Box o’ Weirdness
April 13th, 2010I Need a Remote for my AR-15
While I get my truck worked on and make garlic rolls, I am occupying my mind with The Box o’ Truth, which is to guns as Cooking for Engineers is to food. Sort of. It’s a guy who tries to get the real dope on guns, instead of relying on Internet gossip. He tests everything.
He has an interesting piece about shooting a rifle from a rest. It can best be summarized as follows: “Go watch Steve at the range, and don’t do what he does.” This would explain my dubious rifle performance.
If you’re too lazy to go through it, I can hit some highlights. Put a bag under the buttstock. Keep your left hand and arm away from the rifle.
Actually, that’s most of it.
If you do as he says, you will find yourself shooting with a weird-looking rest in front of you, a weird-looking bag under the buttstock, one hand on the gun, and one hand under your arm. In other words, it will not be much like shooting as most of the world knows it, and you will look funny.
I am prompted to ask: at what point do you sacrifice accuracy, just to feel like you’re shooting the gun in a realistic manner? If you tell people how well you shoot, but you do all your shooting in this odd way, are you being completely honest? If you had to shoot somewhere other than the range, would you have all this crap with you, and would you use it? Maybe it’s better to buy a machine that fires the gun. I have one, although I haven’t used it yet.
If you want to find out how your rifle is doing, this kind of shooting makes great sense. But does it teach you how to shoot? If you shoot this way when you train, are you going to be able to hit anything when you have to shoot a deer or a post-Obama neighbor who wants to kill you for your beans and flour?
If this isn’t the best way to learn, what is?
Great site, even if it leaves you confused.
April 13th, 2010 at 2:47 PM
The good thing about benchrest is that it zeros the shooter out of the equation. You find out the limits of your rifle and how much of your problems are your problems and not something you can blame on the gun. You can also find out the intrinsic accuracy of bullet/gun combinations and different loads. This is a good thing. But…
In the end you’re just shooting from a bench. Which you will never do unless you have a bench, a rest, and a bunch of sandbags available. So never except at the range. The zero you produce for your rifle will also only work in similar conditions. If you sling up, then the gun isn’t going to shoot to the same point of impact unless the barrel is free-floated. If you shoot standing, it probably won’t either.
April 13th, 2010 at 4:43 PM
As Jeff says, remember the purpose of a bench and bags: and it’s not to test your skills. The bench and bags are to remove as much human error as possible to
A: zero the sights at a certain range,
B: test ammo, to find what’s best in your rifle, and
C: make sure you have a scope(for instance) properly aligned.
So you use the bench for those things, and to learn the trigger of the rifle, and for serious practice or training you use positions that don’t involve a bench.
And he’s right about positions/sling affecting things. My Model 94 Winchester will shoot nice groups off the rest, but when you take it off the rest the point of impact moves down several inches. On it, I use the rest but put my left hand in a shooting position between it and the forend for checking sights.
Get yourself a set of knee and elbow pads- skating pads work fine- to pad your joints in kneeling and prone, makes it a lot more comfortable.
April 13th, 2010 at 6:32 PM
Shooting isn’t a team sport, it is an individual occupation of ones time with the anticipated end result being the satisfaction of placing bullets where you intend them to go.
Anybody can make a suggestion yet is still up to the individual shooter to decide what shooting technique will work for him.
Not every shooter dreams of invading enemy territory and taking out every adversary with one well placed shot.
April 13th, 2010 at 8:46 PM
If you want to find out how your rifle is doing, this kind of shooting makes great sense. But does it teach you how to shoot? If you shoot this way when you train, are you going to be able to hit anything when you have to shoot a deer or a post-Obama neighbor who wants to kill you for your beans and flour?
On the other hand, if you don’t know how to shoot from a bench…if you don’t know how to accurately zero your sights or effectively test your rifle and loads for accuracy, are you going to be able to hit anything when you have to shoot a deer or post-Obama neighbor who wants to kill you for your beans and flour? Pretty hard to do that with sights that are off or an inconsistent rifle/loading combo.
Every tool in the tool box has its purpose.
April 13th, 2010 at 8:47 PM
There are many “team” shooting sports. Palma, two man Lr, 4 man Lr, 4 man NMC, etc. These are rifle sports, I am sure there are more in other disciplines that I don’t follow. Sure it takes individual skills to make the team work but the addition of team mates and coaches add another level of competitiveness to the shooting sports. It is a thing of beauty to watch the military teams during the “rattle battle” matches at camp Perry. You can learn a lot from a good coach giving you shot by shot wind corrections during a LR match. I never turned down a chance to be part of a team, it was even somewhat of a privilege to be chosen by other shooters you thought of as better than yourself.
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All that said, shooting, especially with a rifle is essentially an individual sport in that each shooter has to learn the little tricks or technique that works for him/her. But once you learn how to do it by yourself don’t overlook the teams, its a great way to learn from others and have great fun at same time.
April 14th, 2010 at 2:04 PM
Thanks for the info on ‘The Box O’Truth’- looks like a good site I’ll explore more.
As he, and the other commentators, state accurately- if I may put it succinctly- the benchrest tests the rifle, everything else tests the shooter. The benchrest will give you a baseline on your equipment then it’s off to position shooting in the field where the boys are separated from the men.
Standing, kneeling, sitting, prone and variations thereof, the proper use of a good sling and all the other necessary techniques are but a lifetime of correct, consistent practice.
As per your BB pistol, a decent barrel-cocking air rifle in 177 or 22 pellet is a valuable adjunct to practice your form without freaking out your Bambi neighbors- we really don’t want the black helicopter overhead fastroping a Swat team on your roof!
Also, since I shoot alot of steel and brass buttplated centerfire rifles, a P.A.S.T. recoil pad that you strap on over the shooting shoulder is worth its weight in foam and in ‘non-flinchitis’.
Like the man stated, “It’s fun to shoot stuff!”