Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Offhand shooting

I agree. I've shot a lot of shotgun and still agree with you. I like a rifle to feel well balanced in the hands, not front end heavy. Back in my trap shooting days, I had a terrible habit of dropping the barrel right before I called for the bird when using a heavy barreled trap gun. Thus, the reason I gave them up and went back to my old faithful left hand Remington 870 with a 28" barrel. I think it really depends on a persons shooting style, how much they've actually hunted, what rifles and shotguns they've used in the field and what they have become proficient with. The best "hunting" rifle I had for shooting offhand was a factory sporterized m1917 made by BSA in 1951. It was fairly heavy (9.5 pounds scoped), but balanced right. Best offhand group shot with that one (with the aide of a sling) was 1.057" for 5 shots. When I buy a rifle, that's one of the first things I do, is test it in the offhand position to see how it's going to handle in hunting situations. Here's a target fired with my left hand Remington 760. Not the best, but acceptable for a quick handling deer and elk rifle:

My best 3 shot group off hand @ just over 100yds, Leupold 2.5x Marlin 1895G. I was aiming at the top point of the steel.

RP Brass
WLR Primers
300gr Laser Cast
25grs IMR-sr4759 - scooped with Lee dipper, did not weigh





I had 4 rounds left so I shot them making a 7 shot group. The round low right was round #5.

Heath, that's about the perfect size steel plate to practice offhand shooting at 100 yards. Looks like you are doing just fine..

Best three shot group?

I have seen a guy shoot 20 consecutive shots into a 6" 10 ring at 200 yards. Not me.

The best I ever did involved 16 out of 20 shots into a 12" 5-ring at 200 with an M1 Garand when I was young. That was enough to take 6th Master in the Navy cup at Camp Perry years ago.

Thanks


I was pretty pleased as I've honestly not really done much off hand shooting at 100yds or farther. I need to do more of it.

If you are going to try it, best advice I can give is to stand way back away from the window😀

The most fun I can manage with a firearm is wandering about the sand-hills and shooting rabbits from my hind legs with a cannon and open sights...22's don't really do it for me, but 270 and up works just fine on the fun-o-meter.

It just amuses the heck out of me and has the advantage of not having to pick anything up.

"from my hind legs"

LOL! We used to all get a laugh from my dear ol' mom who was pretty much crippled, when she would say "that one hind leg of mine ain't working right today!"

It helps to have a light trigger when shooting offhand.

Here's a decent bull I killed in Colorado in 2004 with a muzzleloader off hand at 96 yards. old bull with lots of mass but short tines!

http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/picture.php?albumid=51&pictureid=351

Rabbits are great offhand practise

Living in the extensive west, I can't remember that last time I took an offhand shot at anything. Sitting, kneeling, standing with a rest, or prone. I near always have a bipod, pack frame, or walking stick that I'll use for support.

I don't really think it matters where you live. However, when I lived due south from you which might also be considered "extensive west" as well, I shot a lot in the offhand position because I didn't like laying down in the sticker bushes and if I did, couldn't see over the sagebrush anyways...

I shoot lots of Jack rabbits offhand each winter. Has helped on several quick Mule deer off hand shots.

If you want to learn how to shoot offhand.....join the NRA and shoot NRA HP!!

Don't shoot the 'rat gun' however! Choose the NRA Match Rifle category!!

I have a moose hunt here in a month so I have been shooting off hand, and standing, kneeling and sitting with sticks all summer.

I typically shoot at 8" gongs at 100 (for unsuported) and 200 and 300 yds with the sticks.

The sticks make a big difference in what I can hit

I probably should do some more prone too, but I have been working up an F-class rifle so I have had my fill of laying on my belly.

LOL. Hard to change our opinions as we age. All of us.

Regardless, NRA HP or Silhouette, both make you better shots for sure. Even if you don't have the sweatshirt, shooting coat, shooting glasses etc... out in the field that you do on the range.

Always felt that cross training silhouette did a lto more for my HP offhand than anything so these days if I wanted to play and practice for offhand only I'd shoot silhouette rather than HP.

This may sound odd to some. I did a trigger job and scoped a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun just to practice off-hand shooting and trigger squeeze. I shoot inside my garage at about 25 feet, five shoots every day. I was amazed how bad an off-hand shot I was a couple of years ago when I started. And how much my groups have shrunk now. While hunting in Texas I took a really nice Whitetail buck from the off-hand position. It was a rather quick shot in some thick brush. I'm convinced that had I not had that garage practice I would not have been successful. I had gotten away from shooting off-hand and used everything in the book for a rest. I think this little BB gun practice has really helped.

My offhand practice is squirrel hunting with a 22 and trying to get head shots.