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Long guns and the left side of barricade


badchad

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Say you are a right hand shooter and you have to shoot around the left side of a barricade. How far do you have to reach before you would decide to switch your rifle or shotgun to your left shoulder? What other factors would influence your decision to switch and shoot from the weak side?

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That depends on the amount of fire being returned. In a match it might be required and either way it is certainly something you should incorporate into your training just as you do weak hand with your pistol. Matches have been won and lost with the weak hand.

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We had a Shotgun match this past weekend with this same scenario. 5 steel poppers (2yds apart)centered-up at about 10yd's from a classifier-type barricade. You shot 2 runs from each side.

Strong side was simple. Just squat a little to be able to lean out some.......But, weak side was tricky'r. Some shot from there weak shoulder. I elected to grab the edge of the barricade with my left fingers (i'm right-handed) and had my left thumb up (like hitch-hiking) laying the forend in the web of my hand with my thumb wedging the forend into the barricade. I really had to lean out, arching my back, to get the far right steel, which i got on the first shot both runs......Not sure if I would do it again that way. Learning to shoot from weak-side-shoulder can be a real asset in a pinch........

Dan

Edited by D.carden
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Shot the same match with Dan, and actually had a harder time shooting to the right than left.

I rolled my shotgun to 9 o'clock and shot it that way and was able to engage the popper on the far right with zero difficulty.

Rich

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Shot the same match with Dan, and actually had a harder time shooting to the right than left.

I rolled my shotgun to 9 o'clock and shot it that way and was able to engage the popper on the far right with zero difficulty.

Rich

I practice weak shoulder w/ my rifle and shotgun. I would much prefer taking shots off my weak shoulder than fall out of the shooting box trying to lean waaaaayyyyy out there. But, I'm only 5'8" and have little short elfish arms. (well, they're not that short)

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Shot the same match with Dan, and actually had a harder time shooting to the right than left.

I rolled my shotgun to 9 o'clock and shot it that way and was able to engage the popper on the far right with zero difficulty.

Rich

I practice weak shoulder w/ my rifle and shotgun. I would much prefer taking shots off my weak shoulder than fall out of the shooting box trying to lean waaaaayyyyy out there. But, I'm only 5'8" and have little short elfish arms. (well, they're not that short)

Kinda like that guy on the Burger King commercial??? :P

I need to incorperate weak hand shooting into my training also. I saw Bennie Cooley shoot a barricade stage with the rifle this year at DPMS weakhand. Very smooth. :bow:

Chris C.

Edited by Chris Conley
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2004 3gun nationals in reno...really sick shooting position. pistol, then rifle-flashers out to maybe 200. BUT, there was a low wall with side walls. the shooting ports were on each end, maybe 6" wide and 12" high, flat prone. and you had to use both ports. even if you had practiced weak hand, the problem was the side walls-no way you could get into a normal position.

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Yep. The MD re-designed that stage as a result of a class we did together with Cooley (which I'm proud to say that I beat Bennie on his own right/left shoulder drill out to 200 ;)).

I would have gone weak shoulder with the angle was more severe, but it really wasn't. I didn't even have to use the barricade for much more than a pivot point. I will be shooting more strong side barricade rounds in practice.

Rich

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I have watched and have done, the contortion dance while trying to avoid shooting weakshoulder, it is generally not worth the time it takes to make sure you are stable and won't fall over.

If your position is that unstable its better to learn how to shoot from the off shoulder. SG from weakside is really not that difficult.

Trapr

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  • 2 weeks later...

Kyle Lamb's book has a good section on transitions for tactical considerations, but for competition with no PUSB targets, my shooting partner switches to"weak" shoulder, sight with "weak" eye, and use the "strong" hand for trigger control. I don't get enough eye relief with my ACOG so I switch everything to the weak side.

regards

Les

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a small scar on my right forarm, just below the elbow. At the '07 Ironman one stage required shooting around the left side of a barracade with a rifle. I decided to shoot it left handed. While shooting one ejected empty landed, and stayed, on my forearm. At first I thought "Oh, that's a little warm". Fired a couple shots, then thought "Oh, that's getting kinda hot!". But I continued shooting until I thought "Ouch! That sucker burns!". Result: Second degree burn! :o

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  • 3 months later...

It is rare that I would voluntarily transition to my support side during a match although I've practiced support side shooting quite a bit. I have been to matches that did require it. I almost did at Ft. Benning on the pistol-rifle stage which had a such a situation this year but instead I rolled the stock on top of my shoulder and shot the rifle nearly upside down while leaning out to the left, just looking for the hits on the target. (Shooting USA never gets the good footage!) I won that stage so it must have worked ok. I did transition to the left side at the aforementioned stage at the 2004 USPSA 3 gun Nationals.

It is a good skill to have ... as Kyle Lamb says "we don't have a weak side."

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...I almost did at Ft. Benning on the pistol-rifle stage which had a such a situation this year but instead I rolled the stock on top of my shoulder and shot the rifle nearly upside down while leaning out to the left, just looking for the hits on the target. (Shooting USA never gets the good footage!) ...

That's good stuff.

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  • 3 months later...

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