The stock
is one of the things on the rifle that will make your shooting experience
difficult if it is incorrectly fit. I imagine
that this is part of what pretty much every new shooter finds frustrating. If someone was lucky enough to start shooting
with a stock that actually fit, they probably wouldn’t actually notice it, but
it would save them a lot of trouble and frustration. David Tubb presents a similar argument in his
book The Rifle Shooter. If I end
up going through all of this just to end up buying a T2K rifle, I’m going to
seek out Mr. Tubb so he can have an opportunity to tell me that he told me so. I would rather that I can find my own way to
a good fit.
The pistol
grip affects a few things in reference to your relationship with the
rifle. The shape and angle of the grip
affect how the rifle carries and how it shoots, which encompass most of the
things you might do with your rifle. I’ll
leave out the possibilities of impact weapons or walking canes for this
article.
A grip
that is straight inline with the muzzle makes for a rifle that’s easy to
carry. That’s how stocks were made when people
rode around on horses a lot.
Coincidence? Maybe. To get an idea of how the stock would be
easier to carry make two fists with two of your hands. Place your support hand fist palm up and your
firing side fist palm down.
Imagine your rifle as a straight rod with the muzzle pointing to the direction of your support side (not at your support side). When your arms are held in front of you, as relaxed as they can be with your fists out in front, your muzzle should be pointing slightly up and to the left for a right handed shooter. To put the rifle in port arms, simply lower the firing hand and raise the support hand.
Imagine your rifle as a straight rod with the muzzle pointing to the direction of your support side (not at your support side). When your arms are held in front of you, as relaxed as they can be with your fists out in front, your muzzle should be pointing slightly up and to the left for a right handed shooter. To put the rifle in port arms, simply lower the firing hand and raise the support hand.
An inline
pistol grip also gives the rifle a less obtrusive shape overall. There is just less to poke into you if you
happen to have the rifle slung.
Rifle
grips are becoming increasingly vertical.
Why is this the case if horizontal grips carry so nicely? The reason is that vertical grips make
shooting easier. Imagine that straight
rod-shaped rifle again, and imagine holding it within your fists held out in
front of you. Now imagine putting the
butt into your shoulder to fire it. Your
firing hand wrist wants to bend, which is uncomfortable.
To stop that bending, you’d need to raise your elbow to approximately a 45° angle above horizontal. This is very likely why the “chicken wing” is so strongly advocated among those who practice marksmanship as it was taught up through the 1950’s or so.
To stop that bending, you’d need to raise your elbow to approximately a 45° angle above horizontal. This is very likely why the “chicken wing” is so strongly advocated among those who practice marksmanship as it was taught up through the 1950’s or so.
Why is a
straight wrist desirable? Bending the
wrist makes it harder to use the fingers to grasp the pistol grip. It doesn't make for the most efficient use of your fine motor skills, which you need. It will probably make your muscles work harder to accomplish the same task. Working harder equates
to fatigue occurring sooner. Fatigue leads to
tremors. Tremors may not be optimal for
precise shooting.
The most
stable shooting positions involve planting the firing side elbow on a surface
for support, whether that surface be the ground or another body part, such as
the leg. If we want to get that firing
side elbow down where it can be planted, we need to abandon that inline grip. The vertical grip allows for a straight wrist
while the elbow is lowered.
What about
offhand? Tradition holds that the elbow
needs to be high. Aren’t we compromising
the ability to hold if we do away with the “chicken wing”? If we consider it in terms of what makes the
human body steadier, it stands to reason that the lower the body is, the
steadier, which not so coincidentally also applies to positions. Why would raising the upper arm and elbow
automatically render the offhand position more stable? I can’t think of any reason it would. Try it yourself. Hold your elbow up above horizontal, then
bring it down. Which was steadier? As I mentioned before, the chicken wing is
part of the legacy from when stocks were straight. Unless you’re shooting a historical piece, it’s
probably okay to let the elbow drop.
Chicken wing is also to emphasize the shoulder pocket and to keep the buttstock from slipping off. It's more relaxed position than muscling the shoulder forward or up to get a better pocket.
ReplyDeleteCan't say I like shooting that way though.
One advantage of the chicken wing for offhand is the "pocket" that it creates in the shoulder - providing a better platform for the stock. At least for me, in kneeling or sitting, I find the broad sloped front of my shoulder doesn't hold the stock stable unless the stock is pulled into it with considerable force - something which is mitigated by the chicken wing.
ReplyDeleteI remember hearing that about the chicken wing now that you mention it. Maybe it's a body type thing, because my shoulder pocket seems to be adequate with my arm in any position. I plant the butt on the pectoralis right on the edge of the anterior deltoid.
DeleteDo you use a chicken wing in sitting? Does that mean you don't plant the elbow? (not a confrontational tone, just curious about what you're doing)
DeleteYes.
