There was a post a while back on the longest shot with a pistol. Just wondering what positions you guys use for these shots and for hunting scenerios. For hunting I use my pi-pod as much as possible but sometimes that's not possible so I'm wondering how you guys shoot your long shots.
Thanks
Mike

In a hunting situation, the best positions for accuracy would be prone or seated and using a log, rock or tree stump instead of a shooting table. Of course, don't rest the gun directly on said rock or tree but pad it with a pack, clothing or the palm of your hand if you don't want a point of impact change.

For hunting, a rest is not always available. In some situations, an off hand shot may be the only that is available. I have spent as much time as I can hunting ground squirrels with a 22Lr barrel shooting off hand to practice for my deer hunting. It paid off well for me last season - a better than 200 buck was taken off hand at about 75 yards at 10,600 feet in elevation on an open barren ridge. If you can pretty consistently take ground squirrels off hand at 22Lr ranges, the vital zone of a deer will not seem like such a small target and the gun's movement will not be so intimidating.

I also have a bi-pod on my Encore pistol. An alteration I made to my gun to make it more off hand user friendly and better to use with a bi-pod was putting the Encore rifle fore arm on the gun instead of using the regular pistol fore end.

In shooting off hand, you slide your forward hand down the fore grip until your hand is stopped by the bi-pod base, and then you lock your elbow. Slight backward pressure is applied with your trigger hand and under this tension the gun is surprisingly stable. You can rest your head on the shoulder of your trigger hand arm to lock your head in place almost like a rifle stock does. And you get a 100 percent the same sight picture through the scope that is pretty steady every time if the gun is set up right for you. Give this off hand technique a try and see what you think.These alterations will also make a more user friendly gun for long range shooting because of the long stable base they provide for shooting with the bi-pod in use, either prone or sitting with the gun on a rest of some kind...Rusty.

If you're talking about shooting colony varmints such as the prairie dog or ground squirrels then we typically shoot off benches close to the truck. We use benchrest style pedestal front and sandbag rear rests as well as benchrest Harris bipods off portable benches. We also use a set of "Big Eyes" for spotting that helps considerably for increasing the odds of long-range connections (2 spotting scopes in a bracket used as a high-power binocular). Might take a look at some of XPhunters pics right here--

http://www.hunt101.com/showgallery.php?cat=998&thumb=1&si=xphunter

A couple of those pics shows the short swiveling Harris bipods/small sandbag rear rest XP and i used at a sniper match we competed in. For coyotes and antelope i use the S-25 Harris swiveling bipod. For mtn. hunting i improvise off a backpack unless shots are very long. Then i'll get a glove front rest that gives just enough support, with little wobble, and a rear rest typically using the other glove. I have also used a 9-13" Harris S-LM bipod in the mtns.