Grip the rifle.

[shooterxtc]

HEY ALL YOU COACHES AND EXPERT SILO SHOOTERS WHAT WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE BEST GRIP FOR SHOOTING .A TIGHT GRIP OR RELAXED GRIP?

[Innocent]

Bone to bone contact from the hand through the elbow to the hip straight down the leg to the foot and ground....with the trigger hand only laying in place, to prevent the rifle from tilting out of the support when fired. In other words ..relaxed grip for smallbore.

Innocent Mary

[el jefe]

Bone to bone contact from the hand .

Innocent Mary

hmmmmmmmmm I think it's a personal preference.......

[hambone49]

El Jefe, making an eighth grade joke about a thoughtful response from our beloved Innocent with your first post? Not a good thing.

[steve b.]

Not an expert or coach, but I follow a more common Olympic ISSF style where the right hand is gripping the rifle's grip firmly, about 60% of max pressure. This let's me have free movment with my trigger finger and still hold the stock firmly. I pull the rifle back and rest the full weight of my head down on the comb.

For me, this removes much of the tremor and movement in the rifle. I spent most of my time developing this hold with my air rifle since it shows tremor and recoil follow through the best.

Lemme add in one more part, I spend alot of time at the gym, and this level of muscle tension does not bother me during shooting. I find some shooters have a problem with this because they become tired and start to tremmor due to muscle fatigue. If you do not have muscle endurance that's built in the gym or in a very active sport, this may not work well for you.

[Innocent]

Steve,
your disclosure about muscle memory is very true, thus my recommendation for very light grip. The tighter you use any muscle, the more it will show in the movement, especially the stomach muscles, which very few people pay any attention to while shooting, but any stress tends to tighten this area.

Mary

[steve b.]

Yeah, and they pay even less attention to their abs when not shooting...!

I think the single most valuable book on this is "Ways of the Rifle" by MEC. The bulk of the book is about off-hand shooting, and there is an excellent section on physical training that top Olympic shooters follow.

I feel if you don't do the PT, then a light grip is the best approach at first, but it's not the taught method of Olympic shooting (especially in smallbore off hand). The book goes into that in great detail. If anyone has this book, look on page 89 and 90. Just those two pages justify the $40 price of the book.

The other problem is that the Silhouette rifles are so light in weight, that tremmors really show up. My air rifle at 10 lbs feels waaay too light. But, it doesn't help me to shoot a 14 lb air rifle and then shoot my 10 lb Standard rifle.

But, if you can drop and do 40 real pushups, grip the rifle.

[jneihouse]

What Innocent Mary said looks something like this..and yes, I know the gun is a little long and we are currently working on a modified stock courtesy of Pat Steiger to get the LOP correct before we do surgery on the current stock.

Kitty

[BlauBear]

If I leaned back that far, I'd tip over - and still not find hipbone...

[Bob259]

If I leaned back that far, I'd tip over - and still not find hipbone...

I know I'd break something and I've never foind my hip.... women are the only ones that can do that and it's to make us look stupid trying

[shooterxtc]

THANKS FOR THE INFO YOUR DISCUSSIONS ALWAYS HELP I WILL EXPERIMENT SOME MORE MRH.

[kevinbear]

There are so many variables in the human form and condition that any one way cannot work for everyone.
Some examples, gender, many women are able to rock their hip out and support their elbow which is very difficult for a man. People with back problems cannot twist their spine and shoot. Also aging shooters may have arthritis in their fingers that prevent them from supporting the rifle with them.
Many people that shoot in calm conditions learn to hold the gun very lightly but do very poorly when faced with gusty winds on themselves unless they learn to hold and shoot the gun tight for those types of conditions while others perfect a lightning fast trigger response for the "drive by".
Go to the nationals, watch the best shooters{they don't all have the same form} try the tried and true but different techniques of the masters until you hit what works for you. They may look as though there all the same to the casual observer but there are subtle differences in every one of the master shooters.

[Jason]

I use more of the style that Steve B. is describing. I pull the gun back into my shoulder with my right hand, trying to make sure to pull as perfectly straight back parallel to the bore as possible. I would describe my pressure about 40% of max pressure. I pull back with the middle, ring, and pinky fingers. The index finger is obviously only tensioned enough to settle against the second stage of the trigger release and then I build pressure as the dot nears the spot that I am concentrating on on the target. I have also noticed a little better control when I place my thumb on top of the stock and use pressure between my thumb and index (trigger) finger to regulate trigger release instead of pull pulling the trigger back toward my shoulder. That could all be in my head, though. I also plant my cheekbone firmly on the comb of the stock by resting my head on it as he describes. I was surprised that the amount of trigger hand pressure that I use in smallbore was perfectly adequate for highpower shooting (that I just started a few months ago) and it let me adapt to highpower quickly.

[BlauBear]

Coach Kitty "re-educated" me so that the forearm rests on my left middle knuckles, the right hand rests on the grip, and the rifle is actually gripped between cheek and shoulder.

[jneihouse]

I ran a little "controlled experiment" at our Women on Target affair we had a couple weeks ago at OFGC...After the classroom part of the WOT program we adjourned to the range to let the ladies (most of whom had little or no experience with firearms, period) shoot rifles, pistols, and shotguns...At the rifle portion we set up the 1/2 scale silhouttes at the 1/5 scale distances and set up shooting stations where the ladies could shoot off the bench at the reactive targets...Mallory set up a station without bags for those who would like to try to shoot offhand....Wanted to see how many would accept the challenge and if you really could apply basic instructional techniques to really "green" shooters and help that "green" shooter acheive success by hitting the target consistantly....I backed away and sat down to watch....First interestig thing was that the ladies were "drawn" to Mallory's station....They obviously felt more comfortable with a young lady instructor than with a bunch of sweaty men...something to be learned by that...(should be noted that Mallory spoke during the classroom portion of WOT so they had already been "introduced" to her). Secondly, the ladies related very well to Mallory's instruction. Within a very short time all that came through Mallory's station were hitting the targets offhand. Many hit the target with the first shot....You should have seen the excitement..these ladies were having fun!!!....Should be well noted here that Mallory is not a coach, but a very new shooter herself. Being my granddaughter, she hasn't had the opportunity to go off and pick up a lot of bad shooting habits, and she has had the very valuable opportunity to see the best in the world shoot this game...I simply gave her the basics and that's the only way she knows how to shoot...In working with the WOT ladies she simply gave them the same basics, and repeated the same "mantra" that I repeat to the shooter that I'm working with to remind them where they are in their shot sequence and to help them visualize what the sight picture should be when you squeeze the trigger...this should tell us that this is a skill set that is very easily communicated to the un-initiated and will work with all ages and shapes of people...doesn't mean that it's the "best" or that there is no room for individual adaptation, just that it works...Hey, it's so simple a 10 year old can do it

Kitty