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

[Multra]

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".
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Skill of the engineer who made the "rifle" and person reloading the ammo, sure there is a lot of skill involved. Skill of the shooter? Not really. You could have a toddler go up and lightly pull the trigger and see similar results on those benchrest rifles. Everyone doesn't do it because its a retarded amount of money to spend on a rifle that only does 1 thing in a very controlled environment.

[CK_32]

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".

I believe I made my point. If you don't agree or missed it then that's ok.

[rm1911]

my recollections of benchrest shooters were old guys who shot about 2 rounds an hour. they'd shoot a round, spend 15 minutes cleaning the barrel, running 247 patches down it until they came out spotless.

then walking back to the bed of their pickup truck, taking a single case out of a bag, and running it through a press. taking a caliper and measuring every dimension known to man. twice. then with some odd gizmo, and in a painstakingly slow and deliberate process, priming the case.

then trickling a charge onto an electric scale, accurate to 1/1000 of a grain of powder. then pouring it in the case.

next, taking a bullet, again measuring it in every way possible, weighing it, and examining it for any possible flaw under a magnifying glass, throwing out any imperfect models. then they'd meticulously seat the bullet so that perhaps not more than 1/100th an inch of the bullet was inside the neck.

they'd weigh each component along the process as well and make detailed notes in a journal or log, or maybe a spell and incantation book. no idea???

then carefully go back and insert the round into the rifle and slowly close the bolt. but not all the way. checking to see exactly where the bullet engaged the lands and grooves. then return to the press and slightly, ever so slightly, readjust the seating die until and seat it slightly deeper. they'd repeat until the bolt closed just ever so, as the bullet engaged the rifling.

then they'd sit and wait, measure wind, temp, everything else, and wait for the moment to shoot. sometimes it took 5 minutes, sometimes 25. they'd just sit there, fixated on the target, like a statue. then all of a sudden, bang.

then 5 miunutes of spotting scope, a detailed charts and notes on the table, calculations, etc. 10 more minutes of analysis, then back to cleaning.

did I miss anything??

[GillaFunk]

+1

I met a kid at a local range who's dad was bragging how great a shot his kid is, and that they were shooting 1 ragged hole @ 300 with an AR. I finished shooting and got to talking with the range master, the dad an the kid. He began talking how cheap local ammo was, but that it was inaccurate junk, and for good reloads one MUST use Lapua Brass, Lapua bullets, BR primers, ect. Apparently a 'good' .223 reload runs about $1.45, which is hilarious as I can reload very accurate long range .308 for about 1/3 that price.

I'd like to see that kid in the prone or seated position, and see how he shoots. Benchrest shooting, in my opinion, is only half of 'shooting' sport, as anyone can spend money, make and test all the bullets they want, place the rifle in a sled and pull a trigger.

But hey, if a 15 year old wants to spend $1.45 for an 'accurate' round of .223, go for it.

[Vu 308]

Once in a while we share the 200yard bay *Range 11* at Sac Valley with the BR guys and I always learn a lil something.

For me, I admire their reloading techniques. When I want to know what truly impacts the performance of ammo, reloading, and what reloading component works or does not, I look at BR for a baseline.

If the guys shooting 600 and 1K yard BR are using it, and winning, the stuff works.

A good example of that is annealing your brass. That is heavy in the BR community, and has been around forever, but now almost all the guys that shoot in our club are doing it.

It has been the one of the major processes to truly impact my water line at distance.

YMMV,

Vu

[ExtremeX]

my recollections of benchrest shooters were old guys who shot about 2 rounds an hour. they'd shoot a round, spend 15 minutes cleaning the barrel, running 247 patches down it until they came out spotless.

Like this guy

[milotrain]

Skill of the shooter? Not really. You could have a toddler go up and lightly pull the trigger and see similar results on those benchrest rifles.

When you make a claim like this the burden of proof is on you. So now go prove it.

[Vu 308]

Skill of the engineer who made the "rifle" and person reloading the ammo, sure there is a lot of skill involved. Skill of the shooter? Not really. You could have a toddler go up and lightly pull the trigger and see similar results on those benchrest rifles. Everyone doesn't do it because its a retarded amount of money to spend on a rifle that only does 1 thing in a very controlled environment.

