Do you use an adjustable cheekpiece on your rifle?

[apache sniper]

Well thank you sir! I grew up having to "make do" up in the mountains and in the Nevada desert both dad and grandpa were the same same. I will be putting it up for sale as soon as I have determined just how small the increments can be. It won't be long. We are finishing the second prototype now.

 

[apache sniper]

its plastic ;-{ but it does have a full length bedding block ;-}

Can you determine the hole size? and can you show a pic? Oftentimes one can get a plug from the factory and if not, I can cut you two pieces as long as the hole size is standard. From there a small spray can of finish and you won't be able to see there was ever a hole there. For wood stocks you have to match the grain as close a s possible cut them tapered about 5/16ths thick and put a good quality wood glue lightly on the bottom of the taper and GENTLY TAP THEM IN then you simply refinish and all is well. I've done it several times with wood and once with a plastic for a friend.

 

[1Hunter]

Well thank you sir! I grew up having to "make do" up in the mountains and in the Nevada desert both dad and grandpa were the same same. I will be putting it up for sale as soon as I have determined just how small the increments can be. It won't be long. We are finishing the second prototype now.

Yes Sir, I can appreciate the difficulties in shopping for gun parts and other supplies.
I live in Central Oregon's High desert. 72 mile round trip to Bend and then there is
no guarantee you will find what you are looking for. I buy some on the internet
but shipping costs are a consideration. My son is a sporting goods store owner
and the hard to find stuff is his forte. But even he has to search diligently for some things. Well, back to the adjustable cheekpiece.

 

[McMillan]

I know I am late to the party, and there have been pages of responses to the question. If someone has covered the material I am about to offer, I apologize in advance, I have not read every post in the thread.

From personal experience, I will from now on carry a rifle that has an adjustable cheek piece when I anticipate shooting long range. There are two very important issues that made me reach this decision.

1) 20 MOA Picatiny scope base rail, coupled with a 56 MM objective lens on the scope I prefer. This combination makes even the highest comb on a convention hunting rifle too low to maintain a good cheek weld when in a less than perfect shooting position.

2) Physical stress and fatigue cost me a very nice 300 plus bull Elk, and I don't want to miss another shot because I couldn't maintain a comfortable and relaxed position.

We were filming my elk hunt in Arizona last fall. I was shooting a McMillan EOL Outdoorsman in .338 Lapua. The Elk was 840 yards across a canyon and was a great trophy. I had a slight incline, took a position over my backpack and got ready for the shot. As I settled in Bob said "You can't shoot yet, we don't have enough light." The sun was directly behind the mountain where the elk stood and the closer it got to peaking or the ridge the more critical my eye relief became. Because I was not able to get a good cheek weld and still see through the scope because of the position I was in, I started to get fatigued. I was up on my elbows, my neck was tiring from holding my big noggin up and by the time the light was adequate I was trembling in my upper body. As a result I was frustrated that with just the slightest movement the field of view went completely gold and I wasn't having much luck controlling my body, I pulled the shot and sent the 300 gr Berger right under the elks nose. Because the sun rose over the ridge within 20 of the shot, I never saw the elk through my scope again and though he stayed put, I never got another shot.

I honestly believe that had I had and adjustable cheek piece and been able to rest my cheek as well as my head on the rifle, I would not have tired so quickly and would not have had the issue of roaming in and out of the field of view as a result. I am pretty confident I would have made that shot had I had an adjustable cheek piece on the rifles stock .

 

[1Hunter]

The reason to use an adjustable cheekpiece doesn't get any better
than your reply.

I shoot once a week at our range with targets out to 1K yards.
usually 40 to 60 rounds. I use an adjustable cheekpiece on my
rifle. The rifle has a 30 mil base and rings, with 10 x 40 x 50
scope.
Shooting with the cheekpiece, the cheek weld and line of sight
are comfortable and relaxed.

