And Ithaca 5E thought we'd beaten this one to death!!
December 1 1900
Sporting Life"Light Field Guns"
http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/SportingLife/1900/VOL_36_NO_11/SL3611012.pdf The drop of a gun stock is the most important feature of a field gun, yet how few men seem to understand it. Many men will buy a gun in a store with a 2 1/4 or 2 1/2 inch drop, and as it handles well, comes up quickly and they can look across the rib
by dropping their head, they accept it as the proper article. Too often the gunner comes home without any game and cannot understand it. He blames his poor aim of the swiftness of the birds.
The fault lies with himself in not having a proper drop of stock. All or nearly all the shots in grouse, quail and woodcock in this country are low or close to the ground. Few shots on these birds are of the "overhead" or "driven" kind, as in foreign countries. It is plain that for quick, snap shooting or even deliberate aim, a stock of three-inch drop at the heel and two-inch drop at the comb is about the proper thing.
With a gun of these dimensions the shooter
does not have to duck his head to catch a sure sight, but
the liberal drop makes the rib come up to his eye instead, thus giving him a quick sight and a true one.
This seems to support the "lotsa drop = head up" theory
