#10MinuteTalk 

Off hand shooting was something I wanted to improve so I got a pellet rifle. You can shoot 1000 times for like 10 bucks. I'd never get to practice that much with a centerfire.

Recommend dry firing as a practice routine in the offhand position. Allows you to practice if you’re limited with range access or time.

One of the first things I learned when I started shooting competitively is that stability is key. And that starts with your feet. As ya'll mentioned, feet need to be shoulder width apart and you should face at around a 45 to 80 degree angle. It's for the exact same reason a boxer takes that stance, it gives stability in the direction the gun is facing. Never square off to the target with your feet, a gentle breeze will knock you over and that's no good for stabilizing a rifle. Beyond that, I find choking up on the gun with the off hand helps. The less strained your muscles, the less wobble there will be, especially if shooting for an extended period. Fatigue is the enemy of accuracy, so be comfortable and relaxed. Beyond that, learn the rhythm of the wobble and time your shot accordingly. Breathing deeply and slowly is a great help, it will reduce your heart rate, calm you and thus reduce the wobble. Also keep natural point of aim in mind. Get in position, close your eyes, relax and then see where the rifle is pointed. That's where it wants to point and will have the least wobble there. With practice, you will learn to aim quickly and precisely with your body position rather than using your arms. It can become instinctive and thus very fast even on a surprise target, but you have to practice it. Works for moving targets too, the closer to that natural aim you are, the less strain on your body and thus the better the accuracy.

I learned shooting through wing shooting as a child, which is 100% "off hand". I learned on a 12 ga pump 870 when I was 8 then switched to a 760 woods master in 30-06 at around 14 (and all of 90 lbs soaking wet). Probably because I'm a pump fan I've always felt it was easiest to aim above the target on inhale, then let the sights fall slowly as I exhale and adjust my body to make the bottom of my exhale as close to a natural point of aim as possible through 1-3 breaths. Once I'm comfortable with the up and down repeatability, I reposition my trigger finger and start a gentle press, hoping to break as the sights slightly pause on the center of my target. On static targets when I have time I always hold the rifle with my forehand and then place the butt exactly in the pocket of my shoulder with my firing hand and apply a large amount of pull with my forehand. If you put 1 full twist in most rifle slings and fidle with the length before hand it can be a great asset in applying back pressure when looped 1 full time around your forearm and no further up your arm than your elbow. If you let a hasty sling rest against your peck or bicep you will get a large pulse jump in the crosshair. Moving tatgets the same principles apply but its much easier to stay "stable" while swinging the gun and far less tomfoolery but more instictive shooting skills are needed.

We practice a lot of offhand shooting on moving targets here in Sweden 🇸🇪. It’s actually a requirement to get a license for hunting rifles and shotguns to pass several practical tests on moving and static targets, Offhand. On moose I use 3 to 4 x magnification at about 100 yards. Great video good topic.

3:40 Obtaining a hunting license in many countries in and around Europe often requires a scored shooting test, typically from some realistic field position and sometimes on a moving range target. Meanwhile, American ranges are littered with bench rests and very few gun owners/hunters outside the competition world voluntarily shoot any other way.

First off, dry fire is great because you want to concentrate on relaxing and settling on target. There is plenty of plenty of time later to shoot live rounds. Generally, I follow the advice of Jeff Cooper in his book, "The Art of the Rifle." Namely, try like the dickens to not shoot off hand. Always shoot supported. However, there will be times where unsupported is all there is. So, I do practice off hand, either standing or seated. You will never settle like you do with a solid rest, such as a tripod or a rock or a table. So, as you are generally in the target zone, you do need to pick the moment to squeeze. There are going to be times, especially hunting on public land, where you come across your target and there is no time to set up on whatever supported system. So, you settle as much as possible and squeeze the trigger at the right time.

The way I like to shoot off hand on a static target is to hold my crosshairs above my target and slowly lower them to where i want to hit and squeeze the trigger, or hit the release on the bow

This talk takes me back 50 years to basic training and instinctive shooting drills with a Daisey BB Gun and the tin airplane on a cable and pully. As a farm boy I had shot literally thousands of shots with a BB Gun so in no time I was hitting that big airplane with little bitty BBs as it sped by.

Heard the “Legolas” comment and I appreciate you speaking my language for this conversation.

A talk on dry firing would be cool.

Awesome stuff! As you guys mentioned, range practice is key, as it makes no sense to dial in a 0.2 MOA benchrest level handload, if my human accuracy 20 MOA offhand in the field. Low powered optic plays a huge role as well, as a larger field of view makes life much easier. 1-10 Razor would be awesome for offhand.

