Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting separate rest

This year being my first year elk hunting with a rifle I finally got a shot at a bull on the 4th day of the hunt and promptly missed the kneeling shot that I took at over 400 lasered yards. I had practiced this shot a fair bit this summer however I wasn't prepared for the adrenaline that set in at the last moment. I completely forgot that my borrowed pack had a rest built into it. I left my bipod in the truck because I just wasn't seeing elk and I wanted to lower the amount of weight that I was carrying.


In short I missed a makeable shot and don't want to do that again. What rests do you carry or have you guys gotten to the point that the adrenaline doesn't set in like it used to?

shooting sticks. 'nuff said...

With a pack that's loaded right, if I could get prone and clear the grass I'd use the pack for a rest. If not, what the huntsman said.

Prone, Atlas bipod and my backback as a rear rest, sitting, Stoney Point sticks. Don't be so hard on yourself, 400 yards kneeling is no walk in the park!

I use my trekking poles. I loop the handle straps over each other and it makes great shooting sticks.

At 400 yards most people would need a solid rest to place an accurate shot. It does not take very long to achieve a seated w/ a rest or prone off a pack position. Practicing at the max distances you intend to shoot will confirm all the required elements and the time it takes to achieve them as well as building confidence which helps w/ buck fever. Since you didn't wound the Elk you gained a valuable experience that will serve you well at only the cost of an empty freezer. Few hunters haven't shared your experience.


mike r

I carry 1 trekking pole. With a little practice, you can use it in any number of ways for a good rest.

I never carry anything but my day-pack. But I shoot from across it in practice as well as firing a lot of ammo every year for my job, as well as for fun. Speaking only for myself, I hate bi-pods and sticks. They take up time I could use better getting into a good solid position and acquiring the target in my sights or scope. They are bulky and sometime heavy and always awkward to one degree or another.

I have never found that equipment can gain you skills.

In fact, for most shooters, gadgets inhibit better marksmanship. If you never push yourself to hold steadier, you don't learn to get steadier. Make your practice harder, not easier. In the field use every advantage you can in hunting, or God forbid, in fighting. But the shooting you do in hunting should be easier then that you do in practice. Like a runner doing his training with ankle weight on. Like doing pull-ups with a back-pack on. Train hard, hunt easy. (or at least easier)

The thing that is best is just a lot of trigger time.

Lots of rounds fired and NOT on flat ground. Once you get a load zeroed make a point to never shoot from a bench at all, ever again with that rifle and load, until you need a new barrel put in.
Dry Fire a LOT too. Learn to handle your rifle as if it were part of your body. Shoot and dry-fire up-hill, down-hill, cross ways on hills to the left and to the right, prone, sitting kneeling and standing.

I do 75% of all my practice shooting from off-hand. It's the most difficult and that's what I want in practice. the other 25% is broken up between sitting kneeling and prone. Remember to put your ego aside and learn from the MISSES...... not the hits. Every miss you make in practice is a lesson you can learn from----- if you don't let your ego stop you.

I say to my students "make all your mistakes in practice".
I teach combative tactics as a part time job, and I did that for my full-time job for several years as a US Marine and after my Discharge I did it working for DOD teaching Marines, US Navy Personal as well as to various law enforcement agencies.

It is not uncommon to hear vets tell you that the intensity of their marksmanship training was actually harder then making hits in combat when it comes to the actual shooting. It's the fear and emotions that make things so tough, but the actual shooting skill themselves can be easier in the real world then what we put them through in training. That was my experience as well. That's what we want. Hard training.

Train hard and the kill in your hunting gets easy. The bad trend I see in the market place today is all the gadgets being sold to try to convince hunters that if they buy them, the shot gets easy. It actually doesn't, and in many cases and it can add a slowness and awkwardness you just don't need and will never want.

Make your training hard and accept the challenge. Make yourself the weapon. The rifle should just be your tool.

In doing that, the hits you'll make in your hunting become pretty easy.

I always carry a lightweight carbon fiber tripod for glassing (with an Outdoorsman's adapter for binoculars). So I just carry a rubber or metal "shooting v" mounted to a spare plate. I can quickly switch between my binocular adapter and my shooting v this way. Lots of shots I don't have much time so it's just standing, kneeling, or sitting. But the tripod and v are great when I have the time. With the ball head it's easy to adjust once set up, such as on calling stands. It can go from prone to sitting pretty easy.

I thought Bog Pods, etc. were nothing more than gimmicks until I used one about ten years ago. I wouldn't elk or other game without one in the western states.

I consider the use of shooting sticks to be a mandatory part of a Western hunter's skill set. Shooting sticks are no more of a "gadget" than scopes or slings, and the newer carbon fiber designs (like Utrec) are lightweight to the point of being negligible when carried in or strapped to your pack.

You must have a lot of experience to think you could make a 400 yard shot from the kneeling position. Or not...