Rifle Benchrest Silhouette

[dustinflint]

One guy is on his first hip… another is on his 2nd knee… it is what it is…

That’s why you send the kids downrange.

Dustin

[375Short]

At our matches I am the kid.

I already owned a set of 1/10” swingers so took them out for a test bench rest match during our last monthly. I’m the only one that shot it. It was windy and it was extremely challenging. Two of the guys that thought they were interested decided it looked two hard. I think I may have to have BIG bench rest using all 1/5 scale.

We now have the deepest pool of extremely talented younger shooters than maybe ever in our sport. That said, easier, meaning games with bigger targets will / does draw more shooters. I think the reason is fairly simple. Only a small percentage will or want to put in the time to be competitive at a high level. It is likely the most demanding form of all the rifle shooting sports. The remainder, the majority, want a fun shooting sport / hobby that is easier to see success. Thus lever gun and open sight sporter draw good numbers and the crowds are smiling and more relaxed. It’s good to offer easier options at monthly matches and seems to be a growing trend. We can draw a few into the purists NRA ranks as there skill grows. If the only option is the most challenging of NRA rule matches you get a large number of one and done shooters. That’s not a new or creative observation but I think because of it we are seeing more people on the firing lines again.

[jnyork]

If you’re going to add it, you need benches. The older guys like it and they have a problem getting up and down from prone…

I'm an "older guy", I can get down in prone but you will need an engine hoist to get me back up vertical.

[Hawkeye7br]

Funny thing this weekend at the sb match with benchrest… guys are realizing for the match, once down to set up for practice then 8 times to reset during the match and then once for take down… they are walking over a mile… they are ruminating the idea of paper or swinger and what to do about edge hits…

There really isn’t such a thing as a free lunch…

(I voted scaled down paper by 10% so any plugged “edge hits” would be enough contact with a regular target to cleanly knock it down…)

We substituted the 1/10 scale as an option at our home grown long range rimfire match (bench). We had been shooting the 1/5 scale targets for several years but found the 1/4" thickness wasn't enough. The legs, heads, tails, were bending from the repeated hits. If you're trying to save money and time by using 2 swingers instead of 10 knockdowns, remember that each target is getting hit 5x more than the knockdowns. We custom ordered 3/8" thickness and they are working well. My .02