Do you consider Bench Rest and Bipod Shooters Good shots?

[Zak Smith]

The bench and bipod are two tools available to the well rounded and practical rifleman-

Load development--

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Engaging KD targets under time--

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Shooting over intervening microterrain features--

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Quick & close shots from standing--

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Making do with what support is available--

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[sacp81170a]

Always use whatever support is available. It's been my experience that anyone who's been a serious bench rest competitor will have offhand shooting skills much better than average. It's because they practice.

Some shooting is better practiced offhand after initial zero verification. Shooting large bore dangerous game loads from a bench is one way to get sore real quick.

 

[bogie]

I shoot benchrest. Light varmint up to cruiser up to unlimited.

It's a completely different world.

Drives me nuts when I see Bubba at the range clamping a rifle into a vise and then trying to get it to group... Don't work, won't work.

If a rifle won't group in the teens, it won't win. A half inch? That's a tomato stake.

 

[Wedge]

Some shooting is better practiced offhand after initial zero verification. Shooting large bore dangerous game loads from a bench is one way to get sore real quick.

Like sighting in my slug gun...OUCH!

Though patterning my turkey gun with sling from a sitting position is about the same...and even more painful!

I hate physics.

 

[RubenZ]

I don't have as much respect for bench shooters as I do the avg farm boy who can do some impressive open sight shots.

Seriously, placing a gun on a bench rest especially a good one you cancel out so many variable that it just is too much easier. Thats just my opinion.


However, whenever I have the chance, I do rest my gun on something or find a way to stabilize better for the longer shots out past 100 yards. Like in the above pics. I only have one gun with a bipod though. I have to improvise the rest.

 

[Navy joe]

Organized benchrest competitors are amazing, they make me hope I can prowl Bogie's tomato patch to grab a useless 1/2" rifle one night. Joe Deer Rifle with his reliance on the bench proves position shooting in this country is near dead. Most organized ranges encourage this love of the bench, many do not allow shooting from other positions. Bench good for sighting in, bad for most all else.

 

[Art Eatman]

To me, the benchrest is a necessity for load development and testing. The rest of my shooting is sorta "any old how", although preferably with some sort of rest.

But most of my deer meat has been from one-shot kills, so I must have been doing something right.

Art

 

[Dallas Jack]

From my vantage point benchrest shooting and shooting from a bench are totally different animals. I use a bench for load developement and to refine technique.

Lessons learned at the bench (breathing, trigger squeeze, sight picture...) carry over to other types and positions of shooting.

Are benchrest and bipod shooters good shots? They can be very good shots if they are serious about shooting. Just my opinion.
Dallas Jack

 

[JohnBT]

I've learned more about reading the wind from benchrest shooters than from all the farm boys (including my relatives) I've ever met combined.

The rest and bags are just to hold the gun while you figure out where the wind is going to push your shot.

John

 

[trueblue1776]

I have little fun shoots with my bench rest buddies. It's funny to me that they can't shoot well standing.

Training to shoot in a sterile environment only tests one thing (IMHO).

 

[Chuck R.]

I've learned more about reading the wind from benchrest shooters than from all the farm boys (including my relatives) I've ever met combined.

The rest and bags are just to hold the gun while you figure out where the wind is going to push your shot.

John

This is the part that always amazed me, and no one gives the bench rest guys credit for it. To be successful, they are some conditions reading mofos.

It’s not just managing the rifle and load tuning, miss a subtle wind change, slight difference in the mirage, and a group is blown, not enough for the average shooter, but enough to place poorly in a match.

I primarily compete in black powder cartridge silhouette, but my old rifle club is primarily a benchrest club. I’d often hang out with those guys and pick up tips on reading wind and mirage. They really do live and die by reading conditions.

One of the better benchrest guys at the club is also one hell of a coyote hunter. After watching him make some shots, I'm not going to try explaining to him how he can't shoot standing or hit running targets.

Chuck

 

[RubenZ]

So only bench rest shooters have to read wind conditions

Breathing is no wear near as critical when using a bench as it is with any other shooting positions. I mean ya it may make a fraction of a difference but please.

Take that breathing variable and add wind to it and add standing up to it. If you can get someone who can do decent groups or hit his targets doing that, then he deserves more respect imo than the guy just sitting his fat arse on a bench resting a gun on sand bags.

But thats just me

 

[bogie]

Oh heck... Been busy with a sick girlfriend, haven't been doing a lot of shooting, but hey... I'll be at somewhat of a disadvantage, since I cannot put a sling on my bench guns, so we're gonna have to talk about some sorta handicapping system. They're also single shots, so mad minutes may get a little interesting...

How much $$ we talking about?

(BTW, just because one doesn't crawl about on the ground as a matter of course does not mean that one does not know how to crawl about on the ground - most benchresters tend to be a little older, and some would argue wiser...)

 

[1911 guy]

Since I shoot rifles primarily for hunting, my target shooting is geared towards this. I use every advantage I can. If I can get prone, I do. Sitting, kneeling, ditto. If I have to take an unsupported shot, I'll sling up if I can.

