How well do you shoot offhand?

Brad

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
99% of my shooting is offhand.
I shot ML for years and years in co petition and it was all offhand. When I shot HP the offhand was what I worked on the most. Learned a ton shooting HP.

I tend to always sight in his ting guns offhand because that is how I will shoot them in the field.
 
L Ross

L Ross

Well-Known Member
While I enjoy shooting offhand more than other positions I almost never shoot at critters without at least leaning against a tree or over a limb. I did have to deal with a yard varmint this Fall with nothing to rest on, so to paraphrase Pope, (did you know H.M. stood for His Majesty?), I sucked up my guts and made a pinwheel at 47 paces with the .222 Remington Yard Guard.

JonB's reminder that shooting is a perishable skill should encourage us all to get in some kind of practice. Dry fire is available even if trapped in an urban setting.

I got out ice fishing yesterday and sort of scared myself so I'll have at least a week where I can spend some time at my range again.
 
Joshua

Joshua

Taco Aficionado/Salish Sea Pirate/Part-Time Dragon
I shot a bunch more groups down in the basement this weekend, and measured them. There were some good ones and some bad ones. I want to make a correction. Honestly I’ll say this, that on a good day, shooting offhand, I can do 6 MOA or better, but on a bad day groups can balloon up to 10 MOA.

In other news, it would seem that there has been a run on 5mm/20 cal pellets. 5mm/20 cal pellets are a small percentage of the pellet market, which makes them vulnerable to panic buying. I was shooting Benjamin’s cause they were the cheapest. Everywhere I look is out of stock. I should’ve bought more last year when they were 13 bucks delivered from Amazon.

Ended up buying some European pellets. It was a good deal, buy 4 get 1 free, from a smaller out of state outfit. So no tax!

Even many of the European brands of 5 mm pellets were sold out at many of the online sellers. The eBay sellers have figured it out, prices are pretty high there.

It would make sense that with the ammo and primer shortage people are going back to there airguns.

Josh
 
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Mitty38

Mitty38

Well-Known Member
With pistol 3 to 4 inch at 7 yards without bracing. But it it slow. Speed it up with a draw I am at 6 to 8 inches.
Now with rifle I am just good enough for government work, A .5 moa rifle automatically becomes a 7 moa rifle usually with shots an inch or 2 higher then I am aiming. Used to be a lot better but used to don't count except at story time.
Now if I can find a tree, or Neal, sit , lay and rap a sling, and take at least 10 seconds to make the shot, then that is a whole different story. I Am like 2 moa.
Nope nothing too spectacular here and I shoot a lot.
 
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A

abj

Active Member
I'm with CW and Brad, started with ML and moved to Bullseye, so offhand is nothing new until I tried 22 RF sillys. I could clean the chicks and pigs most of the time. Turkeys, maybe 3 of 10 and rams 2 of 10 on a good day. Damm they are little targets.
Tony
 
Rick H

Rick H

Well-Known Member
Starting late summer most years I start spending time with the scoped .177 RWS in the basement at 10 yds. Try to shoot 25 shots a day at a target I made up....5 targets with center 1/2" second ring 1" and third ring 1.5". Somehow I got the idea that those sizes correlated with killing shots on deer sized animals at 67 (?) 100 and 200 yds. Anyway every day 5 shots sitting, 5 shots kneeling, 5 shots sitting in chair from cross sticks, 5 standing supported with the side of the basement support pole and 5 shots standing offhand unsupported. I keep a running score and keep track of my progress. I tried to find my score sheet but couldn't....this year didn't get much shooting nor hunting done.
I am really upset if I can't keep all shots OH in the 67 yd. ring and all shots sitting or from cross sticks inside the 1/2" (200 yd) ring. I find that I don't shoot kneeling much better than offhand and standing supported by the side of the pole is much better.

The pellet rifle shooting isn't the same as your hunting rifle and break barrel guns like mine need a little different technique to shoot good groups.....but the practice does help me shoot the big guns better. My pellet guns don't like a firm grip.

About the pellet's prices: they have skyrocketed but I use the German RWS match pellets, purchased buy the thousands some years back. Can still get some decent practice pellets for $7 or so per tin of 500, but have to buy in quantity.

I do little position shooting with my hunting rifles, mainly because the ranges I frequent frown on anything but single shot, single load shooting from benches. It is a pity but after watching some of the yahoos they get it is no wonder.
 
Bret4207

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Even with my so called "eye sight", a heck of a lot better than my boys with their eagle eyes. Training, practice and experience. I watched 2 of them try to hit a skunk in an open field in broad daylight and miss repeatedly. I got the rifle, took one shot and that was that. It was the last of 15 rounds, so that should tell you how they were doing. And yes, the skunk was moving at what amounts to a gallop for a skunk. Open sights are hard for kids that think a scope is the only sight.
 
rodmkr

rodmkr

Temecula California
Rick H,
Who do you buy your pellets from?
Do they sell the 22 cal for the same price?

rodmkr
 
smokeywolf

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
If my blood sugar is good (hypoglycemic), haven't drank coffee recently, taken my "essential tremor" med, I can shoot a respectable group with rifle and even pistol. Because of hand tremors (meds or not) I can't shoot double action for beans.

Although right handed and dominant right eye, because of 'old man' eye sight, I'm having to shoot handgun using left eye.
 
Bruce Drake

Bruce Drake

Active Member
smokeywolf said:
If my blood sugar is good (hypoglycemic), haven't drank coffee recently, taken my "essential tremor" med, I can shoot a respectable group with rifle and even pistol. Because of hand tremors (meds or not) I can't shoot double action for beans.

Although right handed and dominant right eye, because of 'old man' eye sight, I'm having to shoot handgun using left eye.
Click to expand...
agree fully on hand tremors. The nerve damage in my neck has destroyed my offhand pistol accuracy also.

Bruce
 
Gary

Gary

SE Kansas
smokeywolf said:
If my blood sugar is good (hypoglycemic), haven't drank coffee recently, taken my "essential tremor" med, I can shoot a respectable group with rifle and even pistol. Because of hand tremors (meds or not) I can't shoot double action for beans.

Although right handed and dominant right eye, because of 'old man' eye sight, I'm having to shoot handgun using left eye.
Click to expand...

I always use my left eye, but I'm left handed.
 
CZ93X62

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
Trigger time matters. I am not able to safely run my air rifles where I live now, and my offhand rifle shooting suffers accordingly.
 
Joshua

Joshua

Taco Aficionado/Salish Sea Pirate/Part-Time Dragon
Rick,
That 10 yard range sounds a lot like mine. A tenth of an inch is one minute of angle at that distance. I also practice shooting groups while standing using sticks, or leaning against a post.
Josh
 
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