Basic Benchrest Technique

J

Jayhawker

New member
In an effort to improve my shooting from the bench with my 6mmBR, I have some questions:

How do you hold your rifle? A tight hold on the stock or just enough to squeeze the trigger? Hard against your shoulder or do you let it travel on the bags a bit before it impacts your shoulder? Is making minute adjustments by squeezing the rear bag a good idea? Do you use a solid cheek weld or not at all?

Is your front bag solidly packed with the sides gripping the stock?

Thanks for any input to these questions or any other information you can provide.
 
While shooting from the bench, try varying the basics you identified and let the rifle tell you how it best performs.
 
How is your rifle stocked, and balanced? What sort of rest/bag setup do you have. How much does your rifle weigh? Try different techniques on a day when the wind is easy, while shooting over flags. Different rifles and bags favor different techniques.
 
Recoil will of course play a role in what type of hold you choose to use, but once you find the technique that produces the best results, the most important role now becomes consistency from shot to shot.

As to my technique, since I primarily shoot either a 22 PPC or .222 Rem (Remington 40X/Shilen barrels) and recoil is not a factor, I touch the rifle with only my right index (trigger) and right middle finger and allow the rifle to recoil back into my right shoulder. For each subsequent shot, the rifle is simply slid forward until the stock contacts the "stop" on the front tripod and is then pulled back approx 1/16th". I then check the rear bunny bag to insure it remains in the same position for each subsequent round.

I'm certain there are other techniques that work equally well or better, but after a good deal of experimentation, I have settled on the above technique for cartridges producing minimal recoil.

Ford42
 
If the rifle is light and/or has a rounded forend you're likely going to have to hold it to some extent. For a competition BR rifle free recoil is the method of choice, but depending on the rifle and it's stock shape I've got rifles that need to be held and others that don't. It's a shoot 'em and see situation. If the rifle has substantial recoil and you value your shoulder you're going to have to hang onto the rifle. Whatever you do consistency is what you're looking for.
 
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