Field Shooting Position - Sage Brush

[mwoolsey5]

Thought it would be fun to discuss field shooting positions. Specifically what to do when you can’t get prone.

Scenario: You’re hunting mule deer in sage brush country (see picture) and see the buck of a lifetime at 350 yards. You can’t get prone to make the shot because brush is in the way. What shooting position would you use to give yourself the best opportunity to make a good shot? Assume you don’t have a tripod, but do have gear you would normally carry on a hunting trip.

 

[intunegp]

Gear I would normally carry on a hunting trip includes a tripod so I would use that. Can't imagine going hunting in a place that looked like that without anticipating the need to shoot over the brush.

In the spirit of your thread OP, I will pretend I left my tripod on the ridge behind me or it fell out of my pack while hiking or something. I will also assume that sage is taller than I could see over from a seated position resting on my pack. I'd like to think I could make a 350 yard kill shot from this kneeling position if it really came down to it.

 

[Taudisio]

If you are hunting that country and don’t bring a tripod or shooting stick with you? If that’s what I’m in, either of those would be “gear I would normally carry on a hunting trip”.

I assume you are making the scenario, you saw a buck from the truck, jumped out with your rifle and backpack. So, sitting with my backpack would be my most stable option if my other choice is offhand.

 

[grfox92]

I would be standing or kneeling and shooting off a tripod.

Sent from my SM-S931U using Tapatalk

 

[TheCougar]

I finds Gangsta style works well in sage brush. Or in all environments, actually

 

[rafiki]

 

[MNGrouser]

Add my vote to the list of guys using his tripod. I'm not driving all the way out to sage brush country from home without it.

For the sake of playing along, if I can't see the buck over the sage from a seated position, I'm likely throwing my pack on top of the sage and kneeling behind it. Not the most solid rest on the planet, but I wouldn't trust myself to off-hand at 350. In that same vein, if the sage brush/pack idea is as wobbly as I fear, I'm not taking the shot. I don't want to wound a BOAL because of a poor shot. This would be "the one (of many) that got away". When I tell the story at the bar back home, I expect the crap my buddies should give me for leaving the tripod behind.

 

[Idhunter777]

Thought it would be fun to discuss field shooting positions. Specifically what to do when you can’t get prone.

Scenario: You’re hunting mule deer in sage brush country (see picture) and see the buck of a lifetime at 350 yards. You can’t get prone to make the shot because brush is in the way. What shooting position would you use to give yourself the best opportunity to make a good shot? Assume you don’t have a tripod, but do have gear you would normally carry on a hunting trip.
View attachment 1015697

I always have a tripod but if not, kneeling off the top of my pack. Left hand clamped on pack and holding the rifle with thumb and forefinger as a yoke of sorts

 

[RockAndSage]

Thought it would be fun to discuss field shooting positions. Specifically what to do when you can’t get prone.

Scenario: You’re hunting mule deer in sage brush country (see picture) and see the buck of a lifetime at 350 yards. You can’t get prone to make the shot because brush is in the way. What shooting position would you use to give yourself the best opportunity to make a good shot? Assume you don’t have a tripod, but do have gear you would normally carry on a hunting trip.
View attachment 1015697

The thing to watch out for in sage like this, is your scope and line-of-sight being clear, but the bore unknowingly having a bit of brush between it and the target. Same thing can happen when laying prone in the field and having some angle to the shot, especially with rocks that just don't appear in the scope.

First choice, as others have said, is a tripod. Followed by my pack siting vertically. Depending on the orientation, if I needed extra height I have a lightweight Spartan bipod that can lift things up a bit.

The worst situation is sage a bit taller than this, with an animal like an antelope or a buck that's watching toward you - stuff that comes up about waist height, so it's too tall for your pack, and not tall or rigid enough to get a rest with. Depending on the situation, I'm more likely to just get below it, stalk in for however long it takes, and try to take the shot off-hand at under 150yds.

Something that helps a lot with this is are functional shooting slings, designed for use in stabilizing in field shooting positions. RifleCraft has some good ones, which I've found helpful in these less common shooting situations.

 

[Jason Snyder]

Seated over my pack if it’s high enough.

 

[StuckoYota99]

I always carry a tripod for glassing and shooting. However we had a kiddo decide to flop on top of the sage bush and smoke a mule deer buck. They were light enough the bush didn't break. But I've used my pack frame, trekking poles, and even a big boulder.

 

[Chris in TN]

At 350 on a mule deer target I'm comfortable with being seated behind two trek poles or even two crossed sticks, if that's all I have. It isn't ideal but I'm comfy with it.

I forgot my trek poles the other day and ended up grabbing two 48"x5/16" fiberglass fence posts out of the SxS and tying them together and shooting off them with a .22lr out to 230 yards. In a hurry I would have been fine without tying them together.

I did shoot a cow elk while seated in brush pretty much exactly like what OP's picture shows, but that was with a bog-pod.

 

[Huntindog45]

i carry a good tripod with me everywhere i hunt now. if its over 50 yards i am on the tripod. i have found this to be especially valuable out in sage brush flats where laying out prone just is not an option and there are not always other options to stabilize my shot.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

Longs legs on my spartan bipod...its worked out to 200yds on antelope...if that's not high enough, my tripod...its worked out to 450yds on WT in soy bean fields.

 

[WoodlandCritter]

Rice paddy prone. It pays to practice squatting flat footed and deep.

 

[Blake C]

Tripod.......if I have a backpack on then I have a tripod