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Cross Sticks
- Thread starter musketman
- Start date
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I usually use the intersection of a tree trunk and a branch or I just hold the stock between my thumb and the tree trunk. Those sticks look pretty handy,though...I might have to make some.
Should the feller in the picture rest his stock on the sticks instead of the barrel? Seems like that barrel might bounce quite a bit.
:thumbsup:
Should the feller in the picture rest his stock on the sticks instead of the barrel? Seems like that barrel might bounce quite a bit.
:thumbsup:
Guest
"X" sticks is all I ever use fer serious sight'n in, and etc.
Much more steady then some shoot'n benchs,.... but I sure don't hold "mine" like thet fella in the picture!! :shake:
I make mine out'a branchs I find!!
YMHS
rollingb
Much more steady then some shoot'n benchs,.... but I sure don't hold "mine" like thet fella in the picture!! :shake:
I make mine out'a branchs I find!!
YMHS
rollingb
I noticed that too...but the forearm is awfully short on that rifle and he'd lose a lot of stability resting it that far back...if he sighted it in with the barel on the sticks that way, it probably wouldn't matter.
Saw a set of cross sticks once where the guy had a 2-3" wide leather strap suspended between the two top sections for a softer, and I assume easier on the finish, means of supporting the rifle
Huntinfool
45 Cal.
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I carry a walking stick that I use as a mono shootin' stick. Sometimes I pick up another stick to make crossed sticks. I have more times than not leaned it against another tree. Which makes it solid as a rock!
Here's a pic of my favorite walkin' stick it helps me get around in these hills!
YMH&OS,
Chuck
Here's a pic of my favorite walkin' stick it helps me get around in these hills!
YMH&OS,
Chuck
Everyone who comes to our annual Buffalo Cross Stick Match, gets the sticks as far forward on the barrel as possible. Usually they will use the forward thimble to hook over the "V" of the cross sticks. Ramrod removed of course, and the rifle being a half stock as a full stock will bounce something terrible off the wood...
This is where the leather strap cross sticks comes in handy, and is almost always used for the fullstock rifles. It eliminates the bounce off the wood. This is not to say that you can't use them with halfstocks, you can...
We push, or pound our cross sticks into the ground so they are always in the right place from shot to shot. Though you can do whatever works for you, unless bound by rules that may be in place at some events...
These methods work good for muzzleloaders, and the rifle placement on cross sticks. However, you may have your own style that works for you and that is fine.
Most serious cross stick shooters will use a heavy barrel rifle for competition. They can weigh up to 14 pounds. My cross stick muzzleloaders weigh, 11 3/4, and 13 7/8 pounds.
The sights on these rifles are limited to what is allowed by the event, however I shoot fixed iron sights, and can usually hold my own and sometimes win with this setup against more expensive vernier sight systems. 'Course we're only shooting a patched roundball at 50 and 100 yards...
As far as using cross sticks on the hunt, I don't, but there are those that do.
At Rendezvous if you have a cross stick match, you just grab a couple sturdy branches and wrap some leather around them about six to eight inches from the top, or whatever works for you...
:thumbsup: :redthumb: :thumbsup:
This is where the leather strap cross sticks comes in handy, and is almost always used for the fullstock rifles. It eliminates the bounce off the wood. This is not to say that you can't use them with halfstocks, you can...
We push, or pound our cross sticks into the ground so they are always in the right place from shot to shot. Though you can do whatever works for you, unless bound by rules that may be in place at some events...
These methods work good for muzzleloaders, and the rifle placement on cross sticks. However, you may have your own style that works for you and that is fine.
Most serious cross stick shooters will use a heavy barrel rifle for competition. They can weigh up to 14 pounds. My cross stick muzzleloaders weigh, 11 3/4, and 13 7/8 pounds.
The sights on these rifles are limited to what is allowed by the event, however I shoot fixed iron sights, and can usually hold my own and sometimes win with this setup against more expensive vernier sight systems. 'Course we're only shooting a patched roundball at 50 and 100 yards...
As far as using cross sticks on the hunt, I don't, but there are those that do.
At Rendezvous if you have a cross stick match, you just grab a couple sturdy branches and wrap some leather around them about six to eight inches from the top, or whatever works for you...
:thumbsup: :redthumb: :thumbsup:
Guest
Huntin
is that one of them WV billy laying in the background?
I see they ain't very big there either..looks like a PA yankee deer
Woody
is that one of them WV billy laying in the background?
I see they ain't very big there either..looks like a PA yankee deer
Woody
Tahquamenon
45 Cal.
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I've got a pair that I made from Tammarack switch, but to be honest, I never use them in a hunting situation.
I've used them for some target shooting, but not that often.
Hunting:
Tree branches or deadfall.
