TargetTalk

Hi All,

I'm fairly new to small bore rifle and have been searching various sites for info. I found some interesting posts concerning the correct length of the rifle stock and was wondering where exactly do you take the measurment from? i.e: is it rear of pistol grip to butt-plate or trigger to butt-plate? Also what advantages (if any) are there to sight riser blocks?

Thanks in advance for any replies and, congratulations to all on a most informative site!!!

Jon Endacott, Switzerland.

Jon,

The common measurement is from trigger to butt plate. I have mostly Junior Shooters (5'5" is tall in my group) so we see Length of pull in the 7.75" (20.5 cm / I think, metric is not my strong suit) range.

Riser blocks are for people with long necks, or that need to "cant" the rifle for proper head position.

Roy McClain
Vice President
Georgia Sport Shooting Association
(678) 772-8185 cell

"If your plan is for one year, plant rice.
If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
If your plan is for one hundred years,
educate children." -- Confucius

Re: riser blocks -

Not necessarily for long necks! The blocks allow a comfortable heads-up position in standing (especially) and kneeling. I'd suggest blocks for nearly everybody.

a lot of people gave me crap when i wanted to use riser blocks on the rifle i had previously been using. they said that it increases the angle of the sights and blah blah blah. but it mad eit more comfortable on that rifle and i shot much better w/ them

its pretty much on an individual basis on whether or not your gonna need them. if you are shooting fine w/o them, you probably shouldnt put them on.

concerning stock length.... our team measures from the "elbow pit" to the middle of the first finger. its seems to be fairly accurate.

Rather than measuring from the crease in your bent arm, to your trigger finger, let me mention that most beginning shooters use stocks that are much too long. The shoulders should be more triangular with the front sight. Now I'm not saying an exact triangle, but more "triangular" than not. For someone who is 5' 6" / 1.68 m and shorter, I would expect a trigger to butt plate length of less than 8 inches or 200 mm. You should be able to stand over the shooter and see the shoulders more parallel to the firing line than not.

Roy McClain
Vice President
Georgia Sport Shooting Association
(678) 772-8185 cell / (770) 412-6604 home

"If your plan is for one year, plant rice.
If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
If your plan is for one hundred years,
educate children." -- Confucius

Hi boys and girls,
For my certification as a small bore rifle basic-trainer in The Netherlands I made a small study about stock length in prone and kneeling position. After that I used several newcomers to the sport to check my findings. After about two months I had one of them shooting series of 47/50 in kneeling position (with shooting coat and sling). Others were shooting scores of 40 to 45/50 without any sling, coat etc.
My starting point is as follows:

Measure length of armpit to end of middlevinger (arm, hand and fingers stretched)
Prone: distance buttplate to front of grip = 0.46 x total measured length,
distance grip to support surface of handstop = 1.0 x distance buttplate to front of grip
Kneeling: distance buttplate to front of grip = 0.44 x total measured length,
distance grip to support surface of handstop = 1.1 x distance buttplate to front of grip

In most cases this gives a good starting length from wich small corrections can be made to achieve the ideal distances.

Good luck,
Albert
(The Netherlands)

Another advantage of the raiser blocks is that it lowers the center of gravity of the combined shooter/rifle, maintaining an erect position.