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Gripping the stock

rickp

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
I started to dry fire a bit more. I cut a hole in my wood fence creating a loophole that lets me focus on a small point about 140y out down the street.

I shoot an AW and I've always wrapped my thumb around the grip. As I'm dry firing yesterday I noticed that every time I pull the trigger, even during taking up the slack, my whole reticle drifts right about .1 to .2 mil. I don't know why but I never noticed that before, so as you can imagine it was a big wow!!!
So at the point I changed my grip and placed my strong hand the way one would fire a typical Rem 700, not wrapping the thumb around the top of the stock.
That made a big difference. It took away all the lateral movement the other grip was inducing.

I just wanted to share my finding. Hope this helps someone else.
 
Re: Gripping the stock

Exactly that Graham!!! You called it. What I found interesting is that i hadn't picked up on it before. Either way, I'm glad I identified it.

Now that I think about it, what might have done it, is dry firing at a target that's at least 100y out. That was the only change in my dry fire routine.
 
Re: Gripping the stock

Had the same problem. Took my hand off the rifle totally, and "squeezed an air trigger" like air guitar. Noticed that my mid. and ring finger moved slightly as well. Much practice, now they dont. Also, I took rifle on dry fires and I use dummy rounds, but I would MAKE SURE RIFLE IS UNLOADED, and then pull with forearm hold in opposite direction as trigger hand, like it was a strand of laughy taffy. Tried to pull rifle apart in opposite direction. This helped stabilize rifle and after some practice, I found a great balance of pulling and firing. Helps with felt recoil as well.
 
Re: Gripping the stock

I've always wrapped my thumb around the stock and never had any issues before. All my other rifles have either wood or steel/aluminum (AR15) stocks and I never really noticed the movement as much. Occasionally I'd get a right side flier.

Recently, I purchased a Remington 700 SPS Tactical in .308 and took it to the range. The crappy houge overmold stock on this thing is really soft and weak. What I found was that as I squeezed my hand, the stock (sitting on a bipod) would flex and shift to the right just as you are describing. I was amazed by how much it moved just from me squeezing the stock.
 
Re: Gripping the stock

Not too hard of a hold. Just light enough the rifle is not going to move or wiggle. Definitely do not want the white knuckles!!