I am back, sort of.

[K22]

After undergoing hip replacement surgery on November 11, 2025, I am finally able to resume some varmint hunting. I went out last Saturday, got 1 (236 y) and missed one (245 y). The cross winds were horrible - I have to blame the miss on something.

As you probably know, this shooting game is a perishable skill. I perished during the layoff.

Looking to get back to the range and working with my cross sticks and suffering the weird stares of fellow shooters. I am the only one who shoots off sticks at the range, at least I never saw anyone else using them in the last 20 years where I belonged to the one club where I can actually shoot away from a bench.

I am down to three farms now and over 50 % of their fields are no longer viable groundhog fields due the abundance of corn replacing alfalfa. Oh well, I still enjoy getting out and recalling the great days of varmint hunting that have long passed away around here. Such is life.

 

[hpshooter]

Keep hanging in there! Always enjoy your post and the way you share information with others.

We have a black powder cartridge shooter at our club who uses cross sticks and does quite well with them.

Coming up on 79 in June and understand full well how the inffirmatives in the joints adversely affects our field shooting abilities.

 

[ebb]

My sticks are on the way. I will start practicing in the back yard with my 22s. I want to build a set like Butch's friend Wyman made, with willow sticks from the creek where Bill Dixon made his famous shot. I have willows growing around my pond in Volusia County, but it just wouldn't be the same.

 

[centerlineseal]

Bill Dixon made his famous shot.

That's a story I've never heard about. Care to give a recitation?

 

[Rick in Oregon]

That's a story I've never heard about. Care to give a recitation?

Billy Dixon made an incredible shot at Adobe Walls at 1,000~ yards knocking an Indian off his horse. Great story besides his monumental shot.

Billy Dixon - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

K22, good luck with your recovery to get back into the field.
At 79 now, I've had 35 surgeries, wounds from Vietnam, both hips replaced, my right shoulder, large portion of my guts cut out, and more crap than anyone here wants to hear about. I'm still what I'd call "field active" (pd's, squirrels and chucks), but chasing elk in the black timber and Muleys in the desert hills are now all in the rear view mirror.

But no matter how buggered up we may be, we seem to always find a way.

Best to you, brother.

 

[MTPaul]

After undergoing hip replacement surgery on November 11, 2025, I am finally able to resume some varmint hunting. I went out last Saturday, got 1 (236 y) and missed one (245 y). The cross winds were horrible - I have to blame the miss on something.

As you probably know, this shooting game is a perishable skill. I perished during the layoff.

Looking to get back to the range and working with my cross sticks and suffering the weird stares of fellow shooters. I am the only one who shoots off sticks at the range, at least I never saw anyone else using them in the last 20 years where I belonged to the one club where I can actually shoot away from a bench.

I am down to three farms now and over 50 % of their fields are no longer viable groundhog fields due the abundance of corn replacing alfalfa. Oh well, I still enjoy getting out and recalling the great days of varmint hunting that have long passed away around here. Such is life.

K22: It's good to hear you are gradually getting back on your feet. And for those shooters at the local range who may cast disparaging looks in your direction when you whip out the cross sticks...those looks may just be envy. After all, I could count on one hand the number of people I come across who have the skill to master using them. I'm sure your physical therapy helped with you recover from the recent surgery but there is nothing like time afield to help with both physical and mental therapy. Keep at it!

 

[Gary in MD]

There is nothing more therapeutic than a day in the ground hog fields. Good luck K22

 

[Doug Casner]

Good luck, buddy, Im too old to whip out my cross stick. Doug

 

[ebb]

The Shot of the Century: How Billy Dixon Changed History with a Bullet

The Shot of the Century was made by a buffalo hunter named Billy Dixon one Texas day in 1874. Dixon and a handful of other buffalo hunters were under siege by a massive force of Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne warriors who’d united in a bloody effort to drive out the invaders from their hunting...

texashillcountry.com

 

[D Coots]

Good story even though contradicting itself. A mile shot or 1,538 yards. Close enough.

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

I shoot off a tripod/arca plate or clamp mostly at night, so I finish sighting in that way. So I usually only do that when no one else is on the line at the range. Most don't know what sticks or tripod are , bipods are a bit more common and often installed wrong or not properly loaded.

 

[K22]

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement. God Bless all of you.

 

[Oldbloke]

@K22
Well good onya.
I often use x sticks at the range too.
Good Hunting.