Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Shooting off sticks.

wouldnt go any where without my shooting sticks, and use them about 95% of the shots i take, i carry them in a short canvas bag attached to my small backpac, just reach over my left shoulder and pull them out,i use the bipod trigger sticks pull the trigger and they extend to what ever hieight you need and they are fast.rio7

I didn't use the sticks�.dont need them with such a skookum rifle.

I do it all the time, strap on a shell belt, grab a double rifle and a set of sticks and go out walking the farm shooting stumps, rocks and the occasional armadillo. lol

Gunner

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Gunner

I shoot off sticks a lot, here in whitetail country as well as Africa. I think if the sticks are leaned a little towards you, it helps you triangulate and steadies them. In other words the feet of the sticks farther forward, the rest pulled towards you. Also I let the forend rest on the sticks but hold the rifle just as if I was shooting offhand. Someone else said to keep your feet square, which I do when shooting offhand too, I don't stand sideways with the butt on the arm bone, shooting heavy calibers has taught me to square up to a rifle and pull it into my shoulder. I shoot probably 75% of my practice offhand, and use sticks exactly the same as offhand, but with support. Get your offhand stance perfected, then add the sticks if that makes sense.

ab2506: I've used my homemade wood dowel sticks just like you made for years: however I bought some of the black hot water foam insulation for the outside for padding and also put some screws into the bottom of the legs, then ground them sharp so they somewhat stick into the ground to prevent slipping. Never go hunting without them: coyote calling, deer hunting, and even took them along to Alaska: couldn't have been steady enough to take my bear without them: 213 yards downhill front end shot. Can't image store bought ones being any better. Like mule deer said, with legs tilted slightly back, with your back against a tree, ROCK solid rest. Also, super light weight.

My wife and I have been shooting our 22LR at 80 yards at a 4" gong with the scope turned all the way down to 2.5

I have received many great tips from AR on form and have even tweeked my stance and left arm hold since this picture was taken.

4 more weeks and lots more practice

Don't shoot a heavy rifle (.458 etc.) with your back against a tree or rock unless thou want to break a shoulder.

Here's an update on shooting off sticks, and a pic of me and my PH from a few weeks ago in the Eastern Cape, Africa, about to take a shot at a Black Wildebeest, 275 yards distant. As you can see, high brush precludes any position but the sticks.

Spent the summer shooting off sticks, with .257 Roberts and .223, for hundreds of rounds, most at 200 yd. gongs. Technique is far more important than caliber, although I also did shooting with my .375 Ruger, which I took to Africa.

A tip I picked up here (I believe from JorgeI) was to rest the rifle forend on your hand, not directly on the sticks. I have found this method to be the steadiest hold on the sticks, for me at least, and it greatly improved my hit percentage on the gongs.

Practice, practice, practice, shooting off the sticks, if you intend to use them. For me, the practice really paid off on this trip.

So where's your pix? (Ted's were great!) :-)

I have taken a lot of guys hunting in my career. By far the majority never shot off sticks in their lives until hunting with me.

By far the majority nailed what they shot at without any struggle, and shot with great success. There seems to be a fair amount of paranoia or concern that shooting of of sticks is complicated or difficult.

It's always a good idea to practice the same way you will shoot. So by all means shoot off sticks if you can. However the reason for the sticks is that it's easier then shooting freehand. So it makes your shooting easier and better, not more difficult or complicated.

Shooting off of sticks is easy and makes shooting accurately over greater distances much better. Don't worry or panic or have paranoia that it's some type of circus trick. Shooting off of sticks is very good and will make the shots easier for you.

As I said probably 90% of my hunters have never shot off sticks and they drill bullseyes with great regularity! Don't sweat this part of the experience it's a piece of cake!

Here's a couple of pics- both shot off of stix-

Nothing is more striking than a Sable.

Nice bull!

Very wow, Bighorn!

Bighorn you stuck 'em good, beautiful animals. I bought the Primo's Trigger stick doubles about 2 months ago and find them to be really useful. The biggest side benefit is that my wife loves them and wants to shoot all the time now and is really doing well. I got her a RAR Compact in .223 w/ a Redfield scope and she is shooting 6" targets out to 300 yds off the sticks. The good news is that she carries them and will be doing so when we hit Idaho 1 week from today!

mike r

yessir! and good shooting!

Is that a great trophy or what?

BogPod tripod was the most stable for me. The tall version. I collected 9 head of plains game off a bipod or tripod with the exception of a handy tree for my blesbock. now that I think of it, I also used my PH's shoulder once or twice. The great thing about the bogpod is that you can practice shooting at home with it; my accuracy greatly improved over those months of practice.

After two weeks using the Primos Trigger Sticks Tall Tripod the Bog pod had to go by by

Primos hit a home run with this one

Looks like those Primos sticks are worth a sniff. Could you be more specific as to why the Trigger Sticks rule? Thanks...