Gun Fit - How important is it really ?

[Chipper]

Gun fit does it make that much difference or is a mind thing ? :frown:

 

[EdSolomons]

Largely in the mind. As long as you can see over (not down) the rib, it's not massively too long, or ridiculously cast then you will learn to crack on with it.

There are people who have made a profession of talking absolute sh*t to clients who hang on their every word. Spending hours (and charging for it) whilst making minuscule tweaks making out it will make the world of difference.

Tin hat on!

 

[Will Hewland]

Agree Ed. I fiddled mine a bit, but just to let me keep my head straighter. Didn't make any difference to where I'm shooting / looking.

I believe Digweeds advice is 'get a gun that fits about right, then learn where it shoots'

CSC3

 

[Hamster]

What is gun fit at the end of the day? If it don't hurt when you shoot and throws where you want....................................

 

[Chard]

It cracks me up when you hear about gunsmiths charging £150 to make 2mm adjustments in the summer, then November rolls around and you put a ****ing great coat on, about 10mm thick :.: :.: :.:

Load of cock. If my view down the rib doesn't look quite right, I just shove my face down on the stock a bit harder.

 

[timps]

This is always a hot topic of conversation on Pigeon Watch.

I find the comb is a little too low for my liking on standard Beretta’s so I bought an adjustable, it took me precisely 5 mins to set it to a height I liked, it was not a black art as some would suggest, I could have done the same with tape and card on a normal Beretta stock as well.

I bought a semi auto (for the Benelli), it’s a little lower in the comb than my DT 10 is set up but I altered my mount slightly (basically learnt to shoot with a different gun) and shot an 86 at the first 100 sporting I entered with it, (chard borrowed the same gun and shot an 89, bastard :angry: ) according to the make sure it fits brigade we would be lucky to hit a clay.

I see plenty of good shooters that like their guns set up differently so how can someone else tell you how to set up your own gun to one generic setting. I can see the point of a shooter going to a gun smith and telling him exactly what he wants changing due to personal preference, but I don't see going to a gun smith and asking him to ’fit it' to some mythical dimensions unless, as has been said, its ridiculously out.

I think bad gun fit is often blamed for an inconsistent mount as it’s easier for the shooter to blame the gun rather than his own inconsistencies and more profitable to charge for fitting than say go home and practice your mount. ^_^

 

[hnachaj]

Sorry, but I differ. A proper gunfit that is NOT bent but fitted makes a difference. The shotgun should shoot where one looks. It is as simple as that. Some of my shotguns have no sights. They broke and since we don't look at them, what is the use? Does a soccer palyer look at his foot or the ball. Does the tennis player look at the ball or the racket. Does the cricket palyer look at the bat or the ball? Unoff said, IT needs to fit as most times, you need instinct and not adjustability of one body!

Henry

 

[Will Hewland]

I can see very well where another shooter is aiming. I usually know before they pull the trigger whether or of the clay will break or not. That is awareness of where the barrel is pointed without it even being in my hands. I have seen some very good shooting from the hip, which is another example of not looking perfectly down the rib!

Of course it is best if the gun is a pretty comfortable, easy, aligned fit; but it wont take 10 off your card if it isn't.

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[timps]

Sorry, but I differ. A proper gunfit that is NOT bent but fitted makes a difference. The shotgun should shoot where one looks. It is as simple as that. Some of my shotguns have no sights. They broke and since we don't look at them, what is the use? Does a soccer palyer look at his foot or the ball. Does the tennis player look at the ball or the racket. Does the cricket palyer look at the bat or the ball? Unoff said, IT needs to fit as most times, you need instinct and not adjustability of one body!

Henry

My gun does shoot where I am looking, it’s about consistent mounting so the eye looks down the rib in the same place. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility to badly mount a ‘fitted’ gun. Likewise it is possible to consistently mount a gun that is about right and here is the issue, about right covers a lot of measurements.



As long as you do the same each time you will learn the sight picture, if the gun hurts to shoot or obscures the master eye then that needs to be addressed either by change in mount or altering the gun fit.



I don’t think for one moment my scores would alter at all by going to get my gun ‘fitted’, if I could not hit the instinctive shots with my auto I would agree with you entirely, my only issue with my auto is the weight difference affecting my swing speed due to me being an oath not the fact it is lower in the comb by a couple of mm.



