In my opionion, the secret to shooting free handed is the trigger and practice. If you have a hard trigger, there's no way to keep the sights on a small target when you pull that trigger. However, with a light crisp trigger all you do is touch it when the cross hairs hit the sweet spot. Last year I put a Timney trigger on my rifle and practiced with it a bunch. I dry fired it no telling how many times standing free handed, no brace. The first week of gun season, I was walking back to my vehicle and spotted an 8 point at around 150 yards. I raised the gun, found the buck in the scope and when the crosshairs touched the the sweet spot, my finger touched the trigger and I took an 8 point at 150 yards free handed. I've continued practicing this year and believe I could take a buck easily at 200 yards standing and no brace. Without the crisp light trigger, I couldn't hit a buck free handed at 50 yards.

Let me add that the trigger doesn't help you hold the gun steady of course. What the light trigger allows you to do, is to cut down on the reaction time from the time your ready to shoot and the time you actually shoot. With the light trigger, all the crosshairs have to do is go across the area you want to hit. You don't have to hold steady. My crosshairs are still floating all over the general target area when I'm aiming but as the crosshairs go across the magic spot, I shoot and I don't pull the gun one way or the other.
You can't be too cautious with any gun, but if you go the light trigger route, be sure to be extra, extra cautious with your safety. In the excitement of shooting or just seeing a big buck, sometimes you can forget you took the safety off or forget to put it back on after the shot and with a light trigger that's doubly dangerous.



Edited by - rockytop on 11/21/2002 10:37:28