Head Position When Shooting

No; you need to go the other direction.
Stand on your hind legs and shoot one handed at 25 to 50 yards like us bullseye/precision shooters.
It is more gratifying than resting a pistol for groups.
Stand erect with your head erect and enjoy.

Yes, holding your head erect can offer some physiological advantages.

Your neck and shoulder (trap) muscles aren't in as much stress, which means less fatigue developing, or at least developing less quickly.

Also, your vision is more of a normal "inline" angle (especially if you wear glasses).

I've occasionally had some LE folks object to suggesting they not "turtle" their head. They objected because they claimed it increased the area of their head presented to an attacker shooting at them. A simple demonstration (sans guns) of the difference seeing someone, full frontal (so to speak), with their head/neck bent forward, versus their head positioned erect, seemed to surprise some of them, as they seemingly thought their heads were somehow more "concealed", or less visible, from an attacker looking at them when bent forward. Not so much.

Well, once guy simply explained that it made someone's posture look less "tactical", and that it made shooting look too easy. He was a SWAT guy, though, so ...

That last declaration was the result of working with another firearms instructor/SWAT guy one afternoon, at the range, when we had some down time and were practicing drills to engage multiple threat targets while moving along a "line". His objection to my rapidly walking and engaging the multiple threat targets was that I'd looked to relaxed, and that if I'd hunched forward a bit and looked like it was more difficult, it would look like I was more serious, as well as more "tactical". Hey, he meant well, and was a very good shot at many weapons (also a designated precision rifle shooter). I knew him for many years and we always got along well. Personally, I think it just bugged him that I'd made faster, more accurate hits on all the threat targets, and looked like I was relaxed doing it. (Well, the threat targets hadn't been shooting back, after all, so what was there to get stressed about, really? )

If you're more relaxed and balanced when shooting, you're less stressed, physically. That can mean you'll be less fatigued, or not become fatigued as quickly.

That's not a bad thing when you're trying to realize control (in your posture and muscular control), as well as consistency of accuracy enhanced by physical balance and control.

probably pinching your carotid arteries. or looking through the top of your eyes. the more natural the position, the better off you will be.

luck,

murf

It's always kinda funny to see that particular light bulb come on when shooters realize it's much better for them to bring the firearm up to their eyeline instead of dropping their eye down to the firearm. Whether it's a rifle, shotgun, or handgun, you'll almost always shoot better when your head is erect and you're looking as straight forward (eye centered in the socket) as possible. Takes some doing to replicate that in all shooting positions, but it has the added advantage for rifle shooters that it reduces the variance for eye relief as you change from off hand standing to bench to prone.

Common problem - you plop a rest or bags down on the bench, and that fixes how tall the rifle or handgun will be from the surface. Then the shooter struggles to get that low to the bench to line up with the sights. Just doesn't naturally occur to shooters to raise the bench or raise the rests (or lower their seat) to bring the firearm up to their eye.

watch one of Miculek videos on pistol shooting and he advocates just bringing the gun up rather than bringing the head down to the gun.
if im shooting 10 yrdsand not shooting for small grps it doesnt matter to me so much how my head position is but for longer distances or smaller grps i try not to lean my head down

I just try to be sure I'm not inspecting for colonic polyps when I'm shooting.......

As I get older, I find keeping the head up ensures I'm looking close to the MRP of my progressive lenses-gives much clearer sight pictures than putting the head down on the arm like I used to.

murf said:

probably pinching your carotid arteries. or looking through the top of your eyes. the more natural the position, the better off you will be.

luck,

murf

Click to expand...

Definitely

Just stand upright naturally and fairly relaxed/neutral, especially shooting for groups where you aren't even worried about driving the gun for follow up shots or any of that

follow-through is important.

luck,

murf

I noticed my sight picture was a little clearer with my head erect vs leaning forward as it is when I shoot from a rest.

Click to expand...

How old are you? When presbyopia was first starting to affect me I found shooting guns like my 1911 long slide or Glock 17L made a disproportionate difference in clarity of the sight picture. Increasing the distance from your eye to the front sight could be the key for a awhile -- eventually you'll need corrective eye wear, or like me, mostly just switch to red dot optics.

I will be 67 in mid April. My shooting got troublesome when my vision demanded glasses. I continue to hunt for the sweet spot. just part of it.

Mark

Hardtarget said:

I will be 67 in mid April. My shooting got troublesome when my vision demanded glasses. I continue to hunt for the sweet spot. just part of it.

Mark

Click to expand...

Just remember that the most important "sweet spot" is the one where your bullet hits the intended spot on the intended target.

murf said:

follow-through is important.

Click to expand...

Yes indeed. Probably the most difficult of the five fundamentals to teach new shooters. If my groups start to open up, follow through is the first thing I attempt to correct.

If nothing else, upright head position puts your shooting glasses in the 'sweet spot'. At least it does on my Decots.

I have enjoyed moderate success with my trapgun, and I always mounted the gun high on my shoulder. That kept my head and neck in a more natural position, and helped prevent the urge to raise your head.

Drooping you head will send your shots to the 6 o'clock position when shooting handgun as the Bullseye correction target shows.

Fastbolt..! Yes, I agree. That is the true shooters sweet spot!

Mark