Benchrest Techniques for the Unwashed

[NVcurmudgeon]

I am not what anyone in their right mind would call a benchrest shooter. What benchrest shooting I do has been limited to sighting in, load testing, and occasional competition in postal matches or at NCBS. All my rifles are ordinary sporting and military rifles. I have used the sandbag technique I learned from Townsend Whelen and Jack O'Connor, for fifty years with satisfactory results.

I have always appplied the conventional wisdom as involving bags that don't move, uniform placement of the rifle on the bags for each shot, don't gorilla-grip the rifle, allow the rifle to recoil more or less freely (maybe not if you're sighting in your .600 Nitro Express) and do everything the same way every shot. All this has worked well with the exception of my very light, professionally tuned 700 Mountain Rifle in .260 Remington. With this rifle, hold it down on the bags and it will often put three shots in 1/2 MOA.

I am beginning to see one piece rests at the range, mostly metal, but some plastic. They all seem to have the traditional two sandbags, but the rear bag cups the butt of the rifle so that little rifle movement is possible. Some of these rests are weighted with extra sandbags or even lead.

Any of you use one of these new-style rests? Is accuracy the same as with the old-fashioned sandbags? Can a rifle sighted in on one of these new rests be expected to shoot to the same point of impact from field positions? Do I need to join the twentyfirst century?

[Whaump 'em]

I'm a bit more closed minded, as I see it as two steps away from having someone else (who knows how to use the bags) shoot the rifle.
Usually see these when they're shooting a cal. with too much recoil for the shooter.

[Paul B]

My ex-son-in-law has one of these gizmos that holds the rifle with clamps. Groups are fantastic. When it was my turn to shoot the rifle, I placed it on my normal type sandbag rest with rear bag and groups were just as good, but way off point of aim. I had him shoot some off my bags and again, the groups were way off. We had to totally resight the rifle in so he could have it ready for hunting season.
Paul B.

[felix]

To be expected, Paul. If the hunting condition will entail a permanent location, like a stand of some sort, or equivalent, sight the gun at a "clear" target while in that location. Shoot once, and then move the cross hairs to that "hole" in the clear spot without moving the gun one iota. Use the clamp to hold the gun after shooting the shot, and before moving the cross hairs. Clamp the gun to have the cross hairs at the very spot aimed at in the "clear" area. ... felix

[SharpsShooter]

Just like the ranson rest does not depict point of impact in actual field conditions, these rifle sleds do likewise. I have been seeing more of these "things" showing up at the range recently. Those who use them seem to have a slight disdain for those of us that use "those old fashioned sandbags". I watched a gent with a very nice .223 encore and a 36X scope shoot a 3 shot group at 50 (yes 50) yards that measured an incredible ( according to him) 3/4" inch group center to center. I just smiled and nodded my head, but managed to not show him the 18 shot ragged hole group that was less than a half inch that I had just shot at the same distance with my Mossberg 144 LSA and apeture sights.

They are neat gadgets and have a defenite use to wring out the absolute in load developement, but if you plan on using it for anything other than that, get it out of the vise and on sandbags or in your hands.

SS

[sundog]

let's see, in artillery terms, that would be a 'direct lay'. Then, fire for affect!

[felix]

!We don't fire for effect! says Big Mo in VietNam. ... felix

[felix]

The rest of the story: A bunch of good guys got into a fire fight via an ambush initiated by the bad guys in the middle of the night. The good guys were getting creamed by what appeared as a group triple in size of the good guy group. The called for air support. They answered saying they were occupied for the moment. The good guys said in 5 minutes they would be all gone, and no need to respond. BigMo heard the conversation and answered. The good guys said to put a volly "here" for effect. BigMO said the famous saying we don't fire for effect.
They continued by saying to give them the middle coordinates of a football field square, and they will place one round there. The good guys returned with the coordinate, saying they wanted total destruction, not just one round. The rounds, I think somebody said 9 rounds, hit at that coordinate about a minute later, supposedly after the ship's computers calculated all of the ambients including wave action. Not only was the "football field" completely dug up 12 feet deep, but half of the remaining good guys got it too. Only 3 made it out of there to tell this story. I heard the story around 1986 in Houston at our going away party as a third hand. ... felix

[NVcurmudgeon]

Thanks for all your answers. Looks like the new sleds won't do anything for me that worn-out Wrangler legs and free sand, widely available in Nevada, don't already do, and I'll still have a reliable sight in for hunting.

