Starting Up

[fresno]

Hello everybody, I need some information as to setting up for benchrest shooting. I have a Cooper TRP-3 with a cowan rest and proctor rear bag. I don't know the basics for setting up
the rifle on the rest or rear bag as far as spacing or bag placement. If some of you could post picture of your setups and some info it would be great. Thank you, Fresno.

 

[tim]

Poke around on the home page and visit the sites for the sanctioning bodies. They all have photo galleries and you'll get the deal pretty quick.

 

[Bill B]

I'll let you know my bench set-up procedure:

First I set up the rear bag and place it on the bench near the edge of bench so that I don't have to lean on the bench. Then I sight down between the ears of the bag and line the gap up with the target.

Second I place the front rest on the bench and sight down the gap between the ears of the rear bag again and line up the front rest with the back bag and the target.

Third, I place a bag level on the front rest bag and level up the front rest.

When the rifle is place on the bags, I want about an inch to 1 1/2 inches of the butt stock hanging behind the rear bag. The front rest stop on my rest is set up to 2 inches in front of the front rest.

I'm not too concerned about having the rear bag exactly at a certain distance, I'm more concerned that there is no binding of front or rear rest that might inhibit free recoil of the rifle. The sides of the front rest and ears of the rear rest need to be parallel with the stock.

If once I place the rifle on the rest, if I need to make any adjustments to the set-up to make shooting the rifle comfortable, I take the rifle off and check alignment and level again.

Hope this helps.

 

[Boyd Allen]

Instead of a level on my rest, I take a torpedo level with me when I post my target(s). I place the target frame in its holder, hold the level against the backer, and draw a level line to line up the top of the target on. That way I have a level reference in my scope to line up my horizontal cross hair on. After that I level the rest using the target as a reference.

I got this trick, years ago, form a very experienced smallbore prone enthusiast. I have never seen anyone else do it that way, but is sure is handy. He was a really fine fellow, with great shooting skills, that was getting in as much range time as he could, while dealing with pancreatic cancer.

One thing that I have noticed about my 40x rimfire is that where the front bag is placed on the forend has a definite effect on group size, that is likes a softer rear bag than my CF bench rifle, and that finger placement on the trigger and perfect direction of pull are much more important than with CF, as is consistent contact with the rifle. It is a lot more picky.