Also to use your analogies, I play tennis and apart from grip size my racket is not fitted, it’s the same size for me as my much shorter tennis coach, nor was my last cricket bat and my football boots were also off the peg.

​I think it's a personal preference rather than a necessity.

timps

 

[Hamster]

I can see very well where another shooter is aiming. I usually know before they pull the trigger whether or of the clay will break or not. That is awareness of where the barrel is pointed without it even being in my hands. I have seen some very good shooting from the hip, which is another example of not looking perfectly down the rib!

Of course it is best if the gun is a pretty comfortable, easy, aligned fit; but it wont take 10 off your card if it isn't.

CSC3

Totally agree.

Of course the gun has to fit Henry, but what I am quite convinced you can't do is take a set of measurements from one gun and transfer it to another in the hope of making both shoot the same, it never seems to work quite that way as it's much more about overall dynamics than just measurements.

Average shots with nice guns that are well fitted by experts miss (way) more than good shots with off the peg Miroku's :wink: .

 

[EdSolomons]

When I get back in tonight and if I remember/work out how I will take a picture of my 2 guns' stocks. The dimensions on my K80 are quite different to those on my 391 pigeon gun. I still manage to hit a few with it though...!

 

[Salopian]

There is a lot of sense being talked on here.

Gunfit as already mentioned is a lot more than a set of dimensions, it is probably far more to do with balance and length.A gun that 'feels' right will often balance between the hands and be practically effortless to mount onto a target.

We have all seen the small boy struggling with a far too long .410, that is about gunfit also.

The petite lady trying to shoot hubby's 12 gauge Trap gun etc.,

Gun fit is about altering a guns dimensions to enable the user to handle the gun comfortably and efficiently, mount onto a target using hand to eye co-ordination and muscle memory, thereby being able to see a relationship between the gun and the target.

'if it don't fit, you'll struggle to hit'

 

[chubby]

VERY

 

[teepee1234]

Being quite inexperienced in all things shooting, I took advice from a gunsmith/stocker whom I trust. I'm quite a large chap and my natural "style" is to shoot with square eyes, not twisted over the stock. This leaves me seeing along the left hand side of the barrels, so I have to be a bit of a contortionist to bend myself round the stock so I'm looking down the rib. It's unnatural for me, so the first step to overcome it was to see if the stock could be adjusted. Not enough, as it turned out. My gun mount is atrocious, so I have to shoot gun up, much like a trapper. Only alternative? Have a stock made, with a lot of cast built in, by a very experienced stocker/shooter/coach, so the gun fits me and my natural style.

I envy those who can just throw a gun to their shoulder and shoot without thought!

 

[teepee1234]

I would add to the above, that even the Nill-Griffe doesn't have enough adjustment for me!

 

[EdSolomons]

I think if you have particularly unusual mesurements then there can be an issue. But I remember a while back when I first set my adjustable comb (many years ago) to how I wanted it; I didnt tighten the pillars up properly and as I progressed round the course the comb was moving over to the side. I didnt notice until the end but it had pushed over as far to the left as it would go (nearly an inch from where it started). As it was a gradual process I obviously adjusted shot to shot without noticing, I won the shoot on something like a 96 so it wasnt vital!

Some of the stuff I read by the self proclaimed experts in magazines makes me vomit on my own shoes. Banging on about spending half a day fitting a gun to a client, probably in the region of £300, making tiny tweaks getting it "perfect". There is no perfect gun fit; there is textbook, but frankly that doesnt really cut the mustard for me. There are people who like to see a lot of rib (I see miles of it), some like it flat, some like it longer/shorter etc.

I know of a couple of guys who claim to be the dogs bollocks at gun fitting but they alter their own guns every 5 minutes looking for perfection and succeed only in wasting their time and shooting worse. Good shooting is simple, but they cant write too many articles or fill a days gun fitting off the back of that so they try and make out it is some sort of in depth scientific black art that takes years to learn about. It isnt, and it doesnt!

 

[Hamster]

If you really want to vomit visit some US forums where they have re-written Newton's Laws to the extent that by fitting a gun sooooooo well, it gets rid of recoil. :???:

 

[EdSolomons]

Magic beans.

 

[Tom]

Interesting.... How much do you want for these beans, Ed?

Cheers,

Tom