scope picture with free recoil

[Immike]

I had a friend over the other day was trying out a 9lb 338 Improved pushing 300gr OTM's near 3000fps....... he held looser


and looser


and loooser


and g'ONKK!!! came into the loading room with his eyebrow dripping red down his face, nose all swoll sidewards......


Yupp, you can free-recoil just about everything but when you got a system designed to drop 2000ftlb on target at 1200yds it can get dicey eh

Probably won’t work with a 9lb rifle very well. Bench weight was the question. Best to shoulder a hunting rifle, ask your friend. Lol
338 improved in a 9lb ? Go to cabelas and buy a shotgun shoulder pad Fast!

 

[alinwa]

Probably won’t work with a 9lb rifle very well. IBS weight was the question. Best to shoulder a hunting rifle, ask your friend. Lol
338 improved in a 9lb ? Go to cabelas and buy a shotgun shoulder pad Fast!

LOL.... It's a gun I built, it's very well braked, a pussycat. He WAS holding it loosely cuz it doesn't hurt you but.....took it a wee bit too far.

 

[JFrank]

OK,
Thanks for all the replies.
I was deffinatly letting it recoil more than the 1/2 in. or so suggested.

For those requesting more info.
I am shooting 6.5x47.
anywhere from 120 to 136 gr.
Lenard stock
Sightron SIII
weight of set up is 16lbs.
Front rest is a bald eagle heavy base with a shadetree top with slick 3" bag
back is a gator with slick ears.
both bags are filled with heavy sand.

Just out of curiosity.
How tall are your scope mounts?

 

[JFrank]

I had a friend over the other day was trying out a 9lb 338 Improved pushing 300gr OTM's near 3000fps....... he held looser


and looser


and loooser


and g'ONKK!!! came into the loading room with his eyebrow dripping red down his face, nose all swoll sidewards......


Yupp, you can free-recoil just about everything but when you got a system designed to drop 2000ftlb on target at 1200yds it can get dicey eh

Did you warn him or just stand back and wait?

 

[alinwa]

Did you warn him or just stand back and wait?

No, I'm not like that. In fact when somebody posts a video of someone shooting a gun that hurts them I blow a gasket.... I teach Hunter Ed, I tell people flat out "If It's Hurting You You're Doing Something Wrong, let's us FIX THIS!"



It happened on his 13th-14th shot as I remember. Third group. I had this rifle, with a load worked up, and I claimed it was "a quarter minute gun." I was finishing it up to sell.

He was interested in buying it. This guy is an accomplished shooter both with bow and rifles. Has many fine deer/elk kills. He has videos of some amazing shots with his 300WSM.

He was shooting it out on the concrete bench, I was working in my gun room building something. Now understand, THIS IS A BIG GUN! Most guys have never fired anything like this..... It's a blown out 338 Lapua Mag set up specifically for 285-300gr pills. With the brake off it would break your shoulder, really, break it. I don't believe anyone could shoot a group with it.

But with the brake, it doesn't hurt you at all. It's very easy to shoot, girls shoot these things..... Because of that, and because he wasn't getting the groups I told him it would shoot he was experimenting. His first two groups weren't 1/4 inch.... He was trying not to steer it.........I felt bad. I really had no idea he'd get so loose he'd let it hit him..... like a TRUCK it hit him....

 

[alinwa]

Just out of curiosity.
How tall are your scope mounts?

I dunno.... here's the gun





That's near as you can want THREE TONS of energy per round..... It has more energy at 1200yds than the 30-06 has at 120yds........


It's gotta go somewhere's.....


And some of it went into my friend's nose......

 

[JFrank]

Oh man "
Between you and BC tonight my ribs are hurting from laughing so much.
Funny stuff .. not the bloody eye part just picturing the whole thing

 

[carlsbad]

Alinwa, I don't see any blood. --Jerry

 

[alinwa]

Alinwa, I don't see any blood. --Jerry

LOL!

I think it's pre-blood.

I think this is the pic I sent him to say "hey, this one's ready..... come and try it"


Or I wiped the blood off....... but look at that plastic rain shield, can you just FEEL the blow it took to draw blood from brow and nose with that plastic ring!


OWWowowowwww......

 

[johara1]

OK,
Thanks for all the replies.
I was deffinatly letting it recoil more than the 1/2 in. or so suggested.

