Ive seen guys make good shots mounted horseback, but from a standing animal, not at a gallop.
Yeah, I think some of us are missing the point. I can understand shooting mounted on a horse that’s broken to gunfire. I don’t think that’d be much different from offhand unsupported. But at a dead run from a saddle, or even a wagon has got to be a completely different ball game.
Maybe a melon or a stationery target at short distances, but a moving target, better yet also mounted at a run, has gotta be a helluva feat!
Hollywood’s full of stuff like that, but I’ve got an idea of the mechanics of such a stunt. Try holding a revolver or a rifle steady in a car on a bumpy road! A horse or a wagon hasn’t got near the suspension of a vehicle!
Might be a good trick for Terry to try on Outdoor Channel’s “Hollywood Weapons”!
7mm
I practically lived in a saddle until I was 25. And then I broke young horses for a bit of extra cash after work for another ten years. And then I started breaking horses for me and my kids.
Not a lot. We kept four mares and one stud, and brought in three or four colts each year to work with.
The only thing I was more dedicated to than the horses was my rifle. But, no, I never even tried to shoot from the saddle. I would give the horses a bucket of grain and shoot from just across the fence from them while they ate their treat. This desensitized them so that when I spotted game in the hills, I could drop the reigns on the ground and shoot from the trail in front of or beside the horse without it shying.
As for accurate fire from the saddle? No it is not anything like shooting from offhand. Until you have attempted to hold the crosshairs on a target at 200 yds from atop a saddle, you will not understand. But consider that the horse is a living breathing animal with a beating heart about ten times the size of yours. Every time he takes a breath, your ass changes in elevation by a couple inches. And I have never heard of a horse trained to hold his breath while you squeeze off a shot.
I have tried laying the scoped rifle over the seat of saddle while standing on the ground, attempting to put antlers on a deer at two to three hundred yards. Hell, I could not hold a 12X scope steady enough to even focus on the deers' heads. I had to walk away from the horse and find a tree to lean against.
Popping ballons with blanks, or even bunnies running through the brush at fifteen yards yards is one thing. But shooting MOA at three hundred yards is another.
