In any event, I apologize for the length of this post but I felt strongly enough to tell the story.
My son came home this weekend to see his mom and to go shooting with his dad.
I recently got a new scope for my old Glenfield Model 25 bolt action and wanted his help sighting it in.
We went up to the club on Saturday and only found an open 50 yard booth. Had all sorts of trouble getting the .22 on paper.
Decided to table that and take it home to reset the mounts etc. Had my 91/30 along just to play a bit.
We got her set up and I shot a 5 round clip and was really in pain. The kid jumps in and shoots 5 rounds and says: "I'm done"
He's rubbing his shoulder and so am I.
An older gentleman who's sort of the self imposed Rangemaster on the weekends comes over and starts talking to us. We're talking about Mosins and Milsurp weapons in general. Then out of the blue he says you're doing it wrong. If you're in that much pain, you're doing it wrong. He'd been watching us and came over as we packed up.
He says unpack that rifle and get out 2 rounds for each of you. So the kid gets the rifle out and 4 rounds. Get the sandbags set up and sits down on the bench seat.
The old guy says stand up. Son does. Old guy says now straddle the seat and sit down. Son does. Old Guy says now set up and take a shot. Son does and you see this sort of light bulb moment come over his face. He cycles the bolt and takes another shot. His smile was from ear to ear. He says Dad, it's sweet to shoot! No pain.
I jump in and did the same. WOW! No pain at all. We WERE doing it wrong. Since mama was waiting dinner for us we thanked the Old guy and raced home.
Sunday we get up and my son has the rifles in the truck and wants to give it another go.
We get up to the club and the only one there is our Old Guy friend. We set up on the 100 yd range and get the Glenfield out to sight her. Get her all dialed in and my son says lets get the Russian out. We see our friend over on pistols sort of glancing over occasionally.
The kid sits down as recommended and proceeds to put 10 rounds downrange all in the black. We didn't notice our friend quietly moved over to watch. We let her cool down a little then my turn. I dump 10 rounds through in the black with a few flyers. WOW again! no pain, steady and in the score zone with these old eyes.
Our friend says Hmm, I don't hear any complaining about recoil pain. The change of torso angle allowed us to put the buttplate into the meaty part of the shoulder. Prior to this it landed on bone or non meaty parts. It also allowed us to have a much stronger foundation
The point of this long rant is, if it hurts, you're doing it wrong. I had honestly begun to think I'd made a mistake buying this old rifle. It was a chore to shoot. This little tip has completely changed my opinion of shooting this old lady.
Here is a photo of the shooting bench style. Don't sit down like you're at a picnic table. Straddle the bench and begin shooting that way. You'll be pleased at the comfort and accuracy improvement
I was trained by just such men as the one you describe, all vets of WW1, and in one case the Swiss army.
