Its amazing..Off hand at 100 in a 3 inch bull(and thats a ton of practice) ,cross sticks are beatiful too..Off the bags at bench,high and to the right by a couple inches at least..between 12 oclock and 3 oclock every time..My only conclusion having tried everything is that it must be the configuration of the benches at our club..Must cause the gun to torque on my shoulder..I know,who cares about the bench if it does that off hand and with sticks..Thats not the point..A fella's supposed to be able to get the true potential of a gun at the bench...Feed back appreciated

PS its a 77 ruger

My first thoughts are that you are putting pressure on the barrel some how when you are shooting off the bench.

Are all the screws tight ect.

There could be many reasons it is doing this. Rifle, scope if it has one, Shooter have you had any one else try it.

My 45-70 will do a similer thing. Zerod from the bench this is how 3 shots look fired off hand at 100 yards. Low and to the right. Like you said who cares because there are no benches in the hunting field.

P.s. ignore the extra bullet hole on the left, it was a target someone had left on the backer.

I know what you mean NBHUNTER.But man I hate crap that dont make sense..P DOG SHOOTER,if its tech with the gun,how come so consistant with other two methods?And yes I've checked screws.I'm in for letting another shoulder try it off bench,as our benches are low and I'm long and lean.My buddy is 5' 7" or so.I'll get him at it,it may be rotating off the top of my shoulder

Try shooting it the same way every time. What i mean is hold the rifle the exact same way as you would in off hand,and sitting. In the traditional standing with sticks most people do not grip the forestock as they would with out support, this will make you shoot high and right everytime. They seem to repeat this when benching the rifle also. The age old rule to reapeted accuracy is four points of contact on the rifle at all times. If you use a "hasty sling" method for support while standing or sitting then you must repaeat the hold while benching or off sticks. Its all about repeating the resistance to recoil the same way every time. In heavy recoiling guns it will magnify itself, and frustrate the begeebers out of you.Hope this helps you out. Charlie

If you could borrow another couple of big bores you could at least check and see if it common to the bench or specific to just your gun.

Assuming that you are using bags, be certain to have the bags under the action, not the forend. I've found that this makes quite a difference.

The bags should not touch the rifle at all. Hold the rifle as you would offhand, and let your hand/forearm rest on the bags for support.

Anything that touches the rifle is going to either absorb or bounce recoil, even if slightly, causing POI to shift.

Charger,

I noticed my .300RUM impacts were much higher off the bench than firing from field positions, too. Because I was firing a right-handed rifle, I wasn't using a hasty sling. Just the difference in gripping the forearm from field position vs allowing free recoil off the bench made over 2" difference in group center at 100yds.

Only other thing I can think of: My Ruger RSM (in .375 vice .458, though) is very sensitive to the position of the bag/shooting stick on the forearm. These rifles' barrels aren't free-floated, so there may be stock pressure on the barrel causing the different POI.

I "cured" the problem on mine by shooting off my forward hand (vice directly off the shooting stick or bag) like you'd do with a double rifle. This way the pressure's on the same spot on the stock and the material pressing up on the stock (my hand) has the same hardness no matter what I'm using as a brace.

Good luck. Hope this helps.

Steve

I'm going to suggest something and don't mean any slight. I own a Lott myself and it is a handful on the bench.

Is it possible that you're flinching on the bench more than off hand? If you think that this is a case, you might try having someone load empty vs. loaded rounds, randomly, outside your view. It'll become evident right away if your flinching.

Just a thought...

-Steve

quote:

Originally posted by charger:
Its amazing..Off hand at 100 in a 3 inch bull(and thats a ton of practice) ,cross sticks are beatiful too..Off the bags at bench,high and to the right by a couple inches at least..between 12 oclock and 3 oclock every time..My only conclusion having tried everything is that it must be the configuration of the benches at our club..Must cause the gun to torque on my shoulder..I know,who cares about the bench if it does that off hand and with sticks..Thats not the point..A fella's supposed to be able to get the true potential of a gun at the bench...Feed back appreciated

Charger ... have you had similar occurences while shooting other rifles from the positions mentioned? If not, I suspect you can eliminate your particular shooting style from the list of possible causes, as well as the configuration of the shooting benches at your range. More likely and as P Dog Shooter suggests, the variance in the placement of the forearm should be investigated. There may be a high spot, especially if the point of impact changes immediately, at the first shot off the bench. For starters, take your (unloaded) rifle and assume your usual position on the sticks. Have your mate slide a fresh dollar bill between barrel and channel, noting how smoothly, as well as how far it slides in. Do the same while positioned at the bench. You may or may not find a high spot but should you, you'll be on your way to solving the problem.

This might be a longshot but, there was an article in African/Zimbabwe Hunter a few years ago where they looked at how accuracy was effected when firing from deadrests. It showed that if the barrel or foreend were resting on trees, shooting sticks etc it could effect accuracy. So it might be worth ensuring that when your firing from the bench that the rifle is not in contact with any sandbags etc.

Yes, with a big bore get your hand under the bag and shoot it the same as you do offhand..A big bore recoils off the surface to the bag or a tree or whatever, the more recoil the more you will notice this...but not all guns do this, it has a lot to do with barrel harmonics, bench style, and recoil effect on trigger control as well as finger position in the trigger,..you'll figure it out in time..