Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Offhand shooting

Steel that is a sharp model 95..

I agree with the bench being a place for checking loads and sighting in, but I seldom shoot any game off hand.. When I spot something, my first move is to get a good rest.. This is something I try for even in heavy timber.. An off hand shot for me, is my last resort..

I'm like WCH.I might shoot off hand in thick timber when elk are 30-50 yards away,but I either carry a shooting bipod or look for a rest close by for longer shots. Very seldom do I find myself not having time to find a suitable rest.

Back when I was 20-40years old,I did competitve shooting with service rifles and one course of fire was 200 yards off hand. After a summer of that,I was confident to take off hand shots up to maybe 200 yards.

I might practice with a 22 RF ,357 or 38-40 lever gun while plinking at the range,but I practice more with handguns.I very seldom shoot a lot of rounds thru any of the rifles I hunt with.After 40 years or so of using them,I pretty much know what they will do.

Yes, I like to shoot sitting with a sling and will practice dropping into the sitting position at the range.

I've found that Sporting Clays competition with an O/U or SxS shotgun has improved my offhand rifle shooting. For moving targets ie Gophers, I just step into position, mount the rifle, acquire a sight picture, and trigger the shot more dynamically. If there is more time, I'll tuck into a steadier position.

Excellent choice in rifles!

This year's bull succumbed to an offhand shot with the Browning 1895. About 100'yds.

Most rifle designs are pizz poor for off hand shooting. Purpose built off hand rifles like the Schuetzen rifle show what can be done on 2 hind legs. Knowing how to use a military sling can help in all positions but 99.9% of today's shooters have no idea how to "sling up."

Among other events, our club has 2 rimfire Turkey shoots shooting offhand 22 steel targets at 25, 35 and 50 yds. People under 50 almost never get a bird. (except the under 10 who can use the bench)

Mine is a hvy bbl Savage bolt gun fitted with a hook buttplate, cheek rest, palm rest and extra lead in fore end. Only lacking double sets to make it a 2014 Schuetzen.

For an offhand hunting rifle hard to beat my 1890 Browning 26-06. Has a 30" med hvy bbl, rifle buttplate and decent trigger. You shoot it off the arm, not the shoulder and it works fine. A 12" gong at 300 yds is toast.

That looks really sharp. And the red pad wouldn't have stopped me from buying it either.

You hear all of these stories around the bar or the range or the campfire (real and virtual) about how some nimrod saw the elk, deer, antelope, bear, whatever, at 300 yds and they just threw their rifle up on their shoulder and fired and dropped it right in it's tracks. I saw the lie put to those sorts of claims when we used to hold a 1/4 mile shoot each year at the range. Part of that shoot was offhand for score at 200 yds. 99% of the competitors couldn't score high enough to pass on to the 300yd target. Of the guys who did get to 300, most never made it to 440. I failed to make the 200yd cut myself a couple of times. That's when I got serious about putting a fair amount of rounds down range from offhand.

Just walked in from shooting 20 shots offhand. Don't do it every week, but most weeks I do.

I probably shoot more deer from sitting than any other position. Standing runs a real close second.

Nice thing about sitting is it is nearly as accurate as prone. I expect 10 shot 200 yard sitting groups to be smaller than my palm.

Competitive target shooting is where you can hone your skills.

We have leagues here in the CT area for three and four position matches. During the fall and winter it's 22's at 50 ft indoors on Thursday nights.

During warmer weather it's 'big bore' leagues at 200 yds.

My favorite hunting rifle these days is a Browning BLR that I had lightened and shortened - it's my saddle gun.I shoot this and a little Henry .22 levergun alternatively when I am developing loads for the BLR.It gives the barrel a chance to cool and I get lots of positional practice.The mechanics are pretty much the same on both rifles.

Hell, I'll even go one further. In the past several years, about 50% of the deer I've killed have been using the wrong shoulder/hand. I've found it easier to just shift hands.

I've killed a turkey or two wrong handed with a shotgun too.

I hunt sheep, goats and mule deer by preference and there is seldom an opportunity for a classic , rehearsed shot at one of these species on a rocky bluff or chute I might be on or in.Sometimes you just cannot get comfortable and this is when practice in those awkward shooting positions becomes helpful to really build confidence.70* upwards and off a chunk of ragged limestone.

I think it's odd that people will work to get the smallest possible group from bench rest and then hunt and shoot at game standing or off hand. I shoot more than ten shots off hand than I do at bench rest. But I do try to get smallest groups too.

Yep I shoot rimfire silhouette and with 120 rounds in a day match you get a lot of off-hand trigger time. Tried hi-power but I've enjoyed rimfire much more and with shooting a Cooper 57M I'm basically shooting a cf rifle size and weight.

My practice method is to use an 8.5x11" sheet of black construction paper placed horizontally on my target frame. I shoot prone, sitting, kneeling and offhand as well as using whatever makeshift rests I can find at distances out to 300 yards.

The paper fairly closely approximates a kill zone and lets me know where my limit is on range and position and where I need to practice. I can keep my shots on the paper at 300 in every position but offhand. My limit offhand is 225 yards. Beyond that I start to have one off paper occasionally.

Yep......

The traditional shooting areas here are Cinder pits. 100-300 yards off hand practice is real simple. Pick out a rock of appropriate size, for the game the rifle is for and shoot. Keep the scope set at its lowest power setting, see the target, mount and shoot when the crosshairs settle. When you try to precisely aim you will make fewer hits.

Why black?

Why horizontal?

Just curious, because I do the same with white and vertical.

Because I had a package of 100 sheets of black construction paper we bought for another use and had only used a couple of sheets. I liked it and bought more when we ran out. Horizontal because when I started doing it we lived in deer country and I felt the horizontal placement more closely matched a deer's kill zone. I have just kept with that even after moving to Alaska.