Benchrest shooting

Both the forearm and buttstock of such a rifle are usually fully supported by bean bags, a bipod/monopod (front/rear) combination, and/or a specially designed fixture device called shooting rest (which may be one- or two-piece depending on competition rules), so that the gun can remain stably pointing at the target without needing to be held by someone.

When shooting, the shooter simply sits/stands comfortably behind the table/bench, operates the action and pulls the trigger, without needing to worry about carrying any weight of the gun.

Benchrest shooters are notoriously detail-oriented and constantly trying to further the accuracy potential of the rifle through experimentation.

World Rimfire and Air Rifle Benchrest Federation (WRABF) is a smaller international governing body focusing on smallbore competitions.

Winning placement in competition is determined by how well each competitor achieves this goal or in other words, how closely the shots are grouped.

In order to achieve extreme accuracy, the guns must be fired from a stable platform called a bench, which is a heavy, solid table usually anchored into the ground.

For most rifles, rests are required to provide a stable shooting surface, and most shooters use some method of judging the direction and/or velocity of the wind on the range.

Shooters might use heavy stainless steel barrels, scopes with high power magnification, and handmade stocks of graphite, fiberglass, or carbon fiber.

Benchrest shooting grew from varmint hunting, where the shooters would aim for highly accurate rifles, using mostly .22 caliber cartridges.

With rifles such as these, some initially argued that no shooting skill was involved and was simply a test of the gunsmith's craft.

However, shooting an RTB rifle requires a set of skills different than conventional marksmanship.

Benchrest matches involve careful reading of wind conditions to compensate for bullet drift, and the rifles and ammunition must be of the highest possible quality.

For benchrest shooting, scopes with a second focal plane (SFP) reticle and click adjustments of 1⁄8 moa (approximately 0.036 mil) are most commonly used.

Sights intended for practical long-range typically have a reticle in the first focal plane (FFP) and coarser 1⁄10 mil adjustments.

The .222 Remington dominated the benchrest world from the mid-1950s until around 1975, when the wildcat 6 mm PPC, based on a modified .220 Russian case (which is in turn a boxer-primed derivative of the military 7.62×39mm), took over as the most accurate cartridge.

Benchrest shooters' primers, powders and bullets must be of the highest quality available if they are to achieve the shot-to-shot consistency necessary for competitive performances.

By allowing the rifle to move freely backward, the shooter hopes that the movement under recoil will be as consistent as possible.

On June 27, 2009, a world record was set there at 270 metres (300 yd) with a 1.191 centimetres (0.469 in) five-shot group measured center-to-center.

A benchrest Anschütz 1903 rifle used for BR50 .22 LR rimfire competitions, riding on an adjustable machine rest at the front and a saddled bean bag at the rear.
An unlimited class "railgun".
A BCM Europearms single shot benchrest rifle.
Benchrest shooting with a Mauser rifle. This is an example of the non-competitive use of benchrest techniques. Neither the rifle, the rest, nor the bench shown would be found in formal competition. They show, rather, adaptations of benchrest ideas for the more common hunting rifle.
The 6mm BR to the left and 6mm Dasher in the middle are common benchrest cartridges, here compared to a .308 Winchester cartridge to the right.