DeleteHowever, when I teach people, I always recommend planting the elbow, and only suggest the chicken wing if they have problems that creating the pocket would mitigate.
I hear you on the T2K. Lots of other good option out there though, that are not quite so XTC specific. Aside from the semi's, take a look at tube guns in general. Still too gamey for me, but lots of potential. The AI AX is another good looking option. Of course, a Larue is still high on my list.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't really want a T2K, but one of his selling points is how adjustable they are (you know this already).
DeleteLarue is looking nice, especially considering my renewed interest in AR's.
I usually let my elbow hang down. I do a lot of things contrary to what Appleseed teaches. When I went to my first Appleseed one of the Instructors told me I was doing it all wrong until he saw my target. To be fair, I was trying to provoke the Instructors to gauge their reactions. My reasons for attending was to check out the program to see if I wanted to be part of it. The Instructors did a great job.
ReplyDeleteI can shoot well enough in the standard standing positions that Appleseed teaches but I shoot better my way.
I twist and lean forward a little with my elbow high and put the rifle in my shoulder with enough cant than when shoulder is relaxed and the elbow is hanging down the rifle is straight. This gives me consistent position and reduces wobble. Your millage may vary but it works for me.
One needs to be willing to try variations on your position and see what works best for you.
I teach the standard positions (they are nearly universal for any body shape and very good in the wind) then tell the students to experiment with variations and show them some different variations including my favorite "no wind" old school Free Rifle style position as an extreme example.
When shooting a straight stock rifle like a Winchester 94 or a black powder rifle my elbow is in full chicken wing mode because that works best with the wrist angle. Dropping my elbow with a straight stock causes trigger control issues.
There are very few simple answers for shooting questions.
"One needs to be willing to try variations on your position and see what works best for you."
DeleteI think that is really important in an instructor.
I studied several different martial arts over a span of about 10 years, because I kept moving to different areas and had to take what was available. I did the first one for about 5 years and thought I really knew what was best and why.
My instructor's health failed and I started into a different style. I had to learn why a lot of the old stuff I was doing was "wrong" and how to re-adapt to the new style. To be fair, that instructor was really good and was pretty upfront about them just being different, although he really believed in what he was doing, so I did too. During the new honeymoon phase my thought was, "Man, the old one was all wrong and this one is so much better."
When I moved, I started over in a new style. The instructor was the same rank as I was. It was really frustrating because he thought I was doing it all wrong and I was very skeptical about what he was doing, although I did my best to learn it. I was in a process of inquiry that I don't think he ever considered. The stuff he was doing was good for what he was doing it for.
This went on and on until I found that none of it was going to work for what I wanted to learn it for. The last place I trained formally turned out to be so dogmatic, almost cultish, that I decided the only way I was going to learn was to be in charge of my own learning, which is kind of sad.
In practical terms, there are many ways to throw a punch, but they all do about the same thing. The important thing is that you actually hit the other guy to effect your purpose, and that the purpose is just.
The component that is more important than any technique is the willingness to engage and the ability to quickly recognize the need to do so and to do it. In other words, bein' willing. After that it's important to use the appropriate tool for the job. That takes a problem solving human being, and in all those years of martial arts and instructors, there wasn't a lot of instruction on how to solve the problems we were supposedly training to address.
Coaches who are good enough to understand the differences between techniques and their purposes ensure that everyone doesn't have to reinvent the wheel for themselves every time. I think those on the other end of the spectrum, those who insist on a certain form without understanding the underlying function, often do more harm than good.
1. With smaller hands I find that pistol grips allow me to:
ReplyDeletea) move my finger lower on the trigger blade so that the pull is longer but the weight is less (greater leverage), and
b) get the angle of my trigger finger closer to 90 degrees, i.e. straight back pull, relative to the blade.
2. Although it is technically against the rules in some competitions, with a long enough pistol grip you can actually rest the grip on your chest in the offhand position for great stability.
I preferred the M14/M1A over the AR15 for off hand but after comparing scores over a year my numbers were better with the AR. Used the chicken wing with the M1A and a much lower elbow with the AR, the AR always felt like it was hanging in front of me to some degree but the M1A with the higher elbow felt like part of my shoulder. I attributed the better scores to improved trigger control with the AR. In the end I used a cant with the grip slightly outboard that helped reduce the wrist angle and helped get some pressure back on the shoulder, just had to keep up with a slightly different offhand zero.
ReplyDeleteIf memory serves right (rare now days) The Brits favored and taught the high chicken wing and ended up with a lot of one armed troops during the revolutionary war,cause the ridgerunners shot at whatever stuck out from behind the tree.All that aside lot of guys I shot silhouette with weren't
ReplyDeletehigh wingers