hey guys Todd Helms with Eastman's hunting journals out here today
To show you the how to on field shooting positions
with a rifle while i've got you here drop down hit that subscribe button give
us a thumbs up five shooting positions each with
different fundamentals but there's room for adaptation in your game the most
important thing is that you get out and you practice these
you're shooting prairie dogs or gophers or rock chucks from
field shooting positions so when that shot transitions to a big bull elk
or a big mature mule deer buck you can make the shot with
100 confidence if you don't have prairie dogs if you don't have
live varmints to shoot at shoot clay pigeons
shoot milk jugs shoot something that is dynamic
that breaks when you hit it because when you can see your hits
it registers that you're doing the correct thing in your brain and it
instills confidence in that position and rifle shooting in the
field on game is all about confidence all right so the
first and most accurate position that we're
going to talk about is the prone position
say i'm hunting through the field i'm making a stock on an animal and i get to
a shooting position i know i can make the shot it's within
my effective range so it's time i'm going to drop down
first thing i'm going to do is i'm going to switch hands but
again guys this is just how i do it practice this figure out system that
works for you i'm going to unclip my pack i'm going to
sling this backpack off as i switch the rifle and i'm going
to lay it down on the ground because it's going to serve as the butt
support for my rifle the next thing i need to do
is pop out my bipod legs i also want these to be as tall as i can get them
because i've got some grass that i'm going to be dealing with here today
so the backpack is going to serve as my rear support for the butt of my rifle
the front support are my is my bipod now all it is there's lots of different
ways to do this guys you got to find what works for you
as i lay the rifle out and i get it set up about like where i want it
and it's pointed pretty much at my target i can now get down
i'm going to lay on this pack and i'm going to get everything comfortable
and we're going to rack of one in and squeeze off around
so i'm i'm down behind the gun i like to be at a little bit of an angle behind
the rifle that's just my personal preference some
guys want to be straight up and down and vertical
all right i am on target i am fully supported underneath this rifle
i need to slide that back so i can get a little more elevation
i'm going to bring my left hand back underneath the butt of the rifle
because what that's going to give me i've got quick and easy elevation
adjustment right here if i need to come up in elevation i can
slide the hand forward and the butt of the rifle drops
raising the barrel if i need to come down
i slide the hand back raises the butt stock drops the point of the barrel
i need to come up just a little bit i slide
my feet are flat behind me or maybe my toes are
dug in to help lock me into the rifle because i want to load my bipods my
bipods need to have pressure going forward on
them to be loaded so i can push with my feet
just a little bit i've got the apex of a really dark kind
of shady spot on the rock looks like a triangle i'm going to shoot
the very point of that apex i'm very solid in this position this is
my most accurate field shooting position and
this is the one that i like the most for hunting
all right here we go
i'm gonna shoot again
that's two hits two shots two hits exactly where i wanted
where i wanted to hit this rifle is very accurate and i can get the most
out of this rifle's accuracy from this position
all right so now it's time to get in to the second most accurate field shooting
position in my opinion which is the seated position the
vegetation or the terrain may be such that i can't shoot prone i
can't see what i'm trying to shoot at prone so i'm
going to show you how to how i drop in to the seated position i'm not the
most flexible person in the world so this may not be super graceful but i get
the job done i'm shooting off shooting sticks this time i'm going to take a
knee real quick lay my sticks down probably lay my rifle
down get my backpack off because i'm using my
backpack as my rear support alright so i'm going to sit on the
ground
i got to get my shooting sticks dialed out here
this is the important part the backpack is going to come underneath
the underneath the butt of the rifle and work as my rear support
again i have two points of contact in prone with the butt of the rifle was
supported in the front of the rifle was supported
by the bipods in the seated position you can do a lot of different things
with your legs in this case for me it's most comfortable to have them out
in front of my body and i have a natural little bit
left hand left twist because i'm a right-handed shooter
my two points of contact the butt stock on the backpack
the front end of the rifle on the shooting sticks
all right i have about a 200 yard shot i'm going to put one in
we're going to send it see if i can hit the exact same spot
i think that'll work i'm only comfortable to about 300 yards
from this seated position again if i can get my feet below me
i'm a lot more comfortable when they're sticking straight out in front of me
like they are right now it's harder to get steady on that rifle
but your fundamentals for this are two points of contact
i'm squeezing the backpack in as it's supporting the butt of the rifle
and i've got my front of my rifle supported by shooting sticks
and i can go up and down on these swaggers if i need to
but i'll guarantee you right there that was a bull out
he's toast he's money
good shot good job he's down all right so position
