Shooting prone with iron sights

[moroza]

I shot my new M72 RPK for the first time today, and had a hard time with the geometries of everything. I'm not used to shooting prone, but this heavy-barreled beast with a bipod doesn't lend itself to being supported by arms alone. My problems are two:

1. if I put the stock into my pectoral like normal, only its upper corner touches, causing it to dig in. The saving grace here is that recoil is quite mild, but it still feels unstable and uncomfortable. I have the same problem with my Mosin - whose recoil is not mild, and whose buttplate is steel - and almost never shoot it prone because it's actually painful, and unergonomic to the point of worse accuracy than crouching or even standing.

2. Most guides to shooting prone assume a scope. I'm using iron sights. Without eye protection, it takes a lot of effort and blocking out most of my field of view to line up the sights when prone. With eye protection, it's impossible. Now, I know my SVD stock isn't helping matters, as it sits higher and has no tilt... but then how the hell does one shoot an SVD prone with iron sights?

Things got a lot better when I got behind an embankment and had perhaps 20 degrees between my body and line of fire, compared to flat ground. But I feel I should be able to shoot totally flat, ideally with eye protection, and not rely on tracers, luck, or just plain spamming bullets to hit my target. Any ideas?

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[No_Regerts]

I keep telling people that communism doesn't work.

 

[titsonritz]

2. Most guides to shooting prone assume a scope. I'm using iron sights. Without eye protection, it takes a lot of effort and blocking out most of my field of view to line up the sights when prone. With eye protection, it's impossible. Now, I know my SVD stock isn't helping matters, as it sits higher and has no tilt... but then how the hell does one shoot an SVD prone with iron sights?

 

[Stomper]

I keep telling people that communism doesn't work.

Why should it when you get paid just the same not to?

 

[No_Regerts]

Why should it when you get paid just the same not to?

 

[American123]

I shot my new M72 RPK for the first time today, and had a hard time with the geometries of everything. I'm not used to shooting prone, but this heavy-barreled beast with a bipod doesn't lend itself to being supported by arms alone. My problems are two:

1. if I put the stock into my pectoral like normal, only its upper corner touches, causing it to dig in. The saving grace here is that recoil is quite mild, but it still feels unstable and uncomfortable. I have the same problem with my Mosin - whose recoil is not mild, and whose buttplate is steel - and almost never shoot it prone because it's actually painful, and unergonomic to the point of worse accuracy than crouching or even standing.

2. Most guides to shooting prone assume a scope. I'm using iron sights. Without eye protection, it takes a lot of effort and blocking out most of my field of view to line up the sights when prone. With eye protection, it's impossible. Now, I know my SVD stock isn't helping matters, as it sits higher and has no tilt... but then how the hell does one shoot an SVD prone with iron sights?

Things got a lot better when I got behind an embankment and had perhaps 20 degrees between my body and line of fire, compared to flat ground. But I feel I should be able to shoot totally flat, ideally with eye protection, and not rely on tracers, luck, or just plain spamming bullets to hit my target. Any ideas?

It doesn't matter what gun you are shooting, generally the way it rests on you when prone will be different than when standing or sitting at a bench. You're changing the position of your body and making it different compared to the rifle, how it feels/aligns with your body is going to be inherently different.

I run into a similar issue when wearing a plate carrier vs not. I naturally like to have the stock more on my chest, but with a plate carrier that doesn't work as well and I have to put it more on my shoulder. You just have to figure out what will work for you and your body at the position it is in when shooting.