Good evening all.
New to this site and hope to gain some knowledge.....
I just made the move from sportier rifle to match rifle.
Just starting shooting an Anschutz 2013.
I have having quite a hard time setting up the rifle to fit me.
Is there any info or reference that anyone might suggest to give me a start to find my baseline.
The biggest problem I have noticed is that as soon as I setup and and start looking through the sights, I find the front sight picture getting quite blurry.
I never had this issue shooting my Anschutz 1903.
Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks all.
Front sight picture blurry
Moderators: pilkguns, Marcus, m1963, David Levene, Spencer
Re: Front sight picture blurry
If you had a good sight picture with a 1903, that suggests your vision isn't the immediate problem. A lens prescribed specifically for shooting to give the ideal focal length without strain may be useful later, but I'll look elsewhere to start. Pictures of you in position with each would help.
The 2013 is a good rifle, and has enough adjustment in the stock to make it fit most adults. For Prone, start with the length of the butt. Extend it as needed so your trigger wrist can reach the grip straight, and your cheekbone is near the front of the cheekpiece. Don't extend the butt too much, as the rifle may become muzzle heavy.
Then set the hand stop. A good starting point is 2x the distance from the buttplate, as the front of the grip from the buttplate. You can move the hand stop back or forth until your arm and shoulders settle at a comfortable height. Remember your supporting forearm must be at least 30° from horizontal.
Connect the sling and gradually adjust until it pulls the rifle up and into your shoulder where it sits steadily. Over tightening the sling will tense your shoulder under the butt, which disrupts recoil. Ensure your supporting arm is straight, with the elbow under the sling, not under the rifle.
Raise the buttplate as needed so it makes as much contact with your shoulder as possible, and with the sights at a comfortable height for your head. A 2013 butt can also be shifted sideways to bring the sights closer to /further from your head to relax your neck. This is fine tuning that can often wait until the rest of the rifle is done. If you have a hook, it needs to fit snuggly under the armpit/ribs but not get in the way. The hook normally points straight back, or slightly out to the right.
Finally come the cheekpiece and sights. Position the rearsight so it's 1-2in from your eye; most folks want it where the foresight looks sharp, and the tunnel has a good gap around it. Much longer eye reliefs may make the foresight and target clearer, but are dark and strain the eye. If there is an iris eyepiece set it to 1.1 or 1.2. A good foresight size is 3.6mm to 4.0mm, the type of aperture is purely personal choice. Then set the cheekpiece so your neck is relaxed. Raise or lower it so your head presses down under its own weight, when your eye is level with the centre of the peep. The underside of the cheekbone is the bearing surface. A 2013 cheekpiece can be adjusted sideways, so you aren't pushing sideways, but have some contact against your jaw.
Hope that helps, it's quite easy to set up a 2013, or similar so it doesn't fit, and you can't aim or see properly.
Edit - just thought, the 2013 stock is likely to be shallower under the barrel than the 1903, much shallowed for an alu stock. This means the sights sit lower, and your head has to tilt further forwards to aim. Too much tilt doesn't help, and your brow and eyebrows can interfere. The position may have to sit higher, or add raiser blocks under the sights if needed, to bring the sights up to your head.
The 2013 is a good rifle, and has enough adjustment in the stock to make it fit most adults. For Prone, start with the length of the butt. Extend it as needed so your trigger wrist can reach the grip straight, and your cheekbone is near the front of the cheekpiece. Don't extend the butt too much, as the rifle may become muzzle heavy.
Then set the hand stop. A good starting point is 2x the distance from the buttplate, as the front of the grip from the buttplate. You can move the hand stop back or forth until your arm and shoulders settle at a comfortable height. Remember your supporting forearm must be at least 30° from horizontal.
Connect the sling and gradually adjust until it pulls the rifle up and into your shoulder where it sits steadily. Over tightening the sling will tense your shoulder under the butt, which disrupts recoil. Ensure your supporting arm is straight, with the elbow under the sling, not under the rifle.
