...Shooting while on Horseback...

[Wyo]

Never tried it myself but I have observed others on a couple of occasions. Both involved large rifles fired pretty much between the horse's ears. Both events ended in lumpy heads and long walks home. And no elk were harmed in the process

 

[Broke Hoss]

Aw, you can shoot of any horse....once.

 

[Drm50]

I've never shot off a horse. I do have a old Marlin 1895 that did. There was a local saddle club that dressed western and did trips into the woods with
cook gear, guns, ect. The previous owner of my 1895 touched it off over his horses head. He ended up on the ground. Swapped him a Rossi Puma 357. He blamed it on blast of 45/70. I not a horsemen but I'm smart enough to know not to shoot over a horses head.

 

[Big Cholla]

An interesting bon mot about the subject of shooting off horse's backs; My father-in-law was a bonafied U.S. Army Cavalryman. He joined the Army at the age of 15 in 1930. He was promptly shipped to a Texas Army Training Post where he went thru Basic and then Advanced Cavalry training. While he was there the Army Veterinarians were experimenting with deafening horses to see if they would be more reliable while in battle. In about a year of study the consensus was that when the horses could hear they soon learned the meaning of the bugled commands. The horses also stayed much more a tune to their world of friends, both riders and other horses. While it took a little bit of time to train the hearing horses to allow shooting off their backs, the time was well spent in obtaining a better adjusted horse and a more accomplished Cavalryman.

When I was raising horses, my FIL and I spent hours discussing horse training methods, both the modern method as I knew it and the Army Cavalry methods as best he remembered. When the U.S. Army Cavalry unit he was in was disbanded, my FIL elected to move to the U.S. Army Air Force. He retired with 30 yrs. and then elected to stay and work as a civilian in the aircraft repair shops. The last airplane he worked on was a F-105. In his military career he went from horses to F-105s......

 

[keith44spl]

Ever good horse I ever owned, I schooled to tolerate gun fire.
Wither it be in the saddle or from the ground.

(never shot over their head, always turn'd em to shoot to their side)

.

SASS even has mounted shooting........Using Black Powder Blank Cartridges

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWSvIbzJzas[/ame]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO5B8zR7F3c[/ame]

.

 

[S&WsRsweet]

man that makes me wish they had smart phones with video capability back then .That is one of those hey man watch this moments .His sidekick probably told that story for years and years.I got my horsemanship merit badge when I was a boy scout .As far as I know I'm the only scout to get his badge by ridding a horse backwards .I went to saddle up and my pants split .Our teacher was this good looking lady and we being young teens were all smitten.I mean a girl in ridding boots with a crop what's hotter than that.my pants split and I trying not to let her see somehow ended up in the saddle backwards and that dang horse took off .The instructor was trying to catch the reins to no avail .We went around that arena three times .The only thing I had ever driven was a tractor and my grandpas international pickup .Every time around I was hollering where's the dang clutch hanging on for dear life .The other scouts were falling down laughing .Those guys still tell that story and laugh and laugh at least I can laugh about it but I ain't ridden a horse since .

 

[fordson]

I'm not a horse person; how did he get into a standing position on the horses back?

 

[armenius]

A famous old story of the SC Lowcountry was about a "Northerner" who came to visit a plantation for an old time traditional deer drive with dogs and horses.As he was given a horse to ride he asked the old black groom
" Can I shoot off this horse?". The old groom replied politely," yessuh". The drive commenced and shortly the Yankee saw a buck jump nearby and when he fired the first barrel the horse bucked and ran and fortunately the rider fell in a soft mud hole. When he gathered his ride he returned to the stables and found the groom - "I thought you told me I could shoot off this horse !", to which the groom replied "yessuh you kin suh ,you just can't shoot on 'em "!

 

[Wrangler Rich]

Tex, what's the scoop on the OH 6-A?

WR

 

[Dyerbill]

And people wonder how they lost the war