What To Put in Rests?

[Daddy Justin]

Had my rifle shooting under 1 in. groups at 100 yards off of bench using sweat socks filled with sand. Since I was doing so well, I invested in the Caldwell little Rock rest and a rear bag. I filled both with lead shot since I had read that this worked well because it was so stable. First day on the range and I was never steadier. However my groups opened up to about 5 in. After about 20 rounds with 2 different rifles, my brother and I decided that it must be the rest. So I folded up a towel and put it over the front rest to make it softer and moved the rear bag farther back so the gun could come back easier without hitting the rear bag. My first group was 3/4 of an in.
What is the problem? Is it the front rest or the rear rest? I was going to try and fill the front bag with regular sand and see if the this helps.
Thanks for the help.
Justin

 

[wapiti13]

Shot has no give. Its heavy, but doesn't conform like sand. I'd fill both front and rear bag with sand. Not many BR shooters using shot! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[Tim Behle]

I filled mine with bulk rice from the grocery store. It was about half the cost of sand, and I didn't notice any difference from when the bags used to hold sand.

 

[Centre Punch]

I fill my bags with bird cage sand, its fine, dry and flows very nicely.
I think that Benchrest rules forbid bags filled with lead shot
If you want some heft, there is special zircon bag sand which is extra heavy but it aint cheap.

Ian.

 

[eagle]

Cat litter

 

[jb1000br]

Cat litter...you are kidding right...

Play sand from Lowes or Home Depot will work.

Zircon is better and heavier.

Lead shot is a No-No in registered competition

also be aware of how the sling stud tracks...dont want it smacking into the bags on recoil.

To fill easily, tape a thin stiff tube/pipe to your reloading funnel and dump the sand in thru that.

JB

 

[Buffalobob]

Used cat litter is better /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[sniperVLS]

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Used cat litter is better /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

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/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[BountyHunter]

Lead shot is too hard, causes bounce.

sand is better and legal in comp. lead is not.

BH

 

[Buffalobob]

OK now that i ahve had some fun, here is a serious comment

If you are not shooting competition you can put in about one third lead pellets for weight and the rest use sand. The lead pellet with the higher density will settle to the bottom of the bag and the sand will be in the top. That is what I did and then I noticed that it is forbidden in the competition rules and decided to pour it all out.

All of this benchrest stuff is sure hard to learn.

 

[James Jones]

why is lead not allowed in BR comps?

 

[Buffalobob]

Why? I don't have a clue. Maybe some body else knows. Here is what the Williamsport rules say:

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43.0 A sandbag is a bag with a cover that can be easily flexed by the fingers, the contents of which shall be a finely divided, granular, non metallic substance, such as sand, gravel, or grain, each without additive, and packed loosely enough so that the bag with contents can be easily deformed by pressure of the fingers.



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