Rear bag control

[Adurity]

I'm curious about how other shooters manage the rear bag during both benchrest and F-Class competitions. For example, do you set it and not touch it? Do you hold on to it with the non-trigger hand and make slight aiming adjustments? Do you squeeze? Do you rest your trigger hand on it?

 

[Immike]

Most bench and F-open set it and don’t move it. The joy stick rest does the aiming after that. Keeping it from moving usually takes some settling and many tend to use heavier bags.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

With the bag squeezing shooting method (mostly not employed anymore) you need soft leather, soft sand. Every other method you want the bag rock solid and dont touch it

 

[swd]

I squeeze for F Class..

 

[Tim s]

With the bag squeezing shooting method (mostly not employed anymore) you need soft leather, soft sand. Every other method you want the bag rock solid and dont touch it

Rock solid??? Ah no friend you don’t.
Modest give in the bag, a bit more in the ears.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Rock solid??? Ah no friend you don’t.
Modest give in the bag, a bit more in the ears.

You can let your bag rock if you like but i want mine sitting solid. If it doesnt i employ a skip otto stabilizer. As far as the ears and the bag mine are baby soft.

 

[Tim s]

You can let your bag rock if you like but i want mine sitting solid. If it doesnt i employ a skip otto stabilizer. As far as the ears and the bag mine are baby soft.

Well we might be saying kind of the same thing. Solid, yes, not filled hard, as in bouncy.
Several of us around here went to the Lenzi’s. They’re not going anywhere.

 

[CharlieNC]

Firstly pack your rifle butt firmly into the rear bag before the match to minimize settling during the match. For a 20 shot fclass string you cannot prevent a litle additional settling due to the recoil, which will make the poa increase higher. To compensate, squeezing disrupts the settling coming to equilibrium and personally I cannot uniformly hold the squeeze during shots. A few degrees taper on the butt of the stock enables sliding the stock forward/ backward to find tune the vertical poa without disturbing the bag. This has been the most uniform and effective method for me. Then your left hand is free to utilize in whatever technique is most comfortable and functional for you. Took me a couple of years worth of experimentation to settle on this, including sawing the rifle butt to add a little taper.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Firstly pack your rifle butt firmly into the rear bag before the match to minimize settling during the match. For a 20 shot fclass string you cannot prevent a litle additional settling due to the recoil, which will make the poa increase higher. To compensate, squeezing disrupts the settling coming to equilibrium and personally I cannot uniformly hold the squeeze during shots. A few degrees taper on the butt of the stock enables sliding the stock forward/ backward to find tune the vertical poa without disturbing the bag. This has been the most uniform and effective method for me. Then your left hand is free to utilize in whatever technique is most comfortable and functional for you. Took me a couple of years worth of experimentation to settle on this, including sawing the rifle butt to add a little taper.

You dead set against a joystick rest? Thatll solve your issue

 

[kzin]

bypassing a first class fine-adjustable front rest in order to aim with the rear bag has got to be considered unorthodox and probably a disadvantage these days. I'm sure there are people who do it and can beat me, though.

I do literally touch the bag with the non-trigger hand most of the time just because that has become the most comfortable place for that hand to be.

 

[Immike]

Seems the big disadvantage to squeezing is following through the shot every time you fire. Concentrating on that is a distraction from other more important things like- where your aiming....
Some of the keys to consistently shooting well have to be addressed, such as fatigue and eye strain. If you look at match results closely you will see that the last relays are often the hardest to finish strong... There’s guys that are gaining at the end and others that are going backwards!

 

[CharlieNC]

You dead set against a joystick rest? Thatll solve your issue

Maybe some day, but not until I correct my personal faults. A different rest is not what is detracting from my scores, its my handling (or not) the wind. But you guys could get me one for Xmas.

 

[avidflyer]

I squeeze for F Class..

Dont see how you can’t squeeze for T/R unless you have a joypod

 

[JMayo]

Bench rest here.
All the b rest shooters I know have Edgewood rears and they are hard. No squeezing capable. Set it so the poa returns when pushed back to rest stop after the shot.

So many disciplines here it's hard to figure out who's shooting style to adopt.

 

[CharlieNC]

Dont see how you can’t squeeze for T/R unless you have a joypod

A couple of degrees taper on the rifle butt is just right to allow you to fine tune vertical poa by simply sliding the rifle forward or backward slightly. No squeezing or bag adjustment required.

 

[avidflyer]

A couple of degrees taper on the rifle butt is just right to allow you to fine tune vertical poa by simply sliding the rifle forward or backward slightly. No squeezing or bag adjustment required.

I agree in theory but always doesn’t work out like that with a bipod Within reason now for me a hard bag and a neo rest I dont have to touch it

 

[Bob Sebold]

Squeezing works okay if you know how to do it. Joysticks are for the lazy!

 

[kzin]

biggest jump I made in TR was when this site helped me learn to slide, not squeeze.

Then later I got a joypod

 

[kzin]

Bench rest here.
All the b rest shooters I know have Edgewood rears and they are hard. No squeezing capable. Set it so the poa returns when pushed back to rest stop after the shot.

So many disciplines here it's hard to figure out who's shooting style to adopt.

I see some BR guys going hard-on-hard , no leather bag at all.