I remember being 14-16 years old. I would take my father's Winchester 190 and about 3 to 5 boxes of ammo (150-250 rounds) with a bag of cans (beer and soda) to power line cut in the woods. I would toss a bunch of cans up and down a hill side. I would then begin shooting in a variety of positions. I loved to squirrel hunt and that was my training for squirrel hunting. It stayed with me today.

The last few years I have gotten hooked on watching Biathlon. XC skiing and shooting they are amazing

thank you for a great video!

I thought I was doing something wrong till I heard him say getting the wiggle rhythm. I can hit dead center but I couldn’t hold it stable on crosshairs. I feel just a little bit better now

Missed a nice buck shooting offhand a few days ago. Where was this video beforehand?! Haha. Will be practicing this more often for future opportunities.

Same principle as running boar, if you are moving the rifle sideways in a controlled swing vertical movement is virtually eliminated, with a static target have the scope on low power and aim low, bring the rifle up the front shoulder in a vertical swing that will reduce horizontal movement, pause and squeeze

I am 57 years old shot my first deer at 14 .i have never shot with a rest.the rifle was designed to be shot from the shoulder practice and don’t take all day to take the shot

I pray and squeeze! 🙏🏻👉🏻

Good idea for you guys. Grab all the 30cal magnums and have a sit down to compare it to the new 300PRC and answer questions like will the 300PRC stick around what does it have thats different from the other 30cal cartdriges. I'd love to see a 300PRC, 300Win mag, 300 Weatherby mag and 300RUM. This would be a good over the limit 10min talk.

I was surprised no tips on use of the sling in offhand shooting. For longer range, a solid bone foundation and adjust sight picture with slight foot movement, not arm/hand muscle movement. I shoot at a gravel pit up here in Alaska and practice offhand with a 22 lr while allowing my big game hunting rifle barrel to cool. Shooting at reactive targets like trap clays, balloons, spinning targets, etc. helped my off-hand shooting. That instant feedback helps.

As my dad says, the first time that deer comes into your view with the crosshairs over it, is going to be your best shot because anytime after that will generally be bad because your arm will start getting tired. I shot a doe at 70 yards free hand last month with my shotgun. As soon as I had her in view with a good shot, I fired away. Sure leaning against a tree or shooting rail is ideal, but when I free hand shoot with my gun or crossbow, I’ve always driven my left elbow into my body/hip for steadiness and leverage. Works every time.

It's weird you brought the archery aspect into it like you were reading my mind. I was thinking exactly that when you are taking longer shots on target, you have to time your release instead of trying to hold perfectly steady. When I was a kid learning to shoot, my dad told me to make horseshoes and time the shot on the upside. He said it was how they were taught to shoot the Garand, off hand. I've been using this method for archery and rifle for 30+ years.

I highly recommend high power rifle competition shooting at your local range for practice. I got use to my 5.56,6.8(ar plateform), and 30-06 m1 rifle. Very confident in offhand out to 200

I think a lot of us forget to use our hips. Sometimes my crosshairs just want to stay high, maybe it's because I didn't stretch or am stiff from the cold. Either way, a little tilt in the hips, which seems easier to hold for me than tilting my shoulders, seems to do wonders for stability.

This is a skill all hunters should practice. The gold standard for a lot of hunters is to hunt dangerous game, whether that's on the plains of Africa or in the Alaskan wilderness. Sometimes, off hand shooting is all you have time for. And that's not the time to regret not practicing enough. Also, a major advantage of off hand shooting, especially relevant to big bore hunting rifles for dangerous game, is that it makes recoil much more manageable, as you let it push you back. Shooting seated from a bench rest doubles to triples the amount of felt recoil as your shoulder is relatively static, and you can't use your whole body as a shock absorber. As an example, most people can shoot clays with a 12G standing up off hand for hours if not the whole day without much discomfort. Try the same shotgun on a benchrest and you will feel the massive difference in recoil. When you're shooting dangerous game with 458 Lott and larger, you definitely feel the pain.

Could you provide link to David Petzal article or vid. I tried to search, but didn't find it 😞

Could you guys talk about the RUM cartridges. I've been shooting the 7mm Rum for about 15 years. I started reloading because of this round. Not a good round to start reloading with, but factory ammo became almost nonexistant. I am very interested in the 28 Nosler, but can't quite bring myself to switch when my handloaded 7rum can shoot 1/2 moa groups. I love this gun but knowing there is something new and way more efficient is eating my brain.

