Your Bench Rest Technique

Your Eventual Objective Shooting Bench Rest

  • Hunting various postions

    Votes: 7 15.9%

  • Target Shooting and Competition

    Votes: 11 25.0%

  • Hunting 1st with some targets/competition

    Votes: 6 13.6%

  • Targets 1st with some hunting

    Votes: 14 31.8%

  • None of the above

    Votes: 6 13.6%
  • Total voters
    44
But as my math teacher said, put the boys on one side of the room and the girls on the other side and they keep closing the distance by half, they can ever touch.

On the other hand they can come close enough for practical purposes.
 
If you're shouldering a hand held rifle in any way when it's fired atop a bench, you've not eliminated the human factor.
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And that is how I adjusted my scope for hunting AFTER I was satisfied with the accuracy and consistency of my handloads for the specific hunt that season.
 
Bart B. said:
Winning benchrest rifles are not touched by humans when fired except by a finger on their few ounce trigger.
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Many competition BR shooters shoot free recoil. They try to have only the trigger finger caress the 2 oz trigger.

I haven't mastered that art yet, it doesn't feel natural to me.

Of course, they clean my clock regularly so they must know what they're talking about.
 
BR

For pistol, I do not set any part of it on the sand bags! I found that my pistol would shoot to much different POI if it on the bag verses off-hand. So I align the bags for pistol such that my wrists set solidly on the bags not any art of the pistol.
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Yes. This ^^^^^.
Rifles....I shoot “off the elbows”, that is I hold the rifle, without a sling, in much the same way as I do when shooting prone.
Pete
 
I shoot bench because I can hit much more accurately. How this translates in the field is that for every new variable, at least my core fundamentals are good from bench practice. I would like to shoot some outdoor/challenge competitions, but I haven't been able to find a good partner who wants to go to said competitions with me. Otherwise, I would like to get back into hunting and, again, the bench practice helps me keep things on target when shooting out in less-controlled environments. And to put things on target when a new variable is introduced into my set up, aka sights, mag, muzzle brake.
 
Who has stood up offhand and fired 10 shots without artificial support marking a plot sheet with their call then bullet hole relative to it?

If your stuff tested half MOA from a bench, compare the plotted shot group relative to call to the group shot from the bench.

Is the offhand group centered on call?

PS:

Muzzle brakes reduce recoil after bullets leave barrels. They contribute nothing to accuracy; but sometimes degrade it.
 
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I shot free recoil short yardage BR. I still set up close same way for my hunting and varmint rifles. I set rest so rifle travel freely between front and rear bag also moving forward and should center of what every target I'm using when it stops.

I was also shooting 1 or 2oz trigger free recoil. It's little different when pull hunting weight triggers. I'll set my shoulder so I'll take little hit and it's not bad.
 
Bart, until you can post something about current, I not really interest what happen years ago. And no prove it ever happened.
 
Nobody hunts off a bench, and you can zero any rifle from prone with a back pack, which is actually a valid field position in itself. Benches only add the 'comfort' factor when zeroing.

If you're developing handloads, that's different. Using a rested bench set-up to isolate and determine the accuracy of a particular load in a particular rifle is where it shines. Once you've found an accurate load, and then zeroed with it, it's time to get the rifle and your butt off the bench and out shooting in field positions, with a sling, and to include much practice with off-hand.

Beyond that, shooting at targets off a bench yields little practical marksmanship value unless you're just there to kill time.

Once you're zeroed, the bench is no longer needed. Field-position shooting is where your skills are honed. The bench is a crutch for the lazy shooter.

Admittedly Bench Rest competitions are their own separate shooting sport, but I'm not a Benchrester.
 
agtman said:
Benchrest.... Using a rested bench set-up to isolate and determine the accuracy of a particular load in a particular rifle is where it shines.
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That's true if the rifle's fired free recoil, untouched except by a finger on its trigger.

If a bag rested rifle on a bench is hand held against one's shoulder, then the shooter's own marksmanship skills come into play. How the rifle's held and fired effects how the barrel moves while the firing pin moves then during barrel time after the round fires.

Anyone ever watched the results of several people shooting a 5 shot group with their benchrest technique using the same half MOA (at worst) rifle and ammo? Very interesting, not surprising.
 
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Depends on the type of bench shooting I am doing.
 
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