Shouldering a rifle with plate carrier

[vaglocker]

Long story short I decided owning body armor as a civilian wasn't as LARPy as I may have thought as recently as even a year ago. Anyway, I've acquired plates and a carrier and am realizing how much it affects mounting my rifle. The plates are 10X12 single curve shooters cut and I'm running the carrier slick. I believe I'm wearing it correctly, high on the back and just below my jugular notch. When not wearing the carrier I usually mount the rifle feet squared up with the buttstock squarely in my pectoral muscle which keeps my head directly in line with the sighting system. With the armor I have to mount way out on my shoulder which makes me have to cock my head to even see the sights. I tried shortening length of pull doesn't seem to help. Stranger still is I don't have nearly the same issue with the Beretta 1301 as I do with the AR. I still have to make a slight adjustment but not nearly as much as I do with the AR. Any tricks or tips?

[JRB]

Long story short I decided owning body armor as a civilian wasn't as LARPy as I may have thought as recently as even a year ago. Anyway, I've acquired plates and a carrier and am realizing how much it affects mounting my rifle. The plates are 10X12 single curve shooters cut and I'm running the carrier slick. I believe I'm wearing it correctly, high on the back and just below my jugular notch. When not wearing the carrier I usually mount the rifle feet squared up with the buttstock squarely in my pectoral muscle which keeps my head directly in line with the sighting system. With the armor I have to mount way out on my shoulder which makes me have to cock my head to even see the sights. I tried shortening length of pull doesn't seem to help. Stranger still is I don't have nearly the same issue with the Beretta 1301 as I do with the AR. I still have to make a slight adjustment but not nearly as much as I do with the AR. Any tricks or tips?

Try going a little longer on your shoulder straps and lowering the front plate. Your front plate should cover the area from just below your collar bone and end just past your navel. I set up my IOTV's and JPC that way and I have no weapon adjustment issues with a 10x12 ESAPI or similar plate. But I'm also built like shrek with a long torso and short legs, so YMMV.

[theJanitor]

Have you tried mounting the rifle looking directly in a mirror? It can show you a lot about head position and where the buttstock really sits. For me, I had to move the rifle even more inboard and higher

ETA: the only thing I point guns at is paper. and the occasional mirror

[DpdG]

There are a few common approaches to this. I use two, with the caveat that I tend towards shorter stock adjustments for my height (6'3" using first two or three detents from fully collapsed). They are: 1) stock in the pocket between the edge of plate and deltoid/bicep, and 2) sternum mount it (ideally with the stock short, like fully collapsed). I tend to use the shoulder one as a default and the sternum one for very short distance with significant target swing/traverse. Both of these work much better with a rubber butt pad than the GI style hard plastic. Either way- shooting with armor requires adjustment and repetition.

[rob_s]

Limited experience here as a non-LE civilian hobbyist, but I’ll offer what I’ve found in both my own use and supervising, teaching, and watching others...

1) it’s almost so entirely personal that it’s borderline not worth even discussing. Your height, weight, fitness level, competence level, and particular plates and stock and even grip can all play a factor, as can your “normal stance” without plates.
2) given all of that, I switched to a more bladed stance away from the “square to target” stance several years ago. I think it was John McPhee (“shrek”, or “the Sherriff of Baghdad”) that got me thinking the way, or maybe Kyle Defoor... anyway I found that made it a lot easier to deal with my armor.
3) smaller stocks, measured from heel to toe, are easier to deal with.
4) as is “swimmer cut” armor
5) look at the pistol grip. Look at the angle it’s imparting on the rest of your arm. The trend of the past few years is to go more “vertical” and I hate those fucking grips. Give me an old school laid back Tango Down any day.
6) what optic? I find the 30mm Aimpoint to be the most forgiving of head placement. That matters a lot when you can’t line everything up perfectly behind the gun.

Short answer, what I do is hook the toe of the stock on the armor or in the armor best I can, blade up a little more, and deal with it.

For me (us?) I just want to be familiar enough that if pigs fly and I find myself in a gunfight with my rifle wearing armor, I’m not trying to figure all of this out then.

[Wake27]

What carrier is it? The number one thing I look for when determining if a carrier is garbage or has potential to be good is the shoulder straps. Lots of PCs still tend to look like they were designed by someone who has never shot a long gun. Crye JPCs are very popular but I love my Velocity Scarab, in part because its so easy to shoulder a gun with.

[ViniVidivici]

See my reply elswhere vaglocker.