Issues with cheeckbone bruising - expert help needed.

[MCB]

I am getting back into clay shooting after a long break as I have always been troubled with cheeckbone brusing which has affected my enjoyment of the sport.

I am male, 6ft tall and weigh 78 kgs and am shooting sporting - most often at The Star Gun Club as I live in the Leatherhead area. I can't shoot more than 100 birds a day comfortably.

After trying various guns and using loan guns I recently bought a used 12G Browning Sporter One, 30", 14 3/4 pull and which has an adjustable stock. This seems like a reasonable place to start given my build. I have also started shooting 24g loads rather than 28g.

I am still getting used to the gun and I have set the comb parrallel and about 2mm high to start with my current theory is that I might be harbouring some bad habits which may include tilting my head down onto the stock instead of bringing the gun up to right position and keeping my head upright or lifting my head ?? 

For now I am focusing on obtaining a more consistent and correct mount - ensure gun is in the right place in the shoulder and my view down the rib is - width of old pound coin of rib visible down length of rib which is end bead just above mid-bead - head upright. 

I am looking for a person with experience in walking through a systematic process, including shooting a few clays to help me with correcting this issue within about 1 hours drive of Leatherhead.

Would be grateful for any suggestions as to who might be able to help me. 

Thanks for your comments or suggestions.

 

[Spr1985]

You have

1)royal Berkshire shooting school just over an hours drive from you

2) Southdown gun club just under an hours drive.

3)owls lodge shooting shooting school just under an hour

4) e j Churchill shooting ground 45 mins to an hour. 
 It could be well worth paying a visit for a lesson (to iron out any bad habits) and a gun fitting session at one of the above mentioned grounds. 
I would place my hard earned £ on the cheek bruising being down to a poorly fitting gun/bad mount but that purely an opinion. I hope you get sorted out and continue to enjoy your shooting. 

 

[Will Hewland]

Would need to see you or it’s all guess work. However, when people bruise their cheekbone they are either being struck by the gun moving during recoil due to poor fit / poor hold, or they are making the mistake of setting their face up wrongly to start with. Some people try and put their eye on the comb, which means the cheekbone just under the eye is on the wood. What should be in contact is the area nearer the top gums.

 

[Westward]

Cheek bruising is a result of muzzle rise due to recoil. A good gunfitter will check several things including whether you're cramming your face down too hard and also what's known as the pitch angle. That's the angle the butt pad makes with the centre line of the bore. If the heel (top) of the pad is not fully in contact with the shoulder pocket the muzzles, particularly the top one, will flip up too much. You can test this by putting a spacer under the top of the pad to change the angle.

 

[jonz]

Lots of people claim they are gun fitters, very few know what they are talking about. Ask them who they have fitted guns for and look at what level of shooters they are working with. One of the best gun fitters is Ben H (K80Ben)

Jonz

 

[Wonko the Sane]

Cheek bruising is a result of muzzle rise due to recoil. A good gunfitter will check several things including whether you're cramming your face down too hard and also what's known as the pitch angle. That's the angle the butt pad makes with the centre line of the bore. If the heel (top) of the pad is not fully in contact with the shoulder pocket the muzzles, particularly the top one, will flip up too much. You can test this by putting a spacer under the top of the pad to change the angle.

+1  Except I would put the spacer under the toe. Under the heel will increase the downpitch and make the recoil worse.  I have gotten to near "0" pitch on my guns.  All are recoil free.

JMO of course

 

[Robden]

Have a watch of this, especially at 7.48

 

[ehb102]

Fit and then user error at the top two. Take video of yourself shooting and you might capture that slight lift off the stock that we all do sometimes. Looking with your nose, not your eyes. 

 

[MCB]

Thanks I am working on more consistent mount before moving to the next step.

I will try to get some video taken when I shoot next - looking with nose = moving head?

 

[MCB]

Thanks again to those who have answered this post.

My update as follows

Have practiced and improved my gun mounting - with particular focus on shifting my weight forward, "nose over toes" and touching stock to cheek before shoulder. no see-sawing of barrels.  Also adjusted the stock on Browning sporter one up by 1/8" (same slope) to reduce drop slightly over standard. My logic is that this may help me to keep my head more upright, connected to the stock and more still. When mounted the heel of the butt plate ends up in line with my collar bone which seems slightly higher than what I observe in other. 

Combination of the above measures have reduced the cheek slap considerably but have not cured it completely. I am still using 24 loads Fiocchi FBlack and Trust Super Sporter Blue and want to go back up to 28g.

Next step as advised by ebh102 will be to take some video and/or shoot with an instructor.

 

[Luke_(NL)]

Curious to see whether you’ve found a fix. A friend has had poor instruction and a bruised cheek as a result: She was also mounting the gun with only the heel of the stock ‘shouldered’.  

In my view the whole butt should be ‘tucked’ in the crease between the deltoid shoulder muscle and your pecs (as per Ben’s vid an Westwards advice above). Having a large section protruding above your collar bone means its easier for the gun to move under recoil, and the less this is controlled the more you will be ‘slapped’ if contact between comb and cheek isn’t perfect. Raise the comb to meet your cheek and lower the mount of the butt in your shoulder, while maintaining proper alignment over the rib (which will be influenced by the length of the stock and your stance as well), but without footage its hard to tell.    

 

[Peteri]

I had quite a few lessons with a top, name coach. My gun fitted by someone who was well recommended - and I still would intermittently get a heavily bruised cheek, to the point of visible bruising.

Started shooting again after a 4-5 year break, and it was sorted in one lesson at Holland and Holland - and now having had my new gun fitted to their specs, never a mark.

It's not that they are amazingly better than anyone else, just I got my gun fitted after using a try gun (rather than a wizened old gunsmith peering at your eye) and had someone teach me that was really into getting the basics of footwork and mount right before anything else.

I tended to stand too much like the rifle shooter I once was, which meant no gun ever fitted me (I'm pretty broad shouldered), sorting out the mount and fit (which turned out to be the opposite of what I expected - I needed a lower not a higher comb) - was all I needed.

Stick with it!

 

[Fred Flintstone]

I suffered from this when I started.

My issue? My mount was incorrect... gun fit was fine but I had the comb too close to my eye (I was forcing my head down onto the stock).

As suggested by some here already... comb should be closer to the gum than the eye. Worked on a more consistent (and correct) mount, and cheek slap disappeared !