Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What percentage of your Whitetail shots have been offhand standing, sitting or off a rest?

3 shot out of a stand, in one day. Rail as a rest.
The only man-made rest I've ever used.

Everything else off hand, leaning on a tree, holding a grapevine and the forend....any support I can get.

Often though? It's right now, with nothing.

I can only remember one. It was a doe and she was getting out of her bed 12 feet away.

One off hand on the ground,the rest with my slug gun from a tree strand.

I've taken one whitetail and one antelope offhand, both 40 yd running shots. One antelope and one whitetail, my first, sitting, braced on knees. One whitetail sitting with partially extended tall bipod. Maybe 8 whitetails sitting with sticks or tripod with a yoke, typically in a popup blind or leaning against a tree. So 20% offhand but I would much rather use some sort of rest. The stiffer/sturdier the better.

I'm currently using high quality medium weight camera tripods with ?stoney creek yokes for ground blind hunting. When walking around the north woods i carry a folded tall bipod with the legs extended for shooting standing upright unless brush busting.

I'm a competent tracker but I far prefer to drop them in their tracks or within sight where the game is hit.

All of mine have been offhand, but the longest shot was maybe 200 yards, probably quite a bit shy of that. The vast majority were under 50 yards, most under 30 yards.

Guessing close to 30% w rest 70% without & as I get older the supported situations may be on the rise. Come to think of it last fall was two deer both off-hand in a sitting position roughly 100 yards for both does. May be a simple tree or shooting sticks. Every thing is situational.

One whitetail from sitting position, one mule deer offhand. Both at about 30 yards. That's it.

One elk @150, standing position, with my left arm used as a rest, jammed between two birch trees. (recoil with a .260 is not a problem!)

Two moose with a rest ( 150 and 20 yards, respectively) - 20 offhand. But then, they are huge and almost always within 100 yards.

Caribou, about 50/50 (literally) offhand, or from sitting or off snow machine wind screen, seat, or ATV handlebars/seat for rest. Once I built a pyramid of small rocks with my cap on top for a rest, prone shot @ 370 or so.

This one in fact- note the unusual bez/shovel base. You will see it again/ different post. Maybe tomorrow.

Most are sitting without rest, followed by standing without rest with just a very few with rest when rest is available. I’m generally sitting on the ground or in a stand though most times stand doesn’t offer a rest. Deer taken while walking slowly through woods to and from hunt area are taken standing without rest as time doesn’t usually allow for a rest when shot presents.

I busted one last night off hand. 175 yards. Jumped her up and she ran and stopped. After this thread, I had to try it lol. Doubled lunged her. Tough shot for me. Wouldn't want to have to make that one count on a booner. Hard to get steady.

All of mine were off-hand, no support. Bow, handgun and shotgun. Longest distance was about 35 yards, shortest about 10 yards.

I took a hog from a box blind once, a black bear from prone, and a feral cow from kneeling with a sling. Pretty sure everything else, including all of my deer, was taken from offhand.


Okie John

1 prone from a creek bank after crawling up on a sleeping buck down in the bottom with irons and peep.
4-5 offhand and rest of maybe 50 with my self made shooting sticks. All my whitetail hunting has been done in the widely varied terrain of prairie here on the Great Plains.
I’m pretty good at getting into my sticks quickly and as they are pretty long, I can also high kneel over the top of them.

Maybe 4 or 5 offhand. I prefer to shoot from one knee. That’s been my go-to position for years if the conditions give me a choice.

The vast majority of the deer I've shot with both rifle and handgun have been off-hand. And a good number of those have been running.

When I was a kid we would hunt and shoot deer the same way we hunted and shot pheasants.

A handful offhand.

1 prone off of a pack.

1 in the fork of a small hickory tree while shooting across a big bottomland bean field.

A few with rifle leaned along side of a tree.

Someone else's ass shot doe over the hood of the Ex FILs truck.

The rest with elbows on knees whether in a treestand or off of the ground whether in a chair or my ass in the dirt.

I'd say 75% have been offhand, with the remaining mostly sitting and a few prone. I don't hunt out of blinds or treestands for reference.