The rules at many ranges are a death to marksmanship. When you have to shoot off a bench it's hard to really learn how to shoot.
I have yet to have time for anything but a quick offhand shot when elk hunting. Granted the ranges in the dark timber are not great, but the idea of carrying a rest in that environment is laughable.
All things being equal, I'd always rather have a rest. I just don't find them very practical all the time. I did shoot off sticks for one animal and a fence post for another in S. Africa. The others I just shot offhand. Longest is a deer at 175, shortest is my elk this year at somewhere closer to 40.
The scientific method for summing errors is the Root Sum Square. If you have a 1" gun and 4" hold, you have a 4.12" solution. If you have a 4" gun and 4" hold, you have a 5.65" solution. Thus the idea that statistically there really is very little real world difference in .75" rifles and 1.5" rifles in real shooting circumstances. Yes, there is the one very rare occasion where the errors perfectly add up, but there is an equal percentage that the errors are actually cancelling each other out.
I have 3 blanks loaded up that I cycle through while sighting on various targets. Repeat a few times a night for a month prior to hunting and the sight picture really steadies out. Likewise, if I don't prepare, I know my shots will be further limited.
