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With Good Legs | August 2011 | |||
Gerhard Schroeder
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There it was, an honest eight inches. I pretended it
was a real beast. Actually it was worse. The range finder suggested
217. With the scope set at 6X, those eight inches were easy to see.
Also easy to see was the crazy dance those crosshairs made, trying to
settle on the steel disc. Over sandbags from a table this would have
been a waste of ammo, nothing to it, every shot a hit. But my butt
was on the ground. OK, on a foam pad on the ground. Because this was
10 April, first thing in the morning, and it had rained and drizzled
almost all day Saturday. Mud all around testified to that, as did the
layer of snow easily visible on the upper regions in the Bradshaw
Mountains to the north.
Neither did it help that the wind was already breezy, making for
noticeably uncomfortable wet cold conditions which kept my nose
running.
All this was actually helpful that morning, adding a level of
difficulty in my attempt to simulate hunting conditions. A steel
plate shows no mercy. Hit it, and the thing will swing noticeably.
The smacking sound, however, was often lost in the wind, ear plugs
and muffs. During testing I tend to use both. Miss the plate, even
by a hair, and not a thing will happen. Whatever the bullet might
have kicked up was obscured by recoil. Lack of dust from all the
moisture then did its part to hide where the missed shots landed.
My hands, the supporting one protected from the cold by a glove, aimed
my 308 Tikka, with elbows resting on the insides of my legs. My first
shot nailed the round plate, I smiled. The second didn’t. The third
hit again, but no more smile. I knew from the missed shot before that
this was about a fifty-fifty situation.
The whole project was also a fact-finding test. How accurate am I
under these circumstances? Not good enough that morning to hit eight
inches at about two hundred steps when shooting across my knees.
Plan B bombed out before I even fired a single shot. I had installed
a Harris-type bipod to the swivel stud. That was an easy procedure,
even out there, only requiring a screw driver. Disappointing that
fully extended, the twenty-four inches were still too short to get the
rifle on target. And that was with the steel plate positioned slightly
downhill. It would have never worked with a target level with or above
my position.
The prone position would not have worked, either, because of vegetation.
Besides, I wasn’t about to wallow in the mud. To be clear, bipods are
useful to steady a rifle. But unless this occurs on a mowed meadow,
firm snow or from some cliff, it positions the shooter in front of
vegetation. For my style of hunting I’ve ruled them out.
Plan C employed an old trick, possibly ‘invented’ by buffalo hunters
in this country more than a hundred years ago. I tried home-made cross
sticks, similar to those I had used and left behind during the 2010
deer hunt (with much frustration, if you remember that story). After
three shots I had sobering results. Only one of them hit the plate.
However, at one of the missed shots I caught myself jerking / flinching,
doing something that allowed the rifle to shift noticeably right at the
shot. At least I had one answer. Not too surprising, hitting that
whitetail in the lower hind leg last October was operator error.
Somehow the cross sticks facilitated rather far movement of the muzzle
as I pulled the trigger.
Oops, that’s right. I was pulling that trigger more than squeezing it.
Why? I took another shot. There it was. Even with those cross sticks
the aiming process was on the edge of frustrating. The MilDot reticle
moved around more than I wanted it to. In response I was harder on the
trigger as soon as the crosshair swept the target. Bad habit.
Plus, to be honest, I also caught myself anticipating some recoil.
Hmm. For comparison I switched to the Mini Mauser in 223Rem. Using
the same cross sticks my first shot hit. So did number two. Then
three. Suddenly I had fun again, kept at it until fifteen shots later
they all had smacked steel. That was good! Too bad a .223 isn’t
really for deer-sized game.
So I grabbed the .308 again. This time I paid more attention to
aiming and squeezing. Surprise, surprise, the next five rounds nailed
the steel plate. It was a matter of practice, of concentration. I
stopped there that morning, out of time, certainly tired of the wet
cold wind.
A few weeks later I continued the test. The wet cold had been replaced
by sunshine and crusted ground, but wind was still with me. This time
my target measured 7x7 inches, was 253 yards away, according to the
electrons.
Right away I encountered a difficulty that had not been there when
the ground was moist. The wooden ends no longer dug into the ground.
Now they had the tendency to slip on the hard soil. At this increased
distance the bullets demanded a different aiming point, slightly to
the left / into the wind and above the plate. Then hits were possible.
But they occurred inconsistently. So, was that it? Was that as far
as cross sticks would aid in hitting my target?
Later that week I exchanged a few emails with Dan. He had made several
cross sticks over the years, used them during HSC events and in the
field, given me one set as well. Dan stressed that the sticks need
padding where they contact the rifle.
Off to the garage. Within minutes my simple sticks featured metal
studs at the bottom (pre-drilled with an 11/64 bit, then half of a
20D nail shank gently pounded in until it stuck out about 3/4 of an
inch) and improvised padding at the top (foam covered by the finger
end of an old work glove).
The following Saturday, jacketed lead flew again. This time the 7x7
plate ended up 213 steps away, barely visible above ground vegetation
between me and the steel.
It was dry and cool, and the wind noticeable stronger than previously,
almost as strong as during my 2010 deer hunt. As expected, the metal
studs worked great. Dug right into the ground and stayed there. The
padding definitely helped. My rifle no longer jumped as much.
Hitting the steel became easier once I figured out how much to hold
into the wind. Just note this, though: if you haven’t done much cross
stick shooting, it provides nowhere near the stability of a bench and
bags. Aiming and squeezing the trigger demand some definite coordination.
Strong wind makes this even more obvious as it tends to sway the rifle,
even when cradled in cross sticks.
I drove home more confident that morning, and made the padding permanent.
That is, a strip off an old mouse pad glued on, then covered by a patch
of thin leather wrapped around and stapled on the off-side.
For me that was the end of cross stick evolution. From then on I
addressed the ‘what can I do with it’ question. But before leaving the
sticks themselves, here are a few specifics:
Dan and I deviate on the basic stick concept. His are longer because
he uses them as walking sticks. My right knee got overextended when I
wrestled with my last dead cow elk. Ever since then I need a walking
stick in serious terrain, ala Arizona’s game habitat.
My walking stick is over 6’ long – six feet I’ve come to depend on when
conquering steep slopes. I ‘attach’ my cross sticks to that walking
stick with two rubber bands. It has worked well on both the last deer
and javelina hunts, meaning they remained attached and came off easily.
An extra couple of rubber bands in some pocket are recommended.
Clearly, the down side is that my sticks will not employ as fast as the
way Dan uses his. It’s just that in this world of compromises my knee
won out. Plus the sticks are for long distance only, a situation where
hopefully the game will not be aware and I’ll have the extra time.
During the 2010 deer hunt that was the case.
My cross sticks are made from two pieces of ¾” x ½” wood, 36 inches
long, with pivot point 4 3/8 inches from the top, and a section of
rope limiting the spreading angle to about 40 degrees. Cheap and easy
to make.
For entertainment I’ll also cover another ‘device’. Borrowed from those
long tripod contraptions seen on many Africa hunts, the shooter uses
them to steady his rifle from the standing position. I consider it an
aid to offhand shooting because both elbows still dangle in midair. My
‘device’ is a long cross stick but with a section of rope attached that’s
long enough to reach the ground where it has a loop that I step into and
thus pin it to the ground. I then push the long sticks forward until the
rope is tight. So my left hand holds the rifle and its palm pushes
against the top of the sticks with considerable force. This stance is
noticeably more stable than offhand, but nowhere near what is achievable
while sitting.
Back to making noise and finding the answer to the main question: how
far away could I still hit a deer’s kill zone? Just because my
shooting ‘range’ allows convenient placement of a steel swinger at 300
steps I put an 8x8 plate there.
David has welded up several steel swingers, so that’s what I use. If
I can hit those, it equates to a dead deer.
Dan, Sam and I worked on this in late July. For that test I had made
one additional change, tying cross sticks and rifle together with a
bungee cord. All three of us concluded that the resulting stability
was indeed impressive. This ‘mount’ allows me to let go of the sticks
without dropping them, and the rifle can be tilted within the “V” of
the cross stick cradle.
I hit that 7x7 plate at 200 yards every time, and the 8x8 at 300 – four
out of four once I figured the right hold into the wind.
I’ll end here. Between now and November practicing will continue.
Aside from shooting I’ll also go through the routine of removing the
cross sticks from my walking stick, setting the rifle in there, then
cross-winding the bungee cord. This will take a minute. If the
desired critter is that far away I hope my binoculars have found him
before he detects me (or he holds still anyway), thus allowing that
much setup time. May I get such a chance.
Sticks
I don’t know how long I’ve been using homemade shooting
sticks on my hunts, but it has been since at least 1999. On a backpack
hunt in December of that year, I took a nice Coues whitetail off my
sticks at a distance of 240 yards.
When my kids started hunting, I made sticks for them. And as they
have grown taller and taller over the years, we have had to keep making
new ones that are taller.
As Gerhard mentioned, my shooting sticks double as a rough country
trekking pole when folded up. In fact, I often take them on hikes, even
if I am not humping a rifle. I size them so that when they are folded,
they reach about to the level of your xiphoid process (at the
bottom of your sternum) when you are standing.
Taking a look at the nearby picture, you can see that Sam on the right
has outgrown his sticks and we need to make a new set for him. We did,
and we donated that set to Audrey Snyder, from which she shot her first
deer at a distance of somewhere around 200 yards.
