Trying to learn a new style in benchrest, its not working

G

gabe ledesma

Member
For the Last 12+ years in benchrest shooting i have always used RB-LP actions no ejection. Early on this year i tried something diff, i went out and got me a new Panda action with a RB-LP-RE. After getting a barrel and loading up some rounds for this new gun i went to the range today and tried out the new gun,to my surprise i could not adopt to the new style of shooting, I guess that old habits are hard to break. I don't know if this has happened to some of you but i tell you what,it sucks, i just spent over $3500 on a gun i cant adapt to. Not only is it a nice action it also has a beautiful select wood Terry Leonard stock. Is it just me,or do i just have to keep trying to adopt to this new style of shooting?. Help a Brotha out. Gabe
 
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gabe ledesma said:
For the Last 12+ years in benchrest shooting i have always used RB-LP actions no ejection. Early on this year i tried something diff, i went out and got me a new Panda action with a RB-LP-RE. After getting a barrel and loading up some rounds for this new gun i went to the range today and tried out the new gun,to my surprise i could not adopt to the new style of shooting, I guess that old habits are hard to break. I don't know if this has happened to some of you but i tell you what,it sucks, i just spent over $3500 on a gun i cant adapt to. Not only is it a nice action it also has a beautiful select wood Terry Leonard stock. Is it just me,or do i just have to keep trying to adopt to this new style of shooting?. Help a Brotha out. Gabe
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What part are you not adapting too?
 
Get a loading block close to the port and open it up and toss in another. The empty is gone. Maybe on the bench. Maybe on the ground. Maybe down your neighbors neck. Pumpkin
 
Hi Gabe,
Just a suggestion,but you might try this. I should add that as a right handed left eyed shooter that has shot about every configuration, I have had to relax and learn each rather quickly. I guess that no one told me that it might be difficult, I wasn't smart enough to figure out that it was. Put an old barrel on your new rifle, dig out those bullets that you think the least of, and do a little very slow get the motion down perfectly practice. Don't worry about the targets at all, you are just working on modifying the mechanics of shooting. Then after this becomes somewhat routine, and all the stress has gone from doing it slow, start increasing the speed, again without much concern for flags or group size, just don't bump the rifle and get it shot. A bunch of preloaded rounds on old cases that you have retired, that are sized small enough at the back to not slow you down would be good. Do this on a couple of closely spaced range sessions. Also, make darn sure that you have tuned the ejector,and have some sort of catch box or fence so that there is absolutely no way for an ejected case to get away from you, right from the start. It sounds like your new rifle is really nice, and if you sell it and go back to what you are comfortable with, it won't be the end of the world, but what I have described here is the kind of work that I spend a couple of minutes on every time that I go from left right, to right right, to left left. It also approximates what I have to do to learn a new riff or chord change on the guitar, slow it down and get it right and then once it is grooved slow, speed it up, all as an exercise, never as part of a total piece, until I can do it without feeling awkward. Now that I know three chords, I can get on with becoming the next pop sensation ;-)
 
It took me awhile, I had double ports for years and then I got 2 ejecter guns. took me awhile, but you could not get me drunk enough to part with them or go back. "Have patience grasshopper"
It was funny though, I had film of me looking for the fired case only to realize it was on the bench, EH!!!!:rolleyes:
 
Hey Gabe,

You should try setting the gun up on a small bench or table in in your garage. Try and get everything as close as you can to an actual shooting bench. Then get 5 pieces of brass and just do some dry fire practice. You don't even have to pull the trigger, just load and eject the case. As Don suggested, get a loading block that is located near the port, or even a Larry Costa style that is on the joystick if you have that type of rest.
You should concentrate on perfect execution of your movements, not speed. Don't give up after your first try. I know a guy that had to start shooting right handed after having eye problems. He shot left handed before this.

Joe Hynes
 
the biggest issue that i am having with the gun is not the performance of the gun,but with the ejector part. what i should of mentioned also was that this action has a GT ejector,what i mean by that is in order to fully eject the case the bolt has to be fully pulled back in order to eject the case properly, if i pull it back to fast the case goes off the bench and if i don't pull it back fast enough some times the case stays in the action. When i find a good condition i will let all the rounds fly as fast as i can, and that is where i run into problems. The good part of it all is that it shoots nice little groups, and that's with a used barrel, anyways i will give it some more tryouts before i decide to give up on this gun. liljoe i am going to take your advice and setup a table in my garage and just practice with it. Gabe
 
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Gabe,
I had a similar issue when I started out and the recommendation to practice at home is what worked best for me. I set up on the dining room table and ran case after case to find the right stroke and made my own "Billy" towel to catch the brass. A cigar humidor with a flip top lid that doesn't fold all the way back can make a great brass catcher as well and doesn't take up a lot of room. So does some 1/2"x 3x12" pieces of wood that have a hinge connecting them. Stand them up on edge and set the angle to 90degrees and you are good to go.
My dad has a drop port action with a left port and had a heck of time getting the muscle memory down to reach for the next loaded round on the left side vs the right. With practice and time he got it down and is much more smooth.

