TerribleTed Is 100% on the money, Practice shooting offhand.
We have two that have no rails and two with factory installed rails at the locations where I hunt. This looked like the best option to me short of just buying a stand with the rails already. I wouldn't lean too much on the ones we have that came with the stands anyhow. They just aren't made to put too much weight on them. But this universal should would give you a little more stability when shooting.
And you can practice shooting off hand all you want but when you're tired because you got up at 0 dark 30 and are 50 plus, you just aren't as steady as when you were 20 something :>)
a couple mods I made to the fold up shooting rail that came with my 2-man ladder was to put in an extra set of galv bolts into the swing up arms. no they will no longer swing up but I never did that anyway and they are a lot more rigid, fill with blow in foam, a ratchet strap (around the tree) on each side where the rail joins the seat back, closed cell foam swim tubes cut once lengthwise and fitted around the rail makes for excelent padding and comfort (put it on the back rests also). this makes it much sturdier and I lean pretty heavily on it. wouldn't want to test it but a small person could probably hang from it. but as always the snug harness tether gets the brunt of taking up/supporting the wt. you might be able to use some of these on the aftermarket rail. a secondary support bar from 12-18" out from the tree from the shooting rail to the tree at app a 45 degree angle would help also if you can put some hardware into the tree.
I tried a set of sling sticks one time with my old 30.06. You could use them half way let out and brace the sticks against your waist while sitting. It didn't help much with side to side stability but vertically it did enough to get the job done. I wonder if a set of shooting sticks would work in this case.
I've never used this before but I've been seeing this on craigslist. www.trophyrest.com
