While I was at The Gathering at the Sawmill event in South Carolina, I was able to speak with the owner of Ryker. Ryker has developed a novel shooting method dubbed the “Ryker Method” which aims to reduce fatigue on the shooter and provide a more natural shooting position when interfacing with their weapon. Ron Holmes, the inventor and President of Ryker, came up with the concept of the Ryker Grip (also known as the FIST grip) and Ryker Sling in order to aid him while shooting with an injured shoulder.

The Ryker Method – A Biomechanically Optimized Shooting Method

The Ryker Method involves using both a Ryker grip and Ryker sling which is a new take on your standard sling. Instead of a completely rigid design, the Ryker Sling makes use of a durable and stiff heavy bungee which helps force the weapon into your shoulder when used in tandem with the Ryker Grip. This provides the shooter with extremely good control and reduces the amount that your muzzle wanders when aiming.

As an added benefit, the Ryker Sling also allows the weapon to have better retention to the body without the need to let out any slack before deploying the weapon from a stowed position into a shooting position – the bungee allows this to happen but still maintains its rigidness due to the stretching of the bungee.

The Ryker Grip is currently in use with deployed armed forces and has reportedly been used to great effect by M249 gunners who say the Ryker Method helps make using the light machine gun much easier. The Ryker Grip is universal in that it allows use for both left and right-handed shooters and is also able to attach to any weapon that has an M-LOK, KeyMod, or Picatinny rail section mounted to the side of it. If you’d like to pick up a Ryker Grip and Ryker Sling, they are available directly from the Ryker USA website for $74.99 and $79.99 respectively.