I've used them for some target shooting, but not that often.
Hunting:
Tree branches or deadfall.
we generally have a cross stick target in some of our matches..I'm too old and too stiff to get down in a sitting position behind them, so go to a kneeling position. On a woodswalk, I use a staff, (called locally, "a Moses stick") and rest my rifle on my hand where it grabs the staff..Hank
I use 'em for target shooting because there's no benches at my local field, er, range. Used to use them a lot for woodchuck hunting at long ranges. I made a "V" shaped leather slider that keeps the sticks together and protects the gunstock.
A cane or walking stick is enough to make a big difference.
I like his horse-hair wind indicator. If that's what it's supposed to be.
A cane or walking stick is enough to make a big difference.
I like his horse-hair wind indicator. If that's what it's supposed to be.
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I use them absolutely! I took some threaded rod and added to the length on mine. This gets the sticks to the right height for somebody like me who has to use em while sitting in a chair. I can shoot both firearms and my crossbow from this setup. 
ohio Joe,
I found a very early copy of American rifleman, (30's)
and they had a 2 part article in there interviewing one of the buffalo hunters that worked for the railroads. I remember he spoke very specifically about shooting from crossticks. the size, grip on the x-sticks, distance from the ground to the rifle. how he selected his targets and the order of the shooting. Trouble is I didn't have the second have of the article, but I'm still looking!
Smokeydays
I found a very early copy of American rifleman, (30's)
and they had a 2 part article in there interviewing one of the buffalo hunters that worked for the railroads. I remember he spoke very specifically about shooting from crossticks. the size, grip on the x-sticks, distance from the ground to the rifle. how he selected his targets and the order of the shooting. Trouble is I didn't have the second have of the article, but I'm still looking!
Smokeydays
Huntinfool
45 Cal.
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Yes Sir,
Shot that little philly from about 75 yards away she was all by herself. It's hard to gage them like that but I'd a still shot her anyhow didn't see nothin else that day.
She is right tasty I must say!
YMH&OS,
Chuck
Shot that little philly from about 75 yards away she was all by herself. It's hard to gage them like that but I'd a still shot her anyhow didn't see nothin else that day.
She is right tasty I must say!
YMH&OS,
Chuck
Ohio Joe,
just pulled that article out of the file. I misstated myself it is the second half of the article. Amercian rifleman Sept. and Oct. of 1934, "The Rifles of Buffalo Days" by Frank H. Mayer s told to Charles B. Roth. page 26 states
"There is one piece of equipment I have mentioned but have not told you about in detail - my rest sticks. We runners all used them, in preference to the straps used almost altogether today. I doubt if one shooter in ten today ever saw a pair of rest sticks, let alone used them. yYet they are far superior to anything else ever devised for athe steady holding of a rifle."
"The sticks consist merely of two peices of good stout hickory, say 40 inches long, crossed and pinned together about four inches from one end, the lower ends are sharpened to make them take hold in the ground."
"to use the sticks you simply open them, plant them in the ground in front of you, rest your rifle barrel on fingers placed in the notch near the top, and you have a good rest as good as any rests used in testing rifles at the factories, not excepting even machine rests....
"WE shot from a sitting position, never from prone. For this there were reasons. the first was Indians. they were around us all the time, and we had to be on our guard. A man lying on his belly hadn't nearly the chance to take swift glances around the landscape every few seconds that a man sitting up had. The second reason was noise. you know that sound near the ground carries farther than sound above it. the reverberations of a heavy Sharps, fired from prone, carried to the buffalo loud and clear; a rifle fired thirty inches above the ground frightened not nearly so much. So we sat up and shot. We could actually get 5o yards closer to our quarry by doing so."
As a note they did not shoot buffalo less than 300 yards with Sharps. He relates a couple of stories about the reliablity, accuracy and just damned incredible range of the Sharps rifle. One of the stories "once an indian medicine man, a power on the plains, began making obscene gestures in the direction of two buffalo runners. It afterward paced 1,000 yards from where the runners stood, One of them, a plains-calloused youngster with a .40-90-420 and what it took to shoot it expertly, crossed his rest sticks, aimed, fired. His bullet took the Indian medicine man just above the navel, it almost cut him in two. I saw this."
Sorry about this being so long, The guy has a way with words.
Smokedays
just pulled that article out of the file. I misstated myself it is the second half of the article. Amercian rifleman Sept. and Oct. of 1934, "The Rifles of Buffalo Days" by Frank H. Mayer s told to Charles B. Roth. page 26 states
"There is one piece of equipment I have mentioned but have not told you about in detail - my rest sticks. We runners all used them, in preference to the straps used almost altogether today. I doubt if one shooter in ten today ever saw a pair of rest sticks, let alone used them. yYet they are far superior to anything else ever devised for athe steady holding of a rifle."
