kneedeep
Senior Member
Posts: 260 | Feb 27, 2023 at 10:38pm gltaylor and joe16 like this
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Post by kneedeep on Feb 27, 2023 at 10:38pm
Feb 27, 2023 at 4:03pm mrdinapoli said:
Kneedeep,
I agree - the “Neck Tension” thread on LRH was very long, and there was a lont of mud slinging. However, there were some good points and interesting tid bits of info that came out. A significant amount of info was somewhat contradictory regarding neck tension, brass elastic and plastic deformation vs amount of reduction or expansion, and effects on accuracy. I feel that the discrepancies suggest that we haven’t found the real “factor” regarding neck tension that affects accuracy. The one common theme seemed to be that consistency was the most important factor in neck tension — it could be lighter or heavier, but had to be consistent.
With regards to thumb placement and the chassis — the two rifles shown are a custom 6.5x47 Lapua in an MDT ACC stock (total wt: 12 lbs), and a custom Ultralight Arms 300 Win Mag (total wt: 7.2 lbs). I grew up primarily hunting, and primarily shooting large magnums in light rifles, so I learned to shoot with my thumb around the neck of the stock to mitigate recoil as much as possible and to maintain control of heavy recoiling rifles. I now have several chassis type rifles in lighter recoiling cartridges (22LR, 22 CM, 6 CM, and 6.5x47), and have read and been instructed to keep my thumb on the same side of the stock as my trigger hand. I have been trying to get used to keeping my thumb on the same side, and have been experimenting with both with my light recoiling heavier weight stocks. So far I am not seeing much difference between keeping my thumb on the same side vs lightly placing my thumb around the neck, as long as I do not grip the neck tightly. I suspect that keeping one’s thumb on the same side may produce better accuracy overall, but I feel it may make rapidly grabbing and moving the rifle (ie. Hunting or PRS situations) more difficult. Again, consistency is the goal. The problem for me is that there is a significant difference in recoil and rifle control between my 6CM in a heavy chassis with a brake or suppressor, and my non-braked 7.2 lbs 300 Win Mag. I have to use completely different holds. If I held my 300 with a light grip and my thumb on my trigger hand side of the stock, I would wake up on the floor with my rifle behind me!!
Also, I have heard that many benchrest shooters that use the free recoil technique do rest and aim their rifles in bench bags, and then do pinch the trigger between their forefinger on the trigger and thumb on the rear of the trigger guard or midline of the rifle neck as you described. I believe the rail gun shooters do the same too. I may to try this with some of my light recoiling rifles to see how it works.
Mrdinapoli,
I should have worded my response to the LRH thread a little better. It was a good thread with lots of good information. But as you stated somewhat contradictory.
Quote:" I feel that the discrepancies suggest that we haven’t found the real “factor” regarding neck tension that affects accuracy."
I feel like the process to find the "real factor" would take so much time and money to test all the variables and then repeat the process enough times to verify the results, that not many are willing or able to do it. And the ones that do it are likely holding that information as an edge in competition. I also think we all have biases to some degree and human nature is to short cut processes. So when we jump ahead to short cut the process and land on a "fix," we tend to start there the next time. Or jump straight to that "fix" if the first thing doesn't work. Either way, I feel these conversations have led me to a better understanding of brass properties and how they can react. I'd like to thank everyone for that.
Regarding shooting techniques, I have found much better accuracy with magnum calibers by pressing the rifle into my shoulder much firmer than light calibers. This is for hunting purposes but I found this while shooting off the bench. Yes contradictory to target shooting. And the wheel turns around and around again.
Looking forward to your test results. No doubt you've spent a considerable amount of time on it.
Thanks,
kneedeep |
