Hey everyone! I wanted to bring up the topic of LOP as it relates to both comfort and rifle stability.
Tldr: rifle setup is important and 3/8" can change how a rifle feels.
I'm aware of general rules of thumb of rifle setup, and the rifle in crook of forearm length guidelines. I thought I had a pretty decent setup, so I'm sharing my experience here, and am curious to everyone elses rifle setup and experience with playing with LOP.
I've been dry firing a lot more than normal lately, and have also been focusing on my form during bench shooting. Something I noticed(recording myself) is that I tend to roll my shoulder forward into the rifle, leading to a somewhat hunched position in both PRS style positions and bench positions. I doubt pulling a shoulder forward is good for groups...so I'm exploring this. I tend to shoot pretty square up and with the rifle close to center, but I was still feeling hunched.
I noticed during positional dry fire that a target that should be "easy" was actually being pretty elusive, and my wobble zone was just...all over the place. I've run my rifle like this for a year so I'm not sure why I'm noticing now.
Starting at around 13 3/8", I added 3/4" of LOP spacers to my Bravo, and got into the same position. The reticle was just dead on target, and I was confused. I checked length using the 90⁰ forearm rule, and it seemed a bit long. I pulled 3/8" out, and checked again, and the reticle was just as stable, with the 90⁰ rule being pretty dead on. Compared to a 13 3/8" LOP feeling hunched over and a dancing reticle, an extra 3/8" for 13 3/4" LOP made my rifle feel insanely stable. I'm between running the 13 3/4" and 14 1/8" LOP but both feel better than the old. My main concern is staying square to target, and not craning my neck to see the scope.
The funny thing is my hunting rifle is 13.5" LOP and has zero stability issues.
I'm somewhat surprised with how 3/8" on the butt end of a rifle changes how it feels.
Has anyone else noticed that small changes in rifle setup result in big changes to rifle comfort and stability? How do you validate this for yourself?
Tldr: rifle setup is important and 3/8" can change how a rifle feels.
I'm aware of general rules of thumb of rifle setup, and the rifle in crook of forearm length guidelines. I thought I had a pretty decent setup, so I'm sharing my experience here, and am curious to everyone elses rifle setup and experience with playing with LOP.
I've been dry firing a lot more than normal lately, and have also been focusing on my form during bench shooting. Something I noticed(recording myself) is that I tend to roll my shoulder forward into the rifle, leading to a somewhat hunched position in both PRS style positions and bench positions. I doubt pulling a shoulder forward is good for groups...so I'm exploring this. I tend to shoot pretty square up and with the rifle close to center, but I was still feeling hunched.
I noticed during positional dry fire that a target that should be "easy" was actually being pretty elusive, and my wobble zone was just...all over the place. I've run my rifle like this for a year so I'm not sure why I'm noticing now.
Starting at around 13 3/8", I added 3/4" of LOP spacers to my Bravo, and got into the same position. The reticle was just dead on target, and I was confused. I checked length using the 90⁰ forearm rule, and it seemed a bit long. I pulled 3/8" out, and checked again, and the reticle was just as stable, with the 90⁰ rule being pretty dead on. Compared to a 13 3/8" LOP feeling hunched over and a dancing reticle, an extra 3/8" for 13 3/4" LOP made my rifle feel insanely stable. I'm between running the 13 3/4" and 14 1/8" LOP but both feel better than the old. My main concern is staying square to target, and not craning my neck to see the scope.
The funny thing is my hunting rifle is 13.5" LOP and has zero stability issues.
I'm somewhat surprised with how 3/8" on the butt end of a rifle changes how it feels.
Has anyone else noticed that small changes in rifle setup result in big changes to rifle comfort and stability? How do you validate this for yourself?
