Rules aside, what front bag fill gives the best results?

B

Boyd Allen

Active member
I am not suggesting a rule change, merely inquiring as to whether any of you have found better materials to fill front bags with for non competition applications. It seems to me that the existence of bag fill rules implies that there might be some advantage to be gained by not following them. Is there?
 
I don't see where circumventing the bag fill rule helps at all, or at least in my case. There are those who think a hard bag is a good bag. To them I say, just try it with a 2x4 and let me know what you find.
 
I like a 50/50 mixture of sifted Hartz parakeet gravel and playground sand. :)
 
I have an older Bald Eagle nylon front bag, and come hell or high water I MUST learn to use it cause bought 2 when I got this one. From what Bart said the other day mine is way to hard. Does the too hard condition make a bag unshootable or inconsistent ? I have shot "0s" with it but not all of them are "0s". Mine has a tight fill of washed masons sand (what we use to make mortar with at work). Should I just loose some sand or fill with something else? No one has mentioned the back bag! I know what I would like to do with it. I think if I traced the bottom of the bag on a piece of 1/4 inch stainless steel and cut it out, then glued the bag to the SS plate it would have a flat bottom and would not rock. It would also be heavy and about perfect I think. I haven't done this because friends have said it would be illegal for use in any competition. I don't know if they are right but a donut works OK. I appreciate any help, thanks Mark
 
The NBRSA rules specifically prohibit metallic materials being used in the construction of the rear bag. The bottom inch of the bag is exempted from the deflection (1/4", horizontal with finger pressure) rule. The problem with a rigid flat base is that not all benches are perfectly flat. I think that the oversized Otto rings that Edgewood offers combined with a rigid bag bottom may be a pretty good combination. Another option, Protektor Model will make custom Otto rings to your specifications for a fair price.

Personally, I believe that there differences in stocks, and perhaps bedding that account for differences in how rifles perform with hard front bags. I have thought of coming up with an oversized front bag, that would not fit in a normal top. I have one of the original Hoehn windage tops that could easily have an oversized bag plate fitted to it, as long as there was a spacer to let it clear the windage adjustment knob.
 
At the SS one year I used the bag set-up of a HOF member to test some loads. I was surprised by the hardness of the front bag. It was as hard as the 2x4 that Boyd mentioned. Also, it had a lot of side tension on the stock. It was the opposite of my set-up, but evidently it worked for him to shoot his way into the HOF. I guess every shooter has to experiment with different set-ups and use the one that works for him/her. Good shooting....James
 
I'm sayin', and I could be wrong, that the rest is unimportant as long as it supports shooting quickly.
 
I have used tumbling media with good results. corn cob media, or walnut, either one. I wasn't sure of the official rule on front bag fill, so I now have play ground sand in my front bag. Works ok, as long as I keep my bag fluffed up. The media works well though! Lee
 
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