What exactly is...."benchrest" anyway?

[vliberatore]

I've heard that benchrest shooters can shoot the wings off a fly. Group size, not hitting the target, is how real shooters are weighed.

Discuss.

[NoNOS67]

I've heard that benchrest shooters can shoot the wings off a fly. Group size, not hitting the target, is how real shooters are weighed.

Discuss.

That's quite a statement there! Tell that to a hunter, or someone that uses a firearm in self defense.

ETA: Did I miss some very obvious sarcasm there? Pretty sure I did...

[milotrain]

Football != Basketball just because they both use a ball and have teams.

Benchrest is a type of shooting sport, with a specific focus on group size rather than point value of a shot on target. A bunch of progress in practical accuracy of equipment has been made by benchrest shooters.

The world is made up of many unknowns, if we investigate those things with a wide net and a wide focus our progress will be slow, if we instead manufacture a narrow focus by imposing limitations on ourselves then our focused progress can be very high. This is why we have different kinds of sports, different kinds of music, different kinds of art, etc. Specialization is for ants.

Think of why education is structured the way it is.

[-hanko]

Nothing to discuss.

Benchrest is what it is.

[Bastard]

benchrest is simply a discipline described, to me anyway, as getting the absolute best accuracy out of a rifle, where the only thing that matters at the end of the day is the size of the group.

is it better than any other discipline - no, it is just its own thing.

[killshot44]

Things are that slow in Kansas, huh?

[vliberatore]

That's quite a statement there! Tell that to a hunter, or someone that uses a firearm in self defense.

ETA: Did I miss some very obvious sarcasm there? Pretty sure I did...

Yep

Things are that slow in Kansas, huh?

Little bit. Got back from the range today and thought I'd throw this out there and see who I could get to bite.

[CK_32]

Bench is just that bech shooting. It's 100% about the rifle and group sizes the rifle/ammo is capable of. Almost no shooter skill needed.


Bench Shooting:

. .




Precision Shooting:

. .

[Danodog]

Check out this guy. The beginning and end of the video drives the point of a skilled shooter. Even though I have good results with bench rest, I am not in the same league.

http://youtu.be/FIBEwY4_Yqc

[RugerNo1]

ALMOST NO SKILL NEEDED?! Ha, someone has not looked into 1000 yard bench rest.

There is more than just "point blank" bench rest gentlemen.

[CK_32]

If your referring to me yes I have seen 1k bench shooting. Agreed it's not as easy as 200 yard bench comps. But is child's play compared 1k precision F class/Safari Steel/Snipers Cup style shooting.


Unknown or semi known distances at 200 to 1200 yards (depending on class and stage) in 0-38+ MPH winds after hiking up a hill and taking 2 shots in under 2 min per stage. I'll buy those men a beer any day.

[jarhead714]

If your referring to me yes I have seen 1k bench shooting. Agreed it's not as easy as 200 yard bench comps. But is child's play compared 1k precision F class/Safari Steel/Snipers Cup style shooting.


Unknown or semi known distances at 200 to 1200 yards (depending on class and stage) in 0-38+ MPH winds after hiking up a hill and taking 2 shots in under 2 min per stage. I'll buy those men a beer any day.

"nuff said!

[Wrangler John]

Varmint hunters (shooters really, there isn't much hunting or stalking involved) are a kind of benchrest shooter that kill little things at long range. Varmint hunters use a good deal of benchrest techniques in building rifles and loading ammo, but generally do not require the same degree of precision as benchrest competitors. So that benchrest is a testing ground for developing rifle accuracy that translates throughout the shooting sports.

The difference is that varmint hunters usually don't carry photos of exploded rodents in their wallets (but coyote hunters may), while benchrest competitors carry cutout little brag groups in front of pictures of their kids or grandkids. Also, benchrest shooters tend to have neat loading rooms, while varmint hunters are less organized - truly, I have a problem fitting tons of loading tools and components in a spare bedroom (75+/- die sets alone take up a lot of shelf space). I am a slob, with boxes and bags of bullets stacked up, empty coke cans, and a coffee cup lurking behind a stack of loading blocks with enough penicillium mold growing on the bottom to cure a cholera outbreak. My most heard phrase is, "Oh, that's where that went!" No neatnik benchrest shooter would ever be so sloppy.

So, target shooters need to shoot for score, benchrest shooters need to shoot the smallest bug hole possible, varmint hunters only need to plop a bullet into a coke can sized rodent at any distance, and the big game hunter needs to connect with a walking freezer load of protein while stalking over rough ground and may have only one shot to get-her-done. Big game hunters always have the best photos too, superb scenery and really big horns. It's all good.

[TKM]

Here's a good read on benchrest.

http://www.angelfire.com/ma3/max357/houston.html

[CSACANNONEER]

Bench is just that bech shooting. It's 100% about the rifle and group sizes the rifle/ammo is capable of. Almost no shooter skill needed.


Bench Shooting:

. .




Precision Shooting:

. .

Almost no skill needed? LOL. I doubt you have ever tried it. If it was "easy" everyone would be doing it and, everyone would always shoot great groups. That simply does not happen. I've seen top shooters shoot 2moa groups with the same rifle and ammo that they had just shot .3moa groups with. Also, you seem to not understand the difference between accuracy and precision. Your bottom two examples are examples of ACCURATE shooting and have nothing to do with "precision".