Offhand Progress

I shot my flintlock fowling piece today with one intention in mind. Knuckle down and shoot some decent offhand groups.

I've found that the gun nails my cheekbone when I lean my head forward as I prefer shooting about any gun. Today was no different. So, I shot the gun with head more erect (it felt as though my neck was stretched back to the buttplate :shocked2: ), as foreign as it felt, my cheekbone appreciated change of position. :haha:

I am happy to report that I nearly shot an inch and a half sized group at 25 yards, standing on my feet and shooting offhand. The last shot of the group hit outside the others opened it up to about 4 inches.

I shot quite a bit with similar results. I shot standing and kneeling(as though I were bush whacking a November buck) at 35 yards and each shot would have done the deed.

If I'm honest with myself, I think I had developed a bit of a flinch when trying to shoot this smoothbore like a rifle. Making the change described above took every bit of the bite out of the French styled stock.

I'm pleased with the progress and hope the new "hold" might one day feel close to natural to me. It may take awhile.

Another option may be to find a gun with a straighter stock. I've not ruled this out. I'll see how we get along from here. Glad for the improvement for sure. :thumbsup:

I should say that I didn't try any shots farther than 35 yards as I wanted to come away with some confidence from how well I did at the shorter ranges. Lot of psychology involved in burning this black stuff, no? :hmm:

Just a report. Thanks for listening.

Best regards, Skychief

One of our SR members has a smoothie that will shoot 4" at 100yds :shocked2: Thats incredible but I believe it. I will attribute it to one thing PRACTICE, Yer on the right track. :thumbsup:

Good report. It is a good thing when members relate shooting experiences and explain why some things happen, especially when things don't go as well as we would all like.

Over many years, it has been suggested to me that I should "back off" on gun stocks, so they don't whack me as hard during recoil.

Due to my eye sight/astigmatism, I found over the years that when I had my head forward enough to where I could see the sights the best and get the most accuracy, I wound up with a "fat lip" from recoil. Since I could not afford to have extremely expensive custom made stocks to overcome this condition, (or in some cases it wasn't allowed by competition rules, anyway) I learned to accept the discomfort and even joke about it, while getting the best accuracy.

Gus

Skychief said:

I'm pleased with the progress and hope the new "hold" might one day feel close to natural to me. It may take awhile.

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Good job, Skychief. I'm not surprised.

I had a similar experience for different reasons. When I got my first smoothbore I had a dickens of a time getting it to shoot where I was "aiming", offhand or from a rest. I started shooting it as I had always shot a rifle, head snugged down tightly on the stock to give me a sight picture I was used to. Groups were not bad, but it shot low every time. A hundred groups, all low. Couldn't raise them up if I aimed at the 10 ring. I filed and cussed, shot and scratched my head for several weeks with little progress. Finally I read up on similar problems others had written about and started thinking hard about the fact that, without a rear sight, my eye was the rear sight. I tried raising the sight by raising my head just a bit. Didn't really raise it off the stock, just didn't 'weld' quite so tightly. Instant improvement, and it was repeatable, as long as I remembered to ease off on the weld and see some barrel, not just do what comes naturally.

After many decades of shooting my usual way it took me a while to make the new way an automatic habit, but it did happen, and pretty soon. It will for you, too.

Hang in there.

Spence

That's some good shooting AZ!

Gus, thanks for the kind words. Sounds like we have similar shooting forms. Though this smoothbore has no rear sight, my habit of creeping forward and tight on the stock, cares naught. Between your fat lip and my bruised cheekbone, I'll bet we have something else in common. I'd wager that we both find only accurate guns interesting.

Hey Spence! Knowing that you went through a learning curve, gives me hope. You may recall that I had a time getting point of impact centered on the target for awhile too. With your help, I have the sight picture for my gun down pat. Thanks! :thumbsup:

You mentioned above that your "new" weld became an automatic habit "pretty soon". Well, here's to hoping pretty soon comes sooner than later. :haha:

Thanks for your help. Again. :hatsoff:

Best regards all, Skychief

A bit off topic perhaps, but want to mention that, fooling around with these smoothbores is just so much more fun than those new fangled rifle guns.

Much like the joy a longbow brings compared to a compound bow, in my opinion.

Just saying, Skychief :wink:

Skychief said:

Sounds like we have similar shooting forms. Though this smoothbore has no rear sight, my habit of creeping forward and tight on the stock, cares naught. Between your fat lip and my bruised cheekbone, I'll bet we have something else in common. I'd wager that we both find only accurate guns interesting.

