I was surprised in reading George Ruxton's eyewitness account of the mountain men to find that according to him they used a shooting stick for a great percentage of their shots, even taking it into shootouts with Indians. Apparently it was a longer or sturdier ramrod, called a wiping stick, that would double as a shooting steady. Sometimes it sounds like he is describing a walking stick rather than a ramrod, but other times it is unquestionably a ramrod. I like the idea of a Moses stick type walking and shooting stick, with a strap, but have never gotten serious about hunting with one. Sam Fadala called it a Moses stick in an article he wrote on making such a stick, years ago.
I have used a shooting board, a custom made backpack that serves about any sitting or prone situation on level or sloped ground, and doubles as a packboard to carry lunch, snowhoes, coyote hides, etc. Made of thin plywood with padded, scalloped edges and many cut-out holes for weight reduction and tie points, it is a round cornered tapezoid, narrow at the top with a scallop in top to take a rifle forend, and wider at the bottom. It has a ledge set at 90 degrees about 3/4 of the way down which gives it rest elevations from zero to about eight or ten inches, angled up the board when it is turned ledge down on the ground. On edge, the slope continues up to 16 inches or more, and on end, a sitting shot is comfortable over the top or depending on the slope, upside down over the ledge. The late William Mchalsky, sheep guide in Alberta, designed it for hunting coyotes and sold a few of them. On mine, I have to crowd close to the board on steep downhill shots, kind of scrunched in, but it is a critter getter aid of excellence.