"The sticks consist merely of two peices of good stout hickory, say 40 inches long, crossed and pinned together about four inches from one end, the lower ends are sharpened to make them take hold in the ground."
"to use the sticks you simply open them, plant them in the ground in front of you, rest your rifle barrel on fingers placed in the notch near the top, and you have a good rest as good as any rests used in testing rifles at the factories, not excepting even machine rests....
"WE shot from a sitting position, never from prone. For this there were reasons. the first was Indians. they were around us all the time, and we had to be on our guard. A man lying on his belly hadn't nearly the chance to take swift glances around the landscape every few seconds that a man sitting up had. The second reason was noise. you know that sound near the ground carries farther than sound above it. the reverberations of a heavy Sharps, fired from prone, carried to the buffalo loud and clear; a rifle fired thirty inches above the ground frightened not nearly so much. So we sat up and shot. We could actually get 5o yards closer to our quarry by doing so."
As a note they did not shoot buffalo less than 300 yards with Sharps. He relates a couple of stories about the reliablity, accuracy and just damned incredible range of the Sharps rifle. One of the stories "once an indian medicine man, a power on the plains, began making obscene gestures in the direction of two buffalo runners. It afterward paced 1,000 yards from where the runners stood, One of them, a plains-calloused youngster with a .40-90-420 and what it took to shoot it expertly, crossed his rest sticks, aimed, fired. His bullet took the Indian medicine man just above the navel, it almost cut him in two. I saw this."
Sorry about this being so long, The guy has a way with words.
Smokedays
CrackStock
69 Cal.
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<<<Who uses them?>>>
I made a pair from oiled massaronduba (South America redwood) and carried them often.
Made another for a old friend of the family who was going ton an elk hunt as a sort of last hurrah. He was not steady anymore and teh sticks made it possible for him to take his elk cleanly.
Had to make more for friends as they saw these used.
Mostly, I used them when rabbit hunting. If I am going to set up on the ground for deer season, I will carry them then too.
Cross sticks are is my favorite rifle event. When I shot with a club on a monthly basis, I always tried to get more cross stick activity going. I won the Cross stick event in the Louisiana state shoot with that pair the year before last and took second in it last year.
As to the padding at the top, I experimented with two basic styles. One was a sort of sling between the tops and the other was simply leather wrapped around the tops of the sticks. Neither seemed to offer any particular advantage, so I stopped going to the trouble of cutting out the fancy sling pattern. It was a lot more trouble and used a lot more leather.
As to having it with you when you need/want it, I added a leather carry strap and also added a leather pad near the bottom that was similar to the top pads. This was to keep the sticks from clattering as I walked in the woods. I also added a strip of leather which I used to tie the legs together.
Might have over engineered the things, but I made a few to give as prizes at the shoots and they were highly prized.
If you have never used them, give them a try, but make a good set. My firsy sticks were flimsy and thin. Wobbled and I shot badly with them. Almost soured me on the whole concept.
Make your sturdy and tight. Make the points sharp and rigid. Do yours right the first time.
YMHS,
CrackStock
I made a pair from oiled massaronduba (South America redwood) and carried them often.
Made another for a old friend of the family who was going ton an elk hunt as a sort of last hurrah. He was not steady anymore and teh sticks made it possible for him to take his elk cleanly.
Had to make more for friends as they saw these used.
Mostly, I used them when rabbit hunting. If I am going to set up on the ground for deer season, I will carry them then too.
Cross sticks are is my favorite rifle event. When I shot with a club on a monthly basis, I always tried to get more cross stick activity going. I won the Cross stick event in the Louisiana state shoot with that pair the year before last and took second in it last year.
As to the padding at the top, I experimented with two basic styles. One was a sort of sling between the tops and the other was simply leather wrapped around the tops of the sticks. Neither seemed to offer any particular advantage, so I stopped going to the trouble of cutting out the fancy sling pattern. It was a lot more trouble and used a lot more leather.
As to having it with you when you need/want it, I added a leather carry strap and also added a leather pad near the bottom that was similar to the top pads. This was to keep the sticks from clattering as I walked in the woods. I also added a strip of leather which I used to tie the legs together.
Might have over engineered the things, but I made a few to give as prizes at the shoots and they were highly prized.
If you have never used them, give them a try, but make a good set. My firsy sticks were flimsy and thin. Wobbled and I shot badly with them. Almost soured me on the whole concept.
Make your sturdy and tight. Make the points sharp and rigid. Do yours right the first time.
YMHS,
CrackStock
flm_shooter
40 Cal.
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All 100 yd matches at our club are shot from cross-sticks. No offhand. These rules were in place before I joined. As I'm the only member under 50 in the club, I can guess why...
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