Last night I had to hold the back of a house with my AR while wearing a gas mask for several hours. I use a STR stock and found the normally comfortable triangular shape to be in the way. I had to tilt my head uncomfortably to get a good sight picture.
If any of you routinely deploy your rifle while wearing a gas mask, what stock do you prefer?
Maybe something like the MOE would be more comfortable.
I dont have any experience with a gas mask.
The question is, are you a prepper, LEO, or guarding a meth lab or something?
I’ve used the standard m4 stock or the magpul moe stock with an msa 1000 mask, peltor muffs and mich helmet. An aimpoint setup to co-witness with the irons works just fine with that setup. I do have to roll the rifle a little. But quick accurate shots are still pretty easy to pull off with practice.
Things like the str stock or any thing with the storage panels on the side get very irritating after awhile. And the angle I have to hold the rifle at makes follow up shots much slower because I seem to have much less of my body to absorb the recoil if that makes sense.
A laser is also VERY nice in a mask. You have to know the detriments that come with turning a laser on and the point of impact differences as well.
I just donned my MCU2P and shouldered my rifle with M4 stock and found it pretty difficult to align my sights. I removed the hard faceshield and this made it considerably easier.
I remember when I was in basic I ended up with a left handed gas mask (I’m righty) and the filter canister made it effectively impossible to shoot the M16. I’m sure I looked like an idiot.
I would borrow/try another rifle to see if the stock is the issue here.
i have found the best stock for shooting with a mask on is the standard m4 stock, anything with storage panels is not ideal. Never used the moe or ctr stock with a mask but id assume they would work equally as wll as the standard m4 stock.
This is another time that the VLTOR stock is very advantagous.
KAC also makes a T-1 mount that should help with this.
However, I’ve gotten better at shooting with a Gas Mask without it. (And by that I mean I sucked before, and am better now. I do not mean to insinuate that I owned the KAC gas mask height mount.)
AVON SF-10, LMT SOPMOD stock, and T-1 in an absolute co-witness mount.
You’re supposed to cant the rifle. At least that’s what I was taught with the old M17 pro mask.
Aiming. Wearing a protective mask may force firers to rotate (cant) the rifle to see through the rear aperture. The weapon should be rotated the least amount possible to see through and line up the sights. The center tip of the front sight post should be placed on the ideal aiming point. This ideal aiming procedure (Figure 7-18) should be the initial procedure taught and practiced.
Now go do some pushups…
Interesting, I have an olde Navy/Air Force GM. I may have to try it next Chili night.
I’ve had some range time with an APR and a SCBA. Extending the stock and canting the rifle gets it done. After a while you get used to it. Same when doing SIMs training with the Simunitions Mask.
If you can swing it, get a laser.
I’ve shot with the MCU-2/P with the M-16 and the new M-50 with the M-4 and canting the rifle with either was a must.
This is what I was taught, and it works fine with my MOE stocks and Avon C50 respirator.
My experience is with a MCU2P and Avon FM 53. First thing, adjust your filter on you non shooting side. Second, a 1/3 co-witness red dot helps a lot. Third, make sure you are aggressive with you situational awareness due to the mask promoting tunnel vision/loss of field of view.
Finally, you sort have to just get used to it. You can switch stocks for a better result, but you may or may not get the result you are looking for.
Type of mask plays a role, but for the most part canting the rifle is the norm no matter what mask type is used. This goes for gas masks and the various protective masks for marking rounds (FX marking, ATK marking etc…).
does your FM 53 have dual ports (one on each side)? for some reason, last time i checked, avon discontinued the single port version of the M53 that had no port/filter mount on one side, which actually allowed a pretty solid cheek weld without the plastic port to keep slipping on the stock.
Duel ports, APR/SCBA (pigtail).
You might also need to brush up on this
Trajectory Appreciation for Unconventional Positions
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=33747
I cant remember off hand what the particular book was but inside there was an article and a photo of the shooter demonstrating with a gas mask shouldering the rifle perpendicular to the ground at a 90 degree angle.
I cant the gun about 30 to 45 degrees, more than that and the solid stock mount gets lost and recoil control goes to hell. This is an issue I have seen with those that do a lot of Sim and not enough live fire with masks on.
This is also one of the only times that a doggy-style MRD on top of the primary sighting device is handier than most other aiming solutions. I recommend against relying on the laser for several reasons, from lighting limitations to trace-back.
I hope you aren’t using a TA31 as a sole aiming device, the short eye relief can cause a harrowing amount of scratching/loss of integrity to the mask eye piece.
Typos brought to you via Tapatalk and autocorrect.
I am law enforcement and a “rifle team” member, not SWAT (yet). Rifle team just means I have an AR-15 in the car since not everyone has them. I typically get to do more with SWAT than other officers.
The only time I shot with the mask was in the Air Force during quals, and I don’t remember if I canted or whatnot. I will try canting the next opportunity I get. On this incident I was on target for about 4 hours so I used balcony railing for support for the gun so I wasn’t canting.
I can’t have a laser since its against our department policy.
Thanks for all these posts so far, they are very helpful.