[btmj]

I would like some advice from the experienced shooters here, particularly the older ones who have to deal with aging eyes and less-limber bodies...

I shot prone the other day. It is the first time in about 5 years that I tried to shoot extensively from prone. I got about 15 rounds down range, and I just could not take it any more. My neck and shoulders were so cramped that my accuracy started to suffer badly.

I have always found that prone shooting required me to crank my neck back about as far as it would go. No big deal in my 20s, but a little more uncomfortable in my 30s. Now at 46, I seem to be hitting the wall. I am just not very effective in the prone position anymore. I was skinny as a tent-pole in my 20s, and I have gained about 30 lb since then, but I am good shape for 46. Another problem is I am shooting more powerful rifles now than I was back then, and prone position causes my eye to be closer to the scope. The recoil is causing the scope to come dangerously close to my eyeglasses.

At first I thought my problem might be my eyeglasses, since I need to crank back my neck enough so that I am looking through the eyeglass lens rather than over the top of them... but some experimenting has shown me that even if my eyesight was 20/20, and I could lower my head a bit and look into the upper most left corner of my vision, this would put my skull even closer to the scope, and I would almost certainly get banged.

I went back to my old copy of Cooper's "Art of the Rifle" and reviewed his detailed descriptions of the prone position. I don't seem to be doing anything wrong.

Is this a common problem? If no one else is having this problem, I need to assume I am doing something wrong. Thoughts?

Jim