Cheek Rests in Benchrest

M

michaelnel

Guest
Hello

Sorry for the stupid newbie question, but ....

When I shoot my Savage 10 FCP HS Precision, I find it much easier to get my eye lined up on the scope when I raise my adjustable cheekpiece. It's a tactical style rifle, so I realize it is different than benchrest rifles.

I will be picking up my new Savage 12 Benchrest this afternoon, and it brings to mind this business of the cheek piece. I have seen lots of pictures of competition benchrest shooters, and they never seem to have cheekpieces in spite of the fact that it appears they tend to use scope mounts that hold the scope pretty high off the bore centerline.

Why is that? I do understand about free recoil shooting, which I think is used mostly for 100/200 yard benchrest competition, and I can see why you wouldn't want a cheek weld for that.

Do long range benchrest shooters try to not touch anything but the trigger too?
 
Full on free recoil shooting is done in a manner so that nothing touches the rifle except the trigger finger. If you look through a high magnification (36x+) scope, and aim the rifle with your cheek even slightly touching the stock, and then move your head so that it does not, all the while maintaining your view of the target through the scope, you are very likely to see the cross hairs move. Shooting from a bench, with a rest and rifle setup like those common in benchrest, one becomes used to finding ones scope's field of view, without having to touch the stock. I will admit that at first, given small room for error at these magnifications, that I often found myself moving my head around to try to find the place where I had the view through the scope that I wanted, but after a while, it was not a problem at all. If you think that that is a challenge, try shooting a rail gun sometime. There is nothing to use as a reference for head position at all. Getting back to "real" rifles,shooting from a bench, even when I hold a rifle, and pull it into my shoulder, if it is capable of fine accuracy, I try to keep my face off of the stock, or if the cheek piece is too tall, or rings to short to allow that, I use substantial contact, and make sure that I pay attention to my follow through.
 
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Thank you for the great and detailed explanation, Boyd!
 
There is some friggin' GOLD right thar!.....lissen to Boyd, from having DONE IT.....

"If you look through a high magnification (36x+) scope, and aim the rifle with your cheek even slightly touching the stock, and then move your head so that it does not, all the while maintaining your view of the target through the scope, you are very likely to see the cross hairs move."

And THAT my frien' shows you just how repeatable that "cheekweld" must be to shoot those last few tenths that a truly GOOD rifle is capable of.
 
Cheek Rests in Benchrest. Sounds like an oxymoron, as in cruel kindness or make haste slowly. :D
 
Hey, I knew it was a stupid question. But I didn't know, so I came to the experts.
 
I'm 65 years old. I stopped caring what people think about me a LONG time ago.
 
Francis,
I was not talking about parallax. I know the difference. As it happens, I agree with your statement about not touching or hanging on. IMO slight touch can be dangerous to aggs.
Boyd
 
Another thing not mentioned is weight. I dont know of many guns on the line that can handle that much weight being added
 
WRONG'O Boyd....... there certainly IS a DUMB QUESTION!

I teach this in every Hunter Ed class.... got one going right now in fact.......

there is ONE stupid question....

the one you did not ask

al
 
I shoot longrange BR and I have my scopes real high. One reason is the heat we get off of a barrel. The other reason is the stock dragging on your cheek. Now you have to have the Parallax out of your scope and that is a must. Our guns recoil hard especially my WSM in a light gun so I have my shoulder against the stock but no pressure. Now in Heavy gun I stay away about an inch. I believe even if you have cheek weld you need to get the parallax out especially for longrange. My scopes sit on a 20 minute base and have the highest ring I can get. On the heavy gun our bases are about an inch or over because you have to get the scope bell off the barrel block. Our barrels are 1.450 inch diameter and the block that's it is glued in is 3 inches. Matt
 
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