TargetTalk

When I first got my rifle I was told how to set up the cheek piece for proper head position. Now I can't find the link to those instructions. What I remember is that to set up the cheek piece properly, you are supposed to fire the rifle without the rear sight and see where the rounds hit. The rest I've forgotten. Can someone point me to the proper way to adjust the cheek piece with this method?

You basically use your head/eye as the rear sight and adjust the cheek piece the same as you would your rear sight: if your group is low and to the left, you would move your cheekpiece up and right. Move the cheekpiece in the direction you want to move the group on the paper. When the group is centered you are done.

Of course, this assumes that head placement is consistent.

Jack

Maybe this is the difference in sight usage habits between predominantly smallbore shooters and predominantly highpower shooters, but using the cheekpiece to move the point of impact is an alien concept to me. That's what the rear sight's elevation and windage knobs are for.

I slimply set my sight for event zero, get in position behind the rifle, relax my head on the stock, close and open my eyes, and adjust the comb if my eye isn't exactly centered in the aperture. If I move my sight's elevation, I do a quick check for eye alignment and readjust the comb again.

To that end, I find the jackscrew type adjustment popular with American stockmakers FAR superior to the dopey Anschutz spring loaded cheekpiece and friction wheel.

The point of the excercise is not to replace the rear sight, but to find the proper adjustments to get your head and eye properly aligned with the bore axis. If you can center your group on the bull, then you are pretty close to aligned and when you put the rear sight back on the rifle you should be able to naturally drop your head onto the stock and be aligned with the rear sight.

Jack

Thanks for the reply. Right now I'm using an Anschutz 2007 stock that takes spacers to adjust height/offset, a real pain to adjust, which is why I want to get as close as possible to optimum adjustment on cheek rest height.

Jack Leslie wrote:The point of the excercise is not to replace the rear sight, but to find the proper adjustments to get your head and eye properly aligned with the bore axis.

Since the rear aperture is hardly ever aligned with the bore axis, and the eye needs to be aligned with the rear aperture, why would I want my eye aligned with the bore axis?

If the eye to aperture misalignment is lateral, I simply adjust buttplate cast and cant to fix that.

The whole purpose of the exercise is to get the cheekpiece in the right positition such that with the rearsight in place the shooting position is the same as without the rearsight. As I understand it this ensures the shooting position is natural and not forced and hence can be repeated naturally and comfortably throughout the shooting course of fire.

Rob.

Maybe I am missing something here, but both my smallbore and centerfire rifles have a myriad of stock adjustments (not just comb height) to ensure that my head isn't forced behind the sight.

I stand by what I said earlier. The rear sight (and its aperture) goes where it goes. It is the job of the stock adjustments to get the eye to match up with it. It is a waste of time to adjust the stock without the sight in place, as the sight will never be static in one location.

But to each his own.

The idea is not to replace the rearsight.

It is entirely possible to adjust the cheekpiece while in position, as has already been noted the sprung loaded adjustment on 16-19xx Anschutz rifles is the easiest to use in position.

The object of shooting without the rearsight, is to remove the rearsight as a reference mark. With the rear sight mounted the eye is (or should be) drawn to the aperture, it is possible to align the eye without having the cheek fully supported.

Without the rearsight the head should naturally fall onto the stock, with the results described above.

It is not the only way of assessing the position of the cheekpiece; but it is useful, especially with less advanced shooters who don't notice if their cheeek is not resting properly, and in detecting the need for lateral adjustment. Not all lateral adjustment can be made with the butt plate, if the cheekpiece is too wide moving the butt may not help.

Tim S

Exeter UK

Anonymous wrote:The idea is not to replace the rearsight.

It is entirely possible to adjust the cheekpiece while in position, as has already been noted the sprung loaded adjustment on 16-19xx Anschutz rifles is the easiest to use in position.

The object of shooting without the rearsight, is to remove the rearsight as a reference mark. With the rear sight mounted the eye is (or should be) drawn to the aperture, it is possible to align the eye without having the cheek fully supported.

Without the rearsight the head should naturally fall onto the stock, with the results described above.

It is not the only way of assessing the position of the cheekpiece; but it is useful, especially with less advanced shooters who don't notice if their cheeek is not resting properly, and in detecting the need for lateral adjustment. Not all lateral adjustment can be made with the butt plate, if the cheekpiece is too wide moving the butt may not help.

Tim S

Exeter UK

That I will agree with.

Except that the spring loaded adjustment system in the Anschutz 16XX - 19XX series is far from being the easiest to use in position.

This one is:

Yep, allen keys and a card marked with the height setting, do help. I tend to dismount the rifle, not exactly in position, but at least on the firing point.

Oh for a System Gemini!

Tim S

Exeter UK

Anonymous wrote:Oh for a System Gemini!

Tim S

Exeter UK

Oh, believe me Tim, I'd love to have one too!

But they are about US $700 more than the stock I pictured above. And that stock is made by one of the US' finest and most respected target rifle stockers, Alex Sitman of Master Class Stocks.

Hmm I quite agree, the new model stock is listed at just over £1200. A little beyond my wallet.

For the present I make do with an 1813 stock and just the gemini butt plate.

Tim S

Exeter UK