Like to see a video on the 28 Nosler cartridge. There’s not many videos about it out there

One thing that they did not touch on it weight if you are running a bipod more weight is going to be on your hand witch is further away from your bodyweight generally makes your arm tier faster and become less stable

Something i m looking for is off hand shooting with a target style stock. Or prescion hunting rifle type .... I m building a rifle /concept of a 50 to 500 yard optimized for any shooter... a rifle i can hand to my wife or son, a relatives child .. or use myself.. to shoot whitetail at 50 yards outta tree stand, running at 40 yards ... or prone across a hay field 500 yards... Has to be light weight, 6mm or 6.5 Just not sure in style of stock...

How did I not know ya ll had this video... and why was I not there.

When I settle my breath that’s when I take my shot and I plan my trigger pole for that even standing I find the radical doesn’t really jump around when I’m settling my breath

I shot a deer off hand this past weekend at about 115 yards. I shot twice and hit both times. I try to practice “snapping in” like we used to do at the rifle range in the Marines. I didn’t need the follow up shot, but I was not 100 percent sure on the lethality of the first shot. It was slightly back, but he was toast.

You wait for the sights to kind of sweep across the target, and when watching, the sights line up, hit the trigger. Leading a running animal is totally different. Every person is going to have wobbling sight picture, knowing how to decide when to break the trigger, is the thing.

Exercise whole body. Muscle strengh is very very important. Yet very few people is talking about it. Driven hunting mostly 50 yard. Franz Albrecht is the best. Shotgun is good for training moving target.

I use a dumbbell to develop the muscles in my left arm, which supports the barrel. Movement has reduced significantly.

Pull into the pocket of your shoulder with both hands. The ART of it is what Ryan said, it's a balance of the gun, triger, and actual balance point of the gun in relationship to your body. The gun has to fit you in order to be 100% at shooting RUNNING deer. And practiced!!! There s no way i could shoot a 30 carbine the way I did 20 years ago at a deer running. At the same time I could handle models 700 270 at 10 years old the way I can. I ve killed more than I can count running. And if you re ever gonna get good at it.... just a fact; you will start out with a semi auto, lever gun, or pump. Do the math yourself on why that is. It was a diffrent TIME and things are "different now." But I bet I never go hungry ;) and no I don't wound animals.

10 minute talk on the .408 and .357 CheyTac

physical fitness helps. push ups

Where to even start. I could list a hundred must do for one perfect shot. But hours of practice picking up get stance all goes into muscle memory. You've got to flip the switch an be in the zone. For me from walking to shot fired is about three seconds. Between three an four seconds rifle is absolutely perfectly steady. I practice at 100 yards, the rest is all in SWAG calculations for windage an elevation. *SWAG ... scientific wild ass guessing

You guys should have got a silhouette competitor on there to give advice...

Shoot with an AR through an Acog and you’ll get used to offhand shooting with a somewhat magnified optic. The biggest problem is the tendency to try over correcting which is user error.

Focus on your target and crosshairs secondary, it will automatically bring your crosshairs on target and once they align squeeze your trigger. It’s almost like taking a screenshot when you squeeze the trigger, everything stays still for a millisecond and that’s your guarantee you’re on target. Personally I prefer the Olympic stance even though it looks a little poncey, but if it works 🤷‍♂️

I find that sometimes I shoot better offhand especially with a pistol because I’m more focused on my fundamentals.

Natural that trains like my life depends on it!

Sideways 8

Here are some great tips from Sniper instructor Ryan Cleckner: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l-lzvjGPgKE.html

.257 weatherby magnummmm

the thumb nails tells it all 😂

Hi Guys, I like your videos, you're all very informative, but I wish you'd loose the headphones. JMO 😮

I will not even attempt an off-hand shot without a M1907 sling or National Match equalilant.

Much prefer to be up a tree . I have had deer walk by at 15 yards & didnt know I was up there .

I came from archery. Found this equally useful. I've been wanting to practice both styles of hunting. Never know when you'll lose a hand. My one contribution, if it qualifies, is having a forward grip mounted. If you lose a hand you can press against a window sill, low wall or even a tree branch. Anything really. Off your opposite knee. (If it's not legal where you are, it's still best to practice. "Judged by twelve or carried by six") Just don't be stupid. That's all I'm gonna say. Follow your laws

England = England Great Britain = England, Wales, Scotland United Kingdom = England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland

Rife shooter don't think about gun fit for off hand shooting and do not practice. look at clay shooter lots of practice and always working on gun fit

Lift some weights.. strength helps with steadiness

Practice sporting clays

The guy sounds like Ben Shapiro xD