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Real world rifle shooting positions?

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rbaldini

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I'm new to shooting and hunting. Will be hunting for the first time this year. I've been practicing my rifle shot from a variety of positions and distances at the range, but I thought I'd poll you experts about the real world.

Think back to the ~5 most recent rifle shots that you took on big game (antelope and larger) - including any misses! I'd love to hear some details about the shots you took. Would love to hear...
-What range were they, approximately?
-What stance did you fire from? (E.g. standing vs. kneeling vs. sitting vs. prone)
-Did you use some rest? (off-hand vs. bag vs. bipod/sticks vs. tree branch)
-How much time did you have to settle down and shoot? (E.g. spot-and-stalk with lots of time to take a shot? Or quick, opportunistic shot in the timber?)

And of course any more details or narrative would be greatly appreciated.
 
rbaldini said:
I'm new to shooting and hunting. Will be hunting for the first time this year. I've been practicing my rifle shot from a variety of positions and distances at the range, but I thought I'd poll you experts about the real world.

Think back to the ~5 most recent rifle shots that you took on big game (antelope and larger) - including any misses! I'd love to hear some details about the shots you took. Would love to hear...
-What range were they, approximately?
-What stance did you fire from? (E.g. standing vs. kneeling vs. sitting vs. prone)
-Did you use some rest? (off-hand vs. bag vs. bipod/sticks vs. tree branch)
-How much time did you have to settle down and shoot? (E.g. spot-and-stalk with lots of time to take a shot? Or quick, opportunistic shot in the timber?)

And of course any more details or narrative would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

I think the last 5 were:

prone at 250 (antelope), kneeling at 40 (elk), standing off-hand at about 20 (whitetail), kneeling with a rest at 200 (elk) and standing off-hand at about 15 (whitetail). All were hits except for #2 (kneeling at 40), which I tried to thread through a small opening. Pretty sure I hit a tree.
 
Last edited:
Hope I can help a bit but thinking about it, a bit of everything. 1- 530 yards prone animal standing still no rush. 2- 90 yards me standing animal eating no rush to shoot, I couldn't kneel because of a rise in terrain. 3- 180 yards kneeling resting on a rock animal feeding no rush. 4- 5 yards standing while the animal was feeding below me "I was in a tree" no rush. 5- 40 yards sitting down animal feeding no rush. 6- 50 yards me standing animal running fast, I was in a hurry. 7- came a few seconds after 6 so again running and in a hurry.
 
Last 5:

Prone @ 425 (rushed)
Standing off tripod @300 (very rushed)
Prone @ 337 (all the time in the world)
Prone @ 517 (decent amount of time)
Prone @ 375 (fairly quick)

The only one that involved a miss was the first one at 425, I was borrowing a rifle I hadn’t shot in years, and I suspect I was given an incorrect range. Was able to see the miss and correct for a connection. All prone shots were off a bipod.
 
Carl, do you think if you had to, you could have gotten closer on some of those shots? I'm not questioning your marksmanship - I'm questioning mine. Is it often the case for a western hunter (I'll be in CO) that one needs to take shots beyond 300 yards? I'm hoping to keep it under 300 yards, personally.
 
Starting from 2017 and going back 5 animals. All of mine are deer.
100 yards off hand in the timber he was trotting away. No time for anything else.
150 yards he was moving away. Sitting and using shooting sticks.
60 yards from one knee and on the shooting sticks
200 yards sitting using shooting sticks
400 yards resting my rifle on a downed log over my pack.
The last 3 the deer were all standing so no hurry.
I use Easton's Cross Shot sticks but have used 2-3 other brands. Been using shooting sticks for 20 years. Anything over 200 yards I prefer prone over my pack if possible.
 
Last edited:
Last 5 from 2017:
-rushed stud whitetail leaning on shooting rail of climbing treestand @ 225 yards, 257 wby Dead.
-lead cow elk of herd walked right to me, offhand. 30 yards, 35 rem dead.
-good highcoutry muley ran over ridge to me with 4 smaller buddies, shot using my treking pole as rest at 60 yards, 7mm wby dead.
-6x6 bull elk 8 yards as me bugled in my face, back/left shoulder stablized by tree, parker bow dead.
- i know u said 5 but this incident resulted in 2 lope kills, 280 reload 340 yards both prone, 7mm wby both dead.