[9.3X62AL]

Bill--

Glad to see I'm not the only one recycling blue jean legs for accuracy testing.

I would submit that everything touching a rifle or handgun as the shot breaks affects placement downrange. The guy I hunted with last year uses one of those sled things, and it shoots great groups. As above, I put it over the bags--and the groups stay good, but change ZIP Codes.

For hunting rifles my start point is on the bags, where I establish a working zero--usually at 100 yards with iron-sighters like the 25-35 and 30-30, or cast boolit rifles......scopers with j-words like the 6.5 x 55 and 30-06 are zeroed at 200 yards. Next step is 3-shotters with rifle in both hands, front hand just touching the bags lightly enough to stop the wobbles. I call this the "field rest". Groups open a little, and depending on rifle, load, and velocity distribution might change a bit. Last is offhand, both sitting and standing. Groups open a little further, and distribution may change a little more as well. This tells the shooter a LOT more than just "stool-shooting", and adds the more variable element of the gun carriage into the equation. Some sustained practice once the field zero is established is a fine idea, with emphasis on the "cold shot" (first round fired in the barrel's clean/cold condition, like a hunting situation) and its point of impact, taken over several days at the range. I like to set both bench-rest and field-rest "zeroes" with the "cold-shot" regimen, and there isn't a lot of variation between them--seldom more than 1"-1.25" at 100 yards. Often, the offhand groups will "overlay" both rested groups.

The slower cast boolits will show larger zero variances between benchrest, fieldrest, and offhand distributions in my experience, likely due to barrel time issues. Rounds like the 22-250 (high velocity and minimal recoil) show the least zero variances. On the opposite extreme, the Ruger #1 x 45-70--a light rifle using heavies at 1000-1300 FPS will show drastic differences between bench, field, and offhand distributions. Most importantly, these practice sessions give the hunter a full idea of the rifle/load/shooter behavior in concert, capabilities, and limitations.

This sort of regimen instills the idea that 300 yard shots in the field on deer-sized targets are NOT the easy task that gunwriters make them sound like. Such shots are the product of careful range preparation and (often) years afield.

I have done this regimen for many years, and the Leupold-type grid/"checkerboard" paper target is very useful in assessing performance from the bench through the spotting scope, esp. with the crosshair reticles in most hunting scopes. I prefer a round bull for the irons, open or aperture.

[threett1]

Lets face it, marketing is everything nowadays.

[mike in co]

just a note from a BENCHREST shooter.

there are two things......benchrest and BENCHREST

benchrest is just what you have described, shooting a gun off a bench with some sort of support.

and

BENCHREST which is the shooting sport of benchrest shooting. for center fire, this is done at 100,200,some 300, and now we have long range 600 and 1000 yd BENCHREST COMPETITION. for the most part the rifles are not field guns, and some are just plain shooting machines. rim fire is shot at 50 yds and 50 meters, and i have shoot 22's in 100 yd competition. ( and then there is the black powder, the cast boolit, 50cal, etc,etc,)
most classes do not allow a one pc(frt/rear) rest. some front rests cost over $700, with rear bags as a rear rest.

i shoot BENCHREST and do a lot of benchrest shooting, load development, rifle building, etc from a bench. if you do not resite a rifle for how it will be fired, you probably will not be happy in the field. my point of impact moves as much as 6 inches at 200 yds going from bench to slung prone.

FOR THE CASUAL SHOOTER trying to stay around 1 moa, bechrest eguiptment will do, if you want to get serious, you will benefit from BENCHREST equiptment, including wind flags.
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT.

mike