OFF HAND SHOOTING

[Erwan]

NNOW YOU TELL ME WHAT THE ADVANTAGE GOES WITH THE PERFECTLY ROUND BALL.

If you want to know what I think about this I can do it but it is not with what I'm saying about this that I'll get friends...
Well, for me this solution is ridiculous:
- First if you are shooting patched balls the patch must penetrate the bullet and let his tissue mark on the bulled, so the bullet is no more round.
- If you aren't shooting patched balls the bullet mus touch the groves and the bore. When forcing wit a mallet and the ramrod the bullet is no more round and I don't talk about the deformation of the pure lead when the powder explode, that is may-be not much but the ball can certainly be a little bit more deformed...

So is the reason why I don't believe that rolling the balls is good, except to eventually attenuate the carrot but, for example, with a Lee mold it is not a carrot but a flat place...
That tool isn't really useful apart for Pedersoli and the retailers...

I don't care about rounding them its done to eliminate the sprues little flat cut marks and makes Loading faster since there is no need to align for the sprue.

Yes this is the only way I think rolling the balls is useful...

 

[Sun City]

Dryfire one hour every day for a year.....and then you can start putting powder down the bore!

 

[Sun City]

I won an off hand, 100 yard turkey shoot at 16 years old and consider myself to be a reasonably competent shooter. However, that's with modern firearms and caplocks. When switching to flintlocks I was surprised to discover I was having trouble hitting the mark when shooting off hand. To deal with the delay and flinch factors associated with flintlock shooting I have adopted a method that calls for focused concentration on holding steady on target and squeezing the trigger and follow through. I mentally repeat "hold, hold hold, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. When I do it right, I will be able to see my sights on target and be able to call the shot when the boom occurs.

For those intending to improve their offhand/standing shooting there needs to be a way that the target is approached every time....in the same manner. Either of four directions is OK but down or left to right is best....SAME WAY EVERY TIME! Noone can hold a rifle static...there's going to be movement. You may can get away with breaking a shot as the front sight is moving into the bull (say right to left) but not as the front sight is exiting the bull...or whatever target!

 

[Tom A Hawk]

For those intending to improve their offhand/standing shooting there needs to be a way that the target is approached every time....in the same manner. Either of four directions is OK but down or left to right is best....SAME WAY EVERY TIME! Noone can hold a rifle static...there's going to be movement. You may can get away with breaking a shot as the front sight is moving into the bull (say right to left) but not as the front sight is exiting the bull...or whatever target!

Therefore, I should only shoot at stationary deer, standing broadside, at a fixed distance, with no wind. Right? Actually, I have trained myself to hold static, swing with lead and elevate front sight as the situation requires.

 

[Sun City]

Therefore, I should only shoot at stationary deer, standing broadside, at a fixed distance, with no wind. Right? Actually, I have trained myself to hold static, swing with lead and elevate front sight as the situation requires.

Well....Tom I'm mighty proud to know that I've finally found a shooter that can hold a rifle totally static! I'd really like to know your secret because I've shot with some of the best shooters in this world for many years and if you told anyone of them that you could hold a rifle completely still....without movement...they'd fall over and die laughing at you!

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

BRASS-F Breathe Relax Aim Squeeze Shoot Follow through....
SM

 

[Eddie Southgate]

I just try to hold level and let the sight wander left to right across the center of whatever I am shooting at . On a Bullseye type target I start to pull the trigger as my front sight enters the 10 ring . Learn to do this and you get 10's and X's with a few 9's .


I DON"T DRY FIRE .

 

[longcruise]

I dry fire a bit but it may or may not help. The holding drills, to me, are more about muscle, nerve and mental conditioning.

I don't "squeeze" though. I press the trigger. The trigger finger operates independently of the rest of the hand and fingers that are engaged in gripping. Trigger finger is relaxed and controlled separately from the rest of the hand muscles.

Squeezing came about in training recruits to shoot the M1 Garand. It was the fastest way to teach large groups how to shoot. They were taught to grip the rifle and squeeze with the entire hand.

