Benchrest bruising my... Elbow!?

[smdub]

Want to hap baker this wknd and shot the M1A for the first time. Holy cow, what a kick Now I don't shoot benchrest a lot but something happened thats never happened before. That thing kicks so much that my right elbow bruised badly after ~2 mags. It was just getting driven back against a board seam or something. I started to raise my rt elbow off the table but the damage was done. Plus that felt awkward as heck. Im a fairly tall & boney guy but does this happen to anyone else? Seems like I need to wear a volleyball elbow pad

No problem w/ the LR-308 afterwards. Its a pussycat in comparison and the different grip angle puts the meat of my forearm on the table vs that that little pointy elbow bone.

 

[Boom Boom]

Time to man up!

Seriously, though, either get an elbow pad or a decent benchtop pad to rest your elbow on.

 

[boatbod]

Aww c'mon an M1A is a battle rifle - it was never designed to be fired from a bench!

 

[smdub]

Aww c'mon an M1A is a battle rifle - it was never designed to be fired from a bench!

Agreed. But can't do it any other way @ hap baker. I'd much rather shoot it sitting as the metal buttplate isn't friendly to collar bones either (I'm 6'2 and have to stoop a bit on the bench to 'shoulder' it) but I can handle that. Though shooting it full prone might be another story. The elbow thing just killed me. Its still bruised from Sat. Just have never had that happen and was like WTH!

Hadn't though about putting a pad down on the bench. Will pack one in the range bag.

Was a lot of fun while it lasted. The guy beside me had a fiberglass stocked M1A w/ a red dot. He was hitting the targets @ 200yds pretty well. My first 20rd mag was mostly sighting it in and and by the second mag I worked out to 100yds on the irons. Gave up by the end of that mag before I could try 200 and just pulled the LR308 out (which is also fairly new and had some new goodies I wanted to try out.)

 

[lee2]

take a towel with you , fold it a couple of times and put it under your elbow.

 

[boatbod]

Agreed. But can't do it any other way @ hap baker. I'd much rather shoot it sitting as the metal buttplate isn't friendly to collar bones either (I'm 6'2 and have to stoop a bit on the bench to 'shoulder' it) but I can handle that. Though shooting it full prone might be another story. The elbow thing just killed me. Its still bruised from Sat. Just have never had that happen and was like WTH!

Ah, I see. We're spoiled here on the shore where most anything goes.

 

[Sundazes]

take a towel with you , fold it a couple of times and put it under your elbow.

I keep a small piece of carpet in my range bag for the elbow. It also serves well to set a nice handgun down on to keep it from getting scratched up.

 

[frdfandc]

Put your purse under your elbow next time...........




I keeeeed, I keeeeed.............

 

[mopar92]

A nice rubber mat works well. I've got one you can have. Also you can shoot upside down at Hap if you wanted. Muzzle forward of red box and you can go prone offhand and kneeling/sitting.

 

[-Z/28-]

Agreed. But can't do it any other way @ hap baker.

If you ask the RO, sometimes they'll let you shoot standing or prone at Hap. Muzzle has to stay in front of the red line. It may depend how busy they are and which ROs are there, but I've fired from different positions there before.

 

[Lou45]

Aww c'mon an M1A is a battle rifle - it was never designed to be fired from a bench!

A nice rubber mat works well. I've got one you can have. Also you can shoot upside down at Hap if you wanted. Muzzle forward of red box and you can go prone offhand and kneeling/sitting.

If you ask the RO, sometimes they'll let you shoot standing or prone at Hap. Muzzle has to stay in front of the red line. It may depend how busy they are and which ROs are there, but I've fired from different positions there before.

Bench shootin' sucks. Get with the program and start position shootin'. How many times does one get the opportunity to shoot from the bench in the woods or field when huntin'??? Bench shootin' is the worse position for transmitting perceived recoil to the operator.

 

[lx1x]

I typically have a small towel under my elbow.