doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Surprise gun fitting results

One of the downsides of fittings are that more often than not you come away with a surprise, usually a longer LOP than you would have thought. And then, the other surprise that no gun out there will fit you.

You cannot take fitted dimensions as law. 2mm difference between rifle and shotgun stock dimensions??? Would you really even notice that?

Length of pull also has to remain flexible depending on what the gun is going to be used for and what time of year. Are you going to be hunting in a heavy coat? How were you fitted? In a light shirt. Clothing can have a big effect on LOP as I am sure you well know.

A few years ago I met Chris Batha at the Vintagers in Maryland. He did a dry fitting with a lazer in the bbl of his o/u try gun.

He asked what I was buying and what is the intended use. I answered "A model 21 from CSMC for high pheasants from a tower."

The gun arrived with LM & MOD chokes as ordered. At the next shoot a fellow two pegs away said loudly "Hey Crowley Don,t you ever miss?
danc

I've been saying that for years, Mike. My term would be "reach to butt"(lol), and a corresponding "reach to trigger" also.

Thanks for your analysis, I think it is correct. I need to measure DAE on both guns. What puzzles me is, with the dimension difference between the two guns, why I'm not seeing a little more rib on the Blaser when I mount it. But if the DAE is the same or very close, that would explain it.

I would like to meet the fellow who was fitted for my two 15 3/4" Evans sidelocks in 1911.

You would not like to see him now in person would you Eightbore? He is long gone. True he must have been a tall or lanky fellow but not that rare. I had three great grandfathers who were each over 6' 4", one who was near 6'7" or 6'8". Shame we got shorter as time went, while others got taller.

Jon: you have any kin who shot around KC?



BTW" 'crawling the stock' is a compensatory mechanism for lotsa drop, or a long stock, and contrary to the 'head up' mythology is how most of the turn-of-the-century gunners mounted their 3 1/8" DAH doubles
https://docs.google.com/a/damascusknowle...Z3d3Eno/preview

Dr. John Truitt at the 2013 Smith vs. Parker Hammergun Challenge



Jessica Rossi - Italy, London 2012 Olympic Gold, Women's Trap with record 99x100



Gibben Miles, FITASC World Championship 2012 and Nad Al Sheba Shooting Championship in Dubai 2014 winning $140,000. Gibben is tall, muscular and with long arms

Stock crawling is a style of shooting that is used by more than a few high average competitive shooters. It was my style until I started using crossover guns.

Might have had the same fitter as I had. I'm 6'2" and was fit at 15&5/8".....way too long for anything but pre-mounting on a warm day. My favorite game gun is 14&3/4", high comb and heel and I shoot it quite well. In cold weather getting that 15+ inch stock to my should was nearly impossible. Much happier now.

On most 14-1/4" guns I shoot I see about the forward third of the barrel and I typically float the bird above the bead to compensate for a high shooting gun. I took a factory stocked left handed Merkel 8 from the rack and tried it. It is hard to measure its cast on dimensions, as it has a cheekpiece and a little monte carlo. But I look straight down the rib on this gun. This gun measures 1.5 X 2.25 X 14.6". Unlike many of my using guns, I see about the front one-fourth of the barrels when I mount the gun. I first shot the gun at 20 yards. I actually closed my eyes and mounted the gun, then without changing the cheek position, placed the bead on the target to fire. Both barrels, with very tight chokes, pattern the shot completely above the point of aim. So I then added a 1/2" slip on pad to lenghten the LOP to 15.1". Repeating the same procedure at 20 yards, the pattern was lowered about 12 inches to place it completely below the point of aim. This is to be expected. It is only geometry, after all. Nevertheless it is a dramatic effect. So with the lower dimensions the fitter measured, I should look straight down the rib with only the bead and the muzzles visible. If I need to adjust the vertical positioning of the pattern, I can raise it by shortening the stock. The guns ordered will come with removable wooden buttplates which will facilitate LOP adjustment if the fitting isn't perfect. I found two more guns in the racks with 15-1/4" and 16" LOP, respectively. Now I'll have to try those to see what happens.

Gun fit is something that is really hard to evaluate yourself. This is because there is a natural tendency to adjust yourself to fit the gun, treating the rib as a sight. You obviously understand this and have the right idea in closing eyes and mounting the gun - but I do feel that an experienced gun fitter is really needed to make sure you are mounting consistently - particularly being consistent between the mount used at the stationary pattern plate and on real moving targets.

A fitting session I had involved shooting about 50 clays, various shots, under the fitter's supervision/observation - no instruction, just the fitter observing how I mounted, swung, looked and shot etc.

We then moved to the pattern plate where I mounted and shot instinctively at the mark on the plate - with the fitter checking I was behaving like I did at moving targets and hadn't started using the rib like a rifle sight - and so using a slightly different technique in mounting the gun.

For normal shotgun shooting, the eyes should be watching the target all the time and the mounting of the gun should be instinctive, consistent and the swing and motion of the gun should develop as part of the mounting process. In theory when the mount is complete - the properly fitted gun will be correctly aligned at the instant the mount is completed.

The shooter shouldn't really 'see' the gun consciously at all.

Its all very hard indeed to do oneself.