 

[Rodd Boyer]

I was taught back in my Army days to do a "Cuban 8" (figure 8 on its side). That gives you a track to keep. It helped me at the time, but my eyes are bad enough now, nothing can help!

Good luck, shoot straight and God bless,
Rodd

 

[tenngun]

Therefore, I should only shoot at stationary deer, standing broadside, at a fixed distance, with no wind. Right? Actually, I have trained myself to hold static, swing with lead and elevate front sight as the situation requires.

I took my first ml deer in ‘75. I’ve not missed taking one very often since then. I’ve never shot a moving deer. Many were broad side,all were at a good angle. None were ‘off hand’.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

I took my first ml deer in ‘75. I’ve not missed taking one very often since then. I’ve never shot a moving deer. Many were broad side,all were at a good angle. None were ‘off hand’.

Most commendable hunting performance. However, as the subject of this thread is "Off Hand Shooting" perhaps we could get to the meat of the issue. Which I suppose might be something along the lines of, "given the various methods and shooting styles previously discussed, what is your effective range when shooting off hand with a muzzle loading firearm?"

 

[longcruise]

Tenngun, you got me prying into my brain.

My muzzle Loading game has been deer, elk and antelope. Everything I've ever killed was shot offhand. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge advocate of using a rest but it simply has never been in the works for me.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Shooting offhand was considered a poor test of a rifle.

Still is. But it's a true test of a shooter. ;-)

 

[tenngun]

Tenngun, you got me prying into my brain.

My muzzle Loading game has been deer, elk and antelope. Everything I've ever killed was shot offhand. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge advocate of using a rest but it simply has never been in the works for me.

I took an pronghorn from an arroyah over a rock with a rifle cover thrown on it. About thirty-thirty five yards. Elk was taken with juniper that I braced against. Same range.
Deer have been from some sort of cover sitting and leaned over knee, or leaned on the tree. A few throw over a branch of a tree. I’ve made a few shots over cross sticks that I made at my stand from forest litter. And a few from a branch that was similar to the pronghorn.
For about ten years I had a stand under cedar tree with branches that came to the ground. A good trail and stand of persimmon off to my left. I had a good chance to shoot off my knee.

 

[Bledfor Days]

I've only shot off a rest once while making sight adjustments on a rear peep sight that was on a Lyman trade rifle I bought. My club has a shoot first Sunday of every month and it's all roundball offhand. I'm basically a range shooter so I don't know any different. I'd be confident taking a medium to large game shot at 50 to 60 yds. No more. At 100 yds. I usually need a first shot to see POI, then adjust POA from there. In a real hunting situation I'd probably have an elevated heart rate and the adrenaline would be pumping so I wouldnt be near as steady as I am at the range.

 

[Sun City]

For the four years I shot with the AMU at Ft Benning Georgia I shot offhand/standing because it was required when shooting across the NMC. For hunting....I never shoot offhand because there's always a way to shoot from a rest rather it be the side of a tree, side of a hide, or from across the top of a backpack!

 

[tenngun]

Do have to amend my above post.
I lived in Arkansas, was the only home on a two and a half mile dirt road. The road had a sunken area in it with banks about three feet high on each side. I had been hunting about a mile from my place and was walking home. Was in that sunken area when a deer jumped off a bank about forty yards in front of me, stopped in the road and stared at me.
I took a shot, deer kept up opposite bank and I could hear him running in the woods, brush and angle were thick enough I should do see him. I reloaded, had a pipe sitting on one bank of the road. Then went to find me deer. The ground was fairly soft and his trail easy to see. Saw no blood. Followed about a quarter mile and he had stopped running, still no blood, he turned on to a well used game trail and I lost his tracks.
I figure as I threw up to aim, I shot under him.
Off hand

 

[Baxter]

I was born clumsy. No rest, no shot. I admire people who can shoot well off-hand but I also admire people who can find or form a rest of some sort in difficult settings - improvisation sort of thing.

 

[smo]

I don’t like taking shots at game off hand but I have done it, both successfully and unsuccessfully...

I enjoy shooting woods walks which are shot off hand , so that’s how I mostly practice nowadays.

 

[Erwan]

I never have my hands in the right place...

Spoiler