03-18-2019, 03:22 PM
I don't know if this has anything to do with shooting AR's because I'm pretty new to the platform, but I shoot a lot of sporting clays and BPCR, so I'm squarely in the shoulder pocket camp for mitigating recoil, and developing a dead-nutz repeatable mount on the gun. One of the popular training aids for shooting clays is to take the sights/bead off the gun or block it out with tape. Then you adjust the stock to fit the shooter, and blast away at the clay field until scores improve. When you put those sights back on, your eye is much more naturally aligned, and generally stance and mount are improved without any specific coaching. Trying to fit a gun to the shooter or improve a mount with sights still on the gun often leads you down the wrong path because of moving your head to see the sights. It's almost impossible not to! At least that's how it seems to work for high volume snap-shooting at moving targets with a bunch of recoil. For BPCR (black powder cartridge rifle) shooting on the other hand, I also keep the butt deep in my shoulder pocket, but my head and neck are at a funny angle to look through the crazy tall ladder sights. It might be easier to see with the butt more inline with my sternum, but I can't see myself banging through a couple boxes of .45-70 without extensive bruising that way. All that aside, shooting my 24" Grendel AR with a normal A2 style stock in the shoulder pocket feels completely normal to me, but I take a very aggressive forward leaning stance when shooting offhand, similar to shotgunning. It may help to note that I weighted the stock to swing and balance like a good trap gun. So far I like it a lot, your milage may vary.