60 years ago two early teen boys were out riding their horses-and packing .22 rifles. Checking brier patches and brush piles to see if they could bring a rabbit or two home.
A fox flushed out of a pile and the race was on. Full speed, shooting at the fox who was running for his life.
It didn't work out so well though. Yep, Old Blue took a 40 grain .22 slug to the top of his head at full gallop, killed him DRT.
The fox got away.
Custer killed his mount at a gallop chafing bison, too.
If you take the time it takes, it takes less time. --Pat Parelli
American by birth; Alaskan by choice. --ironbender
It runs in my mind of seeing a tv show where an attractive young lady was doing exactly what I’m asking about. IIRC, she was using an SSA in .45 or maybe a 1911. It was big enough to destroy a melon. Range was maybe 15 or 20 yards. She was obviously enough of a shooter and horsewomen to accomplish the trick, but in a real gunfight situation, my money would still be put on the guy on foot every time. I’ve drank enough beer out of a can on a bumpy road to understand the physics involved! Duke was constantly shooting wild injuns outta the saddle, but like you said, this is the movies. 7mm
Maybe it was this woman. She can definitely ride and shoot and is a real looker. I saw some of her other videos where she talks about training the horses. I think she starts them with a .22. In this video the gun sounds pretty loud but maybe it't because it's indoors so maybe even worse for the horse?
Fight fire, save lives, laugh in the face of danger.
ON the topic of mileage two Amish guys in Ohio told me you could expect a 40 mile day out of a horse, max. Of course that's at a steady trot pulling a buggy. Having tried to pace them on a bicycle, I can say that the torque of a Amish horse is impressive; same ~12 - 15 mph pace uphill, level, or down.
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
It runs in my mind of seeing a tv show where an attractive young lady was doing exactly what I’m asking about. IIRC, she was using an SSA in .45 or maybe a 1911. It was big enough to destroy a melon. Range was maybe 15 or 20 yards. She was obviously enough of a shooter and horsewomen to accomplish the trick, but in a real gunfight situation, my money would still be put on the guy on foot every time. I’ve drank enough beer out of a can on a bumpy road to understand the physics involved! Duke was constantly shooting wild injuns outta the saddle, but like you said, this is the movies. 7mm
Maybe it was this woman. She can definitely ride and shoot and is a real looker. I saw some of her other videos where she talks about training the horses. I think she starts them with a .22. In this video the gun sounds pretty loud but maybe it't because it's indoors so maybe even worse for the horse?
She's pretty good!
If you take the time it takes, it takes less time. --Pat Parelli
American by birth; Alaskan by choice. --ironbender
Mounted shooting is about horsemanship, around here they crossover from rodeo a bit. Also ( around here) livestock is quite used to shooting, so trail horses , pack horses, mules usually won't jump off a cliff....Usually! Until they encounter there first love sick bull moose in the fall.
60 years ago two early teen boys were out riding their horses-and packing .22 rifles. Checking brier patches and brush piles to see if they could bring a rabbit or two home.
A fox flushed out of a pile and the race was on. Full speed, shooting at the fox who was running for his life.
It didn't work out so well though. Yep, Old Blue took a 40 grain .22 slug to the top of his head at full gallop, killed him DRT.
The fox got away.
Custer killed his mount at a gallop chafing bison, too.
I’d like to hear of the two early teen boys breaking that news to dad .?
I'm pretty certain when we sing our anthem and mention the land of the free, the original intent didn't mean cell phones, food stamps and birth control.
Retired Mounted Border Patrol Agent in El Paso, Texas(actually Anapra, NM)..Shot off horse back a few times...returning fire from train burglars....our horses went out to the range with us for quarterly qualifications. Stood tied behind the firing line... after the first few volleys it was no big deal to them. Al least as amazing about our ponies was how quickly they figured out the job...a group of aliens, all from the same town, would be traveling North. We would be working the sandhills West of El Paso, at night. Horses trailered...when a sensor hit went off, we would trailer to the "catch area" and get mounted...other riders would get in behind the group...the aliens had been on the road for days so they smelled pretty ripe...Just let the horse "have his head" and like a bloodhound. you could walk right up on them...occasionally they would scatter...and one by one the horses would sniff them out...way easier to spot them with your eyes 9-10 feet off the ground too ! Shot a pretty good Mule Deer using the saddle as a rest...with a single round from a ...I'll stop here before I incriminate myself...
Our horses always let us know when they scented game. A smart hunter always watches his horses ears. They will often point directly at a deer or an elk, or another hunter.
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
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.
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
Retired Mounted Border Patrol Agent in El Paso, Texas(actually Anapra, NM)..Shot off horse back a few times...returning fire from train burglars....our horses went out to the range with us for quarterly qualifications. Stood tied behind the firing line... after the first few volleys it was no big deal to them. Al least as amazing about our ponies was how quickly they figured out the job...a group of aliens, all from the same town, would be traveling North. We would be working the sandhills West of El Paso, at night. Horses trailered...when a sensor hit went off, we would trailer to the "catch area" and get mounted...other riders would get in behind the group...the aliens had been on the road for days so they smelled pretty ripe...Just let the horse "have his head" and like a bloodhound. you could walk right up on them...occasionally they would scatter...and one by one the horses would sniff them out...way easier to spot them with your eyes 9-10 feet off the ground too ! Shot a pretty good Mule Deer using the saddle as a rest...with a single round from a ...I'll stop here before I incriminate myself...
