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All good posts here.

One more reason I rarely shoot from the bench.

Fine bench groups are encouraging and certainly build feel-good confidence of a sort, but really are not the "reality" the gun is going to face in the field and don't say much about the rifle's field accuracy in the hands of the shooter. Groups produced from field positions do.

We zero {I call it "Rough Zeroing"} our rifles from the bench when checking a new load, mounting a scope, etc, then "Real Zero" from field positions. From bench with kickers, always grab the front end with your support hand.

We shoot from standing {no sticks} and from sitting, elbows rested on knees, primarily. IF a shot in the woods allows a forward rest {as leaning over a log, etc} the front end is always "hanged-on" by the offhand/support hand. This is what I've taught my family, and nobody has an excuse for blowing shots as they all have to pass a test to hunt each year anyway.

I have a theory that many years ago, when rifles began to acquire actual mechanical accuracy of MOA, this mechanical achievement was so extraordinary, gunwriters were so impressed they impressed upon the shooting public the wonderful new reality, and it took the US world by storm and over time in the USA, rifleshooting became 95% benchresting and 5% practical field shooting.

We here have turned these numbers around here on my place, and frankly, it has done a lot for our game killing. We have precious few chances at game, we gotta make the best of every shot! I might add, that other shooters in other nations did not necessarily take the benchrest thing hook line and sinker, and some are even required not to in a sense, as they have to take shooting tests to hunt, tests that preclude the use of benchrest technique.

Chuck, the real deal is to forget where the thing hits off the bags. Adopt a solid field position {we use sitting} and then do most of your shooting from that, making scope adjustments as necessary. Try it and I think you will find your comfort with the gun and skill in the field will go up, and the differences between sitting and standing are less than from bench to sitting, bench to standing, etc.

Your groups may not be as fine as what you can get off the bench, but your field position groups are REAL groups. Yeah, you might have to let the benchboys go on about sub-MOA groups ad nauseum, but just wait till you get into the field!

A real life example:

My wife shooting her test last Wednesday. Range 100 meters {109 yards}:

Results:

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