Viperskins Thumb Shelf

M.45 · November 19, 2011

A few people have asked me what the thumb rest above the pistol grip is for on our new Viperskins.

This is called our "Fast Action Thumb Shelf". It is designed as a positive index point for your shooting hand thumb to rest on when you need to engage many targets quickly.

When using a pistol gripped bolt action rifle, wrapping your thumb around the pistol grip, underneath the rear stock takes time to get in and out of position. I noticed the in timed stages of competition, the fastest shooters always kept their thumb outside of the thumbhole on the AICS stock but the problem was there was no index point for muscle memory to form on the smooth corner of the original AICS skins.

Our solution was to scallop an indentation on the stock so the shooter can find the exact position every time they need to shoot for speed. Some shooters may even shoot like this all the time, it's very comfortable... like a traditional stock.

brown dog · November 19, 2011

Makes perfect sense.

I wrote this a while back:

Some thoughts on trigger and hand positioning

and it really spells out the thinking behind the side thumb hold. I've reproduced the opening post here, but the discussion of that post is in the original (linked) thread:

Pics such as this have attracted comment on one of the marksmanship threads (ie, why the bloody hell are you holding it like that? ....or words to that effect )

This is why: (I hope this is understandable, it's tested my powerpoint skills to the max!):

It's not for everyone ....give it a go dry firing (or live!) - I'd be interested in hearing reaction!

I also had a play with 'optimising the thumb position' on AWs a while back - the solution worked but not quite as neatly as the viperskins (I'll admit :lol: ):

I'd be very interested in seeing more detail on your pistol grip inserts - particularly if you have one that is held by the middle,ring and little fingers, but allows the index finger to 'float' without touching anything.