Hayday posted a link on one of my posts that got me thinking about positional shooting. Used to actually really love doing it with my m16/M4 but haven't done it in forever. That and after watching my reticle with the scope cam thought it would be fun to try a lil 5rd group @100yd I definitely suck but it was a fun lil change of pace...also I'm getting old can't seem to get in position as easy anymore

Just wait. I have shot a bunch of big game sitting down and shooting off my knees for a support. I can hold the gun pretty still like that. 40 years ago I could drop down and have my rifle in position in about 2 seconds. Maybe less. Takes awhile now. Getting back up is worse. I can still steady the rifle though.

We used to have a lot of "cross stick" matches with our muzzleloaders. Sit on the ground, rest the rifle in a set of sticks and shoot 100 yard targets. As most of the group gets older, the matches take longer and longer. We quit them about 5 years ago, guys just can't get up and down any more.

I've got to try bracing my elbow on my knee in the kneeling position. I can shoot freestanding but I don't like it much. Preffer to have some kind of bracing point, especially for anything over 50 yards. Some times I'll notch my gun in a bush.

Sitting with elbows on knees is the most difficult recently. Kneeling is not so bad. Prone is easy, gravity always works.

Heck, Wolfie, what are ya in age?

Shot only 27 but army left me with some bad disks arthritis in my hips and lower back and my knees aren't feeling the best any more.

Not the make and year of the car it's the milage of that sucker as they say

time to get back down to weight all that good cooking getting in the way , been there

I shot 2 quals known distance 100-400 yards Standing at 100 seated at 200, prone at 3 and 400 no issue easily qualified both times then we ate lunch.
I ate too much.
I could not get into cross leg seated after lunch and missed the 3rd by 4 rounds
the 4th and final qual of the day I dropped to kneeling a less stable but acceptable stage 2 position and was 3 pass of the 4 quals of the day.
was mad at myself but also no one else shot even 3 of 4

I dont like the military position. My feet are about a shoulder width apart, flat on the ground with my knees up. I only use the sling to carry my rifle.

Slings can be awesome stabilizing devices , I like the GI cotton Web sling

hard to argue with consistent hits at 500 yards the ground and a sling and the gun are the only equipment.

used to teach the position shooting & sling with Appleseed.

For benefit of Wolfie and others, background of the guy I linked to is one of long distance hunting with modestly tricked out sporting rifles in heavy recoil calibers, like 7mm Rem, 7mm Rem Ultra Mag, 300 Win mag, 338 Lapua, etc. What he was doing was along lines of ADC work, shooting feral goats, sheep and hogs at distances out to half a mile and farther. First by he and his wife, then guiding others. (After that, running schools for people to learn to do the same). To be accurate enough to reliably kill animals at distance requires a powerful rifle and ammo capable of sub MOA groups, and then put that in the hands of a shooter capable of taking advantage of such a rifle.

The idea behind how you hold the rifle recognizes that recoil is in play well before the bullet leaves the barrel. It is amplified by heavy recoil rifles. The need to hold the fore end of your rifle's stock is to minimize the movement from recoil. To lock it down. Shooting off bipods with crossed arms does not lock the rifle down. It's free to wander......and does.

He shoots everything from as solid a rest as he can find or build. But also utilizes a firm grip on the fore end and uses a sling to minimize any bounce from recoil.

I hear ya. I am pretty beat up, for my age also.