Thinking of this i dont shot prone much other than lopes and yotes. I did shot a yote at 578 yards prone couple weeks ago. I always try to rest on or against something, like i said above even when shooting bow. With bow i try to keep my form but stabilize back against tree or even a shoulder. Anything helps me from swaying and makes better aim. A improved rest is a valuable tool in any hunting senerio and often its just my backpack but it all helps...
 
rbaldini said:
Carl, do you think if you had to, you could have gotten closer on some of those shots? I'm not questioning your marksmanship - I'm questioning mine. Is it often the case for a western hunter (I'll be in CO) that one needs to take shots beyond 300 yards? I'm hoping to keep it under 300 yards, personally.
Click to expand...

Good question. In 3/5 there was some opportunity, but I would be rolling the dice that getting closer would work out. I guess it’s a thing I’ve developed a feel for, my confidence in the shot vs my confidence in the stalk. Once I’m comfortable with the shot, I have to be exceedingly confident in the stalk to hold off on the shot. For context, I spend considerably more time these days training and competing in long range shooting than I do hunting. As such I have a pretty good feel for my abilities and limitations. On the 425 yd shot with the borrowed rifle I knew I was stretching things a little, fortunately everything worked out and I gained another data point for when I should hold off and wait for something better.

Additionally, I regularly put myself in hunting situations where I’ll have to lean on my shooting abilities some. My game plans include finding a few spots I can shoot from that will cover as much of the terrain of interest as possible. In many areas, a 300 yd limit would not cause you to pass many opportunities, so I wouldn’t fret heading to Colorado with that limit.
 
From my experience as a guide, most guys fail because they either can't find the animal fast enough in the scope or they don't have their setup figured out. Kudos to you for thinking about this before hand, it'll definitely pay off. The biggest deficiency I see is hunters not able to shoot off hand efficiently. Most animals in the timber will give you a few seconds, which is enough to not rush a shot, but not enough to be uncertain. We had a few sections that was thick timber and blow downs and often kicked out some gagger bulls. But in order to even get a chance at those bulls meant you had to still hunt it and shots were close (<75 yds) But I got so few hunters that could shot off hand quickly that I stopped taking my clients in there. No sense in busting elk.
As for setup most guys would show up with a bipod, full length tripod, primos trigger sticks and other wizbang crap. My head's still sore from pulling my hair out as a 6x7 bull walked past my hunter at 200 yds. He never got a shot off because he couldn't get his bipod adjusted right. So figure out what you want to use whether that's shooting sticks or rifle mounted bipod, and practice with it.

My suggestion is to practice offhand <100yds and practice shouldering your rifle and acquiring the target in the scope in one motion, then aim and squeeze, should be just two or three steps. Get an accurate shot as quickly, don't rush it, be deliberate.


here's what works for me
<100yds offhand
<250yds sitting, shooting sticks,
>250yds prone

5 most recent shots:
Mulie 70yds, prone, bipod, plenty of time
Whitetail 75yds, offhand, about 3 seconds
Elk 400yds, prone, pack, plenty of time
Elk 150yds, Kneeling, quick 5 seconds
Antelope 300yd prone, bipod, plenty of time
 
I try not to take off-hand shots. I have taken them quite recently since the situation required it. Personally, if the situation permits, I will look for the steadiest rest possible - tree, rock etc. I walk with a pair of walking sticks that I "tie" together with a length of inner tube. If I cannot find a good rest, or the brush is too high for a kneeling position, I will use the sticks. So far this has worked well for me.

I know a fellow hunter hunter who regularly shoots off-hand out to 100 yds. I sure wish I could do that.

I think it is important to know your shooting skills and limitations and adapt your hunting to that.
 
Learning how far you can shoot accurately using the side of a tree for a rest would be useful. Some practice and learning to avoid letting the rifle touch the tree can be a good thing.
 
HighWildFree said:
From my experience as a guide, most guys fail because they either can't find the animal fast enough in the scope or they don't have their setup figured out. Kudos to you for thinking about this before hand, it'll definitely pay off. The biggest deficiency I see is hunters not able to shoot off hand efficiently. Most animals in the timber will give you a few seconds, which is enough to not rush a shot, but not enough to be uncertain. We had a few sections that was thick timber and blow downs and often kicked out some gagger bulls. But in order to even get a chance at those bulls meant you had to still hunt it and shots were close (<75 yds) But I got so few hunters that could shot off hand quickly that I stopped taking my clients in there. No sense in busting elk.
As for setup most guys would show up with a bipod, full length tripod, primos trigger sticks and other wizbang crap. My head's still sore from pulling my hair out as a 6x7 bull walked past my hunter at 200 yds. He never got a shot off because he couldn't get his bipod adjusted right. So figure out what you want to use whether that's shooting sticks or rifle mounted bipod, and practice with it.

