Prone The Basics

[Tangram]

I have not shot from prone much so I am really looking for some basic info. When I practice shooting from prone I seem to get lots of pistol bounce up and down after I fire a shot. If it did not take so long to come back on target it would be funny. I tried eliminating springy response by getting my forearms grounded. (I also have a left arm that will not fully straighten that may be part of the problem.)

Suggestions appreciated.

[Jake Di Vita]

I get a good amount of bounce too....use and timer and figure out what your shot to shot splits are while prone. I'll bet they aren't as bad as you think they are.

[BigDave]

Try getting the base of the gun down on the ground. You may/may not get away with this with extended mags. A good portion of Bianchi guys have extended magazine wells, or prone pads, that aid with this.

[BritinUSA]

Are you resting the butt of the gun, or the heel of your hand on the ground ? This should be avoided.

Are you camming your weak hand downwards ? Failure to do this can cause more muzzle-flip than you are used to.

[SRT Driver]

As Big Dave stated, try to make ground contact with the magwell, magazine, or better yet, your hands. Make as much ground contact as possible. The more surface area on the ground..the more stable the position. That is forearms, hands and or pistol.

And get your body as straight as you can.

Ususally, the rocking comes from camming at the elbows or rocking on the magazine. If your hands and forearms make ground contact, it comes up slightly and then right back down and usually the splits are close to your freestyle numbers.

[George]

If you don't use the ground to support the position, no sense getting on the ground. Properly done, prone could/should be as fast as freestyle in recovery. It just won't feel the same.

The absolute worst prone position is flat on your belly with both elbows down and trying to hold the gun off the ground. The best position (for me) has been rolled slightly to my strong side, strong arm extended straight along the ground with the weak hand helping to hold the entire strong arm and heel of gun grounded. This requires a little cant to the right, which brings the sights to my eye anyway.

YMMV, but without full contact with the ground of both my strong arm and the gun, prone never worked for me.

I sorted my prone position out after reading Brians book and realizing what I was doing wrong.

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Regards,