head tilt

[riddle326]

HI all. this is my first post, I'm brand new to long distance shooting and am liking it already. I have question. When I get behind rifle and get my cheek weld. I have a slight head tilt toward the comb in order to get a clear sight picture through scope. I have tried with butt in pocket between shoulder and peck and also with butt straight down from side of neck on peck and clavical bone. I have a slight head tilt with both although slight less with neck/peck, i would guess about 10ish degree (shoulder/peck pocket targeting a mirror in front of me). I get behind scope, put side tip of chin on comb and slide down comb and slightly forward until cheek weld is acquired. If I dont have a slight tilt i am unable to see through scope. Does this sound normal or should I have no head tilt. I have a Tikka T3x tac and I cant get my cheek any further right with the adjustable comb. thank you for your help

 

[FN-Whitney]

I always have a slight head tilt, its just how things are lined up. I moved my scope to a higher set of rings and a taller bipod and I have significantly less, along with setting my butt pad closer to my collar bone and it has improved it greatly, just play around with your position to find the best for you but I think higher is better.

 

[seansmd]

If you are still tilting your head with the stock in tight I would look at the scope height. It sounds like you can't get your eye low enough for good sight picture. Maybe the butplate adjustment vertically?

Either is too far out, and your leaving over to get to it. Or it is too low and you need to lay over to get to it.

 

[Friday]

Typically I try to get the lowest set of scope rings possible for all my rifles. But everyone is different.

How To Measure Scope Ring Height Guide - Gun Goals

Learn how to measure scope ring height with this effective tutorial. Learn how to do it yourself or use the scope ring height calculator.

gungoals.com

 

[seansmd]

Also depends on the size of your melon and the stock and cheek weld dimensions.

Gotta be able to comfortably drop your cheek down as vertically as possible and get good eye relief. The rest can all be adjusted in your ballistic calculator.

 

[ShtrRdy]

Another factor is how close together your eyes are.

 

[seansmd]

Haha, mine are like a monocle!

 

[Ruggedtouch]

There’s also a bit of physiology involved. If you stand in front of a mirror and project a vertical line down from your eye, there’s an offset to your shoulder pocket. A portion of that offset can be eliminated by being canted behind the rifle- you move the position of the shoulder pocket more behind the horizontal plane of your eye. The compromise is that (as Frank Galli points out in his lessons), you introduce angles that compromise your ability to control recoil.

There’s no perfect solution, only compromises.

 

[riddle326]

thank you for the info and options. I found I couldnt get far enough right with the adjustable comb there, so I took it off and am going to try it without it. I can line up much better now, but instead of cheek weld, I have a chin weld with bare skeleton stock. Will try it out this next week and see if it helps. thanks again

 

[seansmd]

So without the comb and chin weld your head is getting lower without tilting your head?

Pictures may help others here who know way more than me, but if you need to remove the cheek rest to get low enough to get proper alignment you may need rings that move your scope higher over bore.

 

[riddle326]

so I took out bolts holding comb. I slide comb all the way down so it was resting on bare skeleton stock. I held it in place and slid chin down comb, it still would push my jaw to the left and i would have to tilt my head to get sight picture in scope. my head is more rectangular than round which I would think would help me. With out comb I can get head straight and sight picture but get chinish weld not cheek weld. Wondering if a cheek pad would help be stay straight yet give me a cheek weld?

 

[seansmd]

Pictures of your rifle, scope, your alignment?

What is your scope over bore?

 

[riddle326]

here are some pics couldnt do the drag and drop for some reason am not to pc savy.

 

[seansmd]

Just pasting in your pictures. Any of you on the gun with good sight picture?

 

[riddle326]

thx

 

[seansmd]

From my limited knowledge it looks like plenty of height of scope over bore and room for a proper setup. I would suggest getting someone with good fundamentals to watch you setup on the rifle and evaluate your NPA.

 

[riddle326]

I think I might be over analyzing it. I just watched franks NPA video and it looks like He tilts his head also when looking through scope. I just did not know how much tilt is ok. If i use adjustable comb I have a little head tilt to get picture in scope compared to almost none without.

 

[Dthomas3523]

With current designs you can’t get your head perfectly straight up and down.

You want to get as close as possible with your setup.

To accomplish this, more of a jaw weld instead of cheek is used. Unless you’re doing an extended operation in which you need to be looking through your rifle optic for long periods of time. Then you switch to a cheek weld and tilt your head more so that you’re supporting more of your head weight on the rifle.

More straight = less influence on the rifle, but requires more muscle use to hold your head up

Tilted = less muscle to hold head at the cost of pushing the butt down and away which for a right handed shooter sends the muzzle up and left.

Each one comes with a trade off and has its own purposes.

 

[BallisticPrimate]

This tends to be one area where chassis have it over stocks. I've got a few Manners stocks which are excellent, but recently began playing with the MDT ACC and the extra adjustability in the buttstock makes a world of difference to head position. Being able to raise and cant the but-pad is extremely useful.