My suggestion is to practice offhand <100yds and practice shouldering your rifle and acquiring the target in the scope in one motion, then aim and squeeze, should be just two or three steps. Get an accurate shot as quickly, don't rush it, be deliberate.


here's what works for me
<100yds offhand
<250yds sitting, shooting sticks,
>250yds prone

5 most recent shots:
Mulie 70yds, prone, bipod, plenty of time
Whitetail 75yds, offhand, about 3 seconds
Elk 400yds, prone, pack, plenty of time
Elk 150yds, Kneeling, quick 5 seconds
Antelope 300yd prone, bipod, plenty of time
Click to expand...

I've never worked as a guide, but I've taken people hunting and what I've found is that especially in the thick woods around here, people just don't recognize the shot opportunity when it presents itself. They're waiting for everything to be perfect and it rarely is. A lot of western hunting is more forgiving in this regard, but it sounds like you've had similar issues with clients. Around here, it's rare to get a shot that isn't off-hand. The best you can generally hope for is kneeling shot, or a tree to steady against.
 
220 on a whitetail sitting knee as a rest, but only because the grass was too tall to shoot from the ground, took what seemed like forever to pull the trigger on this one, 60-90 sec, it was a big deer, barely on public, and my heart was beating out of my chest.

945 on a elk from prone, (clean-up, wounded elk from 2 other slob hunters who took 15-20 offhand shots and wounded 3 bulls) I followed this bull for several hundred yards in my scope, I was extremely relaxed as I was not planning on shooting it. ranged, dialed and pulled the trigger in less than 30 seconds Once I made the decision to shoot.

330 on a antelope from prone, Rushed shot, he was getting nervous
120 whitetail sitting knee as a rest, same field, same tall grass , rushed shot, ghost deer appeared out of nowhere
340 on a antelope from prone, relaxed shot, debated in my head for 10-15 minutes before deciding to shoot

We pretty much always look for the prone shot... But we practice everything just in case.. In order best to worst, 1. prone (bipod/pack) 2. from sticks 3. from a tree 4. over a knee 5. off hand. I would not be taking a shot over 150-200 yards unless I had a solid rest.
 
Here are my last five animals......
Bull- 360 yds, standing resting on a tree branch, one shot
Antelope doe- 390 yds, prone off of a bipod, two shots (lateral wind drift was issue)
Antelope buck-150 yds, off hand standing, one shot
Muley buck- 150yds, sitting rested off of a brush pile, one shot
Black bear- 100 yds, sitting off hand while bear was moving, one shot

The black bear was the only animal where I didn't have a reasonable amount of time.
 
A couple of the guys I hunt are never ready for a quick opportunity. The shooting sticks are packed away and they just don't think about what you should do if an animal is not going to just stand there. I never fold up my sticks while hunting. I use them as walking sticks and I rest my binoculars on them for glassing. On numerous occasions I have had to go from the binos to the gun very quickly but it's not a problem if you are used to it. Whatever rest system you use practice with it. Years ago when I first starting using sticks I shot an air rifle or 22 off the sticks just to get used to using them.
 
Standing freehand @ 175 yards with animal quartering away (a bang bang situation with bull elk, two rounds and both were lethal). Calm winds, blue skies. Flat terrain.
Standing @ 145 yards using one legged shooting stick with animal broadside (had two minutes to calm before shooting bull moose and two rounds with both lethal). Calm winds. Blue skies. Cold. Flat terrain but tucked just inside some brush.
Standing freehand @ 125 yards with animal mostly broadside (bang bang situation with pronghorn, one round and was lethal). Windy and blue skies. Flat terrain but some tall sagebrush.
Standing @ 265 yards using one legged shooting stick with animal broadside then weak quartering away (had one minute to calm before shooting pronghorn and two rounds with first high over target and second lethal). Windy and blue skies. Thick sagebrush.
Standing freehand @ 115 yards with animal broadside (a bang bang situation with mule buck, two rounds and both were lethal). Windy. Snow flurries. Very cold. 30 degree incline.
 
Mule Deer @ 200 yd (one knee rest on backpack)
Whitetail Deer @75 yd (one knee rest on backpack)
Whitetail Deer @ 40 (standing off hand)
Whitetail Deer @ 30 (standing off hand)

Rest with ARCHERY equipment :cool:
 
Off-hand shots should be the last resort if at all possible. There is usually something to use for support whether it's a tree, a rock or pack of some kind. I've started carrying lightweight shooting sticks and they are great.
 
Elk @ 215 yards (rest on backpack) and @ 25 yards off hand (first shot wasn't a great hit)
Mule Deer @150 yards (rest on fence post)
Mule Deer @ 110 yards (sitting off elbows on knees)
Pronghorn @ 70 yards (Prone off backpack)
Black Bear @75 yards (Kneeling on shooting sticks)
 
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