Good luck,
Mike
 
My light is a spring loaded ejector and my heavy is a static ejector, or in your words, a GT ejector. It does take some getting use too but after you use it for awhile, no problem, I have a lid off of my ammo box which is about 2 3/4 by 5 1/2 and out of 10 rounds I can flip about 8 or 9 into the lid. Just takes "PRACTISE, PRACTISE, and more PRACTISE
 
Similar story

savet06 said:
Gabe,
I had a similar issue when I started out and the recommendation to practice at home is what worked best for me. I set up on the dining room table and ran case after case to find the right stroke and made my own "Billy" towel to catch the brass. A cigar humidor with a flip top lid that doesn't fold all the way back can make a great brass catcher as well and doesn't take up a lot of room. So does some 1/2"x 3x12" pieces of wood that have a hinge connecting them. Stand them up on edge and set the angle to 90degrees and you are good to go.
My dad has a drop port action with a left port and had a heck of time getting the muscle memory down to reach for the next loaded round on the left side vs the right. With practice and time he got it down and is much more smooth.

Good luck,
Mike
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I went from a right bolt, right loading and ejector port with no ejector. Picked out the empties by hand. To a right bolt left loading port drop port ejector panda. I too set the rifle up on a table for an hours practice every evening after work. I would place an empty case in the chamber so it would drop out correctly and load a dummy round to get the cycle down pat. Do it enough and you will get it down. Now I have this sorted I can load and fire while a condition holds much faster if I have to than I could ever with the old rifle.
Andy.
 
gabe ledesma said:
For the Last 12+ years in benchrest shooting i have always used RB-LP actions no ejection. Early on this year i tried something diff, i went out and got me a new Panda action with a RB-LP-RE. After getting a barrel and loading up some rounds for this new gun i went to the range today and tried out the new gun,to my surprise i could not adopt to the new style of shooting, I guess that old habits are hard to break. I don't know if this has happened to some of you but i tell you what,it sucks, i just spent over $3500 on a gun i cant adapt to. Not only is it a nice action it also has a beautiful select wood Terry Leonard stock. Is it just me,or do i just have to keep trying to adopt to this new style of shooting?. Help a Brotha out. Gabe
Click to expand...

I like Boyd's approach, JMHO.

Dick
 
Adjustable Clamps and Towel

You've probably seen this already, but several shooters at our range have a neat setup for catching empties. They use two of those adjustable clamps from Home Depot, about 2 feet long. They clamp them to the edge of the bench on the ejection side and drape a towel over them. The empties drop right there in a neat pile and the towel cushions them. This would be a good setup for shooting an AR off the bench on a crowded range. Cutting the side out of a cardboard box works as well but takes up more room and is easily bumped.
 
vtmarmot said:
You've probably seen this already, but several shooters at our range have a neat setup for catching empties. They use two of those adjustable clamps from Home Depot, about 2 feet long. They clamp them to the edge of the bench on the ejection side and drape a towel over them. The empties drop right there in a neat pile and the towel cushions them. This would be a good setup for shooting an AR off the bench on a crowded range. Cutting the side out of a cardboard box works as well but takes up more room and is easily bumped.
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I have been there and had to do that! picked it up from the Euber bros and it works great. Not a whole lot of room off the right side of the bench when it comes to ejecting.
Mike
 
I have seen some of the methods that some shooters are using Like, billy towels boxes and fish nets. I was hoping that i could just use a towel to catch the brass but that is not working. I will try and find a rethem that works with this action. Until then, Practice and more Practice. thanks guys for some of your Advice. Gabe
 
When you're HATIN' it just remember..... I've got three right-eject guns with springs and every one of them dings the delicate necks. I put some soft stuff up in there but it wears out, and gets wet, and gets dirty.

Some people said "go to a thick no-turn neck!" But that doesn't help me. Just because I can't SEE the dings doesn't make them not be there :)

The answer is your way or bottom eject I guess.

al
 
The top shooters in the world are probably using BATs with spring ejectors, but it is also true that they are probably not the way that they came from BAT, but rather tuned to the minimum force needed to get cases to reliably clear the action.
For instance:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bjs96PsbXI
It looks to me like Kelbly's solved a non existent problem with their standing ejector. What do you think?
 
Boyd, I don't think so, Kelbly's use a different clock on their bolt for the extractor and ejector. Bat uses a Sako stile ejector for the BR. and PPC.the clock on them are different than Kelbly's …..have both…… jim
 
I am not understanding your use of clock. Do you mean that the positions of the extractor and ejector, where the top of the open bolt face would be 12;00 o'clock, and the bottom 6:00? My remark should have been qualified to short range benchrest, and was perhaps a little to absolute, but the actions that I mentioned are very common, and the video was to show how one that is tuned up properly works. I have a friend that has a couple of three lugs R,L,R that he has hardly shot at all. I helped him order them, and tried one out at his request. It definitely needs tuning, since as it came, cases come out of the action with too much force.
 
Catch bowl

alinwa said:
When you're HATIN' it just remember..... I've got three right-eject guns with springs and every one of them dings the delicate necks. I put some soft stuff up in there but it wears out, and gets wet, and gets dirty.

Some people said "go to a thick no-turn neck!" But that doesn't help me. Just because I can't SEE the dings doesn't make them not be there :)

The answer is your way or bottom eject I guess.

al
Click to expand...

Yep I just place a felt lined wooden bowl my farther turned on his lathe below the drop port and every time I pull the bolt back I hear a plop as an empty arrives. I can't imagine having to go back to a case flicker and having to chase the brass.
Andy.
 
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