I make my sticks out of red oak. I start with a piece of 1”x2” oak
from the local home improvement warehouse. After cutting the stick off
to the correct length as described above, I rip the one-by-two into two
one-by-ones on a table saw. You need to carefully consider the placement
of the saw blade before you start this cut to make sure that the two
pieces end up being the same size.
The next step is to fire up the oscillating hand sander to take out any
roughness from the saw cut on the two sides that were just separated.
For this step, you need to take care not to dwell too long on one spot
or you might end up with the leg of your sticks having waviness, or
uneven thickness along the length of the leg.
Next, clamp the the two legs together, with the two separated sides of
the sticks facing each other just as they were before they were cut into
two separate legs. It’s important to keep these two faces aligned to
each other during the build process. You may want to make some sort of
a mark on the sticks to remind yourself which two sides of the legs need
to face each other. Over time, the legs may take a slight warp as wood
often does. You want both legs to curve together, and they will if you
keep this alignment throughout your build.
Measure down about 4 inches from one end, and drill a 3/8” hole straight
through both legs. A drill press is very handy for making a good straight
hole through the two legs. This is your pivot point.
The two legs are bolted together with a round-head screw, or a low-profile
hex head bolt, with a washer and a nylon-insert locknut on the other side.
But between the two sticks, I put a rubber washer. This spacer between
the sticks is important because it provides room for a buckskin wrap over
the rest area. We’ll talk more about that later.
You don’t want a lot of bolt extending out of the locknut because that
will eventually bite you. So next, using a Dremel tool with a cutoff
wheel, I trim the protruding bolt just beyond the edge of the locknut.
As I finish the cut, I gently round or bevel any remaining edge of the
bolt.
While I am at the drill press, I measure another 4 inches down from the
pivot point and drill a ¼” hole in each stick. These holes are placed
next to each other in the two legs, at 90° to the crossbolt hole. A
length of parachute cord will go through these two holes and be tied
into a loop. This is what limits the legs from folding all the way open.
You will adjust the length of this loop later.
Alright, now they are starting to look like shooting sticks! At this
point, I disassemble the sticks once again and put aside the hardware so
that I don’t lose the pieces. Now I give the sticks an overall hand
sanding with a sanding block and 100 grit sandpaper, maybe even #220. I
want the sticks to be smooth to the hand all over. Lightly round over
the 90° edges.
The next step is a protective wood finish. My favorite is Watco Danish
Oil in the Natural color. I put on at least three coats following the
directions on the can. More coats is better. After waiting a day or
two for the finish to cure, I reassemble the sticks.
Yes, it is important for the rifle rest crotch of the sticks to be padded.
I use pieces cut from an old backpacking sleeping pad. This is the
somewhat dense foam that is about 3/8” thick. I glue the strips to the
two rifle rest faces using contact bond cement.
I used to leave it at that, replacing the pads every season or so. I
finally wised up, buying a piece of tanned buckskin. From this, I cut
coverings that wrap completely around the tops of the sticks, covering
the pads. The buckskin wrap is stapled in place. This makes for an
excellent hand grip in walking stick mode, besides protecting the pads
from abuse in the field.
The final important element to my shooting stick system is what allows
the sticks to be used as a very effective hiking stick. This is a clip
that I fashion from a 1” wide piece of sheet metal. It is placed near
the bottom of the sticks and holds them tightly together in the closed
position. It wraps around three faces of one stick and is screwed to
that leg on two opposite faces. It now occurs to me that this can be
done with one through-bolt, but so far I have only used two separate
woodscrews.
The clip then extends around the other stick, but not quite all the way.
There is enough wrap-around to hold it closed, but I bend a little pull
tab on the end to allow the clip to be pried open by finger to release
the leg to allow the sticks to open.
Because of the wide stance of the sticks in this position, I don’t seem
to have too much trouble with the ends of the sticks sliding around as
Gerhard mentions. I have never felt the need to put spikes into the
ends of the sticks.
There is some natural springiness with the parachute cord and the wide
stance of the long sticks, that allows you to push the sticks lower for
downhill shots. And of course, you can bring the sticks closer together
for uphill shots.
The other advantage I find with sticks of this length, is that you get
the flexibility of being able to shoot with your butt elevated as well,
such as sitting on a stump, a rock, a stool, or a chair in a blind.
Would you believe that I’m still hunting with the same sticks I built
before that 1999 hunt? Sure, I’ve had to maintain them over the years,
but do a good job on your build and they will last. Sticks are a great
aid for steadying your shots. I don’t rifle hunt without my sticks.
© Honeywell Sportsman Club. All rights reserved.
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