For those requesting more info.
I am shooting 6.5x47.
anywhere from 120 to 136 gr.
Lenard stock
Sightron SIII
weight of set up is 16lbs.
Front rest is a bald eagle heavy base with a shadetree top with slick 3" bag
back is a gator with slick ears.
both bags are filled with heavy sand.

One more thing that will help you is a brake if you are allowed. At long range BR. they are legal and it will stop them faster than anything. This very important at 600 if you zero in on birds to see the hit..... jim

 

[500Stroker]

I am new to bench rest shooting and am trying to shoot free recoil.

My problem is that when I get a good sight picture through the scope, I will get a scope to the face if I try to free recoil the shot.

Any tips on how this is done?

Freecoil is normally shot with heavy benchrest rifles and lite recoil cartridges.
One way to stop using your face as a back stop is to optimize the optic sight picture by increasing your eye relief. In plan language, for target shooting you do not have to have the sight picture fill the scope, you can draw your eye backward away from the scope decreasing the diameter of the sight picture in the optic to just the size of the target. This practice has been around for decades and definitely lessens the chance of injure.

 

[brshtr]

When I set up a scope on a rifle that I’ll be shooting free recoil I start by positioning my body the way I want relative to the rifle. With a 6PPC LV my shoulder is about 1/4” behind the buttplate. With a 30 BR HV my shoulder is barely touching.

Once I’m in position, I move the scope toward me until I have an incomplete image through the scope. Keeping my body static, I then move the scope forward until I have a complete image with just a slight amount of black outline around the image. You can leave it there or move it forward a little more. The latter reduces the image a bit, but as others said you don’t need a complete image for BR shooting, and a more forward position gives you a larger margin for error.

One more tip: if your body is too high relative to the rifle, you have to lean your head forward more and that can allow the scope to hit you. A height-adjustable shooting stool is real helpful if you’re shooting free recoil. I set the height very carefully so that my head stays back.

Dave Rabin

 

[4xforfun]

Freecoil is normally shot with heavy benchrest rifles and lite recoil cartridges.
One way to stop using your face as a back stop is to optimize the optic sight picture by increasing your eye relief. In plan language, for target shooting you do not have to have the sight picture fill the scope, you can draw your eye backward away from the scope decreasing the diameter of the sight picture in the optic to just the size of the target. This practice has been around for decades and definitely lessens the chance of injure.

I said this exact thing a while back and got ROASTED by the "experts". I started doing this when I started shooting 1000 BR in 2008 with my 300 WBY. I would back my head off till all I saw was the mothball. It works GREAT, and, if you think about it, technically, you don't even really need to have the paralex adjusted properly because your head HAS to be in exactly the same place each time or you can't see the sight picture.

It also REALLY works good for shooting LR steel with big kickers...the gun recoils back closer to your eye and gives you a full sight picture to better see the impacts.

Tod

 

[500Stroker]

I said this exact thing a while back and got ROASTED by the "experts". I started doing this when I started shooting 1000 BR in 2008 with my 300 WBY. I would back my head off till all I saw was the mothball. It works GREAT, and, if you think about it, technically, you don't even really need to have the paralex adjusted properly because your head HAS to be in exactly the same place each time or you can't see the sight picture.

It also REALLY works good for shooting LR steel with big kickers...the gun recoils back closer to your eye and gives you a full sight picture to better see the impacts.

Tod

Consider yourself unroasted.
I love it when other shooters dont optimize their sight window, that's when I hand them their ass at the end of the shoot.
Moral of the story: Dont always listen to the online experts.

 

[alinwa]

I shot with a guy who was playing with a 6PPC BR pistol..... shooting it in 100-200 Group against 6PPC rifles. His scope was a BR36 RIFLE scope and he squinted into that weeee liddle tunnel


and shot bugholes

 

[balloonpilot9513]

Thanks guys.
This gives me a lot of things to work on.
Hopefully this is a mild winter, though it is not looking good so far.

 

[johara1]

Don't get a scope with short eye relief and you will be good. jim

 

[TAJ45]

Long eye relief is a scope purchase deal breaker for me . . . If it ain't there.

 

[ebb]

Shooting free recoil is a perishable skill. If you don't shoot that way all the time, it takes a wile to get up to speed. Day in and day out I think I am more consistent shooting pegged. But if I work on it for a few days free recoil can sometimes shoot better. Ive never been better with the 338 shooting free recoil.