Shooting from prone is the most stable position in the field. However, in many situations, long grass or underbrush makes prone shots simply impossible. The ability to shoot from seated positions quickly in the field is an invaluable skill for hunters. Here are a few ways to shooting from seated supported in the field with backpack hunting gear that you’ll actually have with you in the moment of truth.
Test Setup
First of all, the rifle used for this text is a Tikka T3X Lite in 223 Remington topped with an Athlon Talos 10×42 BTR Gen 2. The ammunition was bulk 77gr 5.56 NATO. From each position I shot a 10 shot group, measuring how long it took to get set up until the first round was fired from each position using a shot timer.
Tripod
Shooting off of a tripod is becoming incredibly popular in the hunting sphere. Following the trends in NRL Hunter, many more hunters are considering this option for their shots on game. However, unlike NRL Hunter, typical hunting tripods are much lighter and less stable than those seen in competition. The video below shows building a position on a tripod and firing a ten shot group. For those who prefer to watch we go through all of the details in the video.
The mean radius of the group was 0.955 MOA, and the group size was 3.285 MOA. Notably, the time to first shot was much slower than the other groups, coming in at 57.27 seconds.
Trekking Poles
Another common improvised shooting position is seated off of trekking poles. By looping the wrist straps you can create improvised shooting sticks in the field. Unfortunately, the shots here were done off of plywood which provides a poor grip for the trekking pole legs. This method is typically much more stable on more natural terrain where the trekking poles can get a better bite into the ground.
The mean radius of the group was 1.262 MOA and the group size was 4.299 MOA. Getting set up with the trekking poles was much faster than with a tripod, and the time to first shot dropped to 18.92 seconds.
Off of a Pack
Finally, perhaps the oldest of the seated positions is off of a pack. It is quick, and you almost always have a pack with you while hunting. The pack used for the test was the Stone Glacier Sky 5900. I have been using for 4 years at this point. As such, I practice with it regularly and am very familiar with building positions off of it.
The mean radius was 1.156 MOA and the group size was 3.205 MOA. The time to first shot was faster still at 14.73 seconds.
Takeaways
This experiment was valuable and illustrates a few key takeaways. First of all, while shooting off of a tripod had the best mean radius, the accuracy was not that much better than the other seated positions, and was much slower. In fact, shooting off of a pack actually produced the smallest group. The huge accuracy benefits that are seen shooting heavy competition guns off of 6+ pound tripods are greatly reduced shooting an 8lb gun off of a sub 2lb backpacking tripod.
Another key takeaway is that using lightweight hunting equipment shooting 3 MOA from field positions is a realistic expectation. The trekking poles shot worse than that, however, I am confident that shooting off of natural ground would bring them in line with shooting off of a pack or off of a tripod. If we generously consider a deer’s vitals to be around 12 inches, this means that realistically seated shots are an ethical option out to around 400 yards. Beyond that, finding a way to get prone is imperative.
Both shooting off of trekking poles and a pack allowed the hunter to get a shot off in under 20 seconds, versus nearly a minute for the tripod setup. Real hunting opportunities are often fleeting and chaotic, and waiting an additional 40+ seconds can often make the difference.
Closing Thoughts
In closing, the ability to shoot quickly from seated is important, as getting prone is often impossible. As demonstrated above, different methods of supported seated shooting provide similar accuracy with vastly different levels of speed. The ethical hunter needs to get out and practice with the equipment and positions they will actually use in the field and use that practice to guide setting realistic boundaries for their equipment and skill level.