Bench shooting

[bird dogs]

I've been reading this Forum for some time now on a daily basis. I cannot put into words how much I have learned from you folks.
The original OP brought to my attention wondering why I seldom hear of folks dry firing practice. I use a system called D.F.A.T. which has a scope cap containing a small hole in the center. It comes with postcards with very minute targets and nomenclature. At 12ft away, you adjust your parallax to approx. 1000-1200yds.
At first it seems almost impossible to keep the crosshairs on a dot or even inside of the hole in the letter "a". It teaches you to follow through, roll your shoulder into the stock, pulling the stock into your shoulder, and trigger squeeze.
If everything is not perfect, the crosshairs will jump off your point of aim. All done from the floor of your home, with your favorite setup. Sound corny but, now I can almost stack one round on another at close to 1000yd distance. This system really makes you work hard to improve yourself. Just my two cents, to help someone.if

 

[Dragoon300]

Excluding specialized benchrest competition guns, and since this is LRH, the most stable shooting position to use is prone with a bipod and squeeze bag. When done properly with the body squarely behind the rifle, the recoil will be straight back. Heavier recoil requires a firmer hold and generally loading the bipod will help to keep on, or get back on target as quickly as possible. The lower and closer to the ground the more stable. The higher off the ground your shooting position, the harder it is to be stable. In precision long range hunting or tactical shooting the prone position is the most stable position, and should be your go to primary shooting position. However, when prone is not possible to make a shot, there are many other options considered alternative positions. Generally, the further from the ground, the less stable these positions are. For example, sitting, kneeling and standing positions.

Shooting from a bench can and likely will change your POI as compared to prone. However, if you use the same principle of being squarely behind the rifle with your shoulders, rather than bladed off the side, the rifle will recoil straight back similarly to a proper prone shooting position.

Still, there will likely be a POI shift, so why use the bench for anything other than an alternative shooting position if one happens to be available when you see that trophy Buck? (I have seen several Bucks on target ranges!)

Perfect your prone shooting position so you are capable of shooting 1/4 moa groups at 100 yards, and I do mean you. (Yes, a 1/4 moa rifle will be necessary to do that) but, my point is being confident in yourself and your ability to shoot 1/4 moa groups of 5 rounds at 100 yards.
It's not that hard with some good training. Then use prone to develop loads, zero your rifle, practice and hunt whenever possible.
You will be training the same way you hunt, or fight!

 

[Rosebud]

T

I do all my testing off the driver side mirror.

There is a mega power line that crosses one of my favorite farms, another regular line crosses on a diagonal on a hill with broken wood lots and fingers of timber here and there. It's a working cattle and agriculture farm that is loaded with deer and other targets. We park a tractor on the Hill top couple of weeks before rifle season. Then when you pull up in the pickup before daylight it just looks like another piece of farm equipment. We call it the dodge blind.

 

[nksmfamjp]

I've been reading this Forum for some time now on a daily basis. I cannot put into words how much I have learned from you folks.
The original OP brought to my attention wondering why I seldom hear of folks dry firing practice. I use a system called D.F.A.T. which has a scope cap containing a small hole in the center. It comes with postcards with very minute targets and nomenclature. At 12ft away, you adjust your parallax to approx. 1000-1200yds.
At first it seems almost impossible to keep the crosshairs on a dot or even inside of the hole in the letter "a". It teaches you to follow through, roll your shoulder into the stock, pulling the stock into your shoulder, and trigger squeeze.
If everything is not perfect, the crosshairs will jump off your point of aim. All done from the floor of your home, with your favorite setup. Sound corny but, now I can almost stack one round on another at close to 1000yd distance. This system really makes you work hard to improve yourself. Just my two cents, to help someone.if

Can you provide a link to this? It sounds interesting.

 

[Timeout]

Take a look at these videos.
Thread 'Shooting tutorials - recoil' https://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/shooting-tutorials-recoil.4067337/

 

[cvixx]

Rests do have their place. My left shoulder has been replaced and my right shoulder is halfway there. Firing a .338 from a bench with my shoulder on the butt is risky. Same for prone. Once I have the rifle sighted in, I switch to a sitting position for the final adjustments. with my shoulder able to recoil along with the rifle, I have much less risk to my shoulder. Course, I could just switch to a .243!