I guess I'd view a bench-exclusive shooter in light of his/her actual shooting situation. For someone who goes out a few times a year to relax and punch holes in paper, anything other than benchrest may be counter productive. If the shooter is a Pdog hunter who totes a portable bench with him, he should stick to the bench. That's his "natural environment". For me, chasing tree rats, rabbits, 'yotes and deer through the untamed wilds of...Ohio... sticking to benchrest would make me a "vegetarian", old indian word for "bad hunter".

Case in point, I have a friend named Kevin. He deer hunts with a .44Mag and is deadly accurate with it out to about 75 yards. Benched, offhand, it doesn't matter. I'd have a hard time hitting a buffalo at that range with his revolver. I, however, can get COM hits with a handgun out to 20 or so yards in far less time than he can. He finds it amazing that some folks can hit anything while they are moving.

What you practice should depend on your expected situation.

 

[Smokin Gator]

Of course there are amazingly good bench rest shooters. But there does seem to be a large segment of bench rest plinkers (always shooting at 100 yards) that you will never see shoot from any other position.

 

[strat81]

I shot from a bench with a bipod for the first time last weekend. It was a DPMS AR-10 clone with a match trigger and match barrel, IIRC. I was shooting out to 100 (one hundred) yards, not sure of the magnification on the scope. Damn it was hard to do! For those that doubt it, think about how much a slight movement of your hand translates at 100 yards. Looking through the scope, it looked like I had a bad case of the shakes.

All that being said, bench rest shooters may not be the best shotgunners, elk hunters, IDPA competitors, or dad/son plinkers. However, it's like saying that Lance Armstrong is a lousy athlete because he can't hit a 90mph fastball into the upper deck. Bench rest shooting is just one of many shooting sports, kinda like how baseball is one of many ball sports.

 

[RubenZ]

Strat, imo shooting from a Bipod is harder for me to do than just resting the gun on my truck bed or a tree. For some reason Bi-pods aren't the sturdiest things to use. If you have a cheaper one, they tend to twist sideways and make it more difficult.

 

[sacp81170a]

A Major Truth about bench rest and non-bench rest: it's all a lot easier if you're on a one way range. Them two way ranges are a whole 'nother story.

Bench rest shooters (good ones, anyway) are not snipers, but then many of the marksmanship skills used by snipers (reading the wind, knowing how temp and humidity affects the path of the bullet, etc.) are honed to a fine art in competition. I never heard anyone say that shooting from a bench was a bad thing, but shooting from a bench exclusively when you're getting ready to hunt big game is not realistic training.

 

[JohnBT]

"So only bench rest shooters have to read wind conditions"

Funny guy. Ha. Ha. Getting many job offers to do standup?

Anyway, it's the degree of precision that's required in competitive benchrest that makes wind doping so crucial.

There's a reason the 600-yard highpower target is so big.

 

[MinnMooney]

"Good shots" is not so much what a Bench Rester is all about. He's good at building a highly accurate rifle and reading the wind.

A "Good Shot" to me means someone who can read the speed of his quary, judge the distance and wind, take advantage of available aids (like a fencepost, shooting sticks, bipod or what-have-you) and put it all together for a clean kill shot * OR * knows when to NOT take the shot knowing it's beyond his capability to make the clean kill.
THAT, to me, is a good shot.

Bench resters are great in their own sport but their sport is mechanics and engineering.

 

[Zak Smith]

There is too much animosity in this thread. All of the precision shooting sports have important skills to offer at their highest level. We each have different priorities that we invest our time in, we have different physical abilities, etc, that affect our choice of pursuits. That's no reason to hate on another group.

Bench resters are great in their own sport but their sport is mechanics and engineering.

Shooting 25 rounds into an aggregate group size of 0.2" is not just "mechanics and engineering." It's hard.

-z

 

[mr..plow]

Zak Smith
Moderator


There is too much animosity in this thread. All of the precision shooting sports have important skills to offer at their highest level. We each have different priorities that we invest our time in, we have different physical abilities, etc, that affect our choice of pursuits. That's no reason to hate on another group.


I agree about the animosity also. Thanks for bringing it up. and trying to get it under control.. You got good moderators here.

 

[RubenZ]

What animosity. It's just opinions

 

[SoCalShooter]

More skill? All shooting sports require practice to become proficient and every discipline has its levels of difficulty. Remember the basis for all shooting sports is proper sight alignment and trigger control. Once you master this then you must practice, practice, practice.

I'm old school (1960's) when only sissies used two hands to shoot handguns.

Bullseye shooters only do it with one hand.

 

[JohnBT]

To answer the original question of "Does it take More skill to shoot without a bipod or bench rest?"

Different skills. Or to be a bit more precise, maybe I should say the same skills in different proportions. Sort of like the difference in shooting game with a scope or without a scope. Oops, now I've opened a can o' worms.

John