Originally Posted by Jack Ryan

I'll give you a tip I've never seen on the internet before. It's not completely unsupported but it's in line with a pretty standard practice of getting up against a tree at the least if you have to stand to shoot.

In that situation, every person I've ever seen do it will try to trap the gun between their supporting hand some how to steady the gun against the tree while they stand there trying to get the gun steady on the target to take a shot with the front sight at least making a little slower figure eights crossing over the target.

Just a suggestion but next time you have your rifle out set your self up for that shot situation, may be up against a post or something. Look down that barrel and watch the sights over the center of the target and note the improve steadiness you have achieved.

Now, don't pull the trigger.

Back up about one step. Take your BEST OFF HAND HOLD YOU KNOW get the barrel NEAR the post you WERE leaning against. Now in your best off hand shot position, just touch the END of the barrel against the post enough to make it stay there and look at your sight picture.

Take a couple shots from that position and see if that isn't a whole lot better results than leaning against the post and balancing the rifle against the post in the mid length of the rifle closer to the trigger.

I've not had a rifle I own yet that it affected barrel harmonics enough that it was still a better shot than with the barrel OFF the support. At least not at the distances I can count on a heart shot shooting off hand.

It's still not "exactly" shooting off hand unsupported. But it is something you can combine with every other skill you have or learn to improve off hand shooting.

Same principle can apply to shooting hand guns at longer ranges while standing. If you have the choice between resting your hand against the tree to steady it or the barrel, rest the end of the barrel near the sight or just touch it against the tree to stop the "waving" sight picture.