bench vs belly shooting: lesson learned
 

I had always thought bench shooting with rest is way more stable than prone. Thus, if I can hold 1 MOA and less prone, bench should be a breeze. Wrong. Shot the OBR bench with 168FGMM, 175 FGMM, and prvi 168 and 175 (yeah, I know). Two rounds touching here and there but overalll still a 3min+ groups. Had other shooter at the range try it with same results. I was concerned it's turning out as $$$ scatter gun.

I told Larue and while they asked for additional info/testing, they overnighted another upper anyway with the usual goodies :eek: These guys don't dick around. Talking about solid customer service and troop support. I'm scared of calling them now for fear of wasting their time/resources...again.

Then master Rick worked his magic and had me shoot prone. Big change. Nothing wrong with the rifle. Nothing wrong with my belly-shooting either, but now I learn that bench without bolting the rifle down require more focus/skill with weighing down the rifle with proper spot weld and pulling that stick in...hard.

One of the group is from M110, showing excellent accuracy of a well-selected rifle with scrutinized M118LR lot: <1 MOA 6 rds group with a flyer and appoaching 1/4 MOA 3 shots group. Keep in mind the paper target was flapping under steady wind so actual zero-wind groups would be even smaller. I was baffled and midly ticked off that the M110 that I had never touched before was easier to shoot and I shot it better than the OBR :boohoo Must be that ingrained affinity to the A2 stock...

Anyway, in a long convoluted way I just wanted to say that if your bench grouping sucks and you are a decent trigger puller, try prone with bipod :o

Real Snipers do it in the Prone........

The equipment you use at the bench is extremely important. How you shoot from the bench is extremely important. Shooting off of hard sand bags without a rear rest with a light rifle is a good way to look foolish. Flimsy stocks with lots of flex will jump around like a jack rabbit with a coyote after it. With proper technique and equipment you should be able to shoot better from a bench than prone with a bipod but it is a skill to be mastered.

The reverse is also true- shooting from a bipod is a skill to be learned and which bipod and what you use to rest the rear is important. One of the great problems in hunting is finding a suitable spot on the ground to shoot from. Here is a picture of my 1000 yard F-class 308 rifle after I have hit an antelope at 638 yards. Because I set the rear bag on top of a brushy spot instead of bare earth the rear of the rifle was not properly supported and the bullet lands 2 MOA different than what I expected. It takes a second shot to finish the animal. Out in the real world as opposed to the range you have to deal with problems and make decisions and your choice of shooting spot is a critical decision.

As TS mentions about snipers, one of my duties/responsibilities as the Recon Sniper platoon leader was to ensure that my sniper teams had locations from which to observe and shoot and from which they could expect to find a person to shoot. This is a lot more complicated than most people realize being as predicting human or prey behavior is difficult.

Frostfire,

What was your distance to target?

Personally, I'd rather be shot in the bench than in the belly...but that's just me. ;)

Richard :munchin

Depends what is on the other side of the bench Richard. :munchin :D

Davy, your groups ran at about 1 moa and that was in a wind with a bouncing target. You did good. :)

Noted, Buffalobob. No sniper here, just a leadslinger slinging around :D
I'll do better technique and use better/proper equipment next time.


Paslode, just the good 'ol 100m zero range. The sun was in my eye:D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm-1_Iz2FrU

Another random piece of info, I've been told by LaRue the OBRs will eventually tighten up after around 500 rds. They say anywhere from a .1 MOA to .25 MOA.