kansaswiderack

I have been practicing shooting off my tripod shooting sticks and I don't feel like I am as steady as I should be. Does anyone have any tips that might help tighten up my groups?

Oldtimr

Make sure the legs are spread far enough to be steady and hold on to one of the legs when you put your rifle on the sticks. If you are set up correctly, you will only need your trigger hand to hold the gun steady.

MudderChuck

I say get comfortable and try to stress your body as little as possible. Most any unnatural position is going to stress the muscles in unusual ways and usually induces the shakes.

I've found finding a comfortable position with your elbows contacting your body helps. The closer you get to the ground, usually the better. Standing is my least stable position, kneeling second least stable, sitting with elbow to body contact works well for me and prone the most stable.

Watch your breathing. I usually take a half breath and let it out slowly between my teeth to keep my diaphram tight as I'm pulling the the trigger.

Don't try too hard, I get better results when I:m relaxed and the actual shot kind of surprises me.

Another technique that works well for me is to limit my bodies input as mush as possible and rely on the rest as much as possible, without tensing up. When I'm trying for tight groups I always work under the assumption that the rifle shoots straighter than I do and try to have as little input as possible.

Oldtimrs tip to grab one leg with your supporting hand sounds like a winner. I usually use a single stick or sometimes a double. so elbow contact with the body seems to help me. Relying on a tripod for stability sounds like a winner.

Big Uncle

I shoot standing from sticks (bipod and tripod) quite a bit every year practicing for shots at African game. My best setup is to have the fork of the sticks at about the same height as the next to the top button on my shirt and then I lean into the rifle. My supporting hand grasps the sticks at the fork and also grasps the rifle. I have never seen experienced shooters grasp the leg of the sticks while shooting from a standing position.

Sticks are much harder to shoot well with than most guys would think. It takes a good bit of practice and experimenting with the height of the sticks and the grasp of the supporting hand. Some of the guys hold the forearm of the rifle in front of the sticks, and some will hold the scope, but most hold the rifle and the fork of the sticks.

Shooting from the sitting position with a tripod is a different matter and it makes a difference in position on uphill or downhill shots, and of course the flexibility of the shooter. Sitting position results are vastly superior to standing but if the vegetation is too high or you may have to move quickly there are very few other choices.

Sticks are much better than unsupported offhand, but they are tough to learn and nobody should expect benchrest type results.