Prone - changing rifle to be more centered in body / collar bone.

[littlepod]

Hey @Dthomas3523 and others, I was hoping you could give a newbie some help on lining up / straight back recoil.

I've shot a few rimfire matches and apple seed stuff where a lot of shooters come in prone at a diagonal angle. For centerfire watching Frank's videos I've been practicing lining up straight behind the rifle. Finally after a few months I feel rather comfortable and predictable getting up and down and getting a shot with straight recoil of only maybe 1mil of shift which is great. I'm shooting a .308 20" unbraked to really get practice on this. Definitely much easier if I put on my Area 419 hellfire brake.

I recently watched a video from someone from the Alaska Precision Rifle class about changing the way I position the rifle in prone, and that's kind of thrown me off my game. I moved from placing the rifle between the arm/chest shoulder slot, which I finally got down a good NPOA, straight back recoil on my .308. Very happy able to hit consistent groups and seeing my shot. I switched over to move the rifle more inline with my body, so closer to the center of my body and placing the rifle basically above the pec on my collar bone. The course video mentioned this as being better as I can come straight down with my head onto the rifle and not have to bend my head over. It felt great in dry fire, but as much as I tried to get straight behind the rifle, the recoil against my collar bone caused pretty violent shifts in the rifle. When I finally in position for a straight back recoil, my body felt just weirdly contorted. I should get a video to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Is that a correct position? I tried to comment on the video and ask some follow up questions but got no response. Shooting rimfire center line, on that collar bone did feel fine, and also felt really easy to do weak side since I wasn't bending my head in a weird angle it wasn't used to. But practicing it on my 20" .308 unbraked, the recoil was just gross. Couldnt' get straight behind it as I felt the rifle would just slide on my collar bone since the collar bone really isn't a flat surface. I even had some "finger slipped off the trigger" incidents

 

[Dthomas3523]

The video I think you are referencing is from Phil Velayo. Or at least the better video is.

I’ve personally be doing the collarbone method for a little while now as getting as close to the center of your body and still being able to get behind the optic is the best way to go.

Keep in mind that Phil mentions using either a cheek weld or a jaw weld depending on the application. A cheek weld is better for someone working behind a rifle who may have to observe for hours on end. The trade off is the down and away pressure your head has on the rifle.

When shooting things like PRS, a jaw weld lets you keep your head more vertical and less weight on the rifle. It’s much harder to stay in this position for long periods as it’s your neck holding all the weight. But you get less head pressure on the rifle and thusly, less wobble zone.

As far as the .308 recoil, try taking any tension out of your back and shoulders. If you too much tension, it’s similar to the rifle recoiling into a wall. The energy has to go somewhere. If you remove tension from your body, you act as a shock absorber. The energy is transferred through your shoulder and is dissapated through your body.

 

[Dthomas3523]

A lot of people think recoil management is “stopping” the recoil.

When in fact, it’s called managing for a reason. The rifle wants to go straight back. So we use our body as an extension of the rifle. It recoils straight back to our body which is in contact with the rifle. It transfers the energy and then we become the device that is recoiling. Basically a shockwave going through our body.

Try loosening up and “absorbing” the recoil and not “stopping” it.

 

[Steel head]

I’ve adopted a more centered rifle position and actually find it more comfortable as long as I get the rifle up a bit more from the ground when prone.

As said above I keep fairly relaxed muscle tension.
Especially my back and shoulders.

Let the rifle do it’s thing.
The magic comes from your positioning behind the rifle, not how firmly you hold it.

Tension on the bipod from body weight, not muscling it.

 

[littlepod]

@Dthomas3523 yes, it was Phil Velayo's video. Thank you and @Steel head for these tips. I'll head back out to the range in a few weeks and give it a go. Thinking back about my session since I knew it was going to recoil significantly more w/o the brake, I definitely was muscling it more as I was tensioning for the higher recoil. When I was shooting with the brake, the recoil was insignificant enough that it was pretty relaxing (minus the noise).

Excited to get more practice behind this. Thanks!

 

[308pirate]

The angled prone position is a workaround for non-adjustable rifles shot from the prone position with only a sling for support. It is not the ideal.

There's no need to compromise being square behind the rifle when you shoot from a bipod or when you shoot a highly adjustable rifle from sling supported prone.