Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Help diagnose problem with shooting form!

I have been getting my wife out shooting with me from time to time. However, she shoots low with every scoped rifle I put in front of her. Don't get me wrong, she makes all of them group. She just shoots 9"-12" low. I asked her if the cross hairs are centered in the eyepiece and even drew her a picture of this to make sure she knew what I was asking. She said yes. All of the rifles group 1" or better and are 2" high at 100 yards. I even had a friend check the zeros to make sure I was not the problem. My wife does wear glasses but can see fine through the scope without them. I had her remove her glasses but the results were the same. I need help in figuring out what she is doing so I can get her excited about shooting. It not very much fun when you have a hard time keeping your groups on paper.

She needs to zero the rifles for herself.

Everybody shoots differently, and a rifle zeroed for you shouldn't really be expected to work for her.

I am guessing she holds it different and the recoil affects the point of impact. I have a cousin who is the same way. He likes to bury the stock low on the ground or bench while I sit more upright. 9-12" low does sound like a huge difference, we are usually a couple of inches in difference.

Let her zero it and see if she can repeat it. It really only matters if she can hit where she aims if it is her rifle.

Sounds like a number of factors involved. Agree with having her sight in the rifle to her eyes. Also, check the trigger pull to see if she is pulling the shot at the trigger break. Flinching wouldn't cause her to shoot like you mention and still group- it would be all over the place in that case.

Also, if she is using a rest on a bench, see how she rests the rifle on the rest. If she is resting the barrel or sling swivel on the rest it can cause a change in impact- also watch for putting weight on the rifle during the shot.

She doesn't have a dedicated rifle at this point. (hopefully in the near future) I understand everyone holds and positions themselves differently on each rifle, I just wouldn't have thought that it would have been this great of a difference. I'm not an expert buy any means, but her trigger control looks good and it doesn't look like she is flinching or pulling the shot. We have shot from the bench and prone and the results are the same. The fact that she gets them to group is a good thing, I just find it odd that our POI would be so different. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

It may vary a bit from load to load but my wife's POI is generally 5-6" higher than mine. She rolls with the recoil and I soak it up.

I suspect she is shooting a rifle that is too long in the stock for her and thus not getting proper eye relief from the scope for a full view.

I've seen a few women shoot a too long stock by resting the butt down their arm a ways in order to get closer to the scope....usually results in horizontal stringing to the opposite side. Where is that butt resting?

One can usually shoot a stock a bit short but too long is a problem.

VernAK-
That is something else to check out. All of my rifles are 13.25 LOP as I usually wear a pack or multiple layers in the colder months. My wife is only 2" shorter than me with an athletic build so I wouldn't have thought it would be much of an issue. I will have to check out her shoulder placement and fit going forward. Maybe a new rifle as a Christmas gift is in order. Thanks for all of the input guys, I appreciate it. awm

I would also bet it is stock fit. She also probably has a narrower face than you so she may not be getting much in the way of cheek weld.
Also height has very little to do with stock fit. Best to let her try several different rifles or ideally buy her a stock fitting with her new rifle. She will thank you for years.

Sounds to me like you have a Plex crosshair and she's using the top part of the Plex where the thin line meets the thick line as an aiming point. That distance on most reticles would account for approximately 9 to 12 inches at 100 yds.

Shod

More good ideas, thanks guys. awm