Target shooters . . . HELP ME PLEASE!

[c east]

I use to shoot Glass bedded M-1 garands and a lot of semi autos and one rule still works....I don't know why....Shooting with the for end on the bags will get a lousy group...Even taking care to place the rifle at the same spot on the front bag, like bolt rifles ....Lousy groups....Taking the same rifle, ammo and all and placing the fore end in my hand and resting the back of my hand on the bags made a lot of improvement....try it....Charlie

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[Patrick Chadwick]

I use to shoot Glass bedded M-1 garands and a lot of semi autos and one rule still works....I don't know why....Shooting with the for end on the bags will get a lousy group...Even taking care to place the rifle at the same spot on the front bag, like bolt rifles ....Lousy groups....Taking the same rifle, ammo and all and placing the fore end in my hand and resting the back of my hand on the bags made a lot of improvement....try it....Charlie

Good advice!

There is a further point to be considered. If you shoot off a sandbag with the wood on the bag and then, later, with the rifle on your hand and using a sling (e.g., in a competition), the combination of sling tension and hand softness produces different dynamics than the hard bag and no sling. For athough a sandbag can give - if you push it - if you hit it with your hand you will appreciate that it is, in fact, quite hard for sudden movements. Which is also the reason why the position of the wood on the sandbag will affect grouping. The POI will also not necessarily be the same as when shooting without sandbag. Beacuse the mechanical resonances are different.

For this reason, I prefer to shoot practice rounds as Charlie describes. With sling as well. That way, I know that the POI will not be changed when shooting prone, without sandbag support (which I only do rarely, for physical reasons).

Patrick