TargetTalk

Hello everyone,happy new year!
A big thank you to all of you who have kindly answered to all my questions.From the day i discovered this forum,I have made a lot of improvements on my score.I could easilly call this forum coach!
Time for another question!Should i tilt my head a little forward,towards the rear sight or should i leave it to it's neutral place and bring the rear sight backwards?What would be best according to your opinions?
Thank you.

I believe I have to start out with another question. Look at your three position head location. Is it simular to standing or somewhat closer to your rear sight? If you shoot all three positions you may want to try and stablize your eye relief. If you are asking about standing only, Then I would recommend canting the rifle toward your face and possibly tiping your head straight forward slightly. I would avoid any head position that causes you to tip your head to the side,as I find this disturbs my stability in the standing position. Experiment until you find the most stable position then train until you achieve total consistancy. Good Luck my friend, Good Shooting Bill Horton

Try removing the rear sight from the rifle, then get in position where you feel most stable. Stay there and have someone put the sight back on and move it to where you see through it the best.

This should allow you to get your best (most stable) position, and a good view through the rear sight.

Recently I baught the book "air rifle shooting" by Heinz Reinkemeier (the German language) and read that the newest trend is to keep the cheeck piece with a 'sharp' edge in stead of rounded or formed to the cheeck, so the shooter(s) can feel the position of the cheeckbone on the cheeckpiece better. Also that they tend to keep the rifle exactly vertical (no canting) and tip the head slightly to the side.
Some of the younger Dutch (sub-top) shooters have started using this head position as well. Personally I have a little trouble understanding the advantage of mentiond head position.Dick Boschman, one of the best Dutch international air rifle shooters is using the classic head position and shoots the latest Walther Anatomic air rifle with wooden stock as this gives a 'softer' feeling during the shot/recoil. In the German magazine Visier it was mentioned that many (air) rifle shooters want to return to wooden stocks because it feels better. Also that many air rifle shooters blocked or removed the anti-recoil device because they wanted to "feel'' the shot instead of hearing only a soft sound.

Albert B
(The Netherlands)

Thank you your answers.
Bill Horton,for the time I shoot only 10m air.I do cant the rifle towards my head as you say and tip my head a bit forward.I was just wondering if tilting my head forwrd is the right thing.I guess that I must tilt it until I feel comfort.I am in the experimenting stage where i try to find the best position for me.Thanks Bill!

Guest.I will try it today!

Albert B,what do you mean "keep the cheeck piece with a 'sharp' edge in stead of rounded or formed to the cheeck"?

Thank you folks!

Sorry for my poor english.
Usually the cheeckpiece has a rather sharp edge at the point where the flat top of the cheeckpiece changes to the almost vertical left hand side where you put your cheek against (righthanded shooter) - an angle of slightly more then 90 degrees. To get a good feeling of where and how the shooters position their cheeck against the cheeckpiece they keep this edge sharp.
In the past, when cheeckpieces could not be adjusted as much as these days, many shooters changed the angle between the top and side to a larger angle (somewhere between 90 and 135 degrees), and gave the edge a bigger radius, depending on the shape of their cheeck to obtain max. support and comfort. Nowdays comfort is secrificed for accuracy I guess.

Albert B

When you say you're tilting your head forward, do you mean tilting it slightly downward to look through the rear sight?

If so, I would experiment with your cheekpiece adjustment. Having your head tilted forward can cause muscle tension in your neck, as well as eye strain if you have to roll your eyes upward to look through the rear sight. I find that with myself, there is an acceptable distance that I can tilt my head forward (a few centimeters or so) before I feel a pull in the back of my neck, and always limit myself to be within that range.


As for the cheek piece, many manufacturers make them smooth with a gentle curve where the side of your face sits. Some people prefer this to be more of a straight edge to act as a shelf for the cheek bone to rest on.

I sit somewhere in the middle. I'm not a fan of the roundness of the older wooden stocks that only adjust cheek piece elevation and not cant, but when I shot the Anschutz aluminum stock back in college, I found that canting the cheekpiece was able to give me a more positive feeling in relation to my cheek bone, without being uncomfortable.

WarWagon
Something like that.I tilt it about 2cm forward.Not enough to say that it causes muscle tension on the neck.I wouldn't say that i do this to look through the rear sight but to come closer to the rear sight.So today I pull back the rear sight 2cm and it was better.But by doing that,I realised that i couldn't turn my head to the left as i could(could be my impression)I also don't feel that I have to readjust the cheekpiece.I really had to readjust the rear sight for several clicks.

tsokasn wrote:WarWagon
Something like that.I tilt it about 2cm forward.Not enough to say that it causes muscle tension on the neck.I wouldn't say that i do this to look through the rear sight but to come closer to the rear sight.So today I pull back the rear sight 2cm and it was better.But by doing that,I realised that i couldn't turn my head to the left as i could(could be my impression)I also don't feel that I have to readjust the cheekpiece.I really had to readjust the rear sight for several clicks.

If you're only tilting it forward 2cm or so, I wouldn't worry about it. It's not enough to cause you to strain your eyes or neck, so if its comfortable for you, go ahead and use that position.

In my case I've got a large head so I'm forced to tip it forward quite a bit to get at the sight line. Didn't mind it until the day I tried a sight line elevator, I noticed that my neck felt much better, now I've got a Anschütz XXL elevator on order. Something else I noticed is that to get a good head adjustment you must spread the sight line, cheeckpiece and buttstock adjustments evenly rather than concertating in one element only.

I have to agree with AlbertB... Alu stocks might be the ultimate thing but there is nothing like the warm feel of a wooden stock...

Cheers NB

Nick_Burman
I also use sight elevators,2 cm height(believe that they are the same as yours,Ahg)Before them,I also had problems.Big ones!
(check my latest topics)

Yep, exactly those ones except that mine haven't arrived yet. When I made my test I first tried a standard Anschütz sight line elevator (borrowed from a friend) and then stacked a second one on top. First one made my head bend forward a little less, second one gave me a more natural position. And you need to have those 2cm above the diopter otherwise locating the NPA becomes a more difficult task (at least for me).

Cheers NB