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Benchrest Air Rifle Rests And Supports

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First a clear statement. I am definitely NOT a benchrest air rifle shooter. More’s to the point, I am not a competitive shooter in any way. However, I do find it interesting to watch and try to understand what makes for success in airgun shooting competitions.

This post results from attending 2024’s Extreme Benchrest and thinking about what I saw there…

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It’s clear that many people get very excited about what constitutes the “best” air rifle for benchrest competition. For years this was FX, but now Scout and the Red Panda have challenged that. Daystate has always been a player too, of course.

Then, at EBR 2024, suddenly the American Air Arms EVOL was the winner, with a Thomas in second place. Interesting!

Benchrest Air Rifle Rests And Supports


A fair number of folk also take a big interest in what types of pellets are being used. Of course – as with the guns – these preferences are constantly changing as new products enter the market and fashions change.

Over the course of time, it seems to me that there’s been more interest in barrels. The recent appearance of SubMOA has caused a flurry of interest in this area. Of course the EBR-winning EVOL was fitted with a barrel from that manufacturer.

Benchrest Air Rifle Rests And Supports


To me, there’s surprisingly little interest taken in optics. Riflescopes are a critical part of on-target accuracy, of course, but there seems to be less emotion and hype about them than there is with the guns. Sure, people know about Sightron, Hawke, March and other leading brands. But the excitement around scopes seems to be less.

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However, there’s one aspect of benchrest shooting about which there seems to be extremely little discussion. There’s also a wide variety of choices and I – for one – am completely ignorant about the pros and cons for each type, let alone the products of individual manufacturers.

This is rifle rests and supports for benchrest shooting.

The purpose of this post is to encourage a discussion about the best techniques and equipment for benchrest air rifle competition. I hope that HAM Community members will help to educate me, and possibly other shooters interested in entering this discipline!

So, what did I see at EBR 2024? I saw benchrest competitions with a huge range of support options.

For example, let’s take two superlative airgun competitors….

First place winner (for the second time) Claudio Flores used a simple bipod at the front end.

Benchrest Air Rifle Rests And Supports


He had an even more simple bag support at the rear. Nothing else. This seems to me to be a remarkably “flexible” approach.

Benchrest Air Rifle Rests And Supports


In comparison, second place finisher (and previous EBR winner) Jeffrey Hernandez used a hugely complicated-looking front support that looked like it must weigh a ton.

Benchrest Air Rifle Rests And Supports


He also used a very substantial-looking rear rest. Both appeared to be micro-adjustable. My opinion is that this was a definite “bolt it down” operation!

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Now there was only 2 points separating the scores of these two great competitors in the 2024 EBR finals. So both approaches obviously work about equally well. But why?

Then again I saw some people using a simple bipod front rest combined with a highly-sophisticated rear support.

Benchrest Air Rifle Rests And Supports


Others use a substantial, micro-adjustable front rest with just a bag at the rear.

Benchrest Air Rifle Rests And Supports


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I even saw what looked like a one-piece mount where front and rear supports were joined by a rail.

Benchrest Air Rifle Rests And Supports


So that raises another question. What’s the most important support for benchrest shooting. The one at the front or at the back?

And who are the companies manufacturing this stuff? Where do you buy it?

Finally, there’s the question of additional shooting weights that are attached to the gun for benchrest competition.

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Again, Jeffrey had them, Claudio did not. Don’t get me started on this one too…


The post Benchrest Air Rifle Rests And Supports appeared first on Hard Air Magazine.
 
With fl22 new stuff and needing a rest I was think a report or review in tests would be nice ..

My thing is it's got guys claim good shooting then you see there pretty much took the human error out of their shooting . Pretty much just lock it in a vice and maybe pull the trigger at most .. lol.

Ya I rest most times , but it's just forend on a old tee shirt stuffed sock
 
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I believe other brench rest associations have different classes for front ad rear supports. EBR is more of a run what you’ve brung situation.

I forgot to add that I enjoy your take on competitions Stephen.
 
my EVOL that or maybe the woes BRK but mostly me EVOL
I Ghost if I had one or ever get one but for now the EVOL LOL ; )

AoA has it cheaper than anyone right now, believe me I looked. So if you think you want one, you might wanna go ahead and do it.
 
I want one but I want the pic rail and the short one
Yeah buddy the SR5 is tall!! I possibly shoulda went for the stubbier br4 for the Ghost?! 😓 It actually blows my mind how the "rest rules" are so lax at this shooting event?! I'm with Hateful on this, once you start bolting the gun down or using a mount worth more than the gun I'm out lol, if you take the human element out I lose interest quick. You can spend a chunk of money on a Ghost or M3 bottle gun and accessories and make it a very decent bench gun but I'd recommend a long gun if serious about competing. Red wolf, S510, Evol, Red Panda, Panthera etc. All these guns outta the box would be much more ideal. I like a bipod up front (or the Caldwell) and I jack the back up with my fist under a bag, block of foam, 99% of the time.
 

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Good overview of bench rest supports for competition shooters. For me when I want to compare airguns without my shooter error getting in the way of results I use a basic gun rest from Sportsmans G which costs about $25. This will work fine for most shooters and is much more stable than bags. I do not like gun reviews where the reticle is floating all over to the point of nausea.
 

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