 

[McMillan]

To finish the story, we found another good bull a few minutes later on a different part of the canyon. This one was at 780 yards and not in direct line with the sun. And though my position wasn't ideal and just prior to get reading to get down on the rifle, I turned quickly to get my backpack from behind me and ran a dead tree branch into the eyelid of my right eye. Fortunately by eye was not hurt and my vision was clear, but blood was running down my face as it cut the eye lid from corner to corner. Just lucky I apparently had my eye closed at the time.

I got down on the rifle with blood running down all over the stock. I didn't want to wipe the blood away for fear I would get it in my eye and since I shoot right handed and use the right eye it would have been a mess. In any case I made the shot, on camera and the bull fell right where he was standing. Immediately after the shot I stood up and explained on camera that I did not get scope bit, but rather it was a tree limb that got me. We really did have a great time.

If you would like to see what Elk hunting in Arizona Unit 22 south is like watch the episode either on Extreme Outer Limits TV Dec 26th or a week later when Len posts it here on LRH website.

 

[1Hunter]

To finish the story, we found another good bull a few minutes later on a different part of the canyon. This one was at 780 yards and not in direct line with the sun. And though my position wasn't ideal and just prior to get reading to get down on the rifle, I turned quickly to get my backpack from behind me and ran a dead tree branch into the eyelid of my right eye. Fortunately by eye was not hurt and my vision was clear, but blood was running down my face as it cut the eye lid from corner to corner. Just lucky I apparently had my eye closed at the time.

I got down on the rifle with blood running down all over the stock. I didn't want to wipe the blood away for fear I would get it in my eye and since I shoot right handed and use the right eye it would have been a mess. In any case I made the shot, on camera and the bull fell right where he was standing. Immediately after the shot I stood up and explained on camera that I did not get scope bit, but rather it was a tree limb that got me. We really did have a great time.

If you would like to see what Elk hunting in Arizona Unit 22 south is like watch the episode either on Extreme Outer Limits TV Dec 26th or a week later when Len posts it here on LRH website.

Wow! I have heard a few hunting stories in my 80 years, but this one is a classic.
Nice Bull to boot. Looks like a 6x6.

I hope to run into one next week. We had a freeze last night so, they should be talking loud and clear,

 

[SidecarFlip]

Sidecar your right there not the best looking guns but they do the job great ;-)

Savages, in general, seem to take very little fiddling with to get them to produce tight groups, considering the price of admission, they are quite a bargain IMO.

I've alwayd liked nicely engraved receivers, fine checkering and gold plating but none of that makes the gun a better shooter. I believe Savage is all about an economy firearm thats accurate.

One of the guys at the club has a 25K shotgun and it's fancy but my 1200 Winchester goes bang as well.

I have the same cheek that Len sells on this site and I'd not be without it. I actually marked it for myself and for my son] who has a different position and thus the cheek has to be set differently. I took a paint marker and marked a line where I set it and another where my son needs it set.

 

[1Hunter]

Savages, in general, seem to take very little fiddling with to get them to produce tight groups, considering the price of admission, they are quite a bargain IMO.

I've alwayd liked nicely engraved receivers, fine checkering and gold plating but none of that makes the gun a better shooter. I believe Savage is all about an economy firearm thats accurate.

One of the guys at the club has a 25K shotgun and it's fancy but my 1200 Winchester goes bang as well.

I have the same cheek that Len sells on this site and I'd not be without it. I actually marked it for myself and for my son] who has a different position and thus the cheek has to be set differently. I took a paint marker and marked a line where I set it and another where my son needs it set.

I am pleased with my Savage Hunter 111. 7mm rem mag.
It is not in the wall hanger class. Should I be fortunate enough
to win a ribbon or two, it might secure a place on the wall.

It came with an adjustable cheekpiece along with a muzzel Brake.

 

[apache sniper]

I wish I could start a thread about adjustable bases but apparently I cant. Would one of you start that thread? Don't want to hijack this thread.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I wish I could start a thread about adjustable bases but apparently I cant. Would one of you start that thread? Don't want to hijack this thread.

