Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Long Grass shooting sticks

One other piece of advice might be that the bigger the "shoulder hump" the lower you should aim. The worst animal for being shot too high is wildebeest (one reason they are considered so hard to kill). Robertson's book is a good reference.

I like sticks myself, but always shoot with my hand under the forend. Otherwise the rifle tends to shoot a little high, no matter the style or make of sticks.

Makes sense to me. I'm fairly sure I'll be bugging y'all for addtional advice as I approach the trip.

Hi Huntaria,

I have the same shooting sticks and practiced all summer long before going to Namib with them. I used a .22 first (then my '06 and finally the .375 H&H) to try the different positions, hand-holds, etc., and to just generally get to be able to settle in quickly, obtain a sight picture, and fire accurately as quickly as possible. The practice was well worth it as my spooky kudu gave me maybe 10 seconds the first time we saw him and was ready to depart the second time when he went down at about 150 yds. Same with a burchells.

I adopted JB's notion that putting the supporting hand under the forend and in the crotch of the sticks seems to work best at least for me too. I took my sticks along too though the PH will invariably have a set or two.

According to what I've seen and my limited experience, the PH will walk just in front of you carrying them and upon spotting acceptable game will quickly set them up as you follow up, get nested in, and have maybe seconds to identify, sight, concentrate, and fire before the jig is up. At least if you're ready for it and actually have more time so much the better. Also, all this needing to be quick is a good reason the PH should well know what you want and don't want to settle for.

Thank you Goodnews!

The last Kudu I shot---with your PH.. BTW, gave me about a 1 second opportunty...10 seconds would have been luxurious!!!

Ingwe

I was a shooting stick skeptic, until I bought a set(Long Grass), and started shooting from them...I'm sold! Glad I took my PH's(as well as others) advice; bought them, and practiced with them. My favorite practice drill was steel gongs at 50, 100, and 200 yards. Get on the sticks and hit gong #1 as fast as possible, and then hit the others with follow up shots, as quickly as I could. No substitute for practice, and more practice. When you can't get to the range, dry practice at home. When you get there, and the PH says shoot, it will be automatic, and before you know it, you'll be posing for a photo, with a grin that's impossible to remove! You're going to love it.....good luck! Also, on the LG sticks, it doesn't hurt to cut some innertube into 1/2" or so wide strips, and wrap a few "bumps" onto the legs at a few places. It'll help keep them from clacking together.

Jeff

Jeff, as usual we get great feedback and learn a lot from this forum. I will put the strips on mine as they do have "chatter". My PH have not liked the LG mostly due to the three legs that they fear will be caught up in the heavy grass if you are hunting in areas where grass can be problematic.

I too have noticed some of the sticks will tend to shoot "high" relative to other positions.

.

I know what you mean about accoracy being boring. I have a Brno#4 target 22 that the BIL and I took turns shooting a group of 500 at 50 yds which gave us a true.75"group. That was 500 rounds, two shooters. After a while there were no further bullet holes as the blow out stayed the same from 100 rounds on.

I never thought about using the 22 for sticks practice, but do for offhand, duh

Randy

Check the Long Grass sticks daily to be sure they are tight together. I stupidly did not and glanced over at the tracker to discover one leg had fallen off. We were after elephant and I was so horrified I almost released urine. No problem, the tracker went back a mile or so and retreived it.

Between you and akjeff, it would seem that keeping extra strips of rubber around is a good idea for two reasons--1) noise abatement and 2) in case of repair.

HS

Hadn't thought about it, but you're right; those rubber strips would come in real handy, if you had to "splint" a busted stick. Great idea!

Jeff

You can have trouble with the connectors coming loose......this happened to me in Oz, prior to a hunt in Namibia. So I got some camo duct tape and wrapped the joins to be on the safe side.

I have a mate who has been to Africa around 15 times.......he HATES shooting off sticks and just won't do it. The problem with most sticks is that they flex too much, which compounds the problem of side to side movement.

So, I have made up an aluminium set with 5mm wall thickness.......they are bloody heavy (but I don't have to carry them). They are a VAST improvement over normal sticks!

I've seen some spectacular shots made off sticks though,......my PH in Namibia, shot 2 dassies in a row, for a bet, off the rock face in the pics below. Rifle was my 338RUM and range according to his Leica Geovids was 350 yards....... I paid up cheerfully.



This is the position from where he took the shots............the daisies were on the face, roughly 2/3rds of the way down, the left kopje, near the cleft between the two.



Here is a rather blurry close up of the target area.....the dassies were sitting in the holes in the rock face!

I still can't believe he made the first shot, let alone the secone one

That is awesome!

I've had nearly a month to play with mine now and I will tell you the tips LG gives you has worked for me. It does take some getting used to, though. You need to rest the rifle on the front action screw, then lock your left (for a RH shooter) elbow against the sticks. This takes much of the side-to-side play out.

I'll give that a try.......but I think Mike Kibble has it figured out, the mongrel! LOL

Uh, yeah, I'd say!

I shot thousands of rounds off my aticks before my first trip. Have a 50 yd. 22 range in my yard. Also shot more than 800 rds. off sticks with my 375HH and lots offhand. The practice made shots quick and accurate on the only 2 trips I've made 2 Africa. No misses and all dead animals, no wasted trophy fees. My 375 acts like it is a part pf me, just under 2000 rds. thru it since I got it. I got a ton of 235 gr. bullets with it.

You can't shoot too much, nor in too many different positions prior to a hunt. Sounds like your program worked well. I keep on shooting too, even in the cold and snow.

Resurrecting an old thread, if I may.

Searched and searched the Long Grass LLC web site and have yet to find a link to their shooting sticks, other than a video with Boddington and Carter.

Can anyone point to a link for the Long Grass shooting sticks?

IMO if one learns to shoot offhand, and practices his off hand shooting, and practices on jack rabbits running, his success with hunting is multiplied because he is the one that can take advantage of those windows of opertunity that the stick and rest boys let escape..

If he can shoot off hand then he can always shoot from sticks or under any field condition. Off hand shooting seems to have become a forgotten art, as has the use of iron sights in todays hunters, especially noticeable on TV and in the African shows..I see the hunter stumbling around with the sticks and waiting for the perfect broadside shot or letting the animal run off, that has to be a pain for the PH..

I am the sole exception, as far as I know when it come to shooting off sticks, I just can't do it??? but then I have shot off hand for so many years that I have no need for sticks thank goodness..For that I am grateful, and also gratefull to my dad and grandad that said scopes weren't worth a damn for hunting and I didn't need one and I needed to know how to shoot off my hind legs!

All that said, if you can shoot better with sticks then by all means do so, but I suggest that any hunter work on his off hand shooting, his iron sight shooting and I'll bet you will be surprised how quickly it will come to you and how accurately you can shoot.

They used to be listed in the gear section but, like you, I can't find them now. You might give them a call. Here's another Texas vendor that offers them:
Chisos Trading - Long Grass Sticks