Shooting stance

mcguiver

Any tips from sills shooters out there?

I've only recently started trying sills, but my stance isn't good. I'm finding it impossible to hold the rifle steady.

I've always done well on paper from a lying position.

Any tips appreciated/ links websites etc.

Cheers

Ammoman

mcguiver wrote:

Any tips from sills shooters out there?

I've only recently started trying sills, but my stance isn't good. I'm finding it impossible to hold the rifle steady.

Join the ranks , everyone finds it hard to hold the rifle steady , a good stance helps , feet shoulder width apart like a golf stance , at 90degrees to the target , and with your weight slightly on the Balls of your feet . then lean slightly to your back foot( Right foot) and rest your left arm on your rib cage . that sets up a good stance for me , but you will have to play with it to suit your own build...

Hope this helps.

Sparks

Shooting standing for sills and shooting standing for ISSF have a lot of things in common in the positional setup, so you might go through some of the photos of the top shooters that are up on the web and see how they do it, or get books like Ways of the Rifle, which have a lot of information on shooting positions.



Note the position of the feet, the tilting of the hips, the position of the left arm, the head position and so on.

Ammoman

I have a question ??? Why do target shooters shoot with the rifle Canted ??? It must caust problems with sight adjustment ?

Sparks

They don't all shoot with the rifle canted, but it is the more usual position. The idea is that if the head is upright, the inner ear thinks the body is upright and doesn't tell the body to lean in the opposite direction. Plus, it lets you get the centre of gravity of the entire shooter-rifle system back between the shooters feet where it belongs for stability. You can get cantable sights to counteract the cant, but they're not necessary really, they just reduce the mental workload on the firing line when you're adjusting sights.

Some shooters though, have trained with a serious tilt to their head so they can have no cant on their rifle. If you train enough, you can shoot well this way - though I wouldn't teach it to any new shooter because of the strain it can put on your neck if you don't do it right.

Ammoman

Very Interesting , I have used open sights at 1000yds , prone thats fun , but I normally shoot scoped rifles , the cant would cause quite a bit of hassle with sight adjustment on a scope .Not too bad at short range , but a long range it would be a nightmare , especially with windage . Its a good method of getting a really steady stance.... I have learned something new today , thanks.

Flattop 15

Sparks,
Just a question on your disipline.I noticed no one seemingly using a sling.Is it not allowed in your disipline
Always found a good sling a very good help to accuracy

Sparks

You're allowed use one in prone and in kneeling flattop, but not for standing. And few use it in kneeling.



You can see it here on the nearer arm about midway along the bicep and running out under the forearm and attaching to the foreend of the stock.

Ammoman

you cant use a sling in Sil shooting either or shooting jackets , absolutely no aid to steady the rifle .

Sparks

Heavier rifle and a larger target though, which compensates somewhat (heavier rifles have more inertia and so wobble less). The challanges in sil shooting are slightly different than for ISSF shooting - you've different ranges to cope with, a less adjustable rifle (ISSF does have standard rifle matches for .22 shooting, but they're not as widespread outside of 300m shooting), and so forth. It's an interesting comparison to see what the two styles of shooting have emphasised.

Ammoman

have you tried sil shooting ?

Sparks

Not sil, just sporting rifle. Thinking of giving gallery a whirl at some point just for fun, but ISSF's still got it's hooks quite well embedded in my trigger finger

Ammoman

Gallery rifle is good crack , the NASRC are promoting resetting gallery , I have seen the dicipline in action and it is challenging , i will give it a whirl myself .

it is 3 positional , standing at a target , then kneeling at a target , then prone at a target , then reload mags then 5 shots standing at resetting steel plates and mag change and shoot at a target again . All within a time limit , now thats pressure....