Plastikosmd
Member
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2011
- Messages
- 828
I hope that this post does not degrade as the last one did. This topic is an interest of mine for a few reasons.
First, I am not a benchrest shooter but I do strive for smaller groups.
Second, I have some rifles that have a touch of recoil. While a couple of them weigh between 50-80 lbs themselves, but with projectiles that weigh 700-1700 grains, I do look for ways to mitigate a touch of recoil.
The most accurate rifle that I own is an old 40x in 22-250. Topped with an old programmer scope it's best group was .085 or something. I agree that it is mostly luck but it is not that hard to hold around .2 at 100 yards.
I bought a FCX lead sled from Caldwell a while back and had used it a bit when working on sighting in another couple rifles. There I chased my tail for a long while with loads for those rifles (my fault as you will see.) I decided to shoot a bunch of groups using the sled with my old faithful rifle and try
1) shooting using the rest
2) rest with front bags instead of the front rest included with the sled
3)bags alone.
I shot 3 strings and repeated each x3 ( 5 shots for group, change setup then 5, change to final and shoot five, now repeat x3). Was cool and a bit breezy but all shot in same conditions
The average was taken. I kept the best groups per set for that day. Generally, the worst group by far and worst of all strings was using the rest with included front rest (best 0.616). Bags alone was good (best 0.210), and known to be good as my best group was shot that way before. Rest plus bag did the best for that day (best 0.126)but many more groups would have to be shot to really see if better than bags alone (suspect about same.) POI did change a bit from one setup to another but all generally low right(as I am using the crosshairs to center on target)
Now this is not the only rest I use, I also have a custom Viper rest that weights around 60lbs.
For my big guns, I do plan on figuring out how to incorporate a small lead sled rest along with my Viper in the future, so more to come. While it would not be competition 'legal' it will make things accurate enough for me on the big guns and reasonably comfortable
First, I am not a benchrest shooter but I do strive for smaller groups.
Second, I have some rifles that have a touch of recoil. While a couple of them weigh between 50-80 lbs themselves, but with projectiles that weigh 700-1700 grains, I do look for ways to mitigate a touch of recoil.
The most accurate rifle that I own is an old 40x in 22-250. Topped with an old programmer scope it's best group was .085 or something. I agree that it is mostly luck but it is not that hard to hold around .2 at 100 yards.
I bought a FCX lead sled from Caldwell a while back and had used it a bit when working on sighting in another couple rifles. There I chased my tail for a long while with loads for those rifles (my fault as you will see.) I decided to shoot a bunch of groups using the sled with my old faithful rifle and try
1) shooting using the rest
2) rest with front bags instead of the front rest included with the sled
3)bags alone.
I shot 3 strings and repeated each x3 ( 5 shots for group, change setup then 5, change to final and shoot five, now repeat x3). Was cool and a bit breezy but all shot in same conditions
The average was taken. I kept the best groups per set for that day. Generally, the worst group by far and worst of all strings was using the rest with included front rest (best 0.616). Bags alone was good (best 0.210), and known to be good as my best group was shot that way before. Rest plus bag did the best for that day (best 0.126)but many more groups would have to be shot to really see if better than bags alone (suspect about same.) POI did change a bit from one setup to another but all generally low right(as I am using the crosshairs to center on target)
Now this is not the only rest I use, I also have a custom Viper rest that weights around 60lbs.
For my big guns, I do plan on figuring out how to incorporate a small lead sled rest along with my Viper in the future, so more to come. While it would not be competition 'legal' it will make things accurate enough for me on the big guns and reasonably comfortable
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