TargetTalk

Hey guys,

I've been shooting a lot of 50m prone lately and have been trying to set up my new rifle. It is more front heavy that my previous gun, which I like, but I think that is causing my problem. I've been working at it for several months but no matter what I do I am getting pain in my wrist/forearm. It almost feels as if I am over stretching my forearm muscles. Starts out with sharp, aching pain and eventually turns into a kind of numbness in my fingers. Needless to say, my scores are suffering from this. I recently tried folding a piece of cardboard up to create a temporary "spacer" to fit between my glove and the stock in an attempt to increase the stock depth and rotate the center of gravity a little closer to my support hand. It has helped some but I still get the pain, it is just delayed though as it takes longer to set in. Any suggestions on what else I can do? I have run out of ideas.

I don't want to add weight to the back since the rifle is fairly heavy already for the 3-p matches that I shoot in the winter leagues.

Also curious what your thoughts are on length of pull in prone. I have heard that it should be shorter than usual to bring the rear sight closer to the eye.

Sorry for the long post.

Wrist and forearm pain like that suggest to me your arm is not straight and that the wrist joint is therefore strained. I'd suggest you post up some pictures of you in position for our resident experts to comment on.

Rob.

Gru,

what rifle are you shooting, and were you set up by a qualified coach/experienced shooter or just by yourself?

As Rob suggested, photos can help.

I would disagree that LOP is shortest for prone. LOP is normally longer for prone than for Standing or Kneeling. Certainly you don't want the butt to be too long, as this can cause problems, but the distance from the butt to the grip should be sufficient that your hand reaches the grip comfortably without the arm being cramped or strained. It's a good sign if your wrist is straight, although some stocks may not allow this due to the shape of the grip; the old BSA Martini Internationals are a good (or perhaps a bad) example. Even so a straight wrist is a good objective. Personally I like to see the cheek at (or towards depending on neck length) the front of the cheekpiece as well.

Could LOP cause pain in the supporting wrist? Yes, it could. But I'd only expect this to occur where the butt has been set much too long; so long in fact that the left hand is close to the triggerguard to balance the rifle properly, as there is too much weight in front of the hand.

However, in my experience wrist pain in the supporting arm is often caused by poor hand position: is your wrist straight? It should be. The weight of the gun should rest on the heel/base of the hand. When it does sit on the palm, fingers, or thumb it's likely to hurt quickly.

Other possible explanations are: a worn out/too thin glove so the hand isn't cushioned enough; an incorrectly tensioned sling so the hand is squahsed (sling too tight), or the weight falls on the hand (sling too loose); a very flat supporting arm, so the sling doesn't get enough leverage; an over-large handstop, the thumb is splayed and the index knuckle squashed; or a fore-end that's too wide, so the edge bites into the thumb.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try to get some pictures hopefully this weekend. I no longer have access to a coach so I have have been trying to figure it out mostly on my own through dry firing on Scatt and putting shots down range. I think that my wrist is pretty straight but perhaps the picture will tell a different story.

What about the sling? A lower placed sling on upperarm pulls the stock down in which your hand and arm are in between. Perhaps placing sling high up your leftarm might help.

Pictures work best for us to see

Hello,
I had a similar problem up until very recently with my prone shooting. I was having problems over a 20 round scoped course of fire where the pain was so fierce I couldn't focus on my hold and shot release. My wobble was all over the 10 ring on the US NRA 100 yd target. This happened before several times. Frustrated, after the string I swapped out the handstop for a older, smaller one. After the switch through my scope the hold settled nicely to X ring size with no pain. A solution is hopefully that simple. Give it a go and see. Kind regards, Tony