K-31 at garand match

[DaveN]

We had mostly Garands, a Carbine, 2 ARs and the lone bolt a K-31 at My first match in 10 years. Half shot while the other half did scoring duty behind the berm at 200yds on the 600yrd course,( a first class operation) so I didn't get to see him shoot. I was scoring target #4 and this guy was good,9s and 10s though his rapid fire was slow. When free hand came he shot 5 and 6s? I know free hand is the hardest but this seemed way off. Later I learned I was scoring the K-31. Is it a harder rifle to shoot free hand.

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[gunner]

No Dave,

in my opinion it isnt harder to shoot than other rifles. Sometimes it is a different in the aiming between prone and standing off hand and sometimes the shooter isn´t that good at off hand than he is at prone position or his muscles were tired.

[Latigo]

Gunner, maybe the guy used his sling differently shooting offhand. Or maybe no sling used for prone and then he braced with the sling for offhand. That would make a definite difference.

Latigo

[gunner]

You´re right Latigo! Many shooters don´t know how much influence the use or the incorrect use of a sling has on their results. Interesting is that the way the sling swivel is fixed to the barrel band has a lot of influence too. The sidewards mounted sling swivel leeds to more troubles like the ones that are fixed to the underside of the barrel. For that i dont shoot my LE´s with the sling.

[DaveN]

Honestly I never even saw the rifle. We were not aloud to use the sling in the off hand, and I know I was tired when I got to the off hand and the last 4 shots,well I just wanted over. today my muscles that I thought I had lost.....well "their back" so your points are as usual right on the mark. I dropped 30% in the offhand myself with 1 dropped shot in the middle.
The film on M1 Garand forum Marksmanship with the M1 Garand (1942) helped me a great deal and the officer said you would discover muscles you never had. If you haven't watched itI think it could help with most any rifle not just the Garand.

[gunner]

Thanks for the advice on the film, Dave!

[Patrick Chadwick]

and this guy was good,9s and 10s though his rapid fire was slow. When free hand came he shot 5 and 6s?

Sounds a bit like me. PDG prone - useless standing up - I just press the trigger when the target wobbles past. Sometimes it lands in the black. I took up shooting because it was the only sport where one could get great results lying down - why make it more difficult?

Patrick

[jmoore]

I can shoot OK standing IF I do it all the time, which hasn't been the case lately!

M1's and M14's are easiest to keep all in the black, but the AR does better until I pitch one WAY out. K31's are hopeless in my case as I operate the bolt w/ the left hand-awkward reach and primary extraction are bad, plus I gotta dodge my fist, so lots of head movement. Sights on the K31 aren't bad, though. L-Es and Mausers aren't a problem, Mosins require a bit of struggle to reach farther forward.