Did our forebearers use a shooting rest or stick for rifles?

[Tumbledown]

Riflemen were known for kills at great distances- 200+ yards was not unheard of. They practiced and demonstrated using targets much smaller than a man. My question here is did they often use some kind of rest to steady the rifle? Tree branch, log, rock, stick, or even laying back and resting it on crossed legs as I've seen in a sketch of a British rifleman? I have my doubts such accuracy was reliably achieved offhand.

Thoughts?

 

[Rifleman1776]

Tumbledown said: "
"Riflemen were known for kills at great distances"

I have read a lot about the Rev. War and am convinced most of those long range shot stories are just that, stories. I believe most are myth. There probably were some shots taken with the barrel at high elevation that hit someone in a mass of opposing soldiers. But, with a fixed sight ml rifle holding for a 200 yard or more means the barrel blanks out any sight hold.

 

[CaptainVane]

Quite certain they used a rest same as today. I’m a really good shot with my Uberti Colt .51 .36 at 60 yards….. using a rest. Offhand at distance, no way.

 

[Tumbledown]

Tumbledown said: "
"Riflemen were known for kills at great distances"

I have read a lot about the Rev. War and am convinced most of those long range shot stories are just that, stories. I believe most are myth. There probably were some shots taken with the barrel at high elevation that hit someone in a mass of opposing soldiers. But, with a fixed sight ml rifle holding for a 200 yard or more means the barrel blanks out any sight hold.

Yet Daniel Morgan and his men demonstrated shooting at 200 yards. Blanking out the sight hold is irrelevant, since at that range one is going to have to aim above the target to account for bullet drop, as recently shown in a video elsewhere on this forum.

 

[LANEY REECE]

I think they used any thing they could use, same as us.

 

[Grimord]

I believe that they sometimes used the ram rod as a rest for the longer shots.

 

[Sam squanch]

Some Russian and Tibetan guns had a built in bipod. I think the stories about the riflemen in the continental army mostly were propaganda to scare the British officers.

 

[dave951]

I have my doubts such accuracy was reliably achieved offhand.

Thoughts?

I can speak from a N-SSA perspective. Last Friday I was at the range and hitting a man sized steel target at 200 offhand is boringly easy. I'm hardly the best shot in our org and I've seen others shooting 3in and less at 100yds offhand.

So, do I think it possible, absolutely. Could the average shooter do it, not likely. Shoot from a rest when hits matter in combat or hunting, yes whenever possible.

 

[Tumbledown]

I found some good info HERE. It's a contemporary account, excerpted below.

Colonel Tarleton and myself were standing a few yards out of a wood, observing the situation of a part of the enemy which we intended to attack. There was a rivulet in the enemy’s front, and a mill on it, to which we stood directly with our horses’ heads fronting, observing their motions. It was an absolute plain field between us and the mill, not so much as a single bush on it. Our orderly-bugle stood behind us, about three yards, but with his horse’s side to our horses’ tails. A rifleman passed over the mill-dam, evidently observing two officers, and laid himself down on his belly, for in such positions they always lie to take a good shot at a long distance.

 

[Tumbledown]

I think the stories about the riflemen in the continental army mostly were propaganda to scare the British officers.

There was that early on, but there was also truth by example later in the war.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Yes.

 

[bpd303]

How many images have we seen of Musketeers shooting their matchlock muskets using a support where the barrel rests in a U from the 1500s and 1600s?

 

[tenngun]

Most folks had a wiping stick, a fat extra ramrod
Not hard to turn that in to a rest or cross sticks using the guns rod
The Murphy shot at Sarritoga May have been made by Murphy of one of the other rifleman seems to have shot it from a tree no doubt rested on
a branch

 

[earlwb]

I would agree in that they would use whatever is handy for a rest to help steady their rifles. From prone position to any other method or handy item.

 

[necchi]

Thoughts?

Of course they used rests for "kill shot's". They where human just like us, using open sights and primitive weapons.
Rocket science didn't come along till later.

 

[Packrat]

Capt Lewis used his (Espantoon) and buffalo hunters used cross sticks

 

[Daveboone]

Aint much under the sun....If we can figure out the advantage of something with our occasional hobby use, be sure those individuals who made a living with their arms and carried them all day long figured it out long ago. the heavy clumsy arms of the 17/a8th century petty much required a dedicated rest to be carried. Nowadays, any kid in the woods with a BB gun figures out the advantage of using available rests potshoting the local critters early on.

 

[windini]

Handgonnes often came with a hook up by the muzzle.

Hook Gun = Haakbus = Arquebus

So, yes; resting the bbl for long shots goes way back. What one rested it on was likley a matter of opportunity & preference.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

For long range shooting I have good success using the aiming method described by Elmer Keith. The front sight is elevated above the rear notch. At 200 yards my .54 Isaac Haines requires that the base of the front sight be held even with the top of the rear sight. The top of the blade is then held on target. I can consistently ring the 200 yard gong this way.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Riflemen were known for kills at great distances- 200+ yards was not unheard of. They practiced and demonstrated using targets much smaller than a man. My question here is did they often use some kind of rest to steady the rifle? Tree branch, log, rock, stick, or even laying back and resting it on crossed legs as I've seen in a sketch of a British rifleman? I have my doubts such accuracy was reliably achieved offhand.

Thoughts?

"Shooting at marks was a common diversion among the men, when their stock of ammunition would allow it; this, however, was far from being always the case. The present mode of shooting off hand was not then in practice. This mode was not considered as any trial of the value of a gun ; nor, indeed, as much of a test of the skill of a marksman. Their shooting was from a rest, and at as great a distance as the length and weight of the barrel of the gun would throw a ball on a horizontal level. Such was their regard to accuracy, in these sportive trials of their rifles, and of their own skill in the use of them, that they often put moss, or some other soft substance, on the log or stump from which they shot, for fear of having the bullet thrown from the mark, by the spring of the barrel. When the rifle was held to the side of a tree for a rest, it was pressed against it as lightly as possible, for the same reason."
Joseph Doddridge Notes on the settlement and Indian wars of the western parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania, from 1763 to 1783

So for Doddridge there was no need to carry anything to use as a rest such as the crossed sticks of the buffalo hunters on the Great Plains would use decades after the above was penned. The riflemen of his day, being in the woods, used natural objects to steady their shots. I don't take "offhand" shots in the woods for the same reason, and I move from tree to tree if moving, and halt at a good tree to break up my human outline and ALSO to give me something to help support the flintlock when I shoot.

LD