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Yes, indeed.

Back in the late 1970's when I competed with my smoothbore Brown Bess Carbine in Northwest Trade Gun Matches/Aggregates; I always walked back from the firing line afterwards with a fat lip. :haha:

As Dave Person and other forum members have pointed out, the Original Brown Bess smoothbores had a lot of drop to the stock until the Pattern 1756 and later patterns where the drop was decreased, but the Pedersoli reproductions are even straighter stocked than that. I tried going to a higher cheek rest position and/or further back on the stock and the groups went to heck. It just did not work for me.

Still, I found taking the discomfort well worth it, as it was a lot of fun to shoot that Brown Bess Carbine.

Gus

Good for you our friend :hatsoff:

Try putting the butt on the shoulder joint as opposed to just in from the joint.

B.

Britsmoothy said:

Good for you our friend :hatsoff:

Try putting the butt on the shoulder joint as opposed to just in from the joint.

B.

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Hello Nate! I will sure give that a try as well. Much appreciated. :hatsoff:

Best regards, Skychief.

Forgot to mention that this gun has no cast to its stock. A couple of muzzleloading friends (they too have experienced the gun bucking into their cheeks) have theorized this may be the main culprit of its unruly recoil. I doubt this will make it easier to hold as you suggest, but again, will try.

Thanks.

Crescent shaped butts are supposed to be shot from the joint or even on the arm.
Now I appreciate your gun may not have a cresent butt but when shot thus the recoil when shot off hand allows the stock to drop a tiny amount away from the face.
Also you will have to crank your head over some to line up the barrel which is slightly different to cramming your face into the stock.
There must be good contact all the same or no matter what it will bite.
We have to move back in recoil at or near the same rate as the gun or it will smack us.
Sorry to babble on.

B.

Babble? I don't think so :hmm: . I appreciate it Nate. Thanks, Skychief.

I'm following along here. Just shot my new 20cal smoothbore 2 days ago and had similar problems. Recoil in the cheek and groups 4" low to the right. You guys have given me some good advice to try next time out.

Percy

azmntman said:

One of our SR members has a smoothie that will shoot 4" at 100yds :shocked2: Thats incredible but I believe it. I will attribute it to one thing PRACTICE, Yer on the right track. :thumbsup:

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Often times I reserve comment on some posts so as to not offend folks. But, I just have to chime in here. No offense meant. I have been to many large shooting events where none of the bench rest rifle competitors made a single group like that over several days of shooting. Color me skeptical. :hmm:

Rifleman1776 said:

I have been to many large shooting events where none of the bench rest rifle competitors made a single group like that over several days of shooting. Color me skeptical. :hmm:

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Bench rest rifle shooters who can't shoot 4" groups at 100 yards? Did I hear that right? This must be that famous 'gang who can't shoot straight' I hear about. :haha:

Spence

George said:

Rifleman1776 said:

I have been to many large shooting events where none of the bench rest rifle competitors made a single group like that over several days of shooting. Color me skeptical. :hmm:

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Bench rest rifle shooters who can't shoot 4" groups at 100 yards? Did I hear that right? This must be that famous 'gang who can't shoot straight' I hear about. :haha: Spence

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:hatsoff: :hatsoff:

When I was teaching my boy to shoot he asked why I made him stand and shoot. I told him that the skills he learns will last him a lifetime. I asked him if he saw any benches in the woods while hunting?

20 cal smoothbore?must have to swab after every shot. :rotf:

I do... :surrender:

Percy

Rifleman1776 said:

azmntman said:

One of our SR members has a smoothie that will shoot 4" at 100yds :shocked2: Thats incredible but I believe it. I will attribute it to one thing PRACTICE, Yer on the right track. :thumbsup:

Click to expand...

Often times I reserve comment on some posts so as to not offend folks. But, I just have to chime in here. No offense meant. I have been to many large shooting events where none of the bench rest rifle competitors made a single group like that over several days of shooting. Color me skeptical. :hmm:

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I am not say I know A guy type thing. I have read this gentlemens posts here several times. I believe he is reading these. I can believe it. I have never seen it and I could never do it (and I am damned good). But I will never be so good as to not be amoungst several that were just plain born better. Often times I dont even know it. But they are there :idunno:

and Im not offended. I too read stuff here that I wanna call :bull: I have life experiences that have taught me when ever I do that I eat crow pie so I really try hard to stay silent :redface: