Benchrest Tip: Optimize Your Rifle Position on the Rests
Here’s some benchrest advice that can help you reduce vertical and shoot tighter groups… without spending another penny. Next time you go to the range, experiment with the position of your rifle on the front rest, and try a couple different positions for the rear bag. You may find that the rifle handles much better after you’ve made a small change in the placement of your gun on the bags. Recoil can be tamed a bit, and tracking can improve significantly, if you optimize the front rest and rear bag positioning.
Balance Your Gun BEFORE You Spend Hours Tuning Loads
In the pursuit of ultimate accuracy, shooters may spend countless hours on brass prep, bullet selection, and load tuning. Yet the same shooters may pay little attention to how their gun is set-up on the bags. When you have acquired a new rifle, you should do some basic experimentation to find the optimal position for the forearm on the front rest, and the best position for the rear bag. Small changes can make a big difference.
Joel Kendrick, past IBS 600-yard Shooter of the Year, has observed that by adjusting forearm position on the front rest, he can tune out vertical. He has one carbon-fiber-reinforced stock that is extremely rigid. When it was placed with the front rest right under the very tip of the forearm, the gun tended to hop, creating vertical. By sliding the whole gun forward (with more forearm overhang ahead of the front sandbag), he was able to get the whole rig to settle down. That resulted in less vertical dispersion, and the gun tracked much better.
Likewise, the placement of the rear bag is very important. Many shooters, by default, will simply place the rear bag the same distance from the front rest with all their guns. In fact, different stocks and different calibers will NOT behave the same. By moving the rear bag forward and aft, you can adjust the rifle’s overall balance and this can improve the tracking significantly. One of our shooters had a Savage 6BR F-Class rifle. By default he had his rear bag set almost all the way at the end of the buttstock. When he slid the rear bag a couple inches forward the gun tracked much better. He immediately noticed that the gun returned to point of aim better (crosshairs would stay on target from shot to shot), AND the gun torqued (twisted) less. The difference was quite noticeable.
The important point to remember here is that each rig is different. One gun may perform best with the front rest right at the tip of the forearm (Position ‘D’ in photo), while another gun will work best with the rest positioned much further back. This Editor’s own 6BR sits in a laminated stock that is pretty flexy in the front. It shoots best with the front rest’s sandbag located a good 6″ back from the forearm tip (position ‘A’).
A small change in the position of the forearm on the front rest, or in the placement of the rear bag, can make a big difference in how your gun performs. You should experiment with the forearm placement, trying different positions on the front rest. Likewise, you can move the rear bag back and forth a few inches. Once you establish the optimal positions of front rest and rear bag, you should find that your gun tracks better and returns to battery more reliably. You may then discover that the gun shoots smaller groups, with less vertical dispersion. And all these benefits are possible without purchasing any expensive new gear.
Rifle photo courtesy Johnson’s Precision Gunsmithing (Bakersfield, CA).
Similar Posts:
- Experiment with Rifle Position on Rest and Bags for Best Accuracy
- Experiment with Fore and Aft Rifle Position on Rest and Bag
- Test Fore & Aft Rifle, Rest, and Bag Position for Best Accuracy
- Fore and Aft Rifle, Rest, and Bag Positioning for Accuracy
- Accuracy Tip — How to Reduce Vertical
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Tags: Balance, Benchrest, Front Rest, Gun Balance, Sandbag, Shooting Skills
Ome more BR tip, slide the rifle back and forth after you are happy with the bags setup. The vertical hair should track straight up and down, if it does not, adjust your rear bag again, it is not aligned right.
I would like to see a story on the cable operated windage top in the second picture.
Another point to add to this story…
Often I have seen rifles that were being supported in the wrong place on the forend because the owner liked the look of a forend stop. Many times a rifle will shoot better in a position that is further forward on the front bag than the unmodified front stop will allow. This is letting the tail wag the dog.
Boyd – that has to be Bill Gebhardt’s (Bald Eagle) arthritis knob I believe. Not sure if that is the name, but I know he showed me something similar at his shop almost 10 years ago.
Boyd,
The rest in the picture is my wife’s rest. Her rifle was at Leroy’s shop (Johnson Precision Gunsmithing) getting some work done to it.
Jason,
You are correct that the rest is a Bald Eagle. I added the cable operation to the windage top.
The rest is used primarily for F-class. Works great….sort of in between a standard rest and a joystick without the downsides associated with either.
Ted
Very good note; the same advice goes along with shooting from BIPODS. I’ve found front support adjustments along a rail system critical to reducing vertical hop especially from magnums fired off of hard ground,i.e. concrete, hard packed dirt or clay.
MarkC
I am new to this style of shooting, and I have purchased a Bald Eagle rest and I was wondering if you might be willing to shed some more light on the topic of the cable adjusted windage modification you made.
I have a son (8 years old) that started shooting in ARA .22 matches late last summer. The one big issue we have is that he is physically to small to stay seated and make his own windage adjustments. I am planning to mount the Bald Eagle to a steel base to add weight and would like to move windage adjustment to a point where he could reach it. Your help would be greatly appreciated.