I first shot a 22 rifle when I was 5 years old, when I was about 30 I stood in an Army Rifle Match and put ten shots in a 2 inch circle offhand at 100 meters. Had the match not been rained out it would have been a world record with the M-16. If I kill another deer it will be 150, I have missed a few and hope to miss a few more with every imaginable firearm you can hunt with. You want to make a clean humane shot, so you learn the fundamentals of marksmanship. There is the element of fair chase it seems few care about these days; but this time I’m drawing the line. The next time I see an able bodied person shoot a game animal from a swivel rest on national television I’m going to lodge a formal complaint to the network.
An ethical hunter learns to use any natural gun rest they can in the field. A good rifle, scope and ammunition is the norm, but when you remove the human element of good marksmanship in hunting it really is sinful.
These contraption aren’t even used in the Military. They lock the rifle into place on target or follow the target and then lock. You don’t even need to put your shoulder to some of these devices, just pull the trigger. Elmer Keith, Jack O’Conner and Robert Ruark would turn over in their graves.
The next step will be electrically operate swivel rests. I have seen this for handicapped hunters, no problem there. That being said this needs to be addressed to the legal department of my state wildlife and fisheries as an old law exists about swivel guns.