Dont't know if anyone else has run into this. A fellow was shooting at the range with his new rifle vice and after setting it up he begin shooting his favorite load that was very accruate. He shot two groups and they were off from what he had been shoot a good bit. Boy was he pissed after spending the money on the vice. I looked at it and saw he had the barrel strapped down at the front end of the stock. I asked him if his barrel was floated and he said it was. I suggested he reset the vice so the strap would be way back under the scope He did and shot a better group than ever before. Boy was he happy. Just a mistake with a new item.

This is quite common with the gun vices that I have seen in use.

That strap is for recoil retention, it should have about 1 inch of slack in it...

Never seen anybody actually use one....a gun vise that is. How would one become fimiliar with shooting his rifle by putting it in some kind of vise.

The rifle vise, or gun rest, is set up to give the rifle a solid and stable platform to fire from. This lets the rifle be held stable at every shot so it shoots from the same position each time. This eleminates most of the human error of cantering and swinging of the barrel each time it is shot. What this tells you is just how the rifle is grouping. I shoot off sand bags, two in front and one under the back stock. This gives a good support but adjustable gun rest is a lot better to test grouping. But last time I shot from the bags, two men were using the rests and shooting new savage short barrels. One was a .308 and the other a 22/250. They covered their shots with a dime at 100 yards and I covered mine with a dime from the bags. I don't know if it would do any better on a rest, but do know they are doing a lot better since they went to the adjustable rests.

For about $15 dollars and 2 hours time I built my own version of a Sinclair rilfe rest to sight in my rifles. The idea was to use it instead of my shot bags. I do not think it will work any better but it was a fun project. . .

I can understand the 'sight in' part. Although well positioned bags will give you the same thing.....even with bags it comes down to how you use them. I have seen guys use these rests ...in pictures....shooting pds. That has to be about as unhandy as a broken glass.