TargetTalk

I coach along with other parents a smallbore club youth rifle team. We have a young slight built girl, her groups in prone position(the only position we shoot) are great size of a dime or smaller. My problem is no matter what I do she shoots high to the right. I have adjusted her form,front hand, cheek piece, sight (radical 15 clicks in either direction) , she is not comfortable in her shooting jacket, it is new, so we tried no jacket , on a pillow on a table, it worked for 2 rounds and back to upper right corner. I had her cant the gun to bring the sight into line with her vision, no help. Any ideas out there ? I don't want to lose her due to frustration.

just a wild guess...

Could she be flinching and pushing the rifle down and left with the combination of her right/pistol grip hand pushing left and her head pushing down on the stock, thus putting the shot upper right?

Maybe her hearing protector is not cutting out enough of the shot sound, inducing her to flinch.
I have to use ear plugs with my air rifle, because the muffs bang against the stock. But some ear plugs can be fussy to put in correctly. That is why I use muffs when I shoot air pistol.

Another wild guess .... Make sure the sight is actually moving with the clicks....

We have checked the sight and actually switched rifles to be sure,( a different shooter sighted it right in) she does not look like she is flinching, but I will watch carefully this week.

you could try this. get down there with her and tell her to only move to work the bolt between shots while you load for her. make her think that this is all about working on her position, then, on the fifth or sixth round , load a empty case instead of a live round. it should be pretty easy to see if she's anticipating, flinching, or jerking the trigger (keep an eye on her follow through also). assuming she is right handed, then it sounds to me like when she has a good sight picture she is "jerking" on the trigger in order to get the shot off before she loses the good sight picture.

She is lefthanded. I will try your idea.

LH and shooting high and right, sounds to me like she possibly squeezing the pistol grip as she fires pushing it to the right .

You may try adjusting the trigger pull if possible... Sometimes if the trigger pull is too tough, I jerk my air rifle off quite a bit... :(

Tape a cheap laser pointer to the bottom of her barrel. It doesn't matter wear it points, but watch to see what happens when she pulls the trigger. Poor Mans scatt

It is a common fault for (starting) shooters to tense muscles of the supporting arm a fraction of a second before the shot goes off. In that case they are enticipating for the shot/recoil. If that happens the shot will go high and left for a RH shooter; high and right for a LH shooter.

Albert T
(The Netherlands)

Is she shooting with her dominate eye?

shawn706 wrote:Is she shooting with her dominate eye?

My thoughts too. Make a translucent blinder from 1 gallon milk jug and clip that to the rear sight or bill of her cap to force her into using one eye. Or, Scotch tape over one lens of the shooting glasses.