How to Make Your Own Shooting Cross Sticks
- 1). Determine whether you will be shooting while standing, kneeling, or prone with the sticks. Standing sticks should be approximately five to six feet in length, depending upon the shooter's height. Prone sticks are normally about one foot long, and kneeling sticks somewhere in between.
- 2). Buy two three-quarter-inch dowel rods and cut them equally to the size you need. If they are to be used in hunting, sand and paint them to match the colors in the area you usually hunt.
- 3). Designate one end of each stick as a bottom, then screw a three-quarter-inch, round-head wood screw about halfway into the end of the stick. These serve as a "point" to avoid the sticks slipping while set against the ground.
- 4). Tie the two sticks together near the top with a leather boot lace, or any other similar cord, with about four inches of cord connecting the sticks (about two inches for the prone cross sticks).
- 5). Spread the legs out into an X with the connecting cord slightly loose. Adjust the stick height for the best support for the long gun forestock. This can be done by either spreading the legs apart or together, or permanently by moving the ties up or down.
