What's the deal with benchrest shooters?

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I am going to back Old Time Hunter on his story and course of action.

Not everything you learn at a firing range has to be about firearms.:)

Some of the prejudices and narrowminded thinking can be unintentional. When I think gun, cartridge, and practice, I have brainwashed myself into thinking, "How does that help me get venison or a turkey?" Of course, with competiton shooters it would be "How does this help me beat old Fudmeyer" and with some it would be "Would this make a big splash with the boys when I pull it out of the case?"

I snagged a NIB Sport King last Friday to help me get over this fixation that all roads lead to killing game.
 
I bet if you took to actually getting to know them, instead of just drawing beliefs from perception, there is a possibility that they may not be as awful as you describe. I remember having the same feelings about clay shooters until I went clay shooting.

Remember that accuracy and group size is the sole point of theri shooting. They are simpy trying to judge others on their own standards. I believe you are doing the same.
 
In the early 1990s a good friend of mine was just getting into rifles hot and heavy when he noticed an older gentleman doing some benchrest shooting with a custom rifle sitting down smoking a cigarette. As I was standing next to him I watched the entire conversation.

Friend: "Excuse me, Sir. That's a beautiful rifle. What caliber is it?"

Benchrest Shooter: "6mm Benchrest."

Friend: "Oh really!?! I have heard that can be a very accurate caliber. Do you enjoy shooting it?"

Benchrest Shooter: "If I didn't enjoy it I wouldn't be shooting it."

We walked away in disgust.

I have avoided them every since.
 
You should be avoiding him, not "them." Don't presume that an entire group of enthusiasts are jerks just because one of them is. I'm sure you'll miss out on a lot of great conversations by dubbing all BR shooters as jerks. To each his own...it's your choice.

Regards,
 
I remember once at the range (shooting my AR15 and Maadi AKM) some guy who was there near us was shooting an FAL and some other bolt rifles down the way.

One of my friends went over to see what he was shooting and he made some (not in a friendly joke way) about my "pea shooters".

I noticed the comments stopped after we started shooting my friend's mosin nagant. Still, I thought the elitism factor was pretty annoying.
 
Idk about these stereotypes. I don't get to the public range very often. I love long range shooting from the bench or a bi-pod. It makes me feel good when I can put holes in paper at long distances, and I love the challenge. I also love to shoot trap, hell no am I good at it, but it sure is fun. when I feel destructive I shoot my AK off hand, and thats alot of fun too.

but we all know that bench rest is king!!! :neener: HAHA just playin

to those who think they are better then the rest. the hell with ya.
 
I find that it boils down to status. It is most prevalent in Skeet and surprisingly machinegunners. I have a machinegun but I don't look down on those that do not. They have gotten very expensive recently and this has changed the dynamics of the group. Machinegun guys used to be guys that liked military firearms and shot and collected them. They liked to shoot full auto but also knew how to hit with them. In what seems to be now the norm, machinegunners are people that buy them because they are expensive. They seem to know less and less about the guns they buy and usually do not even have a target in which they are aiming. It is more or less a "look at me" type of mentality. I know many machinegunners that once they got a machinegun or two, make fun of those that shoot semi-auto AR15s or AKs. These people love to laugh at guys at the range trying to "bumpfire" their guns when these same people usually were doing the very same thing not too long ago. If you can hit what you are aiming at, that is what counts. I like too many types of shooting.

I once shot next to a benchrester that was pretty snobby. I was shooting old mausers at the time as I like them as well as my target rifles. The guy talked down to everbody but we hadn't spoken much. He was telling people to stop shooting as he needed silence for his shot, telling guys they needed to get real rifles, etc.. I saw one of his ammo boxes with reloads and as I have really good eyes I could real the small writing on the little sticker in the box top. It said so and so grains of 4064 powder. I also noticed his other box on another rifle had Varget written in it for another load. He shot his shot. I took a sniff as if I was trying to smell something. He shot again. I took another sniff. As he was single loading another round, I looked over and said "4064?". They guy's jaw dropped as he said, "yeah". Later when he got out the other rifle, I did the same with the Varget load. The guy was amazed. Later he came over and asked me how I could tell. I just looked at him, smirked and told him "You have a lot to learn about shooting, maybe if I wasn't just some idiot shooting some old war rifles, you'd listen." I then opened up another gun case and pulled out my target rifle. He looked at me as if I had taken off a disguise. I laughed at him and turned away. I'd like to think they guy got the hint.

If you really want to see a skeet shooter get pissed, shoot skeet with a submachinegun and bust a clay. They hate that, especially when they ask how much your gun cost and it is more than most nice skeet guns.

I only treat others this way when they look down on others. If you are a nice guy, I'm usually more than willing to let you try my guns even. I have had at least 3000 rounds through my subgun alone from guys that were asking about it.
 
The last benchrest shooter I met was real nice too.

Thursday before last my father and I headed to the range and I met a 1000-yard benchrest shooter. He had two of the nicest looking, well made custom guns I've ever seen - a 90+ pound rifle and a new 60+ pound rifle. He had found he couldn't easily lift the 90-pounder when his grandson wasn't available to travel from state to state with him, so he bought a new gun, a Ridenhour .300 Weatherby that weighs about 30 pounds less. IIRC it's serial number 009 and it's a real work of art. He thinks the gun might show up in Precision Shooting one of these days and he showed me his grandson's picture in a recent copy of PS. The young man can certainly shoot.

