It is hard to diagnose things that you do not have in front of you. How are you holding the rifle? Often, I see hunters that they will get their best groups with the lightest possible hold. Most of the time this is not the case. Also, they tend to have their front sand bag too far forward on their stocks. On a sporter, the back of the front bag should be about 2" in front of the action. Another problem is trying to hold the rifle down with one or both hands, this type of force will not be consistent from shot to shot. Also, just have your face on the stock lightly. You can, and probably should pull the stock back into your shoulder with quite a bit of force with the second and third fingers of your trigger hand. Check your rear sling stud to make sure that it is clear of your rear bag, and the toe of your stock should have some distance between it and the bench at all times. I see a lot of one piece rests at the range. The other day I was on volunteer range safety officer duty, and saw a shooter struggling with one that put the rifle too high and for him to get behind while sitting on one of the range provided stools. There were other problems as well. We set him up with several simple canvas shot bags filled with sand, so that his rifle was steady, and he could get comfortable behind it. His groups improved dramatically. I see a lot of these gizmos at the range. IMO the guys that are using them would all be better off with a good front rest and rear bag. I know that recoil can be a problem, and that is why many are using one piece rests. I think that a strap on recoil pad, or so called "sissy bag" between the butt and shoulder are a better way to go. I never shoot anything off of the bench with a setup that will allow it to hurt me, not because I am afraid of a little discomfort, but because I know that a flinch that will be hard to get rid of will be the result. With once a year bench shooters that show up in the sighting in season, I see consistent improvement of their results when they switch to a gradual increase of pressure on the trigger letting the rifle surprise them when it goes off, and by paying attention to follow through after the shot. Often they tend to get off the rifle so fast that the bullet impact is affected. Last year, one fellow, that wanted some help, was able to cut his group size in half, by making these two changes.
