Shooting Offhand

[Koli01]

The Appleseed is great for learning the techniques. However, they need to be practiced and re-enforced. My understanding of the Appleseed shoots are that they come around once in a while. Generally the competitive shooters shoot regularly. If you get in with a bunch of these guys, you will learn your techniques and have them re-enforced by regular shooting. You do not have to participate in competitions if that is not your cup of tea.

I don't mean to imply that there is anything wrong with Appleseed shoots.

[MMH]

You are most likely correct in your hunch. The techniques that comprise competitive shooting are pretty much the same techniques any hunter would employ. Sight alignment, trigger pull, breathing techniques, stance, etc are universal for all riflemen. It just so happens that all the experts on these techniques shoot competitively and have studied the subject and written down what they have learned. This is why I reference them for anyone who wants to improve.

Rumdownfid's hunch was correct. At the same time, I was expecting an answer that hawk supplied. I'll be picking up the books as a starting point! I assume that I can get alot of practice in w/ 22 rimfire to keep training costs down.

[Seneca Arms Co. Inc.]

I practice offhand with a .22 more than my centerfire rifles. All the fundamentals transfer over. Upright and erect head position, bone support rather than muscle control, natural point of aim, sight alignment, trigger control, front sight forcus, and follow thru. I shoot mostly service rifle but I had a dedicated 22 rim fire upper in full match grade condition built to mimic my service rifles for good practice.

[MMH]

I practice offhand with a .22 more than my centerfire rifles. All the fundamentals transfer over. Upright and erect head position, bone support rather than muscle control, natural point of aim, sight alignment, trigger control, front sight forcus, and follow thru. I shoot mostly service rifle but I had a dedicated 22 rim fire upper in full match grade condition built to mimic my service rifles for good practice.

Your video is impressive!

[Seneca Arms Co. Inc.]

There are a couple of really good books on position shooting some are modern some are older. One I always found to give some pretty good analysis of position shooting is

Yuryev's book is old and translate from Russian, but it goes into the complete mechanics of firing from position and the chapters dealing with offhand are pretty intense. Although it is geared to competitive shooters, the fundamentals transfer over to hunting or plinking or whatever. Also some good reading on pistol shooting.

[Pete D.]

That Yur'yev book (edited by Gary Anderson) is probably the definitive text. It sure helped me a lot when I started shooting the Free pistol.

Seneca: Two things - questions. At what distance are you practicing with the .22 and what target are you using? The second is not a question really but an observation - you come out of position completely when you check your shots. My background is exclusively smallbore prone and pistol shooting. I am more comfortable staying in the position until the string is done. Prone, the scope is next to my eye, I need only to cant my head to see the target. When I have practiced HP offhand, I go into that smallbore mode, keep the scope close, have a shoulder high rest on which I can set the gun between shots. Obviously, you are comfortable with what you do and - having looked at a number of other videos by now - a lot of other shooters are also.
I wonder if my stay in position idea would be inappropriate or impractical at a HP match?

[Hawk]

That Yur'yev book (edited by Gary Anderson) is probably the definitive text. It sure helped me a lot when I started shooting the Free pistol.

Seneca: Two things - questions. At what distance are you practicing with the .22 and what target are you using? The second is not a question really but an observation - you come out of position completely when you check your shots. My background is exclusively smallbore prone and pistol shooting. I am more comfortable staying in the position until the string is done. Prone, the scope is next to my eye, I need only to cant my head to see the target. When I have practiced HP offhand, I go into that smallbore mode, keep the scope close, have a shoulder high rest on which I can set the gun between shots. Obviously, you are comfortable with what you do and - having looked at a number of other videos by now - a lot of other shooters are also.
I wonder if my stay in position idea would be inappropriate or impractical at a HP match?

In this type of shooting (NRA HP & CMP) The Off Hand COF is loading one round at a time, 10 rounds over a 10 minute period (plus two sighter's/2 minutes). After each shot the target is pulled and marked, it usually takes 15-20 seconds if you have a good puller. I personally don't want to support the weight of my rifle for that 15-20 second after each shot (many competitors add lead to the butt stock and hand guard which dramatically increases the weight of the rifle, I've added 6 lbs to mine). We use this time to mark our called shots in a log book, wait for the target to come back up, scope it, insert another round, and then start rebuilding the position. This allows us about 1 minute per shot. Off-hand is all about relaxation, you don't want to strain yourself in any way, you want your body to be relaxed, both stress and fatigue puts wobble into your barrel and reducing wobble is the name of the game.

If you notice his feet never moved, moving your feet after you build your position will ruin it.

[Pete D.]

After each shot the target is pulled and marked, it usually takes 15-20 seconds if you have a good puller.

That's it. I hadn't thought about that. Nobody pulls my targets during practice and so I hadn't accomodated that idea. Thanks. Great info.
Pete

[Seneca Arms Co. Inc.]

Pete High Power is shot at 200-300-600 yards and we need to move our gear from 200 back to 300 and back to 600 with ease. Having additional items like a stand for your rifle between shots, and even an extention for the scope in off hand is not practical as it is too much stuff to lug around. Also, at 200 your target is being marked in the pits and you can clearly see the value disk without having to look thru the scope. I am using the scope offhand simply to get feedback on my shot calls since I am not shooting with a pit.

With the .22 upper I shoot on the 100 yard reduced highpower rifle target. Sometimes, like in this video I will use the 50 yard reduced target available at Ray-Vin dot com. You can print them off his web site.

Also shooting these 22 uppers can be a pain in the ass to load so I use a loading tool to make it easier, it does require me to bend down though. In real high power i would have my ammo in an ammo holder in the coat pocket to reduce any extra movments to a minimum.

[Ronnies111]

What is considered a decent group? I can shoot well off a bench/bipod, but offhand is another story. I want to improve on my offhand shooting skills - whats the best method? Any book/guide that someone can recommend?

Resting your support arm (elbow) against your ribs/chest area as a prop. And like the other's said ..PRACTICE!!!