QuailKiller, you don't mention caliber or the most likely ranges you will be shooting but as a long time high power rifle competitor and a retired Army Master Marksmanship Trainer I have some thoughts on the subject as it applies to hunting deer and bear. It's long winded and, as always, your mileage may vary...
Dry fire is at least as valuable as live fire, probably more. At he Army and National Guard Marksmanship Training Units the rifle competitors spent 2-5 times as much time dry firing as live firing over the course of a year. Once the rifle is zeroed properly range firing does not reinforce the mental and muscle memory preparation you want as fast as dry fire will. That is especially true of heavy recoiling rifles. If you haven't already done so, learn to call your shots. Where was the cross hair/front sight when the trigger broke? That's where the bullet would have gone and other than wind effects it's all you need to know to learn from your practice. You can dry fire a lot faster than live firing and it's a lot less expensive and noisy. You don't need to leave home to do it either, just use a scaled down target.
Follow through is far more important in shooting offhand, prone, sitting and kneeling than when shooting from a bench. Many shots are missed or worsened by lack of follow through when the shooter feels the trigger begin to break and relaxes before the bullet is gone. One technique is to stay with the rifle through the recoil phase and re-aim it at the aiming point before moving or relaxing. Follow through is more important as lock time gets longer and ranges get longer. A very fast lock time such as a Savage Acuutrigger or a Remington M700 will have the bullet out of the barrel and through a 150 yard target before it exits the barrel of a gun with an internal or external hammer. Exposed hammer guns have the slowest lock times. Any error from a lack of follow through will increase with distance so stay with the rifle until it finishes recoiling.
The heart/lung area of the smallest legal deer is around 10" across when viewed from either the side or head on. A 8 or 9" paper plate makes a good target which will help define your abilities. If you can keep all your shots on the plate the slightly smaller size will give you a little cushion in staying in the heart/lung area when hunting. If you can't stay on the plate with ALL your shots/calls from a particular position or distance then you are likely not ready to hunt at that distance from that position. A bigger target could be used for elk but I'd stay with the smaller target. I hate blood tracking animals I should have put down within a few feet. I've even been known to spray paint the plates light brown so I'm not mentally locked into expecting bright clear aiming point on deer. At least around here they don't come with big bright targets pasted on them.
Accept the wobble. No matter how loose your hold on the target is it still averages the middle of the aiming point. As long as the crosshairs/front sight are wobbling in the area of the plate, squeeze off the shot. Accepting an appropriate amount of wobble is the best defense to jerking a trigger or blowing your follow through.
Remember, most shots are missed through failure to accept an appropriate amount of wobble and not following through than from all other errors combined.
As far as wanting to see the bullet holes at 300 yards a large Shoot-n-See or similar target would work but you could also invest in a spotting scope. If you shoot a smaller caliber like a .243 you'd need a darn good scope to see 300 yard bullet holes, though.
Learn what a 10 MPH side wind does to your bullet at the longest range you expect to hunt. If you want, list your caliber and load and I'll run it through a ballistic calculator. For example, a Nosler 186 grain .308 CT spitzer at 2900 FPS will be blown 7" at 300 yards. That might take you out of the heart/lung area a deer. Once you learn what the wind will do and at what range the wind will need to be accounted for, go outside and figure out what a 10 MPH wind looks and feels like. What does it feel like on your cheeks? What does it do to leaves, dust and grass? Once you have that in your mind all your subconscious mind needs to do is decide if the wind is straight from the side and is it more than 10 MPH. If the answer is "Yes" you need to make an allowance. If "No" hold center and squeeze. BTW, that same bullet is dropping fast at 300 yards. From 275 to 300 yards it drops almost 2.5". Range estimation is critical.
Like some others, my varmint rifle is a near clone to my deer/bear rifle. We have a farm and in areas where I don't have any issues with what's behind the groundhogs I use my deer rifle a lot.
I spend my hunting time split between stand hunting and still hunting in hardwoods. When still hunting I try to plan each bit of movement to end with a tree to my left front (I'm right handed) so I have the tree to both break up my outline and because the tree will support my shot at most angles. If you choose a tree or other solid object for a support make sure you rifle isn't in contact with it. Rifles tend to recoil away from solid objects and send the shot wide. Keep the support hand or forearm in contact with the object and keep the rifle off the support.
Lastly, change only one thing at a time. Sometimes trying more than one new thing at a time makes it hard to see what is helping and what isn't since they can cancel each other out.
Good luck and thanks for looking ahead.
Lance
