Proper Way to shoot off a bench?

[Troutslayer]

Lets say I have one of them fancy things that holds my rifle for me on the bench. I use it to get things all lined up, and then.... This is where I'm running into trouble. Do most people sandbag the rest, line the shot up, and then only touch off the trigger? Or would most hold the rifle as if it weren't being supported and then touch it off.

I went through a lot of rounds today and I couldn't get any consistency. Last year I was shooting less than .5MOA at 100yds. Today I'm all over the place. Either the barrel is shot out or the scope is walking, OR I haven't shot but once this year and I forgot what I'm supposed to be doing.

Thanks for your input.

 

[ss7mm]

If it was me and I had "one of them fancy things that holds my rifle for me", the first thing I'd do is throw it in the dumpster. Then I'd read everything I could on this site about shooting technique. Remember......"search is your friend".

Then.......I'd shoot and shoot and then I'd shoot some more. Time on the trigger will do you a world of good if done properly. If you can get somebody to shoot with that has good technique then go for that as well.

If you were shooting good last year, and you've only shot once this year, I doubt that your barrel is shot out or that the scope is walking. My first guess would be "pilot error". Remember at this point that you asked for input.

Even if you got "your fancy thing" to hold your rifle and got it somewhat sighted in, I'd venture to say that you would find that under real field conditions that your gun would shoot to a different point of impact than it did with the "fancy holding thing".