I just don't know where all the nasty benchresters are. Maybe of some of you folks just rub people the wrong way. ;)

John
 
I haven't personally seen much attitude by sport choice, but I hear it talked about a LOT. (At least at the SGVGC in Duarte.)
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I think I'd shoot MYSELF before shooting at that place again. And I grew up shooting there. Never seen such jerks in my life. Go somewhere else, for your own good!:)

Funny thing is, they're fighting to keep their range. But they seem totally unaware of how they're perceived by shooters, not just the moonbats on City Council.

Trap vs. Skeet has been largely overtaken by events, those events being 5-Stand and Sporting Clays.

There's "bench rest shooters" and there are Benchrest shooters. People who sit all day every Saturday and shoot some average bolt-action rifle on the bench (e.g. a lot of the old jerks at SGVGC), and have nothing to do but bitch about some kid's .22 casings hitting their table now and then, are just losers. Sorry. They are grumpy because they know that they can't shoot in any practical way. Benchrest competitors, on the other hand, tend to be friendly and welcoming (just like a lot of clay shooters are).

Black Powder? I've never seen any conflict, and I've shot my .44 Remington revolver at a small indoor range a few times. Smokes up the place.:)
 
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In their defense, Benchrest shooters have pioneered just about every innovation we have for super accurate rifles. All of the accurizing features on a modern military sniper rifle, varmint rifle, or hunting rifle have their roots in benchrest shooting.

The benchrest shooters that I've encountered seem to be generous, almost to a fault, eager to talk about their sport/gear/rifles, and easygoing when they're not on the firing line. On the range, shooting a sub 1/4 MOA group requires extreme concentration, so they get a little testy when they are interrupted. The individual in the original post acted like a jerk. Maybe he reacted to having his concentration broken, maybe he is just a jerk. If it's the latter, he'd be a jerk whether he was shooting benchrest or shooting pool.
 
Anthony, I have to agree with ebd10.

It's like when I'm reading a book and somebody ask's me what I'm reading. Can't you tell that I'm busy?

I'm a little testy when I'm interupted.
 
i dont do the competion, but i do love the benchrest discipline. it is a great challenge, to dope the wind, the temps, tryign to look through tehscope, and actually put your bullets exacltly where you say they are going to go. Also it is maddening, when you go out one day, and can paint smiley faces on a target, and the next day you can barely get a recognizeable group. thats with the same gun/ammo. so you gotta go back to the drawing board, and recheck all your steps. either you figure it out. or you dont and go home, determined to get it right next week. I love the challenge.
 
xring44, Glad I received the intended reaction, thanks.

"As for your encounter with the BR shooter, if you come across with him as you did me, I can understand his behavior."

Of course, it would have been much better for me to defer to the anal wishes of my range neighbor and also recognize his much superior social standing.

When we built this range 30+ years ago, we very rarely had any issues pertaining to personalities and such. 99% of us were rural, primarily hunters, and gun affectionadoes with a common thread. Over the years our area slowly has become a haven for ex-urban, mainly upper class professionals and we have generally welcomed them into our club. Recently, within the last 10-12 years, this group has been instrumental in attempting to add exclustivity to the club making it almost unattainable for the common person. Fortunately, being one of the original found fathers, I have lifetime membership. I will not stand by, when some uppity "johnny come lately" tells me that I do not belong at "his" club. Especially when I was part of the original group that built it!
 
Two words:

Lee vs Dillon

It costs more, therefore it, and the owner (of the Dillon) MUST be better looking, have a prettier wife/girlfriend, have two smart, wonderful children and be the pillar of the community.

You 'Lee owners' should stand in the soup line and be glad you get that. :banghead:

Don't get me started on NFA vs the world....
 
Sounds to me that your problem solely lies with this fella that acted so rudely in your direction...although I must say, I don't think you did much good by threatening him to "keep quite or else." I would hope a founding member of the club would explain to this "johnny come lately" exactly whom he is talking to and recommend he not do it again.

Better to have him not say anything to you out of respect, rather than fear.

Either way...you found yourself a jerk...doesn't mean all BR shooters are like that. If it does seem to be that most BR shooters act like that at your club, then maybe it's time for a meeting with the "higher-ups" of the club concerning the attitude of a few members. A simple re-iteration of the range rules with a note saying something to the effect of "Remember to be courteous to your fellow members/shooters."

Obviously, better wording could be had; but that's what I came up with while at work. I just think things can be solved in a more civil manner than shooting the legs out of someone's target stand.

Regards,
 
Old Time Hunter, Our gun club is in growing pains even now, we have Doctors, Lawyers, CEOs, and a lot of red necks like myself, we just aquired an additional 80 acres adjoining the 40 acres our range is located on. Being retired, I have spent countless hours and no little sum of money to "enhance"
our range, so I have a vested interest in the range that I am rightly proud of,

As in any faternity, club, gathering, we have some better than thou personalitys. That is a fact of life, I go and enjoy myself in spite of those who would really like to look down their noses at anyone with less than they have. Fortunately, I have some knowledge that they never had the chance to aquire, they were too busy makeing their fortune to learn much about rifles etc. The thing is, its not one group that has all the A Holes, every group has their own.

Sometimes its difficult to avoid a verbal conflict, but normally its best. If the "beast" displays that attitude very often, his membership will not be renewed, problem solved.
 
Anecdotes of a single run-in with an individual is hardly an indictment of an entire sport.

I've never been to a Benchrest match or known any Benchrest shooters in real life, but I find it exceedingly hard to believe that this one particular discipline is home to a larger number of jerks than any other.

And for what it's worth, across all of the different competitive disciplines that I've given a whirl; Bullseye, ISSF Standard Pistol, IDPA, IPSC, 3 Gun, and High Power, the one constant has been that the people competing in them are kind and generous nearly to a fault.
 
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