Cheek Weld Assistance Please

[The38Super]

Having read / watched every resource on precision rifle shooting, I'm fairly confident in my form, trigger control, etc. Yet, my groups say otherwise. Sure, I occasionally biff a trigger pull, but I've narrowed the main issue to not having a consistent cheek weld. I can hold a consistent position relative to the scope for say, the first two rounds, but after that, my head either needs to come off the gun or requires a bit of readjustment after the gun settles from recoil. As a result, I'll drop the next shot. The picture below does a really good job of illustrating what's happening. The hits inside the diamond are my first two shots; third is my first dropped shot and fourth is the farthest out. To my eye, I'm set up behind the gun the exact same way on all four shots, but that's clearly not the case. When I pull together a good group, frequently, my next group may be decent but the POI has shifted, despite my not touching the scope.

"Always maintain a consistent cheek weld and use it every time you get behind the rifle" is the consistent message, but how does one do that? As I mentioned, to me, I feel I'm following that rule, but it's clear I'm not. Also, there are times when I sit behind the gun and feel I'm in the exact same spot, the scope says I'm not. So, I find myself scooching around until it looks like I think it should.

I'd greatly appreciate any tips / tricks / guidance on how to get the same cheek weld every time.

 

[6.5SH]

Does your stock have adjustable LoP and cheek piece?

 

[Baron23]

Having read / watched every resource on precision rifle shooting, I'm fairly confident in my form, trigger control, etc. Yet, my groups say otherwise. Sure, I occasionally biff a trigger pull, but I've narrowed the main issue to not having a consistent cheek weld. I can hold a consistent position relative to the scope for say, the first two rounds, but after that, my head either needs to come off the gun or requires a bit of readjustment after the gun settles from recoil. As a result, I'll drop the next shot. The picture below does a really good job of illustrating what's happening. The hits inside the diamond are my first two shots; third is my first dropped shot and fourth is the farthest out. To my eye, I'm set up behind the gun the exact same way on all four shots, but that's clearly not the case. When I pull together a good group, frequently, my next group may be decent but the POI has shifted, despite my not touching the scope.

"Always maintain a consistent cheek weld and use it every time you get behind the rifle" is the consistent message, but how does one do that? As I mentioned, to me, I feel I'm following that rule, but it's clear I'm not. Also, there are times when I sit behind the gun and feel I'm in the exact same spot, the scope says I'm not. So, I find myself scooching around until it looks like I think it should.

I'd greatly appreciate any tips / tricks / guidance on how to get the same cheek weld every time.

View attachment 7700662

Yep, as @6.5SH said....do you have an adjustable comb (about which I am unapologetically pedantic...that part of a stock is properly called its comb haha).

Even more to the point....what do you think your desired cheek weld currently is? That is, what are you trying to accomplish in terms of where the comb and your face repeatedly meet.

I ask as a long time shotgunner and I know for a fact that absolutely the only way I (and just speaking for me) can get a consistent placement of my head on the comb...i.e. consistent relationship of my eye to the scope's exit pupil.... is to have the comb high enough that it locks in under my cheek bone and my eye is properly placed vertically. Under the cheek bone, slight turn of the nose into the stock (helps reduce head roll needed get into the scope's exit pupil).

I can repeat this mount identically every time.....Mmy cheek bone doesn't move (but in case of a lot of weight gain/loss, I may have to adjust my comb height a bit).

I have never quite understood people's attachment for one piece mounts that put the scope pretty high up...unless their cheekbones are somewhere down near where their mandibular joint is..haha

Yes, you can position a stock in anywhere vertically on your face lower than your cheek bone.....but it is very hard to make this absolutely, utterly, repeatable. And in this scenario, upon recoil, my face position will move....at least for me...and now its a question of trying to reproduce an identical head/comb relationship without a hard reference point.

Is this a stock, chassis, or....???

