Offhand accuracy at 100 yards

[Jakegsxr11]

I'm wondering what everyone shoots for accuracy off hand at 100 yards. I have never had anyone to shoot with or teach me so I don't really know what to expect. Everyone always talks about accuracy when bench shooting or prone but I want to know what is normal offhand in a hunting situation. I can shoot much better off a rest while prone, and I never had a bench to shoot from. I try to shoot either kneeling or standing like I would out of a ladder stand. I feel I can shoot fairly well at 50 yards but 100 yards is much more difficult. I can usually hit within 2" of a bulls eye at 50 yards but I get maybe 40% of my shots on a paper plate at 100 yards. I find it difficult to hold my scope on the plate during a 100 yard shot, I have also tried using a sling to steady the rifle but that doesn't seem to help much. I get these results with Hornady SST or ELDM it doesn't seem to matter.

[A5BLASTER]

Pull your front hand in some if your holding the rifle far out towards the end of the handguard/stock.

Also try to keep your shows tucked into your body.

Standing so your target is off your shoulder instead of facing it head on is always good.

Don't try to hold the rifle dead still on the bullseye, learn too break the shot when your sights are passing the center. This is how I shoot my bows and rifles with iron sights. Helps with jerking the trigger and cuts down on muscle fatigue and getting the shakes.

Hope this helps sir. Just some of the things my grandfather learned me bout shooting when I was young.

[Jakegsxr11]

Thanks I do expect that to help, especially the first part about pulling my front hand in some, that may be why it's easier to shoot my 12" vs the 18"

[Klem]

All good advice from A5.

It sounds like you are already a good shot offhand. The guys who do this really well are Olympic offhand shooters. 'Trust your wobble' as the old saying goes. You won't be able to keep the gun still so don't fight it, accept it, establish a predictable up/down movement as you breathe and coincide the break when the crosshairs cross the POA. You have more control as the gun comes down than going up so if you can start your shot sequence above the target let gravity help you guide the reticle over the POA.

Don't hold the gun in position for too long. If it doesn't work and you have time then bring the gun down and rest, and start the sequence again.

This is a good summary of standing unsupported shooting, especially the photos;

https://www.everydaymarksman.co/marksmanship/standing-position/

[A5BLASTER]

Something I forgot to included in my first post.

If you keep your target off your support shoulder, you can tuck that elbow down into your side. Makes for a much more improved hold.

Like I said for me it's nearly impossible to hold dead on for more then a second or two. Trying to hold dead on and break the shot clean leads to jerking the trigger aka target panic.

What your looking for is a slow drift of the sights. Not to big of a distance but a nice slow drift is what you want. After that it's just a matter of practice breaking the shot when the sights drift to your desired impact spot.

Lots of dry fire training helps with that. Also helps identify flinch and train it out.

[StoneHendge]

If whatever your doing allows it, placing a lightweight shooting bag under your trigger arm can really help stabilize that part of your body. I have an 8x8x4 or so bag with plastic pellet filling thats part of my 3 bag set that I stick up into my armpit as far as possible

[CJW]

I can’t hit the ground offhand, but I’m not too shabby on sticks.

Chuck

[BCHunter]

A good question would be what is acceptable offhand accuracy for your purpose. I assume since you mentioned ladder stands you are talking hunting accuracy?
So generally 6" vital zone is used for deer, so you would want to be able to hit those pie plates (usually 8") 100% of the time.
So how to get there?, short answer would be put a rail on your stand for a more stable rest.

Wanting to improve your off hand accuracy takes practice, use a .22lr at 50 yards and try the techniques mentioned, can get a lot of practice in to hone the technique, then take a few shots at 100 with your grendel you should see improvement.

[VASCAR2]

I agree in shooting a 22 LR off hand at small steel targets is very helpful. I have 22 LR AR-15’s set up just like my duty rifle. Weight, balance, trigger and optic were virtually the same and with 22 rimfire I could afford to shoot 2-4 550 round bulk packs a month. Shooting more generally helps people become better shots. Shooting steel with a 22 AR-15 is very enjoyable and challenging when you start shooting past 100 yards off hand.

