[Jerry Gordon] When most people prepare for deer hunting
season they sight their rifle in and practice form as good a rest as they can which normally
involves a bench and maybe even a sand bag to steady their shot to be as accurate as
possible.
However when we go hunting we don't have that luxury and many times we have to use whatever
we can find.
It may be a dirt bank.
It may be a rock.
It may be tree limb but you need to take advantage of whatever you can as long as you don't rest
it against the barrel of the gun and use it against the wood, anything that will steady
your position will make you shoot more accurately.
So we must practice the four basic shooting stances: standing kneeling, sitting and prone.
We're going to start today by talking about the standing position.
The standing position has the advantage of getting you higher elevation to see over obstacles,
rocks and vegetation but at the same time it's the least steady of all the positions.
It is quick so if you are surprised that you find what you're hunting for, the deer for
example, and you don't have time to find a better position.
So to start with we want to try to stand at a forty-five degree angle from our target
with our feet about shoulder width apart.
When we're carrying our gun in the two-handed position then we want to bring the muzzle
up and look at the target.
Don't ever look at the gun.
Look at the target and put the muzzle on the target and then bring the stock up to your
shoulder.
We need to make sure that butt is in the pocket of your shoulder, not too far out.
Next, you want to make sure that your gun hand grip is good and firm with your finger
going along the side of the gun and not inside the trigger guard until you're ready to shoot.
And then your off hand needs to be cradling the forearm.
Many people prefer to point their finger at the target, actually it helps them with aiming.
You need to make sure that you have a good cheek weld here on your stock, where your
face meets the stock and must make sure that you have the proper eye relief from the scope.
If you get too close the recoil can cause the scope to hit you in the face.
We want to be leaning a little bit forward and the shoulder a little forward.
Now sometimes target shooters will actually move back and place their elbow on their stomach
and that may be fine for target shooting and shooting twenty-two long rifle but with a
heavier recoiling gun you don't have any ability to absorb the recoil in your shoulder.
Okay, once we assure we have eye and ear protection, we're going to go ahead and take a shot.
Here ya go, Sierra.
She's assuring that she has her forty-five degree angle.
She looks at the target as she brings the gun up.
Gets the proper position, disengages the safety, and she takes a partial breath, holds it shortly
and presses the trigger and then she doesn't move for a couple of seconds after she takes
the shot, opening the bolt, and leaving it safe until she's ready to shoot again.
The next position that we're going to talk about is the kneeling position.
It's a little more stable because you're closer to the ground and you're actually going to
have three points of contact with the ground.
It does put you closer to the ground so you don't have the elevation and it takes a little
longer to get into but it does offer some more stability and it is quicker than the
next positions we will talk about.
So for a kneeling position, once again we want to stay bladed, about forty-five degrees,
we want to put our gun side knee on the ground.
Make sure that you're angled so that your offside knee is directly between your eye
and the target.
Some people can sit on their foot flat and some people will sit on their heel.
This is a lot to do with your personal build and how limber you are in your joints.
Then we'll bring the gun up just like standing except now we have the ability to rest our
elbow of the offside on our knee.
We want to make sure that we either position the knee on the back of the arm or the elbow
behind the knee.
Depending on your build, you may be able to get in this position, or, go ahead and extend
it in front of the knee, to this position.
What we do not want to do is put the bone of our elbow on the bone of our knee because
bone on bone is going to be unsecure.
We also want to angle so that the gun is directly on top of, or is as close to, on top of the
elbow as possible.
If we start to bring our arm over and hold the gun up here we have a lot more muscle
working that will get tired but if we stack it straight on top it will be much more secure.
The shoulder position, the cheek weld, it's all exactly the same.
What you need to do to get this position is to get in the position with your eyes closed,
bring the gun up to where it's comfortable in the kneeling position and open your eyes.
If you are off and not on your target then you need to reposition your whole body.
Don't just twist your upper body but reposition how you're setting on the ground.
If it's a little bit off, say you're only six or eight inches off to the right then
you can move your offside toe in the direction you want the muzzle to be aimed, and it will
move the point of impact.
So go ahead and get in the position and move your toe to the left and that will move the
point of impact or point of aim, to the left.
Move it back to the right and you will move to the right.
This is good for minor adjustments but again it's crucial in this, and all positions, to
try establish a natural point of aim by getting into the position and if it's not where it
needs to be move your entire body, get up and start over so that you're not in a strain
when you're trying to shoot.
The next position that we'll talk about is the sitting position.
It's a common position for somebody to be in under a tree or in the bushes while they're
hunting.
There are three variations of this position.
The first one will be with the feet apart and one of the basic principles that we talked
about with kneeling applies here, too.
You don't want to put your elbows on your kneecaps.
The position of the stock with your both hands and the cheek weld is exactly the same with
the rifle and your elbows, you want to be on the thigh or the inside of your thigh.
Another variation is to cross the ankles, depending on your body shape and what is comfortable
for you.
And then the other is to just cross your legs completely up under you.
Again, in all three positions, the elbows stay off the kneecaps and remain on the inside
of the thigh or the muscle.
The last position that we're going to talk about is the prone position.
It's the slowest of the positions to acquire but it's also the most stable by far because
now, you've placed your whole body on the ground, got a lot of points of contact with
very stable position.
It does have disadvantages of being very low and therefore even small vegetation and grass
could obscure your sight picture.
First thing we need to consider is getting into the position.
It does take some time and we need to do it safely.
So the first thing you want to do is get into the kneeling position and ground your rifle
in front of you.
Then with both hands on the ground, lay down at a forty-five degree angle to the target.
Now this will vary for a lot of people on how you're going to wind up but again you'll
want to find that natural point of aim.
Your legs can be spread out or a lot of people like to bend the offside knee.
That helps rotate the body up a little bit on the shooting side hip.
It makes it more comfortable for some people.
Then you want to get pretty much like the kneeling position where you've angled yourself
so that the gun is as close as can be over the top of your offside elbow.
Both elbows are placed on the ground and the gun is placed in the shoulder and everything
else is exactly the same as in the standing and kneeling position.
Okay the hasty sling is just a position you can use very quickly with a standard simple
sling that a lot of people use on their rifles to steady the gun in addition when you don't
have anything to rest it on.
So what you need to do and quickly, just run your offside hand through the sling wrap one
time around your forearm and then come back in and grasp the forearm of the gun and then
acquire either of the shooting positions, any of the shooting positions we talked about.
And what it does is it assists in locking the gun into place and it only takes a couple
of seconds to get in and out of.
There are a number of accessories available that you can buy.
One would be a bipod that actually attaches to the gun and gives an extremely stable platform
to shoot.
They're very lightweight and they're very quickly deployable.
They also adjust and come in variety of lengths for prone or kneeling.
And also shooting sticks can be used the exact same way.
The only disadvantage is they're not connected but they are more versatile in a lot of ways.
(music) [Jerry Gordon]
Whether you choose to buy one of these accessories, use a tree limb or a rock or a dirt berm,
you need to practice with each of those and always practice those four basic fundamental
positions of standing, kneeling, prone and sitting so you can make that shot count when
you have nothing to assist you.