The Last Word by Dave Scovill
The "catch" was you had to take all six shots from a standing, offhand, position &endash; no rest of any kind. The total possible was 60 points if you managed to keep all six shots in the 10 ring. I scored 50, a bit better than expected. All the other shooters also managed to pass the test on the first go 'round, although I was told that had never happened before. For the most part, it would appear that the majority of gun writers who take the test spend too much time shooting off the bench and have trouble when it comes to shooting off their own two feet. When asked how I managed to keep most of my shots in or near the 10 ring, I had to admit that I practice shooting offhand at least one day a week, and I have been doing it for many years. The secret, as my step-father passed on to me many years back, is to not try to hold the sights perfectly still on the center of the target. By swinging the rifle slowly, as you would with a shotgun on a moving target (clay pigeon or live bird), you anticipate when the sights will come to bear on the center of the target and start the trigger squeeze so that the rifle fires at the same instant the sights arrive at the intended point of impact. When the target is still, I prefer to bring the sights to bear from below, moving the sights up slowly as I squeeze the trigger. The point is that a moving rifle doesn't wiggle like it does when you try to hold it still. On a moving target, like a running moose, deer, elk or rabbit, you swing the rifle along the body of the animal until the sights come to bear with just enough lead to hit the shoulder, lungs or neck. Again, by swinging the barrel along in a smooth fashion, there is no wiggle or tremor, unless you have a serious case of the shakes. Even then, however, a swinging rifle tends to nullify the effects of the tremors. I am not sure, but from what I have read over the years, the method I use to shoot offhand would be called snap shooting. (The total time to bring the rifle to bear until the shot is possibly two seconds or less.) One of the folks who was giving the test in Finland timed our shots and told me the total for my three shots standing was 11 seconds from the sound of the first shot. That includes working the bolt and aiming, of course. The reason for bringing this subject up is that I am not the only gun writer or hunter who probably spends too much time shooting off the bench. With reader interest concentrated on maximum accuracy, writers don't have much choice. Then, too, if you have a minute-of-field-mouse rifle, it might as well be minute of barn door, if you can't shoot it reasonably well from a variety of field positions. Besides, a little offhand practice is fun, if not embarrassingly informative. Either way, keep at it. You never know when a bull moose will come crashing through the brush.
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