yeah, he shudda taken those long shots offhand with a palmrest and wearing a derby

Al C. and I shot thousands-well over a hundred thousand-shots each practicing offhand, and shot many matches over a 15 year stretch. What we both learned is that offhand shooting requires God-given talent. It is just not true that a person can practice his way into becoming a good offhand shot. We were coached and helped by some quite good shooters. That helped, but didn't get us into the "good" category. We shot at the military 200 yard centers, with ?4"X ring and ?7" 10 ring, etc. I once, in 25 years of prettry steady shooting, shot a score of 190 +, this was a fluke 192. The good shooters could and did regularly shoot above 190 with SS and bolt guns, including 40+ calibers. We also learned that good offhand shooters can shoot good scores into old age. Age and a little infirmity doesn't affect offhand performance for a long time. Also, some excellent OH shooters are quite young, I've seen them in their late teens early 20s.
Benchrest shooting can be learned and done well by acquiring good equipment, practice, and talking to others. BR performance does not depend on a God-given talent. 
Eventually Al C. slowed shooting almost to a complete stop and I turned into a BR shooter. 
We both got tired of knowing that we stood no chance of finishing "in the money" at any match. That takes the fun out of the game.
I predict that any regularly-held OH match will attract the same few shooters over time, and never attract a lot of shooters. The same talented guys will win, the others will drop out. 
But, I'm frequently wrong; try it and see.
BTW, I was 17th at Coors in 1983. Well out of the money, and my best lifetime match.
joe b.

Joe 17th at the Coor's is a very good performance.  Offhand shooter can be the top dog at local clubs. Get to a national match it's a whole different game. All the top dogs show up.

As far as difficulty offhand is no harder than casting a bait caster or fly rod or hitting a golf ball.  Plenty of guys never learn to cast or hit golf balls though.  I do think you can learn offhand if well coached. Problem is a lot of poor coaching and advice is the norm.  Former high power shooters are the worst in my experience, muzzle loader background seems to be the best.

Our club new shooter with a strong IDPA action pistol background about 50 years old started shooting Single Shots & Lever actions year ago. He's in the top rank now. Other day rimfire CLA he went 54/60 first match 57/60 next. Year ago he was hiting less than 50 %  Thats 120 record shots missing 9 and they were close misses I was squaded next to him.  ASSRA rimfire 100 yard target same performance would have been well over 2150.  I did loan him my "Russian" book when he started.

I don't agree that advanced age is a real handicap either. You do have to adjust but the key to offhand is making the right decision when it's time to pull the trigger. Nothing negative about age when it comes to decisions

I will agree at the absolute top level there is a mind set and body type that ends up winning, however if you shoot a sport that's classed plenty of competition at the lower levels.  I spend most of  my time in AAA silhouette and it's hotly contested.  

Boats

Shooting offhand involves only two elements. First is aligning the sights and the target. Second is depressing the trigger. I was and still am able to align the sights and the target, perfectly. And, I am able to depress the trigger as a surprise, without disturbing the sight alignment.
The trick to offhand shooting is to make both elements occur simultaneously. Hence the comments and laughter at offhand matches.
"I've had the sights lined up perfectly for about 20 minutes, but I can't make the damn gun go off!"
and
"I wonder why my gun went off when it was aimed right next to the target frame."
joe b.

There are things beyond your control that will give you advantages in offhand. Pope had freakishly long arms (he once said that he had a 2" reach advantage on Jack Dempsy) for a man on a 5'5" frame. Donaldson is the same way you can see in the picture of Donaldson holding Hudson's Walker-Hepburn his elbow sitting firmly on his hip. This is a distinct natural advantage. However there are good offhand shots who don't have these natural advantages and shoot very well. Chuck Blender comes to mind this is not a man built in the Pope-Donaldson mould. Yet he is a good offhand shot. Why? Chuck has two things working for him desire and the ability to learn. At an early age Chuck decided that he wanted to be a good shot. He practised and practised when he found that his body type didn't conform to the classic style, he figured out a way to hold that complimented his body type. Then he practised and practised and then he practised some more. Most of us who aren't good at off hand lack one or both of two things. The first is the ability to analyze what we are doing and change what is not working and the other is we don't want it bad enough to put in the work.
PS I suck at offhand.

40 Rod

I've been following these threads about the offhand stuff and hope to get some Schuetzen shooting started in my neck of the woods, Kansas City, Mo. probably next year. Anyway I keep seeing the CLA mentioned just what is "CLA"? 

Thanks
Richard

My perspective is somewhat limited. I've only shot at Etna Green but I have become absolutely convinced that the consistent winners are guys who have mastered that art of sensing and adapting to the "conditions".  Its very obvious in the BR matches.  Offhand bullets are subject to the exact same conditions; and the offhand shooters body is under pressure from the same conditions as the bullet.  (Shooting from inside a shooting house might be worth a point or two per match compared to shooting outdoors in adverse conditions) 
 
Bear in mind though that my experience has been shooting 22rf OH, a few 200 yd matches, as many 100s as I can and some of the 50 yd stuff.  I only started OH 4 or 5 years ago and hope to graduate to center-fire as soon as (when/if) my Mos Mould gets here.  22Rf shot OH and 200 in the EG range conditions as about all the challenge I can stand.   Shooting 22s might aggravate/accentuate the "conditions" factor more that it would for centerfire---if so my perception is skewed