"Jack knife" shooting position

Never called it that but have used it.

Sitting position taught to me in Basic Training was knees up, elbows outside the knees, no bone to bone contact.

As I've gotten older with arthritis and other conditions I can't do that anymore. Thought I'd discovered the "jack knife". Guess I didnt!!!

The Glockodile said:

View attachment 1012785

Where’d the grass come from, and where’d the black guy go?

Click to expand...

The background grass was in the original photo...as was the other combat veteran who was ‘shopped out of it for the book cover.

As I said, that pic has been said to be Hathcock for many decades. It was probably taken when I was about two or three as I was born right about the time Vietnam took off.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one who thought that this picture was of the master. If you haven’t read it, or the follow up by the same author, they’re great reads.

Stay safe.

ROTC .22 four position rifle team 1960-62.

Sitting position was (right handed shooter) left knee in left armpit, left elbow just above the ground, legs crossed at ankles. Spine is at an acute angle, as near horizontal as comfortably possible. Sling tightened enough to hold buttstock in right shoulder; no effort needed from right arm to support rifle so right hand can squeeze trigger without effort.

Geez, to be that flexible again.

I had a hip replacement so I can't sit like that anymore.

The "jackknife" is a useful variation of the silting position, though rarely seen either in pictures or in practice. One of the few times I've seen it illustrated is in Elmer Keith's classic book Keith's Rifles for Large Game.

Click to expand...

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Two+useful+shooting+positions.-a0109945144



GOOGLE. " elmer Keith's" shooting position" View attachment 1012838 http://www.hallowellco.com/sling.htm. "kneeling position."

taliv said:

Everyone i shoot with would consider that kneeling instead of sitting as his butt is off the ground.

Click to expand...

That photo is definitively and definitely kneeling.

It’s also not the same shooting position as the OP’s photo.

Seated Jack Knife - maybe, eh, I guess the guy’s knee is bent like a Jack knife, but I sure wouldn’t have thought “jack knife” just by seeing this position. “Seated Knee cradle” seems more fitting.

That kneeling is about the only "field" position I can still get into and out of without undue pain and difficulty. Around here prone is usually out as you can't see the target through the weeds.

Carlos retired here in Virginia Beach. Sadly he developed M S and died a slow death that stole his mobility and speach.
Semper Fi and RIP Whitefeather

This variation makes a lot more sense to me than the original one leg photo. Bone to bone connection from rifle to ground at both ends... that’s inevitably more stability than the first photo.

Still no idea why he’d call it a “jack knife” position, but I guess you gotta give your dog a name...

The NRA calls the latter photo an arm cradle modification to the “open leg sitting position,” opposed to the more familiar “cross legged sitting position.” I learned the latter photo as my first “sitting position” in 4H as a kid, typically preferring the arm cradle over having the elevation inherent to having my elbows on my knees. I didn’t learn the cross-legged adaptation until years later when I started into Service Rifle in high school.

Then again, I never have, even in the peak of my fitness, been able to fold this tightly in a conventional cross-legged sitting position:

Varminterror said:

This variation makes a lot more sense to me than the original one leg photo. Bone to bone connection from rifle to ground at both ends... that’s inevitably more stability than the first photo.
Then again, I never have, even in the peak of my fitness, been able to fold this tightly in a conventional cross-legged sitting position:
View attachment 1012937

Click to expand...

Ouch! my back hurts from just looking at that photo!

The first time I saw that photo was in Stars and Stripes, and it was supposedly a student in sniper school taking an 800-yard shot.

I wasn't getting the pic in the OP a couple days ago so this was all a mystery to me.

A few decades ago, I would do something like that (OP pic) except I sort of cupped my left hand on top of my knee (reverse tea cup) and rested the rifle on top of the meaty part of my hand in the web area of the thumb and index finger. Cupping my knee that way gave my leg more stability.

I dont remember ever trying it that way exactly and never knew it was a thing either.

It was just something I improvised doing in the desert where laying down you have have more risk of pokey things like rocks and cactus pieces and my back has never been very flexible bending backwards.

LoonWulf said:

It's not a beer belly, it's an emergency flotation device and portable workbench.........

Click to expand...

I tell everyone mine is a fuel tank for a sex machine. That actually came from a Tee-Shirt I would love to find.

And that shooting position in the OPs post is what my dad taught me when I was a kid and learning to shoot my BB gun. That shooting position in post #38 has not been an option for a couple decades.

Vern Humphrey said:

The first time I saw that photo was in Stars and Stripes, and it was supposedly a student in sniper school taking an 800-yard shot.

Click to expand...

IAW an NRA article:

This article, "The Military Model 70," appeared originally in the April 2011 issue of American Rifleman. Above, Marine rifleman Dalton Gunderson eyes the enemy through an 8X Unertl scope on top of his Special Services-procured Winchester Model 70 in Vietnam. In the background is radio operator Jerry Dunomes. Both men served in Kilo Co., 3rd. Btn., 7th Marines, under young Marine Capt. Wiley Clapp in 1965. Clapp is, of course, an American Rifleman field editor today.

Click to expand...

https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/the-military-model-70-a-forgotten-sniper-rifle/

Notice in the full image how the entrenching tool handle provides back support.

I sure thought it was a picture of Carlos Hathcock. Live and learn!

Not familiar with the term and having no service background therefore no formal training in rifle shooting positions, but yes, I have shot my rifles from various ground-seated or squatting positions and I think the main technique is to just take whatever position seems natural and best that provides proper grip, support and aiming, along with adequate balance to handle recoil. If that's a term for a specific position, then, OK, cool!! I'll go with it.

I haven’t shot like that much, but I have pulled off 1 very important shot like that… at the biggest deer I have killed to date. I popped over a ridge on a road with no cover at all and the deer was in the bottom I was looking down into. I couldn’t see over a small rise from prone, and I wasn’t stable enough for full standing shot with wind hitting me left to right. 1 shot and the deer staggered, slumped, and fell before I could work the bolt and get back on target and get settled for a second shot.

Why stand when you can sit. Why sit when you can lay down.