Treestand rail rest

[WayBeau]

I was thinking about something I read in a post earlier this week about shooting from a treestand (http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=683750) and have a question. When shooting from a treestand, and using the rail as a rest, how much 'padding' do you need so that it doesn't play a part in where your bullet impacts? I've hunted from ladder stands with the stock pipe insulation foam that came with the stand wrapped around the rail and I've hunted out of stands without the foam. To be honest, I've never actually shot anything, with a rifle, from either of these stands (all of my shots have been while I was walking in or out of the woods) so I don't know. Let's face it, who's really carrying the sandbags they use at the range into their ladder stands?

So that's my question. Would the foam 'rail wrap', or even a rolled up glove or hat, be sufficient padding to minimize the affect on the point of impact?

Just curious as rifle season is opening here in a little over a week and a half.

 

[HarcyPervin]

I wouldn't think it's going to make too much of a difference...I'd just want some sort of padding on there so that it wasn't going to make any noise when I got my gun up and rested. I don't think most of the shots you're going to take are long enough for that to matter. I have been wrong once before...

 

[Patocazador]

You don't want to rest your bare barrel on anything when making a medium to long shot. It will move the barrel enough to deflect the shot high. How high depends on the weight on the barrel and the length of the shot.
Always make sure the forearm of the gun is doing the resting.

 

[WayBeau]

You don't want to rest your bare barrel on anything when making a medium to long shot. It will move the barrel enough to deflect the shot high. How high depends on the weight on the barrel and the length of the shot.
Always make sure the forearm of the gun is doing the resting.

The rifle would actually be resting on top of the (slightly) padded sling on top of the rail. I'm always careful that the barrel isn't touching anything when I shoot.

 

[jbkebert]

The amount of padding under the forearm of the rifle will not make a lick of change in point of impact. We use enough padding so the rifle does not scratch under recoil not much more. However I have shot out of some way over padded rails without a problem from ranges from 40 to 400 yards. If there was a missed shot it was user error not a cushion problem.

 

[Muskyman]

Sand bags, padded rail, unpadded rail, shooting sticks...doesn't seem to matter for me, but as others said, don't rest the barrel itself on anything.

 

[WayBeau]

I was simply curious. As I stated in my original post, I've never actually shot my rifle from a treestand, so I don't know if there would be any affect on the POI.

 

[627PCFan]

I cant speak to centerfire rifles BUT I do a shoot a slightly higher POI with my muzzleloader off my shooting bar on my ladder stand. Its padded but I think its the bounce from the bar mixed with the slow recoil of the gun. For me its repeatable-

 

[adelbridge]

i bring a Primos trigger stick monopod into my stands that dont have rails. Rest your stock not your barrel on the rail and you wont have a POI shift

 

[jrdolall]

I have killed a lot of deer from a climber and from ladder stands that had the foam insulation wrapped with camo duct tape. I have rested my rifle on this insulation many times and have not missed-that I recall. I don't see why resting the forearm on anything would cause an issue as it rests on something every time you shoot it.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Yeah, the metal stands we have wrap up nicely with 3/4" pipe insullation. We get the pre-sticky stuff from Wal-mart, attach to the salient resting and comfortpoints, then wrap in duct tape. A tight wrap and it is "padded" about like a punching bag. In other words, it is still, but has some give to it, but not much.

The padding alleviates the "clinks" associated with hitting the metal (if it was uncovered) by other hard objects like barrels, stocks, binoculars, spotting scopes (don't ask), and so on.

We put it on the arm rests and the back rails to add some size volume and padding for comfort.