Firing with gun on wood. ???

[230RN]

And another of my wife shooting ground squirrels without a rest:
BTW, my wife and I both have 22-250s and tripods, and sandbags, and we could use the hood of our truck to rest our rifles on for really long-distance ground squirrel shooting. But why bother? In the spring, there are usually thousands of ground squirrels over on our friend's ranch, and just killing the ones that pop up within a hundred yards of us makes us feel kind of "bloody" (if you know what I mean) after a couple of hours of pretty steady shooting.

1. Where's "here?"

2. At least "here" in Colorado, even resting a loaded gun on a vehicle without touching it would get you cited by a Game Warden. Don't know if that's still true. I also don't know what they call them nowadays but it's something high-falutin' and "collegey."

3. Are your"ground squirrels" prairie dogs? There's quite a variability in critter names. I picked up the term "prairie rats" from one of the farmers for whose ground I thinned them out.
No way to completely eradicate them except chemically or by housing development.

This is me at one of my favorite spots. Most of the spots on the ground are prairie dog mounds poking up from the snow. Note the bipod. Note the photo date. This ground in Superior CO was built up, then all the houses were destroyed in a massive wind-blown fire.

Terry, 230RN

 

[JDeere]

I have been resting my hunting rifles on the wooden window seals of my blinds for years with no ill effect...

 

[.308 Norma]

1. Where's "here?"

SE Idaho. We're about 25 miles south of Pocatello. Our friend's ranch (where we do most of our ground squirrel and mule deer hunting these days is 10-12 miles west of us, in the next valley over.

2. At least "here" in Colorado, even resting a loaded gun on a vehicle without touching it would get you cited by a Game Warden.

We've never had a problem with any kind of law enforcement (and that includes the county sheriff's department) when we've been out shooting and using our truck for a rest. Besides, as I've mentioned before, my wife has an Idaho Disabled Hunter Permit (atrial fibrillation) anyway. That permit (which is hanging from the rearview mirror in our truck) even allows my wife to legally shoot from a motor vehicle as long as it's not moving or on a public road. And when we're driving around "hunting" (mule deer or ground squirrels) on our friend's ranch, we're often nowhere near a public road.

I also don't know what they call them nowadays but it's something high-falutin' and "collegey."

LOL!
I think they're still called "game wardens" here. Although, I have heard them called a few derogatory terms that I won't mention here because this is THR.

3. Are your"ground squirrels" prairie dogs? There's quite a variability in critter names. I picked up the term "prairie rats" from one of the farmers for whose ground I thinned them out.
No way to completely eradicate them except chemically or by housing development.

They're ground squirrels - a type of "Belding" ground squirrels, I believe. I wouldn't recognize their scientific name if I heard it.
We also have rock chucks (yellow-bellied marmots), badgers, gophers and ground-dwelling chipmunks here. No prairie dogs though.
Some folks in this part of the country call rock chucks "whistle pigs" because they do whistle. So do ground squirrels though, and when the shooting slows down, my wife and I often call ground squirrels up out of their holes by emitting a few short, high-pitched whistles.
We don't shoot the rock chucks on our own place, or when they're out in the lava rocks and not hurting anything. Besides, unlike the thousands of ground squirrels on our friend's ranch every spring, we seldom see a rock chuck there.
Our friends won't poison the ground squirrels out either. They're afraid that birds of prey (eagles, hawks, owls and vultures) in the area would eat the poisoned ground squirrels.
Consequently, my wife and I usually have our work cut out for us in the spring. We drive over to our friend's ranch 2 or 3 days a week and shoot ground squirrels for 2 or 3 hours straight. It wasn't all that great last spring because the weather didn't cooperate and there was still about 3 feet of snow in places. A few ground squirrels had tunneled their ways up through the snow here and there, but not many. And we could only get to the ones near our rancher friend's haystacks (where the roads were plowed to) anyway.
What do you use for shooting prairie dogs? Like I said, we don't have prairie dogs around here, but I've often thought my .22-250 would work well for them - until I shot the barrel out, I guess.
We just use .22LRs for ground squirrels. We never shoot more than about 80 yards anyway. The first time our rancher friends asked us to come over and shoot ground squirrels I took my .22-250 along for the "distant" ones. And when I actually did spot a ground squirrel out there at about 125 yards, I got my .22-250 out of the back seat, leaned it across the hood, and disintegrated the little varmint. However, as soon as I pulled the trigger, I thought, "Gee, that was stupid - all of that noise and fuss to shoot one ground squirrel when there are hundreds of them running around within 50 yards of us!"
I'm not going to sell my .22-250 though. It's still a great coyote rifle.

