Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Tips on shooting lightweight rifles?

On a non-rushed shot, I hold at the front of the fore end with my index finger wrapped around the barrel. This limits barrel rise.

I just pull them in like they owe me money..

And mind the stud as mentioned. They'll root you out if you're having a bad day.

I was reading a thread on another forum about this very issue. Several guys said to push down on the scope while shooting on the bench. I was never one to do that

The stock’s job is to be a handle for the barreled action and whatever else is hanging on that barreled action. That handle is where your hands go. The stock is a mounting platform. Touching the barrel, scope, or whatever else, anything other than the stock, will only introduce inconsistencies. Only thing metal that you should be touching in your rifle is the trigger.

Put crosshairs on it and pull the trigger. Don't over think it. Shouldn't have to stand on your head to get a rifle to shoot.

For shooting my Kimber Montana in 300 WSM off a bench with bags, I line the front bag up with the recoil lug of the action. I then firmly grip the wrist/grip of the stock with my right hand, and pull the rifle straight back into my shoulder very firmly. I do not hold or touch the fore-end. I fine tune the sight picture by squeezing the rear bag with my left hand. I then slowly and gently press the trigger with the pad of my finger to let off the shot, letting the fore-end recoil however it wants.

I've tried various fore-end holds over the years, and nothing works as well for me as not touching it. I believe this is because the most repeatable fore-end hold, is no hold at all.

JMHO

Whatever you do……consistency is probably most important! memtb

Put your sling on and position the rifle forend with the sling stud just before or after the sandbag, hold the sling with a bit of slack to the stud. Upon recoil you will be holding the rifle down with the sling. But, the fact remains that lightweight guns are not the answer and many can't shoot them well.....actually, many can't shoot any rifle well. I shoot my light 375's with no Forward help at all and they stay on the bag just fine. .......Darrel Wick

I just shoot them like I do any other rifle. Good advice on pulling them in tight. I'd say not too tight that it would add nerves to the equation any more than necessary.

Seems fitting, so I'll share a story about my trip to the range yesterday:

I shot a fairly lightweight rifle yesterday because my buddy from the local SWAT and one of his LEO friends were having issues with a "hunting" rifle he was trying to dial in.

Buddy called and asked if I could come and help, so I said hell yes. His LEO friend was shooting 4" groups with said rifle and they were both ready to send it back to the manufacture. Rifle in question was a Weatherby Back Country TI, chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor. When I got to the range, the LEO said he was ready to give up on this one. I asked if he had ever had it out of the stock, who installed the scope etc. etc.

Before even pulling the trigger on said rifle, I pulled the scope off, checked the mount screws. One was fairly loose, looked like whoever installed the bases, used blue loctite which was good, but they did not tighten them enough. I re-loctited the screws and tightened everything up after checking the usual offenders. Put the scope back on, even though it was not my first choice, checked the action screws, to make sure the action was not stressed.

As mentioned, the scope was not my first choice, but I wasn't ruling it out until I shot the rifle. Checked the parallax and that looked good. The scope was a Vortex 4-12 with longrange reticle of some sort. Glass was not even as good as my usual Burris FFII 3-9x40 with ballistic plex reticle scopes. I then proceeded to shoot one group with the cheap Winchester white box ammo he had. He said he had burned up 3 boxes of this already, trying to get it dialed in. The first group I fired was about 3" high and 2" to the right. I dialed to the bullet hole and fired another group. This group was on the orange, but about a 1 1/2" spread for 3 shots. I asked if this was the only ammo he and my buddy had tried. He said yeah, but he had some of his "hunting" ammo on hand for when they finally got the rifle close. I said, well it looks like it's fairly close now. Not sure how good your ammo is though. I told him I think it may be an ammo problem, not a rifle problem. Except for the rifle is very lightweight and I don't think the guy knows how to shoot. This rifle is advertised as being 4.7 pounds. Not sure how light it was exactly, but the guy said it was a "sub 5 pound rifle". I think when you couple that with poor ammo, and poor shooter, the problem with big groups only compounds itself.

I asked if he minded if I try some of my ammo, so I can rule out it being a rifle problem and see if his ammo was the culprit. He said, "sure I don't have anything to lose at this point". Fired off 3 shots and the group was a little low and to the right. Appeared to be about a 5/8" group, when looking through the spotter:


I made an adjustment of 3 clicks up and 2 to the left. Fired off another 3 shot group (measured about 3/4")^^^^ As you can see, the rifle was shooting pretty good with some good ammo. However, the scope tracked like schidt. It did not move as it should have. Not the first time I've seen this with a Vortex scope. He asked if I could dial the rifle in for his hunting ammo, and I said sure no problem. Here are the results:

First group:


Second group:

Before this group, I made a scope adjustment of 2 clicks to the right, knowing it had tracked wonky earlier. The group went down and a little to the right, which seemed odd.

3rd and final group for zero:

This was after adjusting the scope 2 clicks up. That's where I left it!!

I asked if the guy wanted to shoot it to see if it was zeroed good enough for his eyesight. He said, "no, you are a much better shooter than I am, that is the best it's ever shot, I'm leaving it right where it's at!!!"

The rifle is supposedly 4.7 pounds bare weight, and if I had to guess the scope probably weighs close to a pound. All up weight of 5.7 pounds. 2 guys that should have been able to shoot it, had issues. 1 not so much. Even though I didn't shoot it any different than I do anything else.

The pictures above are of actual shooting experience from yesterday. Experience and pictures trump couch sitting and speculation IMHO. If a guy is having issues shooting a lightweight rifle, magnum, or recurve bow, that generally means something is wrong with said rifle (mechanically), ammo, or you just need more practice/trigger time. Or let a different indian shoot it.



Good post Coyote. That is how I see it. Somehow I get the feeling you've probably shot a little in your life. Some guys try to make this more complicated than it has to be. Shooting is shooting buddy..


Good post buddy. Add in practice and more practice, a lot of guys do not stress basic marksmanship anymore. Probably more guys develop bad habits and don't even realize it, so they have to make excuses and try to fix issues that shouldn't be issues. Develop good shooting skills and practices early in life and build on those. Pretty much moral of the story.

This is a great post and super helpful info

I myself have to work hard at shooting a very LWT rifle well, but I manage. What helped me was a simple change to a "Buddy Bag" for the front. My rabbit ear rear bag was OK, of course. I nestle the forearm down in that big bag, grip the forearm behind the bag, and pull the rifle into my shoulder firmly. THEN, if my groups suit me, I will zero dead on at 100 "from the bench" then shoot it out to 300 "from hunting positions. That will tell you if you need to zero up or down or leave it alone. Then fold your coat, etc and shoot over the hood of a truck, see how it shoots. I had a very high dollar Match Grade Arms in 338WM. (It started out as a 340 wby and killed every scope i tried, so had it rebarreled.) I had it Mag Na Ported, and shot the 185 TSX. For it, it wanted the 100yd Bench Zero, but hit +3" high at 100 from hunting positions. OTOH, I have a Kimber Classic 84L 270 that shoots fine no matter how I hold it same with an 8400 Classic in 300 WSM, ha. But both triggers are set on 2#, which I feel really helps. Less is better if you can control it, i.e. 1# You just have to put it some trigger time my friend! Good luck to you!

Consistent shooting form and a light trigger are most important for me. Consistent as in cheek weld, pressure of butt into shoulder and even position of forearm on a rest.

Shoot it from sitting or prone, with a cuff sling.

(and rethink your rifle and caliber choice)




GR