Our horses always let us know when they scented game. A smart hunter always watches his horses ears. They will often point directly at a deer or an elk, or another hunter.
And let you know about a Brown bear in/near camp long before it is seen, smelled, or heard. Which is kind of handy. Just learn their vocalizations.
If you take the time it takes, it takes less time. --Pat Parelli
American by birth; Alaskan by choice. --ironbender
A friend in Isaho, his brother, and his dad all hunted elk off horses they could shoot from. trained them themselves. Said the elk would often not spook from a mounted person like they would from foot hunter. And their horses would often tell them of elk they had yet to see themselves.
A friend in Isaho, his brother, and his dad all hunted elk off horses they could shoot from. trained them themselves. Said the elk would often not spook from a mounted person like they would from foot hunter. And their horses would often tell them of elk they had yet to see themselves.
You can walk with the horse on your side facing the critter. Have yet to see the animal that's able to count legs.
If you take the time it takes, it takes less time. --Pat Parelli
American by birth; Alaskan by choice. --ironbender
Makay Sagebrush's daughter does mounted shooting as well.
I sure would rather see kids learning horsemanship and marksmanship than many other things they could be doing.
Yes, Waders is right. Horses communicate.
Some horses will take to gunfire, and some don't.
My old shooting horse enjoyed it as much or more than I did. He would get excited when he knew we were fixing to shoot. That's a fact.
Miss him. Too bad horses and dogs get old too.
i still have some pictures on the computer of his daughter competing. they are something to see. i seem to remember one of them got some vaquero's a ways back for a christmas present. long time ago.
when i saw the movie jerimah johnson, the scene where he shot with the gun laying over the saddle, made me laugh so hard my wife bought me a thompson center 50caliber hawkins kit. which i built. never used it around a horse tho.
Speaking of Westerns, Ulzana’s Raid is the only one I can think of where the success of the cavalry pursuit hinges upon the management of horses and the fatiguing thereof.
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
A friend in Isaho, his brother, and his dad all hunted elk off horses they could shoot from. trained them themselves. Said the elk would often not spook from a mounted person like they would from foot hunter. And their horses would often tell them of elk they had yet to see themselves.
On much USFS ground, game is used to seeing horse and rider all through the summer. Multiple use allows grazing and where cattle go, cowboys will be there to direct their grazing and care for the animals.
I have also ridden close to game animal. But, of course, I have walked quite close to game animals (well, deer anyway. Elk are much more wary) during the opening days of season.
Often, early in season, if you avoid looking directly at a deer with both eyes, do not walk directly toward the deer, especially staring at it, the deer will not recognize you as a predator.
I have walked or ridden to within easy rifle range of many deer while the animal watched me approach. One early morning, opening day of season, I was riding through an aspen thicket and a spike bull elk stepped around a bend in the trail into full view at less than ten yards. I only had a cow tag that season, so I just sat on my horse and we three (me, horse, and elk) just looked at each other for about thirty seconds. The elk slipped away down the side of the mountain and was silently gone. But when I brought my eyes back forward, a small four point buck had taken his place in the trail.
I drew my scoped 30-06 from the scabbard under my left leg, then swung the left leg over the saddle horn and slid off the right, uphill side of saddle. The deer took two jumps which brought him from due North to due East of my position. I lifted the rifle and found an antler tip in the 12X scope. Then followed the antler down to the base of the skull and shot the deer in the second vertebrae. All while he just stood broadside and looked at me.
Sure, I could have pointed the rifle forward over the horses ears and killed the deer, but I would rather lose the game than subject my horse to that muzzle blast.
I particularly remember one day in about six inches of snow, about forty years ago, I walked on open ground toward a pair of deer on an open slope above and ahead of me. They stood and watched curiously as I approached. I decided I was in a good position at 250 yds for a shot.
But instead of falling backward onto my butt and rolling to a prone position, I fell to my knees and then to my belly. The deer interpreted that as a lunge in their direction and took off around the mountain.
I had to hike another 1/2 mile and gain another 500 feet elevation (where the snow was now 10 inches deep) before catching up again and filling my tag.
I promise, that is a mistake I never repeated.
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
I love Westerns, but I’ll admit that the only horses I’m familiar with come from an engine or a motor. But an awful lot of the Westerns I love feature gunfire from a saddle at a dead gallop on horseback or maybe a wagon or coach with the team at a dead run. I know nothing about horses, but guns and shooting, OTHO, I’ve spent a lifetime around. I wouldn’t say impossible, but very damn difficult to have any kind of accuracy in that situation. Ever done it or seen it done for real? Comments? 7mm
I think it would be too. That said, I have a jockey friend who is almost completely motionless when she races. She's artful.
As a kid I killed plenty of deer off a horse with a bow, but never with the horse running. Shooting running deer off moving swamp buggies and air boats isn't very hard once you learn to not shoot till your eyes, barrel and target meet. Most people get excited and use the spray and pray technique.
The only way I'd have one is, if it was it was making me money, otherwise they're just eating and chitting.
God bless Texas----------------------- Old 300 I will remain what i am until the day I die- A HUNTER......Sitting Bull Its not how you pick the booger.. but where you put it !! Roger V Hunter
