Long Range Shooting Schools|Even From a Tree stand
Most people don’t think about attending long range shooting schools when they primarily hunt from a tree stand. Let’s face it, most hunters hunting from a tree stand have shots from 100 yards and under, so they probably think why would I need to go to a school for that. Well in most cases you probably wouldn’t but sitting in my stand here in Oklahoma during muzzleloader season. I started looking around and playing with my range finder to see how far I could actually shoot with a clear lane. Now keep in mind I am hunting a smaller property of 150 acres but I still had clear shots over five hundred yards out.
No, I would not try to shoot a buck at 500 yards with my muzzleloader but rifle season is just a few short weeks away and I would not hesitate to shoot a buck out to five hundred yards with my deer rifle if the conditions were right and I could get a good steady rest from my tree stand. For those of you that have hunted from a tree stand on a regular basis, you know that most of them are not designed to have a good solid rest for shooting from. A few companies have come up with various types of rest or attachments to shooting sticks but nothing that seems to be too effective.
For my next sit, I decided to bring a few accessories with me to see how they would work. Obviously when sitting in a tree stand, space is a huge factor, so you cannot bring the kitchen sink with you. I kept if pretty simple and brought a BogPod bipod and a medium sized very light weight shooting pad from Sand Sock. Both the shooting sticks and the shooting pad easily fit in my or attached to my day pack and I never even knew they were there. Once up in the stand I adjusted the BogPod to the height I needed, adjusted the shooting pad on top of my day pack and slid under my right elbow (shooting arm) to use as a rest and support. I was actually very surprised at how easy this was to set up and how steady I was. I was able to hold the crosshairs easily on targets out to five hundred yards and still allow for good eye relief and without having to crank my head over sideways getting a good field of view.
Muzzleloader season passed without pulling the trigger but I did have the crosshairs on a very nice buck at 80 yards. This was not in a tree stand but in a ground blind but still utilizing the BogPod, although it was a tripod for ground use. I was very stead and could have pulled the trigger numerous times. Sometimes it just takes experimenting and thinking outside of the box to come up with something that works. We are anxiously awaiting rifle season and confident in the new tree stand set up. Now we just have to get that giant buck to cooperate and show himself so we can let our training go to work.
Outdoor Solutions offers three night and two day long range shooting schools with locations in Texas, three hours West of Dallas and in Utah, just forty five minutes East of Salt Lake City. Our long range shooting schools are all inclusive by offering use of firearms from Weatherby, optics from Zeiss, ammunition from Hornady is provided as well. In addition we also take care of your lodging and meals. All in a small class environment with no more than fourteen students at the Utah location and no more than twelve in the Texas location. If you are a hunter and looking to extend your ethical shooting range before that next big hunt, then give us a call at 918 258