I have just extracted this content of my own from December of 2014, that I wrote from deep down in a long 2 year old thread started by someone else..
My content (below) makes a good base for discussion on seated shooting technique and it was kind of lost where initially posted.
It relies on the following:
Tips For Small Groups From Sitting Field Position
- Solid rear anchor for rifle stock
- Support shooting arm/elbow (sometimes by leaning back into the hill)
- Setup so your feet are lower than your butt if you can
- Check list: level, parallax, dope, etc.
- Setup for consistent recoil off sticks
- Range with environmental inputs
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December, 2014
Here are my newest, best groups shot at distance using shooting sticks yesterday.
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This winter and spring we'll be working on fresh new material to present at the LRH-NTO Shooting Classes (
CLICK HERE) to be held in the mountains of western Wyoming next August. In the classes we teach plenty of prone style shooting but one of the ways our classes are unique is that we also spend a lot of time on real life positions other than prone.
Too often prone just isn't available, whether you're sitting in a bed of sagebrush in Oregon or a field of CRP in the midwest or up at 8,000 feet on the steep slopes of the mountain west. And if the range is much over 300 yards most hunters are simply not up to the task of taking a clean shot on big game from a seated position.
Yesterday before my Green Bay Packers trounced the Detroit Lions I was at my friend's hunting land, refining my own long range seated shooting sticks technique in order to be better able to teach the subject. My shooting spot is high up on a snow-covered hill but just below its crown. My bullets from there fly first over many rows of pine seedlings and then over a harvested corn field where I shot four tasty whitetails just last month. I set out 2 steel targets at 916 yards on the far hillside beyond the cornfield and beneath a huge oak tree.
My first 2 three shot groups were fired while using the new
Rudolph Optics Quad Sticks plus my optics tripod plàced under my right armpit for shooting arm support. The feeling of absolutely no left-right jiggle builds great confidence in a shooter using the quad sticks. I have found that the armpit support makes the "vertical" part of the shot feel rock-solid, too.
View attachment 80549
There was a bit of a variable wind coming from the back side of the hill that was difficult to call due to my shooting location on the down slope of the hill and to the lack of any telling leaves remaining on the winter trees. The 9 inch horizontal spread of each of the groups satisfied me given the wind and the distance. The vertical size of the groups were 3 inches and 1.5 inches respectively. If the 2 groups were superimposed the combined vertical spread would be 3 inches. That's about 1/3 MOA at 916 yards.
The wind became a little more readable at this point.
Next I added one click to the scope's elevation setting to better center my group on the piece of steel and switched sticks. I grabbed my Primos Magnum Shooting Sticks (formerly Stoney Point). Under my right armpit I used my Stoney Point Polecat tripod. This group had a 1.5 inch vertical spread and it measured 3.5 inches overall including width. If superimposed, all three groups using two different sets of sticks would measure a 3 inch vertical spread - 1/3 MOA.
I'd love to share these shooting techniques with you this summer at our LRH-NTO Classes in Wyoming. You can read about the class offering
HERE.
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