Issues shooting off benchrest

[V|PeR]

Took my new benchrest to the range today and for whatever reason (i am a benchrest rookie), shots all seemed to be going lot higher on the target than normal. Went on and shot Field Rifle and bullets were landing where that were expected to

Can anyone shed some light on this? Suspect it is my technique on the benchrest

[Curtley78]

G'day Viper,

Could possibly be your technique, if you relax your hand or wrist too early, this will cause them to drop from memory around 6 O'clock and also print at 12 O'Clock. Remember to follow through.

Another possibility......I have been caught by this a few times. You must ensure that the adjustments on your front rest are always nice and tight. A front rest that is not set will make a good rifle and shooter look terrible.

Also, I am not sure if you are shooting on a baffled range or at what distance but the angle of your barrel and adjusting from the top string of sight pictures to the bottom set will have some effect on where the fall of shot prints on target-especially if there is a bit of wind about. You will notice this more so with rim fire.

Finally, if you are using a rim fire, the quality of the ammunition counts, I recently purchased a packet of fizzers (CCI Greentag) and at least a third of the packet of 100 had serious flyers, which is somewhat unusual as I have never experienced any problems previously with Greentag.

[chris.tyne]

Viper what front rest and rear bag are you using and what rifle/stock setup.




Regards Chris.

[GriMo]

Mate is your barrel floated etc? If your used to shooting off bi-pods on the grass, and then move on to a relatively hard pack bag on a concrete bench with a rest it could be playing funky with the harmonics a bit.

[Rinso]

Viper,

By your statement I assume that you are saying the rifle shot and grouped ok, you just had an unexpected vertical variation.
Bench technique can and will cause vertical.
Pay attention to your set up ie rests and bags are square to each other and the target.
Try to maintain consistant cheek pressure on stock when shooting.
Maintain normal shooting techniques ie breathing, follow through etc

If the rifle shot well then its not ammunition .....

[V|PeR]

Using Caldwell Rock BR rest and rear bag was just a sandbag

Rifle (.22) was grouping reasonably well (was testing different ammo out) but was justshooting higher than expected.

[Curtley78]

With a rim fire it could be anything, especially if you are trialling different makes of ammunition.

Different makes of ammunition will vary in muzzle velocity which will be reflected on target, partly due to the differing grades of lead and lubricants used, it also may have been related to fouling. Lastly it may have been attributed to humidity.

Regards

Sean

[chris.tyne]

Using Caldwell Rock BR rest and rear bag was just a sandbag

Rifle (.22) was grouping reasonably well (was testing different ammo out) but was justshooting higher than expected.

Viper most likely it will be bench technique and or rest and bag setup,when you say that it grouped high how high are we talking,what sort of group did you end up with compared to what it would normally shoot.


Regards Chris.

[V|PeR]

group was reasonable

POI was about 4-5cm high

[Rabbitz]

V|per,

Its been a long time since I shot field rifle, but IIRC it is shot supported but not rested.

Therefore, on the bench, as the rifle recoils and moves rearward it could be affected by a couple of things:

a) Increased muzzle jump. The rifle is not being held as tightly as it would in a supported position so the rifle can move more, so it jumps and the POI is higher.

b) As the rifle recoils and moves back the taper on butt-stock slides back on the rear bag which causes the muzzle to lift - raising the POI.

Keep in mind that a rimfire bullet travels relatively slowly, so spends more time in the barrel which results in recoil effects being fairly critical.

Hope this helps

Rabz

[alex1]

Mate i'm no range shooter allthough i know for fact there is alot of differance between factory ammo inn 22. What 22 do you have, is it lb or wmr? i find in wmr 35gr hornady are the best and most accurate.

mate i would stick to one factory ammo type and make a single elvaluation of the groupings from the infomation that is given from your shooting.

all the best mate
al