still can't say. Maybe the rifle's angle dumped the case back into the ejection port. Explanation could wait. But the bull wouldn't.

A nightmare? No. It happened. Bungling of the first order. It actually began months before.

I wanted to use the new rifle to shoot an elk. So in early summer I scoped it, zeroed it, fired a few rounds from hunting positions with a sling and crossed my fingers that I'd draw a tag. Getting drawn is, after all, the big hurdle in the West these days--or so we've come to believe. Trouble is, hunters who take pains to research the best areas, the best outfitters, and the lottery odds for big game licenses from Arizona to Alberta sometimes forget to prepare themselves or their rifles for the hunt they want so badly to take. In this case, I was one of the delinquents.

I've seen others. Like the fellow who, after missing an easy shot at an elk, said he didn't know where his rifle was zeroed but that another hunter had proclaimed it "dead on."

Or the man who fired 11 rounds from a rest at point-blank range and missed 10 times, grazing the big bull elk with one errant bullet. Few of us shoot enough to become really proficient with our rifles. Fortunately, big game animals have forgiving vitals. From the side, the chest of a whitetail deer is about the size of a volleyball. Killing an elk is as easy as hitting a blue-ribbon pumpkin. One reason many animals are still running around after November is that we hunters miss targets too big to miss. Another reason: we let game walk away without firing at all. Oddly enough, we do this with rifles that shoot grapefruit-size groups at 250 yards and can hardly be made to malfunction.

My own bungling dates way back. I recall sitting in a tree in central Maine as the forest got dark one evening in June. Draped in bug netting, I listened to the hum of mosquitoes and watched clouds of no-see-ums and sniffed the month-old pile of steer bones ripening at the hem of a clearing below.

The bear came as silently as a thought. It was on the bones right away, standing, waiting for the shot. My rifle came up. It should have been no surprise that I couldn't see the iron sights at dusk through a headnet. But it was. And I didn't know what to do. The bear was alert. I needed both hands to aim. Slowly shifting the rifle's weight to my right hand, I lifted the net with my left, then regained two-handed control of the rifle. But as the bead settled on the bear, the netting fell down.

My heart was at full sprint, but I managed to repeat the process, once more steadying the bead on target. Then the curtain fell again. I panicked and ripped the net back over my head. The movement brought the bear around. I aimed quickly and fired.

This episode would have gone much more smoothly if earlier I'd tried aiming through the net and then found a way to aim and shoot without alarming the bear. I just didn't think about it.

Practice on moving targets. Sometimes it's the only shot you will get. The author killed this sable on the run at 200 yards.

Here are a few things you might do to prepare for a shot you don't want to bungle.

1. Take your rifle apart. Use a mild petroleum solvent (auto parts solvent works fine) to degrease all the metal. A toothbrush helps get lube and crud from hard-to-reach places. Next, dry the parts thoroughly and wipe or spray on a thin film of rust preventative. Lubricate the mechanism with a dry spray, or use oil sparingly. Oil can collect dust; grease can impede function in cold weather. Treat the inside of stock wood with a wood preservative or sealant. Spar varnish works well. It must be allowed to dry before re-assembly. Too much wood treatment can result in a film that affects bedding.

2. Adjust the trigger while the stock is off. Accurate field shooting depends on a consistent, manageable trigger pull. I like mine to "break" at two pounds, cleanly, with no creep and just a touch of overtravel. Not many factory triggers adjust to suit me, so I often install an after-market trigger from a company like Timney. Even if you'll tolerate a heavier pull, it's worth a few minutes of adjusting to make sure you're getting the best pull.

Now check for safe sear engagement by closing the bolt hard, repeatedly, on an empty chamber. Reattach the stock, snugging the front guard screw, then bouncing the butt on the floor a few times with the rifle cocked. This exercise confirms sear engagement and also seats the recoil lug in the stock mortise. Next, snug the rear guard screw, tighten the front screw firmly, then the rear screw not quite as firmly. Center guard screws should be snug only.

3. Install or reinstall the scope last. Base screws should be very tight, though seizing them up with Loc-Tite or iodine is hardly necessary. Savvy custom gunbuilders replace standard 6-48 screws with larger 8-40s to withstand the shearing force of stiff recoil. Heavy scopes put more stress on a mount--one of several reasons I prefer lightweight scopes. When that reticle settles on a rib, you shouldn't have to wonder if your scope has too much inertia to stay put during recoil.

Help the rings grip by degreasing them and the scope tube, and by tightening all ring screws sequentially, opposite to opposite, a turn at a time, as you would lug nuts when installing a wheel on a pickup. Incidentally, with horizontally split rings, the scope must "bottom out" naturally when you lay it in the lower halves. Don't install ring caps until those bottom halves are lined up perfectly, or you may damage the scope.

4. Zero the rifle. To save ammo, I bore-sight first. I remove the bolt and, with the rifle resting across a chair and pointing out the window, line up a rock a mile away in the center of the bore. Then, without moving the rifle, I turn the windage and elevation dials until the reticle quarters the rock. The first shot at a target should land close to point of aim at 100 yards. I tweak the adjustments until point of impact is roughly two inches high. At 200 steps I spend more time refining so that at that distance my bullets hit point of aim. I don't fret over accuracy; three-inch groups at 200 yards suit me. One hunting load per rifle is enough. If, after zeroing, you find a cheap load that shoots to the same place, use it for practice. But switching loads in the field, or trying to manage two zeroes, is a recipe for trouble.

5. Practice from hunting positions, firing 20 times every day inside your house, with the rifle empty. Aim at a thumbtack on a wall across the room. Trigger five rounds each from sitting and kneeling, 10 from offhand. Make each "shot" count. Call 'em. If you jerk the trigger or otherwise get sloppy, penalize yourself with another shot. At least once a week, repeat the exercise with live ammo at the range. Use paper targets so you can assess trends and progress. Save one paper target for first rounds from a clean cold barrel. Over several sessions, those shots should form a tight group. And it shouldn't be very far from the centers of groups formed by subsequent shots. Confidence in a first-round hit helps you make first-round hits.

If groups from hunting positions go to different places than bench-rest groups, re-bed the rifle or consider adjusting your sight. You won't have a bench in the field. One of my rifles shot a full nine inches lower at 200 yards from a sit with a tight sling than it did from a bench rest. Re-bedding narrowed the gap by half. Then I adjusted the scope to a "sitting zero."