Rifle Foundations - Connection to the Rifle

Let’s start off with a basic but overlooked rifle foundational skill. Connection to the rifle needs to be consistent and solid or everything else suffers in terms of performance. It’s one of two ways we manage recoil so it needs to be near perfect every time.

I like the buttstock deep in my shoulder and I think anything outside of this is not doing you any favors. I like to have the entire base of the buttstock connected deep into my shoulder pocket. I place it on the outside of my shoulder so that the placement is consistent whether I’m wearing Kit or not.

My support hand is the same distance away from my body as when I’m shooting a pistol. On a 10.5 inch gun it’s basically at the end of the hand guard. My left hand does the bulk of the work in terms of connection to the gun. I am pulling the gun straight back into my shoulder almost entirely with the left hand and arm. Elbow needs to be rotated down so the force I’m putting onto the gun pulling it into my shoulder come straight back into my shoulder.

My dominant hand is holding the gun firmly with my elbow rotated down. I hold the gun firm enough where I have control of the pistol grip but I am still able to move my trigger finger very fast.

It’s a very basic skill but it’s one that I think people don't pay enough attention to. Develop the ability to mount and unmount the gun consistently. As you start to explore more performance based shooting with the rifle most shooters will see that this is something they have overlooked or find difficult to do consistently.

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