Advanced Marksmanship Impact high when shooting off barricade

[Camoman1]

Hey guys I’ve been struggling with this issue for a while. Seems I’m always trying to fix this silly issue instead of actually practicing. I often impact high (.3-.5 ish mil) when shooting off barricade vs my zero when shooting prone. It’s a nice solid barricade and I always confirm my POI prone to make sure it’s not caused by atmospherics or anything like that.

Some days the only way I can get the POI to come down is by pulling into my shoulder AND up into my check weld very hard. So hard it seems ridiculous.

Other days I have no issues and I’m dead on with just a nice medium pressure pull in and up into my shoulder/cheek.

I can see that I am not consistent and that is my goal the winter, to get more consistent, but I don’t want to enforce the wrong form.

I am looking for some key things to watch for to keep a consistent Poi on barricade vs prone? Maybe I need to look at my prone as well?

 

[Jefe's Dope]

Resting just your barrel on the barricade can cause this to happen. Ask me how I know. ?

Thankfully a much better shooter was watching me and alerted me to what was happening. I was shooting a V-Tac wall and the opening are incredibly tight.

 

[Dthomas3523]

What kind of rearward and cheek pressure are you using prone? If it’s not similar, that can cause issues.

Are you breaking at the same point in your breathing cycle as you are prone?

Vertical is going to be breathing and recoil management. You’re doing something different from prone to positional.

Which one you’re doing correctly (if either), is the question.

 

[Shawn1492]

What rifle and scope are you using. Did you check parallax?

 

[Camoman1]

What kind of rearward and cheek pressure are you using prone? If it’s not similar, that can cause issues.

Are you breaking at the same point in your breathing cycle as you are prone?

Vertical is going to be breathing and recoil management. You’re doing something different from prone to positional.

Which one you’re doing correctly (if either), is the question.

I always try to keep a nice medium cheek pressure when prone, ive been experimenting with more/less rear ward pull when prone with more/less bipod loading but no success. should you have less reward pull when prone because of the bipod load?

Breathing is something I have not given a ton of attention to, I will try and focus more on breaking at my exhale pause.

What rifle and scope are you using. Did you check parallax?

I’m running a custom Tikka and Kahles624 and yes I always check my parallax using the head bob

 

[Milo 2.5]

Just free recoiling a rifle, which I assume you are doing off the barricade should itself result in high impacts. And with that, the closer you balance the rifle to center, the higher the impact should go, if the balance point is the end of the forearm, should be less.
What is your free hand doing here, are you trying to mitigate hop with it?
I would just practice more, get a technique that works with minimal hop, or adjust your dope accordingly for your style of shooting, if indeed it may work.

 

[Precision Underground]

Keep both eyes open and stay present all the way through the trigger pull and recoil. If you feel like your brain is ramping up to the trigger pull and then there is a millisecond blackout when the shot breaks you have no control over the rifle at the most important time. Watch it all happen and stay present with both eyes open.

 

[LawnMM]

You need more support in the back, I've noticed during practice on tank traps, barricades, etc. if I don't have the buttstock supported correctly it allows the muzzle to rise and the buttstock to move back towards me and down...

End result, miss high.

There's a fine line on difficult props where you have everything supported correctly without inducing extra movement. Practice Practice Practice.

 

[b2lee]

My rifle now weighs 25lbs with a full 5 round mag...it sure does help with muzzle jump off barricades.....especially with an APA Lil' B brake.

So, my poor form is mitigated by me buying a hit

Now I just gotta spend $500/month for a personal trainer to keep my old butt able to sling that 25lb rifle around.

 

[Rocketmandb]

Now I just gotta spend $500/month for a personal trainer to keep my old butt able to sling that 25lb rifle around.

And then a full weight set at home to shoot unsupported...

 

[Hussell]

I used to go high left positional vs prone, around .2 high and .1left. Lots of practice positional shooting groups on paper at 100yds over the past several months fixed this for me. When I miss it is now .1 high around 12:00. I shoot 3/4" dots at 100yds for practice often and it translates well on steel in matches.

 

[blaserman33]

It’s probably a combination of several small things. Pay special attention to what you do on the days your POI is the same as prone and practice doing that EVERYTIME! I too noticed this and realized I was getting ahead of myself by trying to push my time limit before I had a good handle on the “muscle memory” and fundamentals. When I slowed myself down and focused on getting things stable and consistent I would hit again. Like someone else said, the pressure against the barricade, the pressure in your shoulder and cheek, support hand placement, the rifle placement vs the balance point is a very fine balance that you have to practice at. In fact I am still working on it, and when I start missing during the middle of good practice I realize I am getting lazy and not making sure I have everything correct. Like Frank always says, it’s the human factor.

 

[blaserman33]

My last time out I also had a couple shots where everything I did seemed good, I was stable, my fundamentals were good and I still missed high so I stopped and realized I was canted so I repositioned the rifle to be plumb and was good to go. Even at 400-500yards and even with a pretty small cant, when shooting alternate positions it messes things up. Maybe it was just a fluke, but I don’t think so.

 

[Dthomas3523]

My last time out I also had a couple shots where everything I did seemed good, I was stable, my fundamentals were good and I still missed high so I stopped and realized I was canted so I repositioned the rifle to be plumb and was good to go. Even at 400-500yards and even with a pretty small cant, when shooting alternate positions it messes things up. Maybe it was just a fluke, but I don’t think so.

Canting is not why you missed high.

 

[hereinaz]

Are you forcefully "loading" the bipod?

 

[Camoman1]

Are you forcefully "loading" the bipod?

I try not to put to much pre load, just enough so the rifle is held in place through the recoil

 

[hereinaz]

I try not to put to much pre load, just enough so the rifle is held in place through the recoil

If you are "trapping" the rifle between your shoulder and a bipod to keep it in place, I think that can influence POI. So when you shoot off a barricade, the rifle isn't trapped and so it moves differently on recoil while the bullet is leaving the bore.

 

[Dthomas3523]

If you are "trapping" the rifle between your shoulder and a bipod to keep it in place, I think that can influence POI. So when you shoot off a barricade, the rifle isn't trapped and so it moves differently on recoil while the bullet is leaving the bore.

Depends on the amount of pressure used.

Same as when shooting prone with a bipod. Too little or too much pressure will show a poi/poa change.

You can pin/trap or not and still retain the same poi/poa.