 

[6.5SH]

Haha, I originally typed comb, but changed it as only us old guys would understand it.

 

[The38Super]

Both of my 'distance' guns have adjustable comb and LoP. My challenge has been to identify exactly where to set them (at least the riser) to support the exact same location, every time I mount the gun. More accurately, how everything should fit together to support that same location. I figured I can't be the only one who has or is currently trying to address this challenge.

 

[Lowlight]

You need to film yourself with your phone, you have no clue what you are doing wrong and I guarantee you are doing multiple things wrong

Our Fundamental Eval has 20 points we look at... you probably can't name 10, (maybe you can, I don't know you) but those 20 areas of interest we look at all have a bearing

The vertical spread says it's more than cheek weld, if you are adjusting the parallax on your scope the cheek weld is negated in a lot of ways, at least in the prone, but technically, proper parallax is the fix for an inconsistent cheek position.

You are not shooting Irons ... that is where Cheek Weld has a bigger influence, scopes with parallax adjustments, not as much.

 

[Clob McStrunk]

*deleted*

 

[BiggBeans]

upgrade your account so you can have access to all the training courses. they have helped me learn alot.

 

[KnowNothing256]

Frank got there first, but I was wondering if parallax was adjusted properly based on OP’s description. Poor cheek weld can move POI, but OP stated it looked different (has to scooch to make it look like it should), which suggests a parallax problem depending on what they see.

You can check proper cheek riser (comb) height by scooting the scope forward on the rings/mount fat enough to get severe tunneling (sight picture shrinks to a small circle inside the scope lens) and make sure it’s centered when you close your eyes, get comfortable, then open them. If your comb is parallel to the scope axis, you can just scoot your cheek back on the comb instead of pushing the scope forward. Another method is to crank the magnification to max and see if the sight picture is clear, with no edge shadowing, when your face is in its natural spot.

Good luck

 

[The38Super]

To close the loop, I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. Rather than an actual cheek weld, I was shoving the soft area between my cheek and jaw into the stock. It was the most comfortable at the time, but clearly not repeatable. Rather than beat myself up at the range, I set up a sniper's nest at the end of my hallway and followed what @KnowNothing256 suggested. Rather than attempting to fix everything NOW, I let it set up for two days and would randomly drop behind the gun, checking to see if the new position was repeatable. I took the final results to the range today and my groups tightened up immensely.
Thanks to the board for the guidance and support!

 

[1moaoff]

To close the loop, I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. Rather than an actual cheek weld, I was shoving the soft area between my cheek and jaw into the stock. It was the most comfortable at the time, but clearly not repeatable. Rather than beat myself up at the range, I set up a sniper's nest at the end of my hallway and followed what @KnowNothing256 suggested. Rather than attempting to fix everything NOW, I let it set up for two days and would randomly drop behind the gun, checking to see if the new position was repeatable. I took the final results to the range today and my groups tightened up immensely.
Thanks to the board for the guidance and support!

How about you did not do as you said. You actually just practiced... really no need to say you set up a nest... come on man!

Unless your going to post yourself geared up for us to critique!

 

[The38Super]

If practice alone worked, I'd be one holing at 100, based on the sheer number of rounds I've fired. It was the positioning and repositioning my head until I hit on something that was repeatable and left me in the right place behind the scope that was my game changer. Yesterday, all of my groups (both 100 and 200 yards) were sub MOA and consistently clustered around my POA. On my previous outing, I couldn't buy anything less than 1.5 and each group was situated in a different area around the POA.

Okay, it wasn't a real nest, but being at the end of a long hallway, it sort of gave off that vibe to me. If I were more industrious, I'd post a pic of the empty hallway to demonstrate my amazing concealment talent.

 

[KnowNothing256]

This has been really fun to hear back on, so often resolution of issues is kinda lackluster or unsatisfying to the person looking for help. Awesome to hear of a fix that was self-directed, straightforward, and almost immediate. Thanks for sharing!