Caldwell Fire Control Benchrest

Whether it is for Benchrest, F-class or just because you want to, many shooters like to use a benchrest for target shooting. The newer styles have adopted the Joystick design so that rather than dialing all corrections in on elevation and windage adjusters, both can now be controlled by one simple lever that extends underneath the gun into the comfortable reach of the shooters non-firing hand.

SOLID LUMP

Weighing it at 18lbs the Fire Control Benchrest is made of cast iron with three feet, each with stainless steel levelling screws extend to form an overall base dimension of 28” front to back, and 9” side to side. Two sandbags are included, one for regular sporting rifles with smaller round forends and a second, 3-lobe type that requires filling with fine sand to support the 3” wide competition guns found in Benchrest-style disciplines.

This second bag has a base upon which the gun sits and then two wings fold up vertically to restrain the sides of the forend from moving laterally. Small knobs on the vertical aluminium side plates of the head unit can be used to alter the compression that is transferred through the bag into the forend and hence control movement during recoil.

The wide, 3-lobe cordura bag and leather type finish on the sporter bag showed reasonable abrasion resistance and an Allen key is supplied for the 5 minutes required to assemble all the controls and attach the required bag. The head unit which is the part that moves when the joystick is altered is attached to the base via a single steel pillar on the left hand side of the base plate.

FOUR INCHES

Four inches of vertical adjustment is initially offered by releasing the locking screw and operating the large control knob to raise the head unit via a rack and pinion mechanism. Once this is locked off, roughly central on your intended target, the joystick system offers approximately 60 MOA (60” at 100 yards) of movement to either compensate for wind or engage multiple targets.

The stainless steel feet can be used to level the unit on a concrete bench but will sink into soft surfaces like grass so some shooters use extra foot plates for this purpose if they shoot F-class on grass. The head unit is fully sealed with a rubber grommet to prevent water or dirt ingress and although a little squeaky and ratchety at first, it soon wore in and became smooth to control.

JOY TO USE

The arm for the joystick rotates to allow full travel without bumping into the underside of you rifle! Of course speed of aiming is much quicker and more intuitive than reaching forwards and dialling wheels to alter windage quickly if the wind flags change direction or angle. An extra handle attaches to the joystick for an option to you hand hold and the whole lot is completed with a forend top that allows the gun to be pushed forward to a defined point each time it has recoiled after firing ‘return to battery’.