[LR1955]

A good question would be what is acceptable offhand accuracy for your purpose. I assume since you mentioned ladder stands you are talking hunting accuracy?
So generally 6" vital zone is used for deer, so you would want to be able to hit those pie plates (usually 8") 100% of the time.
So how to get there?, short answer would be put a rail on your stand for a more stable rest.

Wanting to improve your off hand accuracy takes practice, use a .22lr at 50 yards and try the techniques mentioned, can get a lot of practice in to hone the technique, then take a few shots at 100 with your grendel you should see improvement.

BCH:

And that is the best advice I have seen for this particular situation in a long time.

I shot Over the Course for years with both service and match rifle where we shoot standing at 200 yards for our first stage of a match. Currently, I compete in Biathlon where we shoot prone and standing at 50 meters after some pretty tough skiing.

My take on it is this. Unless a guy really wants to become a competent off hand shooter, his best bet is to just get a rest and figure out how to make it work in his situation.

Or, given shots on a game animal at 100 yards or less, ditch the optic and use a dot sight. Will be way easier to get better performance standing using a dot sight or even irons than with anything magnified.

LR55

[Jakegsxr11]

Excellent, thanks for all the input. I was worried i was just terrible at this. I'm glad to see it's just more challenging than I thought. I already have an AR 22lr set up similar to my Grendel so I'll start practicing more with it at 50 yards off hand using your techniques here. Building a rest really isn't feasible in my situation. I've never had any luck with the dot sights, it's like I see 2 blurry dots all the time making them very difficult to use. I'll continue using my 1-6 lvpo and hope they don't make things more difficult, maybe I'll try leaving them on 1 power.

[Sinclair]

BCH:

And that is the best advice I have seen for this particular situation in a long time.

I shot Over the Course for years with both service and match rifle where we shoot standing at 200 yards for our first stage of a match. Currently, I compete in Biathlon where we shoot prone and standing at 50 meters after some pretty tough skiing.

My take on it is this. Unless a guy really wants to become a competent off hand shooter, his best bet is to just get a rest and figure out how to make it work in his situation.

Or, given shots on a game animal at 100 yards or less, ditch the optic and use a dot sight. Will be way easier to get better performance standing using a dot sight or even irons than with anything magnified.

LR55

Jakegsxr11, I do not know what or why you hunt, but LR55 and others have give you really good advice. What is possible offhand? Back in the day (a really long time ago) I shot a flintlock in NMRA matches. To do any good you had to shot 3" or better at 100yds offhand. Some guys weaved in a figure 8, I and some others started below the bull, raised just above it and let the rifle slowly settle down and fire as the sights passed the bull. My point is that you need to experiment to find your best technique. And lastly as LR55 stated, a rest helps tremendously. My Grandfather told me that is why God put all of those trees in the woods.

[imaguy3]

Some people call it cheating... but these are phenomenal... I used to use regular two leg sticks, and while very helpful I still had a lot of vertical wobble past a hundred yards.

With these I can lean into the gun more when they're on the sticks (I use the detachable leg forward and then the sides kicked out), it's similar to loading a bipod when prone, taking away a lot of vertical movement. I love using them for predator hunting where I can stand in a bush and have the rifle resting on them. My furthest kill, standing, using these and nothing else has been just shy of 250 yards on a coyote.

https://www.amazon.com/Vanguard-T62U-Shooting-Stick-Removable/dp/B006LZNOKG

[imaguy3]

Just out of curiosity I wanted to quantify the difference the tripod sticks I linked make.

Here is 10 shots I shot standing at 100 yards. Offhand, no sling no nothing. I shot these 10 shots fairly fast, in just a few minutes.


Here's 11 shots, 200 yards, using only the tripod sticks, I shot these ones as fast as I could acquire a sight picture.



Moral of the story, those sticks are super awesome, and if I were to take my time and time my shots better with my natural movement I probably could shoot better too...

[G Tidewater]

As noted, get used to your arch of movement. Be confident that what you are seeing is ok. DO NOT snatch the trigger. Trigger discipline is very important. As you are on target and seeing the reticle moving just consintrate on your trigger press. Obviously you need to have a good stance and not be all over the place .
Another method is the approach technique . I start around the 7:30 position ( below and left of the target) and "draw a straight line " towards my intended POI . I break the shot at the edge of the plate/ ring.