Benching a rifle

[flm_shooter]

Attended my first rendezvous in 19 years this week. Could write a novel about it, but a few things made the top:

1) People are still nice. A total stranger at the beginning of the week loaned my wife a rifle, and spent many hours with her on the range (I had the baby). She had never fired a rifle of any kind before. We came home with a left-hand Lyman percussion just for her.

2) You can shoot terrible all week until the one time you shouldn't. She took her new rifle out the last day, with coaching, and starting shooting decently at 25 yards. An incredible improvement from 2 days earlier, but still looking like a shotgun patten. She said, "Here, you try it, I think the sights aren't adjusted right" to me. I picked it up, fired it wrong-handed, and made the best, tightest, most-centered 3-shot group of my life with a muzzleloader. Stupid, stupid, stupid me...

Anyway, I want to bench that gun and another to help develop good loads for them. What is the best procedure? Sandbag supporting the hand? Sandbag only? I don't have access to fancy rests, just a nice concrete bench and a couple sandbags. How have you done it?

 

[roundball]

I can tell you the way I learned to do it:

It almost doesn't matter how you bench a rifle when doing load development because you're just "shooting groups"...you don't even have to worry about sight adjustments...doing whatever is most convenient and comfortable for long shooting sessions is important, helps consistency, etc.

And as you already know, consistency is the most critical thing...however you end up setting up at the bench, just make every shot exactly the same way...when done, return to the style of shooting that you mainly use (ie: offhand) and adjust sights that way using the "best load" you just discovered.

 

[LRB]

I beg to differ. The way a rifle is benched is very crucial to group size. Consistency is the key, but it has to also be in the right areas. Bench resting a rifle properly is almost an art. Bag firmness, butt pressure, bag position, gun position, head posistion, even cheek pressure, will affect a group. The bench itself is very important. Rather than go into detail, I would recommend a book, "THE ACCURATE RIFLE" by Warren Page. Page was a champion bench rest shooter and the developer of the 243 Win cartridge. In my experience building up BA tack drivers, every thing he had to say is right on the money, and althogh we are concerned with open sight ML's, the same principles still apply.

 

[LRB]

Fillmore, I became a firefighter a month after you were borne, good luck in your career. Place your front bag where you would hold on the forearm. You need semi-firm bags. Place the other at and under the butt. Your left hand will control your aim by sqeezing or moving the rear bag. Your right hand will very gently be on the wrist. Do not grip so much as to steer the gun, your left hand does this. Be sure and pull the trigger straight back with no steering of it from your finger. For each shot your head and cheek position needs to be consistent and the pressure of your cheek to the gun. Your light needs to be consistent. Do not shoot under a cloud and then shoot in direct sun. Keep your butt pressure on your shoulder consistent. Go ahead and set your sights after establishing your best group, but if your sights are nonadjustable leave some room for final setting after you have shot off hand a bit. As for all shooting be sure you are sqeezing the trigger and not jerking it even with set triggers. Your bench needs to be solid and heavy, and you need to feel comfortable when you are ready to fire. Your seat also needs to be solid if possible. When setting the gun on the bags it should be set pretty close to aim point to minimize adjusting. Variation of light even at the target wi

 

[LRB]

Fillmore, I became a firefighter a month after you were borne, good luck in your career. Place your front bag where you would hold on the forearm. You need semi-firm bags. Place the other at and under the butt. Your left hand will control your aim by sqeezing or moving the rear bag. Your right hand will very gently be on the wrist. Do not grip so much as to steer the gun, your left hand does this. Be sure and pull the trigger straight back with no steering of it from your finger. For each shot your head and cheek position needs to be consistent and the pressure of your cheek to the gun. Your light needs to be consistent. Do not shoot under a cloud and then shoot in direct sun. Keep your butt pressure on your shoulder consistent. Go ahead and set your sights after establishing your best group, but if your sights are nonadjustable leave some room for final setting after you have shot off hand a bit. As for all shooting be sure you are sqeezing the trigger and not jerking it even with set triggers. Your bench needs to be solid and heavy, and you need to feel comfortable when you are ready to fire. Your seat also needs to be solid if possible. When setting the gun on the bags it should be set pretty close to aim point to minimize adjusting. Variation of light even at the target will affect your shot, so watch this closely. At the bench you will shoot best with a shade of some sort over you and the gun. Good luck, hope this helps.

 

[tg]

I use a bag forward enough to eliminate a pivoting, and try to maintain everything back from there the same each shot,also wipe between shots to keep the barrel in the same "condition" I am no pro target shooter but it works for me...as my vision changes "close" seems better all the time, I sight in a smoothbore with no rear sight from a standing rest position as things change when sitting and standing with these for me.