Copyright 2006 T. Sheil & A. Sheil All Rights Reserved
The rifle seems simple enough, but like all other weapons it has a technique. There is a correct way to hold it. The first handguns were like miniature cannons mounted on poles. They were made obsolete by weapons that had a comfortable wooden stock and longer barrel. It was designed to be easier to shoot, and the technique has not changed much since then. This is one of the few things that have remained consistent.
There are certain points about firing rifles. First, the shooting hand does the gripping,. It must have a tight grip on the weapon. The other hand is a rest for the forestock. To aim properly, the cheek is against the stock and eyes look over the barrel, through its sights. The elbow of the firing hand points to the side. The butt rests in the well between shoulder joint and rib cage.
Soldiers firing from prone or leaning on an object have let the shooting elbow droop about 30 to 45 degrees. The same goes for firing from a foxhole.
Of course, the whole idea is to shoot a bullet and have it hit a target. Before you can do that, you need to know a little of how the weapon is handled. This is not a course in rifle shooting. It is an explanation of how soldiers hold their rifles, so that military miniature buffs can replicate them accurately. We shall begin by looking at a common type of rifle. Weapons like this were common from the last decades of the 19th Century to the middle of the 20th.
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From Winfield Scott's 1830 manual for musket infantry. Even here, firing elbow points to the side! Unlike riflemen, kneeling musketeers do not balance the non-firing elbow on the knee. See illustration to the right. Scott's musketeers do have their cheek against the stock and look through the sights, like riflemen |
1750 French illustration of musketeers. Their way of holding the musket is the same way soldiers hold rifles today. Elbows point to the side. unlike riflemen, the cheek is not placed against the stock. |
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Proper kneeling position for modern soldiers. This is the correct stance since before the Civil War. The shooter's cheek is agains the stock and he looks through the sights. |
Another view from a later manual, using the M1917 Enfield. |
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In two steps. The rifle is in the "well" to the immediate left of the shoulder joint. The sling is used to help steady the weapon. |
Gilham's manual from before the Civil War shows men firing as two ranks. The same poses are used for muskets as for rifles. |
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Proper grip and use of objects to steady the rifle. Note how the shooting hand surrounds the "small of the stock." The thumb is wrapped around the stock. his cheek is against his rifle and he looks through the sights. The shooting elbow touches ground, acting as a tripod. |
Prone position. The shooting elbow is down just enough to act as a tripod, but not enough to let loose the butt of the rifle. |
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Use of sandbags both as cover and to help steady the weapon. Soldiers like to steady their rifles against objects when firing in any position, if possible. |
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This 1889 Manual shows the same firing technique. |
The "body support" stance used the body as a tripod, by placing the non-firing arm as pictures. Used for long-range shooting. It was used from the Civil War up to World War I. Note that the cheek is not against the stock, unlike other Civil War firing stances. . |
Loading rifles
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Rifles with built-in magazines were loaded from the top. A "clip" held bullets together in a group. These clips were made to fit inside the magazine. They made loading faster.. |
Magazine-fed rifles have an external magazine made of metal. It is loaded from the top, like other rifles. The image above shows reloading a magazines To the right is an illustration of the magazine being changed. The empty magazine is removed from the weapon, and a full one inserted in a well on the bottom. Along with rifles, there are magazine-fed pistols, submachine guns and machine guns. Most are loaded from the bottom, but a few are fed from the top or side. |
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It started with American SWAT teams. The concept was to let the firing elbow droop instead of pointing to the side at a 90 degree angle from the body. This is done during close work, house clearing, and similar tasks. The idea is to offer less of a target. I have been informed that this method trickled into some of the military special units in the mid-90s, and later in the 90s or early 00s it made its way to conventional units. The "droop" can be from 30 to 60 degrees. Firing with the elbow any lower is only done when affected by cover or obstacles. This became accepted by about 2000.
As far as I can tell from current manuals, firing with the straight elbow is still taught, alongside other angles for the elbow.
Bear in mind that my information about the dropping elbow is for the United States. I do not know if any of our allies or enemies use it.
When scultping figures, you would NOT use the poses below for figures prior to 1999 - 2000. These poses were not used in the Gulf (Desert Storm) or Bosnia.
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The dropping of the firing arm elbow is relatively recent, circa 2000. Previously, it would only be dropped in the prone postion, as it served as a rest for the firign hand. The new trend to drop it in all positons is due to a policy of placing volume of fire over accurate shooting. |
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In the old days, men advanced with the rifle stock under the arm. Now the butt rests on the shoulder. Prior to 2000, it would be under the arm where it belongs. |
. The modern position advances while the rifle is at the shoulder. The old was was instinctinve shooting, with the weapon held lower. Images of the older, better way to advance can be seen in the section on Light Automatic Weapons. (Look at the Assault Fire pose for BAR and crouch with M16 to see the better method.) |
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Here is a big mistake: the firing hand is not even gripping the stick. It lays there against the stock, with a finger in the trigger. Add that the head is way up. If he is supposed to be firing, he should at least be looking over the sights. |
Not only is the sculpting terrible, but look at the pose. Hand resting against the rifle with finger in trigger, man looking way over the weapon rather than through the sights. |
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Elbow pointed down - and this is supposed to be from a quality maker, Airfix. Soldiers keep the elbow raised when firing from a kneeling position. At least the head is in the right position with cheek against the stock, and firing hand gripping the stock securely. The elbow-down pose has only been used by real armies some time after 1995, likely 2000. |
Is this man firing a rifle or polishing the stock? The thumb is on the side of the weapon instead of gripping it. |
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