Bench Rest Technique

E

ekp

Guest
I have a general question to do with technique when shooting a rifle from the rest. I shoot from a Rock BR with a rear bag for a rest. Not really fancy. At the moment I am working up loads for a milsurp K31. These rifles are reputed to be really accurate and the rifle does show some potential. My problem is that the rifle does not always recoil from the rest the same with the same loads. Sometimes the rifle will recoil straight rearward. Other times muzzle will recoil upwards and others rifle will torque. I am sure this is causing problems with gouping.s Any suggestions to the cause and solution?
 
Forget the front rest. Snuggle it down into some big soft sandbags, front and rear and hang on to it. Groups should improve.
Joel
 
I have a general question to do with technique when shooting a rifle from the rest. I shoot from a Rock BR with a rear bag for a rest. Not really fancy. At the moment I am working up loads for a milsurp K31. These rifles are reputed to be really accurate and the rifle does show some potential. My problem is that the rifle does not always recoil from the rest the same with the same loads. Sometimes the rifle will recoil straight rearward. Other times muzzle will recoil upwards and others rifle will torque. I am sure this is causing problems with gouping.s Any suggestions to the cause and solution?


How are you holding it? free recoil or pining it?
 
Not free recoil. Not sure what you mean about pinning. Squeeze rear bag.

Pinning would be holding the rifle stock against the stop on the front rest (using your shoulder).

Squeezing the rear bag is neither pinning or free recoil.
 
Pinning would be holding the rifle stock against the stop on the front rest (using your shoulder).

Squeezing the rear bag is neither pinning or free recoil.

Forend comes within inches of muzzle. Unable to use stoo.
 
Pinning would be holding the rifle stock against the stop on the front rest (using your shoulder).

Never a good idea.
Front stops are there to help repeat position of rifle in rest. Push forward till you touch and back off just a little. If you do pin do not put any amount of forward pressure on rifle or rear leg of rest may lift, this is not at all good for accuraccy.
 
Never a good idea.
Front stops are there to help repeat position of rifle in rest. Push forward till you touch and back off just a little. If you do pin do not put any amount of forward pressure on rifle or rear leg of rest may lift, this is not at all good for accuraccy.

well, I let people argue with Mike Ratigan (see chapter 10 of his book "Extreme Rifle Accuracy")
 
Never a good idea.
Front stops are there to help repeat position of rifle in rest. Push forward till you touch and back off just a little. If you do pin do not put any amount of forward pressure on rifle or rear leg of rest may lift, this is not at all good for accuraccy.

Good advice with a Benchrest rifle, does not apply to swiss army rifles
 
well, I let people argue with Mike Ratigan (see chapter 10 of his book "Extreme Rifle Accuracy")

I've never seen Mike argue with anybody, or pin a rifle ( yes,I know its in the book)He doesn't shoot .22 short ppc anymore either.
 
EKP,
Nader and Dick are right benchrest rifles are built to ride in bags and rests and that is what most competitors are talking about. Your rifle and a lot of factory hunting rifles are shot a little differently and Nader is correct that big soft sand bags often work well and a light hold will usually work best with factory stocks and triggers.
RW, Ratigan is a great shooter and a top competitor but you obviously have not met Nader, Dick or Ratigan. The argument is yours and not Mike's.
 
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Just adding a bit of info here, which is likely to be ignored because it doesn't sound right. I watched my friend shoot a group at Reidsville. Was watching because he was winning the agg with only one target to go. His rifle recoiled in different ways most every shot. The butt jumped up a couple of times (badly) but slid straight back other times. I thought the group would be a big one but it turned out about a .150. Since then, I've had a different outlook on this and many things I thought I knew.

That story to say this....The rifle probably won't shoot any better with any rest. At the least, it doesn't justify the expense. That said, I think everybody that can afford to do it needs to have a really good front rest. It will be a good front rest regardless of what you shoot.

As far as "pinning" goes, I don't know if that hurts or not...I don't think it does but I never did it. Too much trouble!

And finally...we're talking different animals here. Largely different animals! Truth is, we're just talking with no basis at all.
 
Just adding a bit of info here, which is likely to be ignored because it doesn't sound right. I watched my friend shoot a group at Reidsville. Was watching because he was winning the agg with only one target to go. His rifle recoiled in different ways most every shot. The butt jumped up a couple of times (badly) but slid straight back other times. I thought the group would be a big one but it turned out about a .150. Since then, I've had a different outlook on this and many things I thought I knew.

That story to say this....The rifle probably won't shoot any better with any rest. At the least, it doesn't justify the expense. That said, I think everybody that can afford to do it needs to have a really good front rest. It will be a good front rest regardless of what you shoot.

As far as "pinning" goes, I don't know if that hurts or not...I don't think it does but I never did it. Too much trouble!

And finally...we're talking different animals here. Largely different animals! Truth is, we're just talking with no basis at all.

I think what your story illustrates is something different.......totally valid, but different.......

It has long been my contention that if a rifle shoots, REALLY SHOOTS, it don't care how you hold it.
 
Bench rest Technique

Hummm i'm sitting here wondering whats going on here.

I'm kind of wondering what he is expecting for accuracy or what he thinks accuracy is.

Not being negative, Just what do you expect as to accuracy?
 
Wilbur,
I have had one of those rifles that had butt jumping issues, and I came to the conclusion that it was happening after the bullet left the barrel. Just like your friend's my groups gave no indication that it happened. My guess as to what caused the problem is too far off topic for this thread. On the matter of how one shoots mattering, I have done a lot of experimenting, at the end of shooting sessions, after establishing that the load was in tune, and that the rifle was performing well shooting free recoil. IMO while there are a variety of methods that will work, one can also degrade performance by the manner in which a rifle is shot. On the pinning thing, I remember reading an article on 6mmBR,com about a successful short ranger shooter (you would know of, but whose name I cannot remember just now) who shoots that way. I tried it, and did not find it to be an advantage, but I do believe that it has some potential when used with a stock and rest setup that does not track consistently, or has a deficiency that the additional damping helps. Related to this, years back I was shooting one of the thin folded bag Hoehn tops and decided to add sand to the front bag to improve tracking. It did, but along with that came an unacceptable amount of vertical. I decided that since there was no tracking trophy, that I could live with the additional re-aiming, and removed the sand that I had added. No less of a notable than Warren Page cautioned against shooting heavy recoiling hunting rifles off of hard front bags. I have friends who prefer Bulls bags for their hunting rifles even though they have more conventional front rests that they use for their varmint rifles, so I would say that their preferences definitely follow Page's recommendation. Overall, I think that the best advice is to try a variety of equipment for each rifle, as well as shooting techniques, and let it tell you what it prefers.
 
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