stance and hold question

I am a novice BE shooter and have much to learn and many rounds to send downrange, but my question for those that have been in the sport for awhile is this. Is it okay to place your chin onto your strong side shoulder in the stance. Maybe it is b/c I am an old rifle shooter and I feel the need to rest some part of my head on something during the firing process. I don't feel it causes me to shoot any worse (or better), but I have not seen any other BE shooters use this stance. In my stance, I bring my pistol up to eye level and simply tuck my head down a bit until my chin touches my strong side shoulder. My chin stays in place throughout the shot process. I would be interested in hearing your comments/suggestions, etc. Thanks all!

you should always (according to many past and present top shooters)  keep your head up and level. Also keeping your muscles un tensed is preferred as it would seem to try and keep your chin planted puts you in a tensed up state. click the bullseye encyclopedia link below and you can read about stance and posture from many top shooters.
http://www.bullseyepistol.com/

Bullseye58 wrote:I am a novice BE shooter and have much to learn and many rounds to send downrange, but my question for those that have been in the sport for awhile is this. Is it okay to place your chin onto your strong side shoulder in the stance. Maybe it is b/c I am an old rifle shooter and I feel the need to rest some part of my head on something during the firing process. I don't feel it causes me to shoot any worse (or better), but I have not seen any other BE shooters use this stance. In my stance, I bring my pistol up to eye level and simply tuck my head down a bit until my chin touches my strong side shoulder. My chin stays in place throughout the shot process. I would be interested in hearing your comments/suggestions, etc. Thanks all!

I wouldn't use a stance like that. A 2700 is a long day shooting pistol. One needs to keep as relaxed as possible.

BE Mike wrote:

Bullseye58 wrote:I am a novice BE shooter and have much to learn and many rounds to send downrange, but my question for those that have been in the sport for awhile is this. Is it okay to place your chin onto your strong side shoulder in the stance. Maybe it is b/c I am an old rifle shooter and I feel the need to rest some part of my head on something during the firing process. I don't feel it causes me to shoot any worse (or better), but I have not seen any other BE shooters use this stance. In my stance, I bring my pistol up to eye level and simply tuck my head down a bit until my chin touches my strong side shoulder. My chin stays in place throughout the shot process. I would be interested in hearing your comments/suggestions, etc. Thanks all!

I wouldn't use a stance like that. A 2700 is a long day shooting pistol. One needs to keep as relaxed as possible.

I believe although I cant say for sure, that this is very close to what Jim Henderson does.  If I recall correctly, at one of the clinics the AMU gave,  he said he does it because it is repeatable, and when his chin is touching his shoulder he knows that this is where it always goes, and it works for him.
     If you are older, I might be a little concerned that it might cause neck strain, but Jim seems to get through a one day 2700 still shooting extremely well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdkUQ6OTt2k

Here's a video of Jim Henderson with his chin connected to his shoulder.  I don't use that technique for the same reasons above.
He also puts his hand in his pocket.  I don't trust all my pants to give me a consistent pocket depth so I reach across my body and hold my belt.
I don't hold as long as Jim either.  I see it's part of his shot process--see him breathe and recenter the dot?
The moral of my post is do what works for you.  As you develop a shot process, write it down and do the same thing for every shot.  By doing so it becomes automatic and it reduces the mental failures that create bad shots.

Here is another excellent video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqFn9AU7les

Back when I was chasing distinguished points I found that I was dropping my head in sustained fire.  I found that if I used a high shoulder position I could brace my jaw on my shoulder and eliminate the dropping my head issue.  It was, as previously mentioned, a very repeatable position and locked my head-shoulder into a single unit that rode recoil and allowed me to get back on target without losing my sight alignment.

How high do you bring your shoulder in the first place?

Al, I would love to see you demonstrate this in photos/video.  Sounds like a great system.

I can host it on my YouTube channel if needed.

When you "lock" your head to your shoulder, or not, you will be using different muscles to hold the arm up.  It really matters little as long as it works within other parameters of position and grip, ability, comfort, and endurance.  Bottom line is to use no more muscles than necessary.