Eliminating Bad Habits before they start aka... Benchrest or prone

[FreezeBomb]

I humbly submit this as one of my stupid questions... Back story. I am a few months into long range shooting and I am a handful of times behind a scope. I have been reaching out to 1000 yards with some early success. Most of my practice has been at a great range in TN off of their bench with a mechanical front benchrest and a rabbit ear rear. My question is, should I continue to learn off of this method or should I invest in a bipod and rear bag now to grow those skills? I am not currently interested in competitions but mainly I want to learn to be a competent shooter who achieves consistent results.

My goal is to eliminate bad habits up front as quickly as possible so they don't become a mountain to move later on. Either way I am having a blast learning as I go but I wanted to reach out to the community to see if you had a chance to do it all over to again... What would you do and what would you learn first?

 

[j741]

Find and take a good class. I wish I had done it earlier. I've been shooting rifles for about a year and a half now. Just recently did the Alaska class with Marc & Frank and it was eye opening. I had only done bench shooting up until that point and while I had shot some good groups, it was very different shooting prone. Not just in position, but also in how you are setup on the rifle. I realized with bench shooting was very much to the side instead of straight behind the rifle. Makes a noticeable difference in recoil handling on the rifle. Even though it's a pain at my range to move the bench out of the way to do prone, that is the way I'll be shooting from now on.

 

[ShtrRdy]

If you're somewhat new to rifle shooting I would recommend a mixture of bench and prone. But I would highly recommend a lot of dry fire practice in prone to get your body use to that position. Every day for about 20 minutes would be best.

 

[502Chevelle]

You should call Dan at Bangsteel in Wytheville VA, and get a lesson from him. Always a great place to shoot and learn a ton.

 

[Erno86]

If physically able too...I would use front a pedestal rest that weighs at least 12 pounds.

I've noticed that some snipers on our range, have started using a bipod that has the bottom of the legs titled forward at a 45 degree angle. It looks like a stable position, and I'm going to invest in one --- Once I know who sells them.

One option for a light recoiling rifle on a pedestal rest/front bag and a rear bag...can be just having body contact with the rifle with the face of your trigger finger; and having the rear of the buttstock pad only being 1/4" in front of your shoulder pocket.