Tips for offhand/standing shots

[Montana Mark]

I am very pleased with my new Nikon crossbow scope. The Nikon is giving me the confidence to really practice my standing/offhand shooting. Before, I could never tell if it was me or the scope that was off. (Now that I completely trust my scope, I know it’s just me.) Offhand shooting is a lot harder than shooting off my knee. I am getting my groups down to 3-4” at 30, 40, 50, 60, 70. I can often hit/touch the bullseye (2” piece of duct tape) with one arrow out of 3. (Keep one broadhead in my quiver in case the bear walks by while I am target shooting.) I’m really working on my stance, foregrip, cheek/eye placement, breathing, trigger pull etc. It is a lot harder to find what works best and stay consistent. If I’m sloppy/tired and don’t pay attention to what I’m doing, it throws my shot off. I’ve especially found that when I get tired and start getting sloppy with my cheek weld/eye relief, my shots really stray. I’ve found that I get better results letting the stock ride high on my shoulder, keeping my head more upright, tucking the butt up and in to get my eye relief. I stand with my feet almost in line with the target and feel more stable a little pigeon toed (learned that in karate) and leaning a little back on the trailing leg. Strange, I feel like it’s almost easier to hold the bow steady on distance shots (but it’s probably just because the target is much smaller in the scope). Maybe it’s like driving on the highway and looking way down the road keeping the car on track? Still, it’s hard to hold the reticle still. I’ve tried the slow sweep over the target and pull the trigger as you pass over it but have gotten worse results with that than trying to steady the reticle over the target.

I realize this subject has been covered before, but do you guys/(gals) have tips for offhand/standing shooting?

[gerald strine]

Hear is my tip do not practice when you are tired, distracted or are starting to get sloppy you are inviting a dry fire or a finger above the rail incident to happen, keep shooting session on the shorter side and more frequent,
use your bones to hold the weight of the bow not your mussels, example standing , have your elbow resting on your rib cage and control your breathing and fire between breaths, sitting, kneeling rest elbow on knee useing the bones for support.

[Montana Mark]

After watching some utube videos (of smoking hot competitive rifle shooting women), I have made some adjustments to my foregrip to use my closed fist directly forward of the trigger guard to get a more vertical braced support (on bone). This is much steadier and I am more frequently hitting the (2” duct tape) bullseye and my groups are tightening to close to 2 inches if I concentrate hard. However, my poi while standing is higher than my poi kneeling. (I also noticed a change in poi when I moved from the bench to kneeling—my eye position must be different depending on my shooting position.) I’ll experiment with my cheek weld/eye relief again.

Edit. I get just about as good of results with a reverse grip with the heel of my hand on the close side of the foregrip. This one is more comfortable and more naturally tucks my elbow under and against my chest.

[Ferguson Outfitters]

I have a tip if you are talking about shooting off hand during a stalk.

Be prepared to shoot from the most uncomfortable mid stride position that you were caught in when you froze

[xcaliber]

I have been practicing this for years because I never get my deer to line up in front of my rest position. I have found that holding over the shot and bringing my point down rather than up greatly improves my accuracy. The theory is that we tend to reverse direction before squeezing the trigger from the direction we’re traveling as we try to lock on. Additionally it is almost always better to hit a bit high, and almost always bad to hit low.

[Montana Mark]

Gotta hand it to the sharpshooting women in the utube videos. They must be flexible to twist themselves up like that on a shot. Today, I was standing sideways to the target, twisting myself up with a reverse forgrip, tucking my elbow vertical against my chest, tucking the stockbutt tight between bicep and deltoid with elbow out. Breathing slow while slowly pulling the trigger, I was drilling bullseyes from a standing position. Still trying to figure out my poi being high, especially at longer shots (60 and 70 yards). At these distances while standing up I’ll be at least an inch high but when I drop down to my knee, i’ll be right on again. Must be the change in eye position. It’s sure fun but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to twist myself into a pretzel in a hunting situation. Hopefully, practicing in a pretzel position will translate to steadier offhand shots while hunting.

[Montana Mark]

I think I’ll just zero my scope for standing position (a click or two down) since I think that that is what I’ll be practicing from now on and it will likely be how I’ll have to take shots while hunting. (I had to rezero when I moved from the bench to kneeling position.) We’re having a spring snowstorm here in Montana so don’t want to shoot right now.

[Montana Mark]

Couldn’t help it. Had to go out in the snow and rezero. Two clicks down and I’m back on for standing position. I have to say, that pretzel position is very accurate. Repeated bullseyes (my bullseyes are 2” pieces of tape). Sure feels funny (and I’m sure it looks funny). Now I just need a pair of tights with an Excalibur logo on them. (Maybe I’ll just order a cap next time I buy something from Excalibur.)

[Montana Mark]

After trying a lot of standing techniques, I think using the sling to stablilize my shot while standing in a more normal position suits me best. Its more comfortable and does not require so much concentration. It will also be more suited to hunting situations. I am able to be fairly accurate with it. I put one group of 3 arrows in the bullseye (2” square of tape) at 60 yards today. The thick/thin transition on my vertical crosshair is right at 90 yards and I am sometimes able to touch the bullseye using my sling hold.