How important is correct position

patrick2007

So I've been target shooting for a few months and was wondering how important is position, as in if your position is not text book but your getting some pretty good scores does it really matter? Say if you find it difficult to get into text book position but can compensate by maybe tilting your head a little, that sort of thing.
What do you guys think? Any feedback would be great.
Patrick

demonloop

The 'correct' position will not be the same for everyone. A book will give you a fair idea of the 'dos and donts' but we are all different shapes.

What you need to find is a position that you are comfortable in and that you can replicate everytime you lie down (in prone)

As far as tilting your head goes, thats usually a bad thing, keeping your head level means your ears are at the same height, having your ears at different heights can make your head sway slightly, so slight you might not notice. This is your body trying to upright itself as it knows you aren't level.

Thats why you see a lot of shooters cant the rifle in towards their head. Again this cant angle must be kept constant for the best results. A spirit level in or above your foresight will do the trick.

Some of the modern rifles with loads of cheekpiece adjustment might do away with the need to cant, I used to have a fairly significant cant with an old wooden stock rifle, with a new ALU stocked rifle I can move the cheekpiece so far to the right I no longer need to cant to get my eye behind the rearsight and still have my head level.

Another answer is to buy a set of sight blocks with lateral adjustment, and move the rearsight sideways across to your eye.

The book Ways of the Rifle is well worth a read and covers all this stuff.

rrpc

As DL says, the most important part of your position is replication. You must be able to get into the same position every time you shoot, otherwise you will find you get slightly different points of impact.

A good exercise to establish your position is to get down, get into position and fire a shot. Get up walk to the back of the firing point and then get down again and fire a shot. Do this at least ten times, and you'll find that you are replicating your position better and better with each repetition.

bigred

Always helps to have a second knowledgable buddy watching your position. There's only so much self-analysis you can do of your stance. The difference in perspective alone shows up any problems. For me, I was lucky enough to have Sparks coaching me. His attention to detail and use of a large stick (just for pointing mind....) meant sure I kept myself in order
When I get my dissertation done, I'll be back for more 'punishment'

Sparks

The large stick is a valuable training tool!