Standing, kneeling, prone: air rifle positions and technique

• Build the position so the rifle points at the target when you relax. To aim, move your body; never force the rifle.
• Let bone and the sling carry the weight, not muscle.
• Fire in a short pause after breathing out.
• Press the trigger straight back, and keep aiming after the shot.

Left and right are for a right-handed shooter; left-handers reverse them.

Kneeling, lying down and getting up with a rifle is when a muzzle wanders. The NSRA’s range rules: treat every gun as loaded, never point one at anyone, and keep it pointing downrange, also while you load and unload. In ISSF competition, a gun on the firing point must always point in a safe direction (ISSF Rule Book 6.2.2.3). The CMP’s junior rules add the trigger finger: keep it off the trigger until you have shouldered the rifle and begun to aim, and outside the trigger guard while you load and lift it into position (CMP 3PAR Rules, Safety Rule 4).

• Before you put the rifle down or get up, open the action (cocking lever or loading port) and put in a safety flag; if it is still loaded, ask the range officer first (ISSF Rule Book 6.2.2.4, 6.2.2.6, 6.2.3.6; CMP 3PAR Rules, Safety Rule 3).
• Before you lie down or kneel, lay the rifle beside your firing point, pointing at the target; the course material of Svenska Skyttesportförbundet (SvSF) lays it to the right for prone and kneeling.
• Turn your body around the rifle, not the rifle around you.
• When the range officer says “Stop”, stop at once.

Your natural point of aim is where the rifle points when you are in position and completely relaxed. Target Rifle Australia (TRA) defines it so in its coaching notes, and says it is highly unlikely to be the centre when you first settle. Shuffling feet, hips or elbow until the rifle points there takes more patience than holding it there with muscle, TRA says, but gives much more accurate results; force brings inconsistent shots, tremor and fatigue.

SvSF’s checklist tests it by aiming with your eyes closed, then opening them to look through the rear sight. If the aim is off the target, correct the position and start again.

The CMP’s coaching booklet rotates the whole position around its pivot: the left elbow in prone, the right heel and kneeling roll in kneeling. Height comes from the left hand; in standing, beginners set only the height at first.

Finding and checking it, for pistol and rifle, is in Natural point of aim.

The CMP’s booklet lists a left arm that is not relaxed onto the side or hip as a common mistake in standing, because the rifle is then held by muscle instead of bone. In kneeling and prone the sling takes over, tightened only once the position is built, until it carries the whole rifle.

A test, with your finger off the trigger: hold your aim, then let go of every muscle you can feel. Whatever moves was being held by muscle.

ISSF 10 m air rifle is shot standing, which the NSRA calls the most demanding position: it uses more muscles to keep the body still. What the ISSF rule allows:

Free standing

The athlete must stand free, without any artificial or other support.ISSF Rule Book 7.6.1.3 a

Support arm

The left upper arm and elbow may be supported on the chest or on the hip.ISSF Rule Book 7.6.1.3 e

No sling

No sling in standing, and in 10 m air rifle no palm rest or hand stop.ISSF Rule Book 7.6.1.3 g–i

The elbow on the hip is allowed, not required; the CMP’s junior rules say the same (CMP 3PAR Rules 5.1.3 e). The CMP’s booklet builds the position in six steps:

1. Turn 90 to 100 degrees away from the target, left side towards it.
2. Shoulder the rifle with a straight left wrist, and drop the left arm onto your side or hip.
3. Bring the left elbow and hip directly under the rifle.
4. Set the butt-plate so that your head stays nearly upright on the cheek-piece.
5. Relax the left shoulder and arm, and balance your weight over both feet.
6. If the sights point high or low, change the hand under the rifle: a closed fist, or the rifle between thumb and first knuckle, works for most shooters, the CMP says.

Once your feet are in place, the CMP teaches beginners not to move them until the exercise is done, and to check before every shot: butt-plate in the same place, elbow under the rifle, arm relaxed, weight balanced.

