Every year at thanksgiving people bring pumpkins out to the house. After dinner we always have an offhand pumpkin shooting competition.
I believe this started "back in the day" when some of the old timers would shoot a pumpkin to verify their rifle was ready for the buck opener on the following Monday. We all shoot more often than that now, but the pumpkin shoot has stuck around.
Some good recent shoots involved a .45-120, lever actions only, revolvers, and using a water balloon launcher to launch small pumpkins and shooting them with shotguns.
The pumpkin shoot is always a good time and can be eye opening for those who have never shot off hand.
Off hand shooting I think is becoming a lost art. More and more eastern hunters are spending their time in a tree stand or tower stand (Shooting off a rest).
Most of the people I hunt with still primarily still hunt or put on drives throughout the week. So off hand shooting is still an essential skill.
Obviously practice can help improve your ability to shoot off hand. But I've found shooting squirrel and rabbit off hand with a .22 is great practice and really makes shooting deer allot easier..
Of course some would call it unethical to take an off hand shot at game as well. It's always best to find a rest. But that's not always possible.
-Jake