DA>This brings up a point that I've never heard discussed concerning the
DA>choice of a gun. Everybody talks about the most reliable handgun and
DA>the  most effective ammunition, but I've never heard anyone discuss
DA>the issue  of picking a gun that you can actually hit something with.
My step father used to talk about it.  Hunters talk about it quite a bit
with regards to long guns.
One of the things Don pointed out to me was that with a small(er)
handgun you could do quite well in hasty situations if you got into the
habit of using your middle finger as a trigger finger, and laying the
index finger along the barrel.  You then would point the gun pretty
nearly where you would point your finger, which is a pretty instinctual
action.  Works.  Won't make a master bulls eye blaster of you, but for
snap type shooting, by jove you're in there.
My shotgun and .22 are in a constant state of flux as I try different
configurations with them seeking that perfect fit.  It's become quite
apparent to me that box stock while being workable for the majority,
basically sucks for everybody as well.  Reshaping the back of the stock,
as well as playing with the crown, have done wonders to both guns in
getting them to come up comfortably and quickly to my eye and shoulder.
And of course have substantially improved my ability to hit things with
them.
It wasn't easy finding real information about altering and fitting a
gun.  In these days of liability lawsuits, no one wants to say anything
that could get them sued.  So information about how to change the fit of
a gun is rare.  I found my source in an old book squirreled away at the
University of Maryland of all places.  Written in a completely non-
politically correct manner I might add.
The little .22 rifle required me to do neck contortions to get my head
down to the sights.  Often enough I would just lay the gun on top of my
shoulder so I could sight it.  To make it work I've got a piece of pine
shaped somewhat like a door stop wedge in place of the stock but piece.
This slopes to my shoulder, and also gets the gun up about 2" higher on
my shoulder.  Now the gun comes right up to my eye.  It's not perfect,
and I still can't get the scope quite right, but it's close.  Very
close.
Similar the shotgun.  I made my own replacement stock for it some time
ago, and in the process of playing, it had gotten cut quite short.  So I
extended it back out a bit with another piece of pine.  But that caused
balance problems.  Currently, it's got a door stop wedge of oak hanging
on the back as well.  This is the newest configuration, finished last
night.  And I already see problems.  Oh it gets the gun up right to my
eye, so that's nice.  But I tried using a computer mouse pad as a recoil
pad, it was very dense, so I thought it would work.  Doesn't.  The wood
is too flat and sharp edged.  It digs in when I pull the gun up.  And
the angle is a little to steep actually, so the gun somewhat wants to
slide up my shoulder.
A nice and nasty thing about having the gun up higher is that I now
understand the use of a good crown.  I had a different piece on back
last year that raised the gun as well.  While a good fit crown gets your
eyes lined up beautifully with the barrel it also means you can get one
heck of a crack onto your cheekbone when firing slugs.  I've padded the
crown, but I'm not sure if it's going to help or make it worse.
My latest hours old thought about the shotgun is to pick up a military
type buttplate at the next gun show.  I looked at some during the
winter, but didn't buy one.  Next show I will.  Holding various ones up
against my shoulder several felt nice.  I don't mean all right, I mean
they snuggled right on in there, and would distribute recoil very well.
I've got another wedge of oak waiting.  Meanwhile, I'll probably rip the
mouse pad off the current piece, reshape it a bit to round the edges and
get the fit better, and see how it goes.
I know none of this really had to do with handgun fitting, but I thought
I'd toss it in for conversation and see if others have anything to say
about their own gun fitting experiences regarding long guns as well.
--- InterEcho 1.18
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