General Update at 13th June 2011

Lots going on lately. I was having conspicuous zero position errors in terms of drifting across the target. I couldn't get balanced, obviously, as the sight picture would slowly move across the target from left to right. I spent quite a bit of time trying to mitigate against this (I say mitigate because I suspect the combination of an ill fitting jacket and a sling that doesn't locate usefully on the arm and the consequent drag and twist down and around the arm to be the source). Ultimately, I've lowered the sling keeper on my arm, which seems to result in less drag and a firmer pull direct to the handstop. I've bought a MEC handstop which is more comfortable on the hand and can be offset to bring the rifle further onto my hand. More contact with the hand spreads the weight and pressure around more of the support area and makes it considerably more comfortable. I was still struggling however, and felt that I was subconsciously holding on target rather than staying deliberately relaxed.

One of the sensations I perceived was a turning effect from the buttplate in the shoulder however, resulting in the rifle not sitting comfortably and steadily in the forward hand and turning in it instead. To this end, I rotated the top of the buttplate towards me and turned the hook in towards my side. This has let the rifle sit right down into my hand, while the sling pulls strongly and directly from my arm and shoulder pressure is maintained strongly by properly positioning my elbow on the mat and carefully placing my hand high on the pistol grip. Triggering is improved, position feels solid and supportive, it drags slightly less overall and it feels positive. If there's a downside it's that there's now a rather strong cant, though it's consistent due to the reduced twisting through the stock. The comfortable head position and consistency should mitigate against any issues that arise, however, and recoil should be solid. I should get to live fire tomorrow and will know more then.

Another issue is that while I have typically raised and lowered the buttplate to compensate for angle changes from range to range, due to the rotation of the buttplate, any changes will have to be tiny, and augmented with handstop alterations. I don't mind this though as long as it sits still for me now. It feels much more balanced in any case and will hopefully yield big results. There's been a lot of fiddling done to get to this point however, so there now needs to be a huge amount of dry-firing and live shooting to reinforce the goodness.

Today I conducted an interesting experiment. We all know that there's no such thing as "the prone position." If you look at ten world class prone shooters, they'll have ten completely individual positions and methodologies. I decided to try replicate the positions of two world class prone shooters at opposite ends of the spectrum of positions to get a feel for what makes each work. I looked at Matt Emmons (High, flat, relatively straight on, lot of tension) and Warren Potent (Low, canted, less tension). As I suspected, the Emmons alteration suited me a lot more, as I've always preferred high positions for the stability benefits, though my left shoulder is considerably higher and my right somewhat lower than his corresponding shoulders. I couldn't get any proper stability from the very low position at all, but obviously they do work for Potent and others like him. This only served to reinforce that the way I shoot suits me better than the other end of the spectrum and that anything I choose to do will work, provided I train at it properly and take care to be consistent. Above all, it reminds us that a well practised mistake is better than the best position and methodology in the world enacted poorly and inconsistently.

I'm not updating regularly these days as daily updates will get information heavy and won't be particularly useful. It's easiest to just review progress intermittently and compare with previous updates. My daily notes in my training diary provide the substance for subsequent training sessions in any case. For now, just lots and lots of shooting to reinforce progress and get the method down pat. That's a fun short term training plan.