Kneeling belongs to three-position shooting, a 50 m and 300 m event in the ISSF programme; prone is also shot on its own at both distances. In the United States, air rifle shooters meet kneeling in the CMP’s junior three-position air rifle, which has a sporter and a precision class; sporter is shot without shooting jackets or special trousers, with a simple sling allowed in kneeling and prone (CMP 3PAR Rules 4.3.1 c and 4.3.3).

The CMP’s booklet calls kneeling the most complicated position and teaches it last:

1. Turn the kneeling roll 40 to 60 degrees from the target, and kneel with the right ankle on it, heel upright.
2. Sit back with your weight on the heel, and place the left foot so the lower leg is vertical.
3. With the sling long and loose, shoulder the rifle and let the left elbow drop onto the knee or leg, butt-plate high enough to keep your head up.
4. Bring the sights to target level with the left hand, then tighten the sling until it carries the rifle.
5. Rotate the whole position over the right heel until the sights point at your target.

Elbow on the knee

The left elbow must be supported on the left knee, its point no more than 100 mm over or 150 mm behind the point of the knee.ISSF Rule Book 7.6.1.1 d–e; CMP 3PAR Rules 5.1.1 c–d

Keep little or no weight on the right knee, the CMP adds, and do not sit bolt upright: let the shoulders sink.

The CMP teaches prone before kneeling, as the better place to learn the sling. Its booklet’s steps:

1. Lay the mat at 25 to 30 degrees to the line of fire, and put the sling on high on the left arm, long and loose.
2. Lie down with the left elbow under an imaginary line from your left foot to your left hand.
3. Set the butt-plate high so that your head stays up, and slide the left hand to bring the sights to target level.
4. Only then tighten the sling, until it supports the rifle.
5. Rotate the position on the left elbow until the sights point at your target, lifting your body with your legs.

Rifle support

Both hands, one shoulder and a sling on the fore-end; the rifle may rest on nothing else.ISSF Rule Book 7.6.1.2 d, f, h

Forearms

Both forearms visibly raised from the firing point, the sling forearm at least 30 degrees from the horizontal.ISSF Rule Book 7.6.1.2 i–j

Breathing moves the rifle, so the shot goes in a pause after you breathe out. SvSF explains why: with full lungs it is hard to relax. TRA says to stop at the natural end of the breath out, without forcing the lungs empty.

How long differs: ideally no more than 10 seconds for the NSRA, 4 to 8 for TRA, and about 10 to 15 seconds of fine aiming for SvSF. If the shot has not gone by then, start again, SvSF and TRA say. Lower the rifle, muzzle downrange, and take a few normal breaths, as the NSRA advises between shots.

More on the pause, for pistol too, is in Breathing when shooting.

A two-stage trigger, one of the two kinds TRA describes, has a lighter first movement before the release. SvSF’s course has you take up that first stage and do the fine aiming there.

Then press straight back. Any other force moves the rifle off the aim, SvSF teaches, so keep the movement small and in the index finger alone, with the same grip and the trigger on the same place on the finger every shot. At its best the release comes by itself.

The press itself, and what goes wrong with it, is in Trigger control.

Keep aiming after the shot: 1 to 3 seconds for the NSRA, so that you do not disturb the aim before the pellet has left the rifle; about two seconds for TRA; a second or so for SvSF, with the breath still held.

Use those seconds to read the sight picture as the shot breaks, SvSF says, and work out where it should be before you look. TRA adds a check: the aim should settle back on the centre, and if it settles elsewhere, your natural point of aim was off.

Calling the shot, and checking the call against the card, is in Follow-through.

Change one thing at a time, then test and analyse it with your coach, as TRA advises. A tight group off the centre is a job for the sights; a wide or stretched one, for the position or the shot. Reading your shot groups goes through the shapes, and Training at home covers dry firing.

With Pro, Shooter keeps each scanned card, so the evening you changed your stance sits in your log next to the ones before. What that says about your technique is for you and your coach to read.