 

[230RN]

"That permit (which is hanging from the rearview mirror in our truck) even allows my wife to legally shoot from a motor vehicle as long as it's not moving or on a public road. And when we're driving around "hunting" (mule deer or ground squirrels) on our friend's ranch, we're often nowhere near a public road."

That's very interesting. I'm not motivated to check into it "here" since I'm no longer mobile enough to go bounding around prairie dog colonies.

Way off topic, but Game Wardens: Seems the whole tenor of the DOW (Division of Wildlife, the name varies) changed "here" around the mid 1980s. Apparently new qualifications for the positions involved having a conservation-related college degree or something. Not sure, but it seemed like after that, they were not interested in hunting, as much as limiting hunting. I can't prove any of that, but that's sure the way it felt.

Anyhow, I've shot them... prairie dogs, not game wardens... with a model 670 in .243 but decided that was too much gun and I didn't like the idea of 120 grain bullets bouncing all over with the flat angles involved in most PD shooting. Especially with Nosler Partition bullets, which are designed to hold together. Could not go bang without a whang with that gun in that application.

I picked up an ancient used Savage, forgot the model number, with a 14" twist which was ideal for the lighter .223 bullets and use(d) that almost exclusively because it always, day after day, printed less than 1/2 inch at 100yards after I mounted a 12X fixed power Redfield scope on it. It even shot very well with military 5.56 ammo (M193).

I turned it over to Son2 and he recently said he shot it with my leftover handloads and it still printed 3/8" and less. The dealer had said, "it's a shooter," and he was right.

I could use that up to 100 paced yards and sometimes 150 yards on the little bastards ("oh, but they're soooo cute!") if I put their bellybuttons at the right place on the vertical reticle.

It seemed like a 53 grain .223 Hornady SX bullet in a 14" twist, at 3000 feet per second, with 3031, out of an ancient Savage rifle with a 12 fixed power Redfield was just what G-d and all the Prophets had demanded since "In the Beginning" was written.

Terry, 230RN

 

[Old Hobo]

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There are exceptions to that rule. I've watched a lot of BPCR shooters tip over 400- and 500-yard steel targets while prone and resting their rifle barrels in the "X" on a pair of cross sticks. Generally though, I agree with you - I try to never let my rifle barrel rest on anything when I'm shooting. And that includes the rifle stock - most of my rifle barrels are free-floated.

Like you said, there are exceptions to almost everything. If one is talking about a thick bull barrel, then that puppy is not going to deform easily. And, back in the latter 1800s, we're talking about black powder rifles. I'm sure that many buffalo hunters rested those long heavy barrels on crossed sticks. But hey, the pressure levels of black powder are far below today's smokeless powders.

"The proof is in the pudding." When at the range sighting-in for a hunt, first get the rounds on-target, THEN simulate how you will be shooting when out in the wilderness hunting. Here's a factor, your coat. What?! At the range, you may only be wearing a light coat or no coat at all. When out hunting, the weather could be very cold, thus you're wearing a very thick coat. Could that affect your shooting? Could that affect your sling length, thus shot placement? These are the things one must consider. May sound silly, but then again ...
.

 

[westernrover]

One time I rested the underlug of a stainless steel revolver barrel on a 4x6 piece of Douglas Fir. It left some dents in the underlug. They're small and faint, but very real. Lesson learned. Admitting to having done stuff like this makes me feel stupid. I've made even more mistakes reloading. I've avoided that "reloading mistakes" thread because I don't care to recount them all. I've done a lot of experimenting, not in the proper scientific sense, but more like the kinds of things teenagers do.

 

[earlthegoat2]

As opposed to no rest at all I guess I would take a harder surface.

 

[.308 Norma]

But hey, the pressure levels of black powder are far below today's smokeless powders.

I never thought about that. I'd bet you're right though.
I did consider the "long heavy barrel" my Shilou Sharps .45-110 has being a factor in why resting it in a pair of crossed sticks works well. I just never thought about the fact that black powder pressure levels are nowhere near as high as smokeless powder pressure levels. Thanks for the insight!