consistent cheek weld

[Gunlaker]

Hi,

I've been gradually making small improvements in my shooting technique. I find that on my scoped rifle ( CSA 1874 .45-70 with DanT paper patch chamber ) it's easy to get a consistent cheek weld because when you look through the MVA scope there is only a very small range of eye placement (both forward/backward and left/right) where things look right. With this rifle I can shoot some pretty decent groups. Today I only shot one target with this rifle and put 9 out of 11 shots into just over 1.1 moa of vertical at 200m. Horizontal is about twice that much, which is usual for me.

With my aperture sighted rifles I do OK when shooting prone from cross sticks. When I get into position I'm sort of pulled together pretty tightly so my head position is pretty consistent on the stock.

I find that when doing load development from the bench that it's really easy (especially on a rifle with no cheek piece) to be inconsistent with head placement. Have you old hands got any suggestions for techniques to improve this? Maybe put some masking tape on the comb and use it as a reference mark for my face?

thanks for any suggestions.

Chris.

[Rick Mulhern]

Hi,

I've been gradually making small improvements in my shooting technique. I find that on my scoped rifle ( CSA 1874 .45-70 with DanT paper patch chamber ) it's easy to get a consistent cheek weld because when you look through the MVA scope there is only a very small range of eye placement (both forward/backward and left/right) where things look right. With this rifle I can shoot some pretty decent groups. Today I only shot one target with this rifle and put 9 out of 11 shots into just over 1.1 moa of vertical at 200m. Horizontal is about twice that much, which is usual for me.

With my aperture sighted rifles I do OK when shooting prone from cross sticks. When I get into position I'm sort of pulled together pretty tightly so my head position is pretty consistent on the stock.

I find that when doing load development from the bench that it's really easy (especially on a rifle with no cheek piece) to be inconsistent with head placement. Have you old hands got any suggestions for techniques to improve this? Maybe put some masking tape on the comb and use it as a reference mark for my face?

thanks for any suggestions.

Chris.

When you're shooting an aperture sight a good reference point that requires checking is the amount of 'gap' betwix the exterior of the rear aperture and the exterior of the globe up at the front sight. When that 'gap' is consistent.....you're good!!

[Gunlaker]

Thanks Rick. I guess that should have been obvious to me, but sometimes I miss the simple stuff and make things more complicated than they ought to be :-)

Chris.