number three is kneeling it is the third most
accurate because like i said we're getting higher off the ground
now again we're going to maintain the fundamentals of
two points of contact the rear of the rifle is supported
and the front of the rifle is supported now this one's a little different
because i'm going to use my elbow on this knee
locked in here bone on bone if you will to aid in the
middle support of the rifle to kind of bridge
the front to rear the butt stock of the rifle is not going
to be supported with the pack this time it's going to be
against my shoulder in the shoulder pocket
and i'm going to be squeezing it in with the pack resting my elbow on the pack
so that's why it's important that i have this elbow locked in here
because then i have a triangle of support that's going to help me maintain
some accuracy out of this position all right let's get in same thing is
sitting i'm going to put the rifle in the sticks
supported with my left hand it's in i'm going to lock in
that elbow on that knee i'm gonna pull this pack in tight to my body
get as solid a rest as i can possibly get
let's send one
so position number four is the standing position
it is the fourth most accurate as well because we're starting
or get we're a long ways off the ground now thing that i
try to always do and what separates standing
from freehand is that i always try to get supported
now there's some really great products out there that will help you aid in a
standing shot you think well if you're going to shoot
off a support why not get prone or why not get
kneeling because you might not be able to
your target may be at an angle that you cannot get lower you have to stay high
there may be brush in the way there may be trees there's a
variety of reasons why you may need to shoot
supported standing right here i've got a handy dandy boulder
you always want to be looking for things as you're hunting through
if you're making a stalk on an animal or if you're getting set up on an animal to
take a shot look around you take the extra time look
around you if you can get a natural support that
gets you a rock solid rest do it i'm going to use my
bipods this time to help me rest on this rock here we go
i put three shots on target in a vital zone on an animal
pretty happy with that shooting i've practiced this stuff a lot
the whole point of it is to practice enough to become proficient
proficiency for me's 80 90 in a vital size area or a smaller than a
vital size area my fifth field shooting position is
freehand this is by far the least accurate
position and you may be asking well why are you showing it then because
it has its uses if you're working in on an animal and it
surprises you or it pops up at very close range
you won't have time maybe to get in another field shooting position
so being proficient in the freehand position
is important you may use it to finish off a wounded animal
you may need to take a quick shot in dense cover the point is guys there's
lots of opportunity in the field to still use the freehand position is it
ideal no is it necessary to be good at yes because it's going to also make you
a better shot overall because it's going to require
you to be good with your trigger squeeze and good
with your breathing now there's a trick to freehand shooting
that i learned years ago the first thing is i want a good
athletic stance so i'm going to always try to place the replace the
target off the i'm right-handed so i'm going to always
try to place the target off the toe of my right foot kind of like a golf stance
but i'm in a nice athletic stance the the weight of my body is kind of on my
toes for you guys that do a lot of wing
shooting a lot of shooting with a shotgun
this is going to be very natural to you the mount of the rifle if everything's
right the crosshairs should be right in your eye
now i do not try to hold my crosshair dead steady
on what i'm trying to shoot i try to get it to cover
that very small spot that i'm shooting i come
up from underneath so i'm raising the rifle as i'm raising the rifle into my
sight picture i'm coming up i'm cover i'm hovering
over the spot i want to shoot from the bottom up and as i'm hovering
i squeeze the trigger again for me it's kind of like a ballpoint pen
click click that's how i squeeze the trigger
in free hand positions where i want complete control over that trigger
i've got a rock about 50. i'm not much good with freehand past
100 yards it's really hard to maintain good accuracy
out there because i'm unsupported and i'm the highest from the ground that i'm
gonna get right now my safety is on because i'm in thick
timber and i'm anticipating a quick shot i do have a round chambered most of the
time out west i don't chamber around on my rifles
until i'm really ready to shoot all right i'm walking there's the bull
he stands
let's put another one
that's it target is not very far away but i'm not going to take a freehand
shot at a long distance either all right so real quick tip for you
always dial your scope magnification back to
its lowest setting that's going to give you the most field
of view so it's going to be easy to acquire your target
and we need all the help we can get with free hand because it's kind of wobbly
the lowest magnification setting on your scope
is the most steady as well it's going to help instill confidence
again practice these on clay pigeons man if you can hit a clay pigeon at 50 yards
8 out of 10 or 9 out of 10 times you're pretty good freehand
shot bump that out to 100 you do it eight out of 10 times
give me a call because that's pretty good shooting so thanks for checking us
out on this youtube video i hope it really helps
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joining us today until next time we'll see you in the field