So I was drooling at James D. Julia's upcoming auction and clicked on a picture of a G. Gibbs Creedmoor.
My question is, how does that rear sight work?
You lay on the ground with your feet towards the target.
http://www.lrml.org/technical/technique/backposition.htm
Very odd! I thought you might be the one to provide the answer. Have you ever shot in this style? Looks kind of unsteady.
Lazy olde guys...
I'll bet it's pretty steady and look how long the sight picture is, probably close to 48".
I think the position was designed as a defensive move. These are heavy bullet for there caliber with a powerful powder charge in a rifle that could not exceed 10 pounds. The cartridges were designed to buck the wind at long distances.
I don't think you would want to pull the trigger on this combo many times from a standard prone position. The back position kept the rifle from being so punishing to the shooter.
Scott
Does the back position really reduce recoil? Is it allowed in BPCR? If so why don't I see any BPCR rifles with their sights back on the butt? And if it is not allowed, why not?
That method doesn't reduce recoil but makes it more manageable. During the Creedmoor heydays, there weren't the time constraints that there are today. Two shooters would be at the line at one time, fire their shot and then get up and leave the line, go back to a table and wipe their bores or as the Irish did, just reload their rifles from the muzzle. You can still use the back position in the LR BPCR matches but I've only seen it done once and he only got off about 11 or 12 of his fifteen rounds in the alotted time. Most of us are getting too old to even get in that position anymore. :>)
It is actually pretty steady - probably the most steady position as allowed by the rules then: no artificial rests or aids allowed (read no Xsticks, wrist rests, even no slings...). That, and the recoil of about 90grs of BP behind a 550gr bullet in a 10 pound rifle. Most of the felt recoil in the prone position is from the comb of the buttstock hitting your cheek, which is completely avoided here. I did try it once with a .22 BSA 12/15 and yes, it defintely can be made to work indeed.
Nowadays, with wrist rests etc being allowed for prone shooting, there is no advantage anymore to the supine position.
OTOH, if you go to Bisley, Stickledown range, you might just see some people still shooting the position, even using Galilean sights - very special!
Does the longer sight picture have an practical advantage?
Of secondary importance, but yes - a longer sight radius will allow more accurate aiming (less aiming error), and as every bit helps in LR rifle shooting....
It was THE position used by the competition winners (and most others too, I might add) in BP LR target rifle - and it was actually popularized by the US shooters beating the Irish at Creedmoor at that famous match in 1874, even though it had been in use before... The popularity of the supine position grow rapidly after that. There were several variants of it, BTW - even 1 to suit wrist-mounted tang sights.
It is presently still allowed (and used by a few) for the Brit LR competitions, but only at long range. I presume the feeling is that at short range it would confer an unfair advantage to the shooter because of the added stability and longer sight radius.