Tightest group at longest distance with shooting stciks.

[Len Backus]

trueblue, I was in LRH Group Hunt camp when you killed your bull at 620 yards from a sitting position. Pretty darn cool. And the 841 yard kill the year before from a sitting position is just crazy.

My best was when Ernie Bishop and I were trying out one of my new rifles last spring in Wyoming. We also had a new "quad-sticks" product for testing.

At 800 yds in a 7 mph wind first Ernie took 2 shots at a big rock face, sitting with the sticks. They went into about 6 inches. Then I took the gun and shot once.

Now our combined 3 shots went into about 8 inches with very little vertical. It was Ernie's first shots with the rifle and the sticks.

This product will be quite a breakthrough for a lot of us. A version has been in use in Europe and Africa for some time. But this version is better in a number of ways.

It provides an amazing sense of solidness, if that's a word. There is zero left to right wiggle. And you only have to control vertical.

A downhill lie works best...with your feet below your butt. Among other advantages, that allows you to rest your shooting arm elbow on a knee. The rifle is supported from both front and rear.

With more practice from a good ground setup I expect to routinely be able to place shots into 3/4 moa out to 700 yards in no-wind conditions. I've already been doing that at 600 yards on steel but only with a lot of deliberate tinkering around with my position and technique.

Soon we'll publish a feature article review on this product.

We'll be offering them in the LRH Store after Jan 1. They are a specialty product made by Rudolph Optics. I think they should call them Dolph Sticks.
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Ernie Bishop with prototype unit

 

[Ernie]

I think some amazing things could be done if you took more time to play around and just experiment with the system that Len is talking about.
Using Len's 7 Dakota made things easier as well

 

[CoasttoCoast]

I know a lot of people suggest that you grab the rifle stock and sticks with your left hand (if your a right hand shooter) to steady the rifle on the sticks. This may work for some but its hard for me to keep the rifle steady when using that method. Im not sure if the method I use is an approved method, but it works for me. I like to grab with my left hand a big handful of my shirt right around my right shoulder area, and use that to support the but end of the rifle stock. I find that its sort of similar to shooting off a bench with a sand bag under your armpit for support. I just let the rifle rest on the sticks. Maybe its just me, but I find that the rifle is a bit more steady when I support the butt end.

 

[trueblue]

Len,
I would be interested in trying those sticks, but don't see them on your LRH store.

 

[Len Backus]

Jim, how about I send you a set and you write a review.

We'll have them in the store next week.

 

[trueblue]

PM sent

 

[Len Backus]

Preview of Rudolph Optics -- Quad Style Shooting Sticks

Preview of Rudolph Optics -- Quad Style Shooting Sticks
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This topic motivated me to get out in the field and work with this new product again.

I spent about a half hour trying different sitting positions with them and only dry firing. My goal is to work up a system on how to use them. I'd like to pass the info on to others and have the technique not rely too much on tons of practice and time for each individual shooter having to discover on their own what works well.

Then I took 3 shots on steel at 455 yards. Group was about 3.2 inches at 455 yards.

I think this product will be a game changer for sitting shots in certain uneven terrain situations at ranges well over 500 yards.
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[Wyodog]

+1 on the stadium seat. I've been using one for years coyote hunting. Here is a trick I learned from a fellow coyote hunter... he uses his badlands binocular pouch to rest the but of the rifle by sliding the pouch to the side a little. It works really good. With the combos of the stadium seat and using the bino pouch I've shot a coyote sitting down facing me at 580+ yards.

 

[kimberyote]

The pouch rest sounds very interesting. Some pic would help tho.

 

[Len Backus]

Christmas Eve morning and all my Xmas chores are done -- so I added the "quad sticks" to the store.

Quad Sticks at the LRH Store

 

[WildRose]

trueblue, I was in LRH Group Hunt camp when you killed your bull at 620 yards from a sitting position. Pretty darn cool. And the 841 yard kill the year before from a sitting position is just crazy.

My best was when Ernie Bishop and I were trying out one of my new rifles last spring in Wyoming. We also had a new "quad-sticks" product for testing.

At 800 yds in a 7 mph wind first Ernie took 2 shots at a big rock face, sitting with the sticks. They went into about 6 inches. Then I took the gun and shot once.

Now our combined 3 shots went into about 8 inches with very little vertical. It was Ernie's first shots with the rifle and the sticks.

This product will be quite a breakthrough for a lot of us. A version has been in use in Europe and Africa for some time. But this version is better in a number of ways.

It provides an amazing sense of solidness, if that's a word. There is zero left to right wiggle. And you only have to control vertical.

A downhill lie works best...with your feet below your butt. Among other advantages, that allows you to rest your shooting arm elbow on a knee. The rifle is supported from both front and rear.

With more practice from a good ground setup I expect to routinely be able to place shots into 3/4 moa out to 700 yards in no-wind conditions. I've already been doing that at 600 yards on steel but only with a lot of deliberate tinkering around with my position and technique.

Soon we'll publish a feature article review on this product.

We'll be offering them in the LRH Store after Jan 1. They are a specialty product made by Rudolph Optics. I think they should call them Dolph Sticks.
.
Ernie Bishop with prototype unit

Interesting product. That's similar to what I do using a tall set of bipod sticks on the rear with a trigger sticks tripod on the front but looks to be a "one step" one product solution to the two product sticks. One less thing to carry in the field is always a good thing!

 

[Len Backus]

Here are my newest, best groups shot at distance using shooting sticks yesterday.

*******************************************************
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.

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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[Lpart]

Len, what do these weigh and what is the fold up size?

 

[Len Backus]

2 pounds and 38 inches