Don Caswell throws his support behind the right shooting rests
Hasty, off-hand shots are not part of my hunting discipline. I like to place all my shots carefully, striving for emphatic, one-shot kills. To achieve that, especially at distance, requires a steady rest for the rifle.
Initially, when I first started hunting, I figured on using a tree or fence post for a rest as the need arose. It soon became apparent that most times a chance for a shot arose, there was no convenient rest within easy reach, and my prey escaped.
My first pass at a solution was to fit a short Harris bipod. Out in the bush, I quickly discovered that most times the grass and undergrowth obscured any attempt to deploy my short bipod from a prone position. I also found that when I ‘could’ use the bipod, it was often at a significant tilt to the true vertical and made good shot placement problematical. At the SSAA range, shooting off a bench, the short legs and lack of tilt were not an issue. Hunting in the bush was a different story.
My next iteration was to fit the longest-legged bipod I could find, and it needed to be adjustable. That was a Champion 13.5 – 23″ bipod with both tilt and swivel. Paired with my .257 Weatherby Magnum it made for a great long-range hunting rifle, and enabled many accurately placed shots on deer, dogs and pigs. It was a great success, but there were times when even the Champion bipod was too short for deep grass on the plains, especially when hunting chital deer.
My .458 Win Mag was too harsh a kicker for the bipod on long shots at buffaloes on the plains, but support for such shots was needed. I made a set of shooting sticks from light dowels in the form of a simple bipod. That worked quite well and proved useful for long shots over the vast empty spaces of the Northern Territory flood plains. Plus, it was expendable, and I could just leave it in the bush should it became inconvenient to carry.
While my shooting sticks worked well, they were not immediately adjustable should circumstances call for it. I tried a few commercial varieties but was not completely happy until I began using the Primos Trigger Stick – a quickly adjustable tripod. I now have both the short and long versions of those and carry one or the other on nearly all my hunts. To enable hands-free carry, I fit a quick release plastic buckle and attach the shooting sticks to a sling over my shoulder. In just a few seconds, I can pop the trigger stick free, squeeze the trigger to release the legs to the required height, and be set to shoot. I can say that the Primos Trigger Sticks have significantly increased my success rate in hunting, particularly with longer shots over deep grass and irregular terrain.
In recent times, I have been on a mission to cull a lot of hares from a large commercial orchard where they are doing considerable damage. The hares are very flighty and after a few nights chasing them in a buggy, I discovered there was a slight advantage in just walking the orchard in the wee hours. I needed to stop shooting by 6am, before workers began arriving, so that set a 3am – 6am timeframe for culling.
The most productive time was first light, when they begin to emerge into the open and sit a little longer. Mind you, they are still flighty by any terms and shooting opportunities are very brief. Most of the shots on offer are in the 75 – 100m range. My trigger sticks provide good support for the longer shots but are just a bit slow to set up when dealing with hares. To get my run-rate up, something lightweight and fixed to the rifle for quick deployment was called for.
A long-legged bipod was needed, and I was pleased to again be using the Champion 13.5 – 23″ model to great effect. I mount it on my .17HMR for a lethal combination when shooting jittery hares. Even when carried fully extended, there is no danger of a bullet striking the bipod legs.
So, after many years of iterations, I have finally arrived at the best compromise for my shooting. For range shooting off the bench – short, fixed bipod. For hunting flighty game over short to medium height grass – Champion tilt and swivel bipod. For shooting over long grass or irregular terrain – Primos Trigger Sticks.