So let me get this straight......

If a bullet comes out of a BR rifle, one doesn't have to call wind?! Hell, I've been going about this whole thing the wrong way all these years.

LMAO....

Tell you what, I'll ask one of our long range BR guys to supply the rig, ammo, and hardware. You put your money where your mouth...group vs group, and score vs. score.

There are those that shoot, and there are those that flap their lips and bang away on keyboards.

[tacticalcity]

It is basically a trigger control drill but from behind a bench. Nice warm-up the start of any training day.

Nothing wrong with enjoying a nice relaxing day from behind a bench and focusing on getting supreme accuracy out of rifle. It is a good skillset to have.

There are, however, many other ways to enjoy your Saturday afternoon with your firearms.

[ScottsBad]

Bench Rest Obozo style.
Bench Rest.jpg

[CSACANNONEER]

Skill of the engineer who made the "rifle" and person reloading the ammo, sure there is a lot of skill involved. Skill of the shooter? Not really. You could have a toddler go up and lightly pull the trigger and see similar results on those benchrest rifles. Everyone doesn't do it because its a retarded amount of money to spend on a rifle that only does 1 thing in a very controlled environment.

Have you ever shot BR? There's a whole lot more skill involved than you apparently think there is. Sure, anyone can pull a trigger. But, the skill involved in understanding and setting up the entire system properly and knowing how and when to pull the trigger is a bit more than you seem to think it is. I've missed a 6 foot by 6 foot target many time while using the same rifle, ammo and rests that I use now. I'm not alone in doing that. Most XLR BR shooters have similar stories. Those who don't, have no experience or are just liars. If there was no skill involved, the same shooters would shoot close to the same groups every time. That would mean that shooters like Lee Rasmussen who has shot a sub 2" group at 1000 yards should be able to consistently shoot groups over twice that size or, over 4 inches, right? Well, he can't even though he is a very skilled BR shooter.

I believe I made my point. If you don't agree or missed it then that's ok.

Yes, since you made it a point to show that you don't even know the difference between accuracy and precision, I have to consider the source when it comes to any other points you think you might have made. BTW, the rail gun isn't really BR shooting since, it's not using rests. But, I'll agree that the firearm does rest on a bench while it's in use. BTW, what do you think of F Class shooters?

[kentactic]

When your unable to go prone in the dirt from age or lack of fitness you venture off to these wierd places with odd shaped tables to help you support the gun and shoot it accuratley. Its like the old folks home for shooters.

This place is known as "bench shooting".

[Multra]

So let me get this straight......

If a bullet comes out of a BR rifle, one doesn't have to call wind?! Hell, I've been going about this whole thing the wrong way all these years.

LMAO....

Tell you what, I'll ask one of our long range BR guys to supply the rig, ammo, and hardware. You put your money where your mouth...group vs group, and score vs. score.

There are those that shoot, and there are those that flap their lips and bang away on keyboards.

I'll stick to my $1k savage that I can get .3 inch groups out of.

Could I get as good of groups as you with your gun? No, but an untrained person would get a **** of a lot closer to your score than an untrained person with a gun on bi-pod vs a person trained with it. I'm sorry but shooting a bench rest rifle is not a shooter intensive skill. It's a feat of engineering and a testament to a person's consistency in reloading but in shooting skill it lags behind other forms.

[milotrain]

Show us your bencrest wins to prove your point or shut it. You claim you know what it takes but you can only know what it takes if you are doing it. Otherwise you are just posturing.

[CSACANNONEER]

Show us your bencrest wins to prove your point or shut it. You claim you know what it takes but you can only know what it takes if you are doing it. Otherwise you are just posturing.

Hell, they can just show us that they've actually shot BR before, they don't need to post about their "wins". They might still be struggling to get good enough to come close. I've been shooting XLR BR for close to ten years and, while I've been on top after the first day of a match, I just can't seem to stay on top the second day. Funny how that works if there isn't skill involved. I wonder why I can out shoot some of the best 50 shooters in the country one day but, the next day, they always come back to school me. If there wasn't skill involved, either they would consistently out shoot me or I would consistently out shoot them.