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Prone shooting - hand position
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:27 am
by r3tr1
Hi there,
I have one question: being me a right hand shooter , my left hand in 50prone , after a few shots I start to feel a bit of pain in the side of my thumb... like it was doing a lot of presseaure agains the stock.. What am I doing wrong? Should I correct the position of the hand-stop? My hand-stop is this one:
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=anschutz ... 29,r:3,s:0
Plz help
Afonso Carvalho, Portugal
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:58 am
by Tim S
Hello Afonso,
I used that same handstop for some years and mostly found it comfortable to use. I did find that it was too low, so my hand was pinched between the sling and handstop. I lowered the stop on the mount, and inserted a piece of pencil rubber between stock and handstop. Problem solved.
Pain in the left hand can be caused by several things. Firstly I must say that it's normal for your hand to ache after, or during, a long prone match, however pain after only a few shots is not good.
In my experience, common causes for pain are stock shape, handstop position, the glove, and position of the hand.
Stock Shape A wide square fore-end (such as the Anschutz 1813 or 2213/2313) can press on the thumb. I had to alter the shape of my stock so the fore-end was slimmer and rounded.
Handstop Position Your handstop can be rotated, so it is left of the barrrel line. If the handstop contacts your hand by the thumb web, this can put the thumb under the edge of the stock. If the handstop is moved to the left, the stock edge does not rest on the thumb.
The Glove If the glove is old and the padding is thin, the hand can hurt.
Hand Position Your wrist must be straight. If the wrist is straight the rifle can rest on the base of the hand, near the wrist. This redues the pressure on the hand, as the weight of the rifle is carried by the carpal/humerus/radies bones. It's not so good for the weight of the rifle to bear on the metacarpals.
Also if your position is very low (the forearm is close to 30 degrees), this puts more pressure on the hand.
So, use a glove with plenty of padding (within the rules), make the shape of the rifle fit your hand, move the handstop left of the barrel line, and place your hand so the rifle sits on the carpals.
Tim
