Hello All,
A while back I had problems with my cuff ovalizing under the pull of
the rifle. This squished my bracial artery and nerves and was quite
uncomfotable. During and after shooting my hand tingled and I had the
sensation of striking my funny bone sometimes for over a day after
shooting. I searched many on-line shooting forums and consulted many
athletes (biathletes and other shooting sports) in addition to
manufactureres/distributers looking to see if anyone else had
presented this discomfort. No luck so I started thinking up a fix. I
tried many commercial cuffs and a few homegrown rigs and none relieved
the problem so I decided to make-up a rigid cuff with a tunnel for the
nerve and arteries to pass through.

I made a casting of my upper arm and layed up a few cuffs (it took 4
tries to get something that worked) from carbon fiber to keep the cuff
rigid, stiff and light. The straps needed to be aligned with the pull
of the rifle to keep the cuff from rotating and I didn't want to have
a zillion adjustments to make each time. The rifle straps are fixed
and pull slighly from the inside to eliminate a bit more pressure and
remove the pulse from being transmitted. The size/fit adjusting strap
is mostly elastic with a piece of webbing running across the top and
through a ladder lock buckle. I didn't want the rifle to hang on
Velcro or something that if it failed, stopped my ability to shoot. At
a race this would be a disaster. The elastic allows my muscles to
expand but provides enough grip to keep the cuff in place. The strap
allows me to put a bit of stretch onto the elatic to snug it up. The
cuff is lined w/ terricloth (an old kitchen towel) which grips well
and keeps sweat from running down my arm.

The cuff works great. My arm no longer hurts even after a lot of
shooting and the doesn't interfere with anything else. The rifle is
steady and my prone shooting has improved since I am not muscling the
rifle to keep the pinching away. I can really relax into the strap as
the weight and pressure from the rifle is evenly distributed around my
arm. The rigid arrangement also is super consistant from use to use
regardless of how tight I make the adjusting strap.

I've posted some photos in the photo section under the heading of
rigid cuff. The shot with the pen shows the tunnel and also where my
arteries and nerves run. The rest are pretty self evident.