Can someone help

[wildfowler]

Rebel, I am the same person you know from the black out forum. I will put a picture up tomorrow.

I bought the bald eagle rest from grizzly and bought the front bag for it there as well. As best I could tell there were basically three choices for front bags and one of them was indicated for a sporting rifle stock which is what I have.

I just filled the bag with play sand from Home Depot. I have seen other users mention they like the front bag to be soft, and one person suggested that he likes baby powder for the fill. My front bag is definitely not soft.

My forearm is flat on the bottom but it does not have the big wide “slider” that I’ve seen in pics of competition rifles here.

Before getting the bald eagle, one thing that frustrated me with the front bag is that every shot, the recoil from the rifle would cause the rifle to settle deeper into the bag and I felt like that was creating a similar situation to what I have described throughout this topic. Having to readjust my rifle every time between shots.

With the bag, who’s to say I fluffed it just right so that it was in the same shape and dimension as it was for the first shot?


Anywho, Thanks.

 

[Evan]

OK.

One of the things I’ve read here repeatedly that I’ve filed away for future reference is to not let your shoulder or any part of your body touch the rear bag.

So what happens when you touch the rear bag? Does that dampen or affect the harmonics throughout the gun? Optimum barrel time?

Earlier I mentioned that when I practice dry firing at the range, while looking through the scope I can perceive a slight jump off of the target bull’s-eye. Has the bullet left the barrel before that movement would have affected it’s flight path to target?

Thanks.

I think you're in your head too much on this one. When folks talk about touching the rear bag, or thumbing the stock, or any of the free-recoil system issues, they are discussing minutiae that takes you from a 0.200 group to a 0.500 group. You do NOT need to have a full benchrest setup and use free recoil to shoot small. Guys with bipods and a tight grip of their rifle shoot 0.25 all the time.

Question: Why do you want to use free recoil? It's a really sensitive way to shoot a gun and it only works when the whole system is designed and set up correctly. Not every gun works. I've always found much greater consistency by holding the gun, but I'm not agg'ing in the teens and my rifles aren't set up for free recoil.

I always coach a new shooter on breathing. Too many folks hold their breath and yank the trigger which is the worst way to do it. Deep, calm breathing. Inhale, hold for a second, and then slowly breath out. As you breath out (but before you run out of breath and begin inhaling again), slowly squeeze the trigger. Always squeeze the trigger on a slow, controlled exhale. Never on an inhale, and never while holding your breath. That usually dramatically reduces fliers in a group.

I have a buddy who can shoot his hunting rifle quite well and has it sighted in for him to hit dead center. When I shoot his rifle, it hits 6 inches right. When he shoots my rifles, they hit 6 inches left. He pulls the trigger to the side and back, but repeatably so that his groups aren't bad at all. But he can't shoot anyone else's rifle and they can't shoot his, because of his "unique" trigger technique. My point here is consistency is key. You do the same thing every time, and that translates onto the target. It's more important than any minutiae about technique.

If your gun is sinking into your bag shot after shot, then you need more sand in it.

 

[wildfowler]

Thank you Evan.

I may have chosen a bad example to use of the type of information that I’ve read here frequently that I thought might apply to me too.

To my knowledge I am not trying to use the free recoil style of shooting. I can position my bag rear bag so that my body does not touch it. I have simply tried to remain conscious of whether or not I am touching the bag.

Regarding free recoil, I don’t know exactly what the definition is but I am definitely holding the rifle with both hands.

Thanks

 

[Dusty Stevens]

The less you “coax” the rifle to get on target before each shot the better. Try to hold the pistol grip like normal but with your left hand grab the front of the rear bag instead of the forend. Squeeze the bag around to get your scope on target not differing cheek pressure or grip. Let the rifle bounce on the front its not hurting anything. Also beat your stock into the bags each time you shoot to settle it. Play sand is best but soft bags with play sand in there is better. What size scope do you have? You cant hit small without aiming small

 

[wildfowler]

I appreciate the help and suggestions.

Since I’ve last posted I’ve made a few “friend of a friend” phone calls and have spoken on the phone with long range competition shooter. (I don’t know the name of the discipline, PRS maybe?)

Got a good starting point for meeting someone in person to take a look at what I’m doing.

Dusty, I previously mentioned using a 4X14 scope. But the way you phrased your question made me think about my particular scope.

It does have a one MOA dot in the middle of the crosshairs. At least I think it’s 1moa, definitely larger diameter than the crosshairs themselves.

I imagine the size of that dot greatly limits how small I can expect my group sizes averaged over time to be?

Anyway, I am going to be looking into this as well as other items with a potential new mentor.

PS - my new rear bag that’s taller and much heavier than my old bag does help keep my rifle settled better.

I’ll update my progress after I’ve had a chance to go over a few things with a comp shooter in person.

Thanks.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

I appreciate the help and suggestions.

Since I’ve last posted I’ve made a few “friend of a friend” phone calls and have spoken on the phone with long range competition shooter. (I don’t know the name of the discipline, PRS maybe?)

Got a good starting point for meeting someone in person to take a look at what I’m doing.

Dusty, I previously mentioned using a 4X14 scope. But the way you phrased your question made me think about my particular scope.

It does have a one MOA dot in the middle of the crosshairs. At least I think it’s 1moa, definitely larger diameter than the crosshairs themselves.

I imagine the size of that dot greatly limits how small I can expect my group sizes averaged over time to be?

Anyway, I am going to be looking into this as well as other items with a potential new mentor.

PS - my new rear bag that’s taller and much heavier than my old bag does help keep my rifle settled better.

I’ll update my progress after I’ve had a chance to go over a few things with a comp shooter in person.

Thanks.

If your dot covers 1/2” then youll never shoot smaller than 1/2” consistently. Until you can get a scope use an edge to aim. Aim small miss small

 

[Medic505]

Question: Why do you want to use free recoil? It's a really sensitive way to shoot a gun and it only works when the whole system is designed and set up correctly. Not every gun works. I've always found much greater consistency by holding the gun, but I'm not agg'ing in the teens and my rifles aren't set up for free recoil.

THIS^^^^^^^. Getting kicked a little with that light rifle?