I am not one for clinging to drills that are actually meant to be used as a test. I feel that it is much more reasonable and practical to conduct drills on skills that need to be rehearsed over and over again until they are second nature. Kneeling and presenting your rifle from the patrolling low ready is an important skill to develop. It is not as simple as taking a knee and aiming, but rather involves a few key steps that must be practiced often in combination. When done right, no matter the direction of the target, this technique will enable you to precisely engage in as little as 1 second. This requires speed, coordination, and good weapon handling skills. I personally use a 12lb rifle for this and every drill, so you don’t have an excuse. SCENARIO I am just going to shit out a scenario for you to munch on. There are plenty of scenarios where it is not a good idea to go prone or stay standing so kneeling is the best in between option. The scenario is that you are patrolling in the woods and have made soft contact with the enemy. The enemy may or may not have seen you, but you want to be the first to fire. The best thing to do is get yourself closer to the level of the undergrowth, concealing yourself somewhat, and deliver precise fire in order to limit the enemy being able to effectively respond. You don’t want to stay standing because that would likely just rob you of any concealment and therefore decrease the effect of your surprise action. STARTING POSITION The start of this drill is just a standard patrolling position for your rifle. Typically, this will look just like a relaxed low ready or low port position where the rifle hangs diagonally with the muzzle pointed down. This is a relaxed position you are typically in when just carrying your rifle but with little expectation for needing to use it. This is typically how you patrol if contact is not expected, which is exactly the kind of situation you may be in when you get surprised by the enemy. PROPER KNEELING First thing you will have to master is getting in and out of a proper kneeling position. This is done by putting the foot out in front like a standard kneel, but then putting it out to the side by about a foot. This is to give you greater stability all the way around for recoil management or dealing with pushes to the side. This is something I recommend practicing often in fully loaded gear so you can get a respect for the need for weight and gear distribution. Just remember that the idea is to get into the kneeling in a way that will allow you to take a push or nudge without getting knocked over. RIFLE PRESENTATION When you are on patrol, it is not common for you to shoulder your rifle like you do on a static range. They generally just hang a little lower and you relax the support arm for the long haul. This means that when you get in contact, you need to do more to get the rifle properly shouldered. My technique is basically the same as when I am presenting from the high port position. I shove the rifle muzzle towards the target with my support hand like I intend to hit them, and then I put the stock into my shoulder with the firing hand. At this point, I look down my sights and then transition to using my support hand to pull the rifle in while my shooting hand relaxes and works the safety and trigger smoothly. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Each of these components are simple in the sense that they are individually easy to accomplish, until they are mashed together. When put together, the weapons handling and stability part comes out in full. Once you identify a target and decide to engage, you drop to a kneeling at a controlled rate while also presenting your rifle. Obviously, we want to kneel fast, but with control so we don’t crush our knee under a combat load. Most of the time you will get your rifle shouldered before you finish kneeling, from my experience. This leaves beginners settling into a stable position while also trying to get their sight steady and on target simultaneously. This demands arm, shoulder, core, and back coordination for stabilizing the sight even after you are in a good kneeling position. This unnecessarily complicates things and puts more strain on your body and brain than necessary. There is no need to sacrifice sure footing or a steady position if you have practiced the proper technique for this drill. It is all about merging the two skills together as seamlessly as possible. The best advice I can give is to get fast at lowering yourself into the kneeling and getting set first. Include shouldering the rifle and getting behind the sight, but don’t fight to get on target until your position is set. This makes it so much easier to control the rifle and get precision out of your shot if you wait until your position is solid. This puts the steps in sequence and makes it easier to establish a process for your body to learn and master. STANDARDS I personally recommend getting yourself as fast at this as possible from either knee. You need to be versatile in what knee you can use for kneeling because you won’t always be able to use your favorite knee. I like to setup my Dry Fire Par Timer app to give me a par time of 2 seconds at first when I am working on my drills. I generally will just work on getting aimed in with the safety off and finger on the trigger. After I feel good and well within that par time, I like to move next to 1.5 seconds and incorporate the trigger pull. The last part is working from a patrolling walk. I put a delay of about 10 seconds on the par timer and reduce the par time to 1 second. I start by walking and upon the signal, I spring into action with full control and as fast as I can go. The idea is to spot the target, kneel, aim, and fire before that second beep goes off. GIVE THIS A TRY…I BET YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO DO IT WITHOUT CHEATING.
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