Shooting Prone with a sling, a fading art

[stokesrj]

I'll sell you this one if you want, as soon as I beat Tom Zeel, believe it or not he still beat me in this match with a 500-45X.
Bob

[bwaites]

WOW!! How close were you?

[bwaites]

And I'm up for it, when you win! Do you still have the build pictures that you posted on the old site? Those would be nice to have back up here!

[stokesrj]

And I'm up for it, when you win! Do you still have the build pictures that you posted on the old site? Those would be nice to have back up here!

Yes I do, but I shot those raw so they are huge, I'll have to go through and resize them to fit on a share site. Should I post them here or is there a more appropriate forum?

Bob

[stokesrj]

WOW!! How close were you?

I still have a ways to go Tom was 45X again and I was 34X, I had trouble getting everything to settle down in my position. My hold was bigger than X ring with pulse alone to begin with and then it began to settle on the third string. The 100-10X was the fourth sting and then I fell apart again for the fifth string.
Bob

[bwaites]

That's impressive, Tom must be an incredible shooter!

Once you get the pics ready, create a new thread in the Build it yourself and Custom Builds thread.

I look forward to it.

[independentrider1]

I originally learned to shoot the three positions (prone, Standing and Kneeling) plus sitting while shooting on my high school rifle team. This is the same time and place I learned to use a sling properly. Two years ago I shot my first appleseed. (http://www.appleseedinfo.org) Which once again I found myself using a sling. I have a leather cuff sling that I prefer but the thing about appleseed is they teach you to properly use any kind, be it Hasty or cuff style. If you are looking to learn to use a sling I cannot recommend a appleseed course enough. I am not a appleseed spokesman or anything I just like to see people utilize a great tool that is out there.

[LRRPF52]

Bob,

It looks like the front sight and post on your AR in the picture has been blackened pretty well. Was that on the 100yd line?

[stokesrj]

The pic of me in position is at the River Bend Rifle and Pistol Club 600 yard range in north Georgia. And yes, the front sight is smoked with a Ray Vin carbide smoker. The target was shot at a 100 yard range with my 6.5 Grendel any/any rifle.
I made my goal yesterday beating Tom with a score of 500-34X. I didn't have any 100-10x strings but it was cold and windy and I handled the conditions better than he did. I'm a happy camper now.
Bob

[Bedford]

The Appleseed classes are a great way to learn not only the loop and hasty slings, but also: proper standing, sitting, kneeling and prone positions.
Inches, Minutes Clicks = learn to translate the "Love languages" spoken between the target and your rifle.
The six steps to firing an accurate shot.
Rapid mag changes.
Target detection, range and wind speed estimation, along with the sight corrections that will be needed.
Rifleman's dance, rifleman's bubble, plus lots of drills to practice. It only costs $75 for the 2 days.

And, of more importance, you will be presented with the history of our heritage as a nation of riflemen, and learn some skills to pass on that heritage to the next generation so that the torch of Liberty will not die on our watch.

Its very family friendly. You will meet a lot of great people (like me! ) and have a great time.

[OLd Man]

I have used this on my hunting rifles and as of now not tried it on my AR, but I love it. http://www.usgalco.com/HolsterP3.asp?Pro...alogID=361

This would probably be a better hunting than target sling, but Im not sure of that either.

[Von Gruff]

That look like a very good hunting sling - carry strap. I would think it makes a better straingt back pull than the hasty sling could do. It can have a tendency to twist the toe of the butt sideways a bit.

Von Gruff.

[Shots]

Thank you Bob for all the good information, and all the links to the goodies... Jim

[BjornF16]

I have used this on my hunting rifles and as of now not tried it on my AR, but I love it. http://www.usgalco.com/HolsterP3.asp?Pro...alogID=361

This would probably be a better hunting than target sling, but Im not sure of that either.

OLd Man

Does that sling have the 3 swivel point attachments or just 2?...the original Ching Sling required a third swivel just forward of the bottom metal.

[Flyguy11]

Learned to shoot with a sling in the USMC myself.

[FilippoMo]

I just thought I would share some thoughts on this subject as it seems to me that the sling is nearly a thing of the past.
I've been working on developing my prone skills using a 6.5 Grendel that I built a couple of years ago using a Panda action, McMillan prone stock, and Krieger barrel.
The gun and loads will consistently shoot in the teens from a bench so I know without doubt, any shots out of the X ring are mine.

As I've developed these skills and had the privilege of shooting along side some much more capable riflemen, it occurred to me than most rifle men don't even get a chance to see or understand the capability that a simple piece of cow hide can bring to the party. Of course that piece of cow hide alone does little but when combined with a solid understanding of how to build a position a whole new world of accuracy can be entered.

Yesterday I went to the range to compete in our monthly any/any prone match. This match is shot on the MR-31 target which is the 600 yard MR target scaled for use at 100 yards. It is actually a little tougher than the full size 600 yard target because the scoring rings are further reduced by half the diameter of a .308 bullet The national records reflect this accordingly, The record for the full 600 yards is 200-19X and for the 100 yard reduced it is 200-18X.

Anyway, I arrived for the match only to discover that I was a week ahead of schedule, the match is next week. So, I made the best of it and shot a practice match, a 50 shot match with unlimited sighters followed by a ten shot stage and then two 20 shot stages without additional sighters. The 20 shot stages are actually two ten shot stages shot on two targets, ten shots each. My scores were 100-8X, 100-8X, 100-8X, 100-8X and 100-9X for an aggregate of 500-41X. Occasionally this would be good enough to win the match but usually it takes 500-44 or 45X.

The interesting thing is that last string of ten shots found me with 9 shots and 9X's, all I had to do is break one more shot in the X to shoot my first ever 100-10X but you already know how that went.

Would you please share your loading practice and data
thanks
Filippo

[diddlyv]

Back in the day it was offhand,prone, prone supported, sitting, kneeling, kneeling supported, and foxhole supported.

[gmar]

The Appleseed classes are a great way to learn not only the loop and hasty slings, but also: proper standing, sitting, kneeling and prone positions.
Inches, Minutes Clicks = learn to translate the "Love languages" spoken between the target and your rifle.
The six steps to firing an accurate shot.
Rapid mag changes.
Target detection, range and wind speed estimation, along with the sight corrections that will be needed.
Rifleman's dance, rifleman's bubble, plus lots of drills to practice. It only costs $75 for the 2 days.

And, of more importance, you will be presented with the history of our heritage as a nation of riflemen, and learn some skills to pass on that heritage to the next generation so that the torch of Liberty will not die on our watch.

Its very family friendly. You will meet a lot of great people (like me! ) and have a great time.

What he said!!!!

I attended my first Appleseed Project a few weeks ago and it was awesome. Even as an experienced shooter, I learned a lot during the course!

https://appleseedinfo.org