Proper way to shoulder AR

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michiganfan

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Hi could somebody post a picture of the proper way to place an AR on the shoulder for shoulder fire. I dont know if thats the right terminology, I want to know where I place the gun on my shoulder if i want to fire it from a standing position. Do I place it tight where my shoulder and arm connect or do I place it resting on top of my shoulder with the butt up by my cheek(jaw) ?
 
If the rifle in question is a weighted match version, then most competitors fire as such, with the charging handle touching the nostril........

AR_Offhand.jpg

If it's a standard battle rifle, then put the butt into the shoulder to keep from getting bopped in the nose. HTH ;)
 
If it's a standard battle rifle, then put the butt into the shoulder to keep from getting bopped in the nose.
Click to expand...

I've read that if the nose-to-charging handle cheek weld hurts your nose, it means you're not pulling the stock into your shoulder enough (obviously that doesn't apply in the above picture).

I'd be interested in the answer to the OP's question too, as I'm taking my AR to the range for the first time this weekend. In order to put the entire butt of my rifle against my shoulder, I have to bend my head over. If my neck is in a more natural feeling position, only the bottom end of my M4 stock is against my shoulder.
 
Nico,

If you put the butt in the shoulder, most people can not touch the charging handle to the nostril with most AR stocks. You do not want to bend your head over as that forces you to look out the top of your eye. That causes eye strain and a bad sight picture. You should keep your head erect and back off from the rear sight a bit. The NRA allows the butt to be ON the shoulder, but advises against it.

5.12 Standing- Erect on both feet, no other portion of the body
touching the ground or any supporting surface. The rifle will be
supported by both hands, the cheek and one shoulder or upper arm.
The upper arm is defined as from the middle of the bicep toward the
shoulder. The elbow or back of the forward arm may be placed
against the body or rested on the hip. The sling may not be used for
support and may not be wrapped around the arm or hand. The butt
of the rifle must be on the outside of the coat.
NOTE - Discharging a firearm while resting the butt of the firearm
on the top of the shoulder may result in personal injury.
 
I have about 1" or less of the buttplate (toe of stock) on my shoulder from the standing, unsupported edition. When I shoulder up for each shot, I always turn my head and look at my shoulder when I place the toe onto my shoulder to make sure I'm doing it the same way every time.

As far as shouldering the stock for a standing combat stance? Well, I pretty much shoulder about the lower half of the buttplate and lean my head a bit forward if I'm using the A2 sights or keep my head higher if using the Aimpoint.
 
It depends. What kind of shooting are you doing? For QCB stuff, I square up to the target, bend at the knees slightly, put the stock almost in the middle of my chest. Keep your elbows in tight to your body so they dont hang up on anything. Nose on the charging handle. My support hand goes on the magwell, as I don't have a VFG yet.
 
If you are just doing general plinking and want to shoot easily, you might want to invest in a telescoping stock. You can find basic ones for under a hundred bucks.
 
Does anyone here cant the rifle slightly toward their body? I started doing that a couple years ago and it's comfortable and surprising doesn't affect accuracy.
 
Tony,

I'm from the old school and was taught to hold the rifle level so as not to effect the sight adjusting procedure. If you cant the rifle, then your sight adjustments must become compound moves. If you cant to the left and want to come up two clicks, just moving the elevation wheel two clicks will yield some click value up and some click value left depending on how many degrees the cant is. This complicates things if you are chasing the wind! ;)
 
I inboard cant the rifle in standing, unsupported. I didn't realize it until I videotaped myself during a practice session at my home range and watched the tape. I have about 5 degrees of inboard cant and after analyzing it, the reason why I instinctively do it is to fit the rifle's position to my body without having to adjust my body to the rifle. When I'm standling, I like to keep my neck and head inline with my spine and when I naturally hold the rifle after shoulding the stock, it settles in with an inboard cant.

If I try to force it to be level, I find myself thinking more about keeping the rifle level and trying to position my head and neck to allow the rifle to do so, and I find it more distracting than anything else.

Cant in general isn't a bad thing as long as your cant is consistent.

The one position where many people cant is sitting, and I actually have little to no cant in sitting, since I'm able to get pretty tight in position with the rifle without being uncomfortable (for sitting).
 
Interesting. Read the posts and thinking about I shoot my ARs, it seems that the rifle's stock isn't designed for the type of shooting we do so we have to adapt to it.

Was the AR designed for shooting prone?
 
I really with the Army kept the old style m16a stock. I don't think the A2 or the M4 stocks are that good for accurate shooting.
 
For best accuracy, you should bring the sights to your eye (and not your eye to your sights).

I don't know anyone who cants the rifle more than about 10º in offhand. You'd have to make one heck of a windage correction to drive an elevation change (it'd be 6 for 1 on a 10º cant). That's a really windy day, and you'll have bigger problems to worry about than the 1/2 minute change in elevation due to cant.

Ty
 
Great question. I have a horrible time shouldering my during-the-ban Bushy M4A3 properly, I always feel overly-compressed. With a comfortable cheek-weld, seems like my right eye is a good half-inch above the iron sights. (I don't have this problem with any other rifle.)

Does anyone know if the faux-telescoping stock is shorter than a real six-position stock fully extended? I tried a Rock River or DPMS at last weekend's gun show that put my eye right at the sights but promptly forgot exactly which it was when I got home.
 
ive had the best luck with keeping my nose to the charging handle and pulling it in tight to my shoulder. keeping your nose on the charging handle assures you have the same sight picture every time. most of my shooting is done with a tactical vest of some sort(lbe) in the prone and have found you can tuck it into that on your shoulder to help keep it in place. If shooting from the prone without a rest also try to stay high up on your elbows and this keeps you from moving around too much. hope that helps, good shooting
 
ARs offhand

Nice post with lots of information. Great photos. Just a couple of comments.

I think it's important not to have a loose sling. They swing around or catch wind, even the light carrying staps.

No sunglasses. You want the maximum depth of field from your eyesight. That means your pupil as small as possible, which means no sunglasses.

Head level. Your inner ear wants it that way, or it's always looking for a correction.

I usually shoot the mid 90s in Highpower competition standing. Shot a nice buck offhand with a Ruger #1 this year. I shot 95X4 with a Garand at the Garand Championships. Really struggled standing with a K31 in the Texas Vintage Military Rifle Championship because the rifle wasn't zeroed and I had to make it go off with a 2:30 front sight hold on the 200 yard NRA standard bull. I have shot thousands of rounds holding six oclock. The trigger just wouldn't go at 2:30. Ended up winning the championship, but just because I could hold the prone slow fire and prone rapid at 2:30.

Everyone ought to shoot a little offhand. It's a natural position.
 
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