Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer nails it. Again.

In the March/April issue of Sports Afield, his piece on Shooting Running Game is spot on. Too many of us, myself included, have spent too much time at the bench, instead of plinking, small game hunting, shooting clays, and just having fun with guns. I didn't shoot as much last year as usual, but what I did was with handguns and iron sights. When the doe broke out at about 50yds, I was on her and shot almost before I thought about it. And, as my brother told me, "It takes a helluva shot to something that small". But, she butchered quick and is really tender. More of my shooting this year will be of the fun variety, rather than the bench.

More than a few of us have been saying it for years. I want a thing hitter, not a group maker. I know I ain't used a bench in at least 10 years, and gave up on them mostly in the early 2000's. I have more than a few rifles that I've killed deer with that I've never shot a group with, much less from a bench.

It's easy to find yourself submerged in the quest for group size and there are different reasons for it happening. There are all kinds of rabbit holes in this game, and damned few I can afford!

The old retired Army Colonel that mentored me on deer hunting told me I had to shoot all rounds into a diner plate at 100 yards off hand. It has worked for me for quite a few decades so far. I still like to know what a rifle will do off a bench, but that is no guaranty that it will hit a deer offhand,.. Just that it might be accurate and you are not.

This right here will get you labeled a "Bubba" on the campfire.


Checking zero and load work up are my bench times.
After that, im like Scott, can I hit that. Again......

When we had Jack Rabbits, they were great practice for hunting season. When I first moved to Wyoming (1985) we had a lot of “Jacks”. I would walk the sage brush areas, “kick them up”, and shoot them on the run! Our “Jacks” all but disappeared by the early 1990’s, and haven’t made a come-back yet! memtb

Early years when I did competition, I felt comfortable shooting game off hand and did it routinely.Now in advanced age,I don't have the muscle tone and capability of doing it.I shoot off the bench to check zero etc and don't practice field positions. Physical limitations keep me from shooting prone or sitting,although I do at times use kneeling. My compromise is to carry shooting sticks which works quite well for me. All will get to that stage at some point in their lives..

The last five elk I have killed recently, 3 bulls and 2 cows were all one shot kills except one bull that was dying anyway,but I wanted to stop any suffering. Same is true for the many elk killed previously.

I can't imagine anyone,sighting in a rifle without using some sort of rest though

How do you sight in your rifles? I would love to go benchless.

I grew up in SE Colorado. In the late '50's- early '60's, we were overrun with jackrabbits- at night with a spotlight, you could see thousands of them in our hayfields. With my little Mossberg 342K .22, I got so good at shooting them on the run, kicking them up as you say, that I rarely missed one within 50 yards. This became nearly a daily occurrence, as they were within easy walking distance of our house. We jump-shot them in the daytime, and at night, we spotlighted them. We would load our night's kill in my Dad's pickup truck, and the next day he would drop them off at the rendering plant- I think they ended up as dog food. We got a bounty of 5 cents per rabbit, IIRC.

Then, around '62, they contracted Tularemia, and a mass die-off followed. Soon, there was not a Jack to be found! They never came back, at least in the former numbers.

[quote=Bighorn
I grew up in SE Colorado. In the late '50's- early '60's, we were overrun with jackrabbits- at night with a spotlight, you could see thousands of them in our hayfields. With my little Mossberg 342K .22, I got so good at shooting them on the run, kicking them up as you say, that I rarely missed one within 50 yards. This became nearly a daily occurrence, as they were within easy walking distance of our house. We jump-shot them in the daytime, and at night, we spotlighted them. We would load our night's kill in my Dad's pickup truck, and the next day he would drop them off at the rendering plant- I think they ended up as dog food. We got a bounty of 5 cents per rabbit, IIRC.

Then, around '62, they contracted Tularemia, and a mass die-off followed. Soon, there was not a Jack to be found! They never came back, at least in the former numbers.[/quote]

We did about the same thing in the mid 60's east of Albuquerque around Estancia and Moriariti, except didn't collect them. I used a 3.08 and 110 gr bullets not loaded very hot

If I have any skill at hitting a fast-moving target with a rifle, I owe it to the lowly jackrabbit. I have shot thousands of them with .22RF's and centerfire BG rifles. My all-time favorite rifle was a 22-250, direct hits tuned jacks into a bloody mist.

This is true, especially the bold part. I don't like testing or benches, but often my curiosity gets the better of me. In the end I may know something I didn't before, but no further ahead.

We used to shoot jackrabbits, if you can hit a running rabbit, a deer is easy.

I don't shoot at deer on the run that are not wounded for safety reasons. The one I did shoot on the run had been hit and I had to pick an opening in the brush.

Rarely ever shot a handgun from a bench.
Shoot a couple at something on the berm.
See hits.
Adjust.
Repeat.

Not a bit different than using a bench.
If you can shoot offhand half decent.
If you can't.
I hope you use a bench when you are hunting.
Have done the same with 22's, when I was hunting, and questioned a miss or two.

No, I can't match a bench.

I still shoot a 'few' each winter.........mostly offhand (brush and snow are not too conducive to sitting, kneeling, bypods etc). A few runners but mostly stopped or walking. Ranges from 20 yards to 150 yards. The ones out over 100 yards have about a 50/50 chance with me shooting off hand, if I remember my shooting stick that percentage goes up. My preferred bunny bopper is the a CZ 457 17HMR.

Hedge apples etc.

I grew up shooting European rabbits, which are a pest here, and then pigs, and like you say, when you have been shooting running rabbits a pig or a deer, and later even more especially a buffalo, are just bigger targets, and easy to bowl over. I've dropped numbers of all of these from full gallop, and from pretty near every direction. With one red stag in particular, I thought I'd be taking the shot upwards as he went over me, but he broke away at the last instant and I put him nose-down into the dirt with a shot through the shoulderblade into the spine.

We used to have thousands of Jacks here in Southern Texas, but they started disappering here about the same time, in the mid 60s. Didn't know why, didn't even realize it for awhile. In the 60s Horny Toad Frogs and Taranchilas disappeared around here. They were everywhere in the 50s and early 60s. Oh yeah, Big red ants too. But they have made somewhat of ea comeback.

Nowadays we have thousands of pigs. I wonder if there's a correlation there.

The most fun a man can have with a centre-fire is with open sights on rabbits whist standing on his hind legs...I prefer that to any other shooting.

(Don't have to pick the little buggers up).