One Hole Wonders!

Benchrest’ (BR) is often the term shouted out de-crying very expensive and discipline-specific guns, but it is an element of OUR sport which is regularly the proving ground for new ideas in firearm design and most critically, reloading techniques and ammunition specifications.

Many people look at the guns and say: ‘that isn’t real shooting’ and in some ways I can understand their point!  As I will honestly say, it isn’t the discipline for me but, I keep an open mind and an objective viewpoint, I can see why it is challenging, and to some degree obsessive. Like any sport we may shrug off as `easy`, we ignore that fact that you are competing against other shooters who are limited by the same rule book. You occasionally see a bit of inspirational design or thinking `outside the box` to get around rules but, harmony is soon restored when myths are de-bunked, or snatched up by everyone as the latest way to improve.

The discipline occurs in several formats, both rimfire and centrefire and over the course of the following year, I will be covering the three main centrefire styles in this country, Short range, Long range and this month, Mid-range. At competition level, the mid and long shares the most in common, short range kit being very much of extreme speciality. I will leave that till last as it is perhaps the most defining of the breed’s essence.

SO WHAT IS BENCHREST?

Simply to start off, everyone shoots a rested rifle from a bench on front and rear sand bags. A 5-shot string is fired and measured for a centre to centre group size, the smallest wins. The location of this group is unimportant as long as the bullets land on your target, and most styles encourage multiple groups to be shot throughout the day to develop an aggregate score, winner takes all. 600 yard BR is very popular at my club; Diggle in the North of England. The three categories are Factory Sporter, Light Gun (max 10.5lbs) and Heavy Gun (above 13.5lbs) including scope. Most shooters will use a high magnification to ensure very small aiming error but the largest difference we see is the stock design, or in the case of sporters, the adaptations used to make them `track`

Shooters are not interested in the continual variation of the wind like target-types are, they will use sighters to get adequately on the paper target and then watch the wind for stable conditions. Unlike a target or F-class shooter who has to shoot over a long period, often taking a shot in conditions where the angle and strength of the wind needs compensation for every shot. The BR shooter will try to pick a lull and fire the five as quickly as possible, often in as little as 10 seconds to get all bullets flying through the same `condition`.

It is in itself a different act of skill but one deserving of respect as if performed wrongly, those many hours at the reloading bench can be thrown away; it only takes one shot to ‘kill’ a group at any distance. All this speed requires superb gun handling. The gun will recoil and slide on the rear bag and benchrest and this recoil can be controlled by letting the gun `free` recoil (sliding freely until stopped by your shoulder) or with some pressure from the shoulder to limit the ferocity on heavier calibres.

This has to be maintained the same for every shot otherwise vertical errors will creep into your group. Having the gun slide smoothly or `track` is accomplished through stock designs with parallel bearing surfaces that although not locked into the bags (the gun must lift free to adhere to the rulebook), are a very snug fit so will only move fore and aft, never sideways. Theoretically you then nudge the gun forwards with your shoulder to a pre-positioned stop to `return to battery`. If your gun tracks well it will go directly back to your point of aim, if not, keep working on it! This return to battery is accomplished by the fastest shooters while they are opening the bolt, ejecting brass and loading a new round, driving the bolt home, closing it and checking aim before firing again… imagine all that in less than 2 seconds! Rarely will a shooter adjust his point of aim during the shot string, it’s too late.

CARTRIDGES

Although benchrest can be extremely quick in competition, many many hours will be spent seated at the reloading bench preparing ammunition in the most loving fashion. At the mid ranges fast 6mm and small 6.5mm cartridges hold the key when it comes to excellent external ballistics, coupled to the fundamental accuracy required very often needing minimal recoil to assist with the mandatory rapidity of fire.

Looking back to before World War Two, the inspiration for yet more and more accuracy and consistency started shooters sitting down and using sand-filled sacks that have evolved into today’s multi axis, joystick controlled aiming platforms. Custom cartridge ‘wildcats’ appear, case necks are turned, handmade bullets are encountered and all the usual powder charge variations and seating depths are applied in preparation for those few seconds of activity. Cartridges like the 6mmBR (BENCHREST) exhibit the perfect combination for shooting this discipline but any fast twist 223 rifle or larger will adequately reach the 600 yard distance. In a custom, the sky is the limit.

ER, NOT WITH MY RIFLE?

I can still remember the first time I watched a very skilled BR competitor on a 600 yard match. He was shooting a full custom light gun in a severe, barrel burning but very fast 6mm Wildcat he had built himself. His gun had a left side ejection/loading port so as a right handed shooter, was more quickly accessible. I was left a bit open mouthed at how fast the calm 2-3 sighters suddenly erupted into an inferno of deftly coordinated fire control the moment the target rose up and wind settled into a predicted lull. It was like the start of the hundred metres final at the Olympics, a lot of standing/sitting around, watching, waiting and BANG,BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG all shot as quickly as YOU just read it! It looked like an Octopus having a fit as hands and shoulders whizzed about their business below a stationary head, nailed mid-air (never touching) above the stock, staring through the scope zipping back and forth as the recoil and `shoulder nudge` competed for the gun’s return to battery.

MY 600 YARD DEEP END

I attended a 600 yard match last autumn and was greeted by low winds and fine weather. I shot alongside serious BR competitors, many of whom shoot internationally and hold minute groups size records, yet I was fully welcomed with my bipod-equipped factory rifle. We shot two targets a minute apart and repeated two more after a ten minute break. The targets emerged at 600 yards from the butts for us to enjoy unlimited marked sighters prior to the two, 5-shot strings. After each shot string, the markers would place spotter discs into the targets to illustrate the maximum extent of the groups. It wasn’t until the end of the day when all the measuring was done and aggregates prepared. I shot in Factory Sporter class and my aggregate group size for 4 x 5 shot groups was 4.858” which at 600 yards was more than enough to please me.

To illustrate the other categories, Factory sporter was won with 4.818”, Light gun 3.029” and Heavy gun was 2.581”. Many groups shot were smaller than these in all categories but the `Agg` is everything so every individual shot matters to your average, you can’t call them back. Being on a bipod I shot with full shoulder contact, gently squeezing into the bipod as I would have if prone. I wasn’t fast but probably put all my rounds downrange in 20 seconds without feeling too hurried.

A couple of guys in my class had serious varmint rifles, not fitting into specific categories perfectly but they were there to enjoy shooting and were welcomed for it. I even had a go with my 300 Win Mag stalking rifle once. Although I have never competed seriously at benchrest, I have been around these competitors for many years and even though some have shot groups of just over 4” at 1000 yards, they are very humble and realistic.

They see their own records as lucky occurrences, days where the gods smiled upon them, taking far more interest in the here and now of today’s event standing alone. This humble nature perhaps reflects the maturity of the competitors’ attitudes and when you start to look, these guys really know what accuracy is, what guns are capable of in the real world and how much effort goes into it. I’m really looking forward to this series now as it might just be a myth buster to some shooters, especially those concerned at the rumours of how accurate others THINK their guns are.Read more at www.freewebs.com/ukbra/