Raise the buttplate as needed so it makes as much contact with your shoulder as possible, and with the sights at a comfortable height for your head. A 2013 butt can also be shifted sideways to bring the sights closer to /further from your head to relax your neck. This is fine tuning that can often wait until the rest of the rifle is done. If you have a hook, it needs to fit snuggly under the armpit/ribs but not get in the way. The hook normally points straight back, or slightly out to the right.
Finally come the cheekpiece and sights. Position the rearsight so it's 1-2in from your eye; most folks want it where the foresight looks sharp, and the tunnel has a good gap around it. Much longer eye reliefs may make the foresight and target clearer, but are dark and strain the eye. If there is an iris eyepiece set it to 1.1 or 1.2. A good foresight size is 3.6mm to 4.0mm, the type of aperture is purely personal choice. Then set the cheekpiece so your neck is relaxed. Raise or lower it so your head presses down under its own weight, when your eye is level with the centre of the peep. The underside of the cheekbone is the bearing surface. A 2013 cheekpiece can be adjusted sideways, so you aren't pushing sideways, but have some contact against your jaw.
Hope that helps, it's quite easy to set up a 2013, or similar so it doesn't fit, and you can't aim or see properly.
Edit - just thought, the 2013 stock is likely to be shallower under the barrel than the 1903, much shallowed for an alu stock. This means the sights sit lower, and your head has to tilt further forwards to aim. Too much tilt doesn't help, and your brow and eyebrows can interfere. The position may have to sit higher, or add raiser blocks under the sights if needed, to bring the sights up to your head.
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ShootingSight
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Re: Front sight picture blurry
I'll disagree, and suggest you start with your vision. I went from excellent eyes to losing the front sight in under 6 months, so the fact that it 'used' to be OK is no indicator.
Do you still have the 1903, and is the sight picture still good? Or has that gone as well?
THe solution is that you need a +0.50 diopter lens for a rifle of that length. THis will shift your eye's relaxed focal point back just far enough to let you see the front sight clearly without giving up too much of target clarity.
Do you still have the 1903, and is the sight picture still good? Or has that gone as well?
THe solution is that you need a +0.50 diopter lens for a rifle of that length. THis will shift your eye's relaxed focal point back just far enough to let you see the front sight clearly without giving up too much of target clarity.
Re: Front sight picture blurry
Here is something that happened to me that is somewhat related.
I suffer from a small defect to the lens in my right eye lens, which is my dominant eye. Under normal circumstances it does not materially affect my ability to see. However, I use a +1.5 diopter shooting lens in order to better focus on the front sight. The problem occurs when I use a very small iris in combination with the lens.
Under normal vision, the area occupied by the defect is only a very small percentage of the overall vision area. Now add an iris with an artificially small field of view, plus the corrective lens to adjust my hyperfocal distance, and all of a sudden the small defect is enough to actually distort the area precisely inside the front sight aperture. Rather than having eye surgery at the moment, I have opted to use an iris with a larger orifice and no shooting lens. It takes a lot more concentration to keep the front sight in focus, but for the moment I am managing.
You may be having a similar problem, and certainly a detailed eye examination may be called for.
I suffer from a small defect to the lens in my right eye lens, which is my dominant eye. Under normal circumstances it does not materially affect my ability to see. However, I use a +1.5 diopter shooting lens in order to better focus on the front sight. The problem occurs when I use a very small iris in combination with the lens.
Under normal vision, the area occupied by the defect is only a very small percentage of the overall vision area. Now add an iris with an artificially small field of view, plus the corrective lens to adjust my hyperfocal distance, and all of a sudden the small defect is enough to actually distort the area precisely inside the front sight aperture. Rather than having eye surgery at the moment, I have opted to use an iris with a larger orifice and no shooting lens. It takes a lot more concentration to keep the front sight in focus, but for the moment I am managing.
You may be having a similar problem, and certainly a detailed eye examination may be called for.