I don't consider that a hijack, in fact, I'm curious about them. I've never seen one but then I just gpt to see a pair of real tip off bases the other day from 20 years ago, the predecessors to the current quick release bases.

I'm puzzled about one, what is their mechanical configuration and two, how can you maintain a solid and accurate base if the base is moveable???

Inquiring minds want to know, especially mine.

 

[McMillan]

I have seen an adjustable one piece base, that had a wheel at the rear of the base. It was as repeatable as the internal adjustment of any scope and allowed you to set your scope ine the center to the adjustment and leave it there. If I remember correctly it had 100 minutes of adjustment but could be made to have any amount desired. Sure made a lot of sense. Unfortunately the guy developing this passed away last year and I am not sure if anyone else has picked up the project.

 

[apache sniper]

It's a simple design. The top of the base is adjustable and locks positively into the lower section of the base via ridging. I have hammered it with a 32 ounce framing hammer and a 3 # sledge.... the only thing that broke was the screw holding it to the mock up. The frw/rearwd movement is dovetailed so it can't move either. I built it to be rock steady and solid for long range use. Once your desired windage is dead center of your optical zero, you simply mark it top and bottom. It is repeatable and simple. Typically those are the designs that work anyway. So far max adjustment is 50 MOA or so either way Left or right. The prototype worked admirably. The improvement we are working on, is the MOA of adjustment minimums. We are trying for a 2.5 MOA per movement. Right now it's about 5.2 MOA per adjustment. It worked out for my 338 just about 1/2 MOA from dead on optical zero. We are custom building them for receivers that have a flat top or nearly flat, such as the O3 A3 the O3 A4 Springfield bolt , the remington 700 and so on so that we can build em without too many man hours in em. It keeps the cost down to where you and I can afford em IE $40 to $60. As you know welding is generally not recommended on receivers, and most gunsmiths will flat out tell you "NO because of liability AND you void any factory guarantees if you weld". So once it's drilled badly the only real option is to get or build an adjustable base. If you are interested in one contact me. The only hold up for making them for every weapon is this..... cutting a radius in steel is a difficult at best and I am looking at pre radius-ed steel stock which means a BUNCH of research into the radius of various weapons such as Savage's and Tikka's and and and. Besides which, I need to make enough money to stock those pre cut radius 6 ft pieces for the lower halves. By the way I DON'T USE ALUMINUM Steel only.

God Bless
Apache sniper.

PS I really am 1/2 Apache the rest is all Welch Irish and Scottish.....LOL

 

[apache sniper]

The fact of the matter is this. Typically 90% or so of "adjustable bases" are unable to withstand the pounding of a high powered rifle. The 2112's (Marine armorer's) of My era built a few that worked but chicken s**t regulations implemented a few years later forbade the use of "adjustable mounts" and regulations dictated that ONLY the m40 system would be allowed with one universal mount for all. It's too bad too, many of those 2112's could take an old shot to rattling win 70 and make it into a super match rifle in a couple of days. Personally I prefer the 300 win, the o6 , the 338 and the 50 for long range work. Gunny Hathcock proved the effectiveness of the O6 at 1400 to 1800 yards. The idea being that all of the other aforementioned calibers will shoot further. Almost all sniper weapons from the latter part of Nam to present day had adjustable cheek pieces and adjustable triggers. Considering that they shoot from 500 to 2500 yards and even beyond ....that should tell the story right there. If your gonna shoot long range ya gotta have em. Personally I use a lace on cheek piece adjustable from 3/8 to 3 inches.
The reason being that I don't like plugging holes and I love the nostalgia, and beauty of wood stocks. Be that as it may all of my rifles will have adjustable cheek pieces, adjustable Timney featherweight triggers,and my adjustable bases on em. With the exception of my "ol 45-70 saddle gun.

Semper Fi
Apache sniper