Benchrest Shooting Technique-Firing technique

[revenant]

Part of the same series of questions to help us newbs.
Hope y'all aren't tired of me yet!

When you set up your rifle on the bench, how do you hold it when you fire? Do you shoulder it or let it slde? Do you use your forward hand to hold it down so it does not rise when firing? How tightly do you hold it with your dominant hand? How do you press your trigger? Breathing techniques/methods? Do you keep your eyes open to come back on target faster, or simply resight afterwards? Etc etc...

 

[ReedG]

In "point-blank" benchrest,100-/200-yd.) most shooters utilize some form of "free recoil". There are many variations, but with a proper bag set-up, well-balanced rifle and good bench manners it works.

Firstly, competitive shooting requires consistency. I believe the only thing I can do consistently is "nothing". If you squeeze the fore end, you must do it exactly the same every time; ditto the pistol grip, etc., etc., etc. I can move a bullet all over a bull by just varying the pressure on the cheekpiece.

I have my rifle snuggly in the front bag on a Farley Coaxial rest, the rear of the stock snuggly into an Edgewood "Mini Gator" rabbit ear bag. I push the rifle ahead with my shoulder, into the stop, just so it touches; keep my shoulder squarely behind the butt just at the point where it barely touches the buttplate. I rest my hand on the rear bag, reach into the trigger guard and think about touching the trigger, it goes "bang!".

Some shooters hang their thumb over the pistol grip, some put their thumb behind the trigger guard and squeeze the trigger, some use varying grips all the way to a "death grip". Like everything in this sport, if it works for you then do it. If you are at the bottom of the ladder and just learning, I highly recommend you learn to shoot "free recoil".

 

[tenring]

I would NOT recommend shooting free recoil with anything above 264 caliber.

 

[ReedG]

Not sure if you mean .264 bore diameter, but lots of us shoot 30BR, 30x47 and even some .308 WCF in free recoil.

The most troublesome thing to shooting free recoil is torque in the bags caused by heavy bullets in fast-twist barrels. Most all point-blank BR guns use from 1:14 to 1:18 twists and reasonably light bullets so have minimal torque.

As to recoil, with a well-balanced set-up in a modern low-profile BR stock, recoil isn't a problem.

 

[chris308]

I have found with my stuff that I can free recoil with 1-14" twist barrels but when shooting 1-8" i have to use a slight hold on the tang...hope this helps some.....chris

 

[AlNyhus]

Revenant:

I would just add a couple of things:

- How hard you hold the gun and the amount,if any) of shoulder pressure you use is really an individual thing. Try some different things..your targets will tell you what your setup should be.
- A good starting point is just a bit of shoulder pressure against the butt, This is a lot easier if your front rest has a fore arm stop on it, but you can do it w/wo a stop.

- Try a gentle grip with your shooting hand around the wrist of the stock to start with. Start with your thumb on the action tang with just a bit of pressure. If you elevate your elbow with a bag this will help to keep you from twisting the gun as it comes back in recoil.

- Even with a 1.5-2 oz. trigger like we use in these BR guns, trigger control is an area that's very important. Don't slap the trigger..use a nice, quick, controlled pull on the trigger.

- Proper follow through is one area that gets BR shooters in trouble. Keep your head down as the gun comes back and develop good follow through after the gun fires. Don't be in such a hurry to look through the scope to see the target that you start lifting your head up as the gun comes back. That bullet has gone where it's gone, no matter how fast you look through the scope.

- Train yourself to shoot with both eyes open. After a shot, ask yourself if you know exactly where the crosshairs were when the gun fired.

You will almost certainly change these things around as you get used to your gun and setup but this may give you some ideas for how to start. If possible, have an experienced BR shooter watch you and critique your form.

Have fun! -Al

P.S. The first pice of equipment a new shooter to the accuracy game should invest in is a couple of decent windflags and stands. Use 2 at 100 to start with. Without flags, you'll waste more money on components in two or three range sessions than they cost...and you still won't have flags. I can't emphasize this enough for a new shooter.

 

[GerryM]

Hey the guys are right on the button. One other thing though"
Seat height. make sure your not stretching to get to the rifle. don't kink your neck. make sure you have a full view of
the target. good luck shoot some small ones.

 

[tootalloutdoors]

Train yourself to shoot with both eyes open. After a shot, ask yourself if you know exactly where the crosshairs were when the gun fired.

Why this?? Sort of watching your flags.. Just wanting to learn... Toot

 

[dunraven]

As someone new to the sport, I spend a fair amount of time reading what you folks have to ask and answer. I appreciate the time you take to give helpful and thoughtful and courteous answers to even the basic questions. Thank you.

 

[wildcat284]

I set my rifle up on my kitchen table in my rest and practice dry firing for about 1/2 an hour. Amazing what you can pick up here. The classic for me was discovering that with the position I use to have with my finger on the trigger, the cross hairs on my scope were being pulled over to the right every time I squeezed off a round.

After correcting that problem and just dry firing so I got use to my new finger position, my groups on the target have improved significantly.

 

[billmo]

The shooting game is a subject that pans out to be and endless pit of knowledge and sometimes we find that what we thought was facts with no waivering will turn around on us and make us realize a particular set-up or method that we believed 100% in was not altogether the whole picture. But then again the smartest man in the world does not ever know it all. Bill

 

[JimmyO]

Anyone have a setup technique for maintaining a consistent sight picture? If I setup in the house I don't have enough room to adjust for parallax; this showed me just how much my check weld/head angle of dangle was off. Dry firing is helping though.

 

[FBecigneul]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is length of pull. If the rifle is too long in the butt, you won't be comfortable and your groups or scores will suffer. If the length of pull is too long you can't set up with your shoulders parallel to the line. This will cause your shots to go left if you are shooting right handed. This is especially true if you are shooting free recoil or with a light hold.