Prone Hurts!

[nashlaw]

I have been trying to shoot prone and it kills my neck. It is not just discomfort, it is a hurt. Can some of you experienced gents give me some pointers?

To help put my request into context, my neck is 52 years old.

 

[SomeOtherGuy]

Can you tell if it's from the angle your head is at, or what it's from?

Initial thoughts would be to try adjusting rifle height over ground (bipod or bag height) and scope position fore/aft and even up/down to see if any those changes help.

 

[KYpatriot]

How is the cheek rest height? You should not require neck tension in order to maintain the full eye box in the scope without shadowing. If your rifle doesn't fit right your are going to be using muscle tension and this will not only hurt your neck it will hurt your shooting

 

[TheGerman]

You're probably craning your neck too far forward on the stock or you're holding yourself up with your arm/neck muscles instead of being relaxed.

 

[ChrisBCS]

Agree with the above. Prone is the most comfortable, relaxed position with the easiest follow through and recoil absorption.

 

[nashlaw]

Will try all of the above. Thanks for the responses.

 

[ShtrRdy]

I had to get the rifle a little higher off the ground to get in a sort of comfortable position. ( 60 yr old )

 

[Cranedaddy]

I had to raise my rifle up a bit to get comfy.

 

[mjh30]

OP, if I can make a suggestion and its along the lines of what KYpatriot and the German mentioned. Get higher scope rings, increase the height of cheekpiece. A friend has a neck issue, by doing this he's taken the neck tension away.

 

[TacticalBoltKnob]

I disagree. For big guys or old guys, prone is the most uncomfortable. You get used to it the more you shoot prone and find your ideal shooting position. Your body just has to adjust. My neck hurt the first 2-3 times I shot prone, too.

 

[Night Eagle]

I had same problem...raise rifle and lay on a couple of pillows or even better a couple of small sand bags.

 

[mike.h.]

I shot my first 1000 yard clinic this year, prone , and for a 68 year old it was tough. But it sure was fun. I try some of the suggestion listed here.

Thanks

 

[EasyGravy]

Stretch and limber up. Relax yourself and dont strain

 

[Sterling Shooter]

OP,

You do not likely have the sight/stock comb relationship adjusted to where you can rest the full weight of your head on the stock to anchor eye for proper sight alignment. The scope is too high, which means, for the eye to square with it, you must lift your head, thus creating neck tension as you described.

 

[kraigWY]

If prone hurts you're not doing it right. If you can't find a comfortable relaxed prone (or any other position) find a coach who will help you.

Try a High Power or CMP Clinic and tell the instructor you're problem. He'll fix you up.

In 1999, my wife came off a colt and broke her back. In early 2003 she was activated for the Gulf War. Like everyone else she had to go to Benning for her pre-deployment work up and like everyone else had to qualify. She couldn't get into a prone position because of her back. I accompanied her to Benning but being an old retired dude, couldn't go to the range with her. I went over to the AMU and explained my (her) problem. I don't know if someone for the AMU did it, or they talked to someone at the range, but they assigned her a coach who got her into a comfortable relaxed position that didn't hurt her back. She said she shot the best score she ever shot in qualifications.

I'm a wimp, if my position hurts or is uncomfortable, I'm going to fix it. Shooting is suppose to be fun, if it hurts its not fun. Not to mention your scores will suffer.

I found that if you get a good position, where you can watch a half hour tv show over your front sight without any discomfort, you're pretty much good to go.

 

[Captain Kirk]

"Armchair Diagnistics" suggests that your rifle most likely is not setup for you properly. The best way to deturmine what type of adjustment needs to be made is to get square behind the rifle in the prone position with your eyes closed, when you open your eyes you should have a perfect sight picture without needing to adjust your head. If getting a good sight picture requires you to strain in any way, you will have a issue mantaining a comfortable position behind the rifle for any length of time. Cheek height, length of pull, scope height, distance of optic from eye piece to the eye, all extremely critical for proper rifle setup. It is easy to deturmine if a rifle is setup properly , and fairly easy to remedy if it is not.

Many shooters also run the bipod too low, requiring a lot of strain on their neck to get low on the rifle. You may need to run your optic higher (taller rings) with a little extra cheek height to allow a more upright position when behind the rifle.

 

[wilecoyote]

... my neck is 52 years old.

...My neck is 57 yrs old_ professionally drawing first and at the desktop now don't are the best of fitness exercises, and my relaxation comes from the prone shooting , even better if with padded jacket & sling_ my pain is a bliss, because is telling me that something in the equipement setting and/or posture is wrong BEFORE the shoot _ my shooting friends says that when I'm prone I look like a psycho, because I'm smiling, but this happens when the pain disappears: I feel that everything is in place, and I can open fire_

 

[pteranadon]

How far forward or backwards you set your scope for eye relief differs from different positioning in shooting. You can and I believe most leave it alone in one setting. I would adjust the eye relief ..scope in a setting at prone. Then adjust your shooting to that.

 

[kraigWY]

My neck is 67 years old, and all my bones play the rice krisppie theme song when I get up in the morning. I don't do any neck exercises nor do I have any neck issues when I shoot, regardless of position.

I shot service rifle or CMP GSM vintage military rifles. Adjusting the rifle is not an option for me.

Proper position to you're build is the key.