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Many good things written here. The only thing I can think of that was not mentioned was stock drop. Stocks with a lot of drop to work with metallic sights (such as Marlin lever actions) shoot better from a rest using your off hand to support and control the forearm. The same is true with hard kicking rifles. All of this is even more true with rifles that are both like an 1895.

For the purpose of sighting in a three shot group works best. I disagree with the advise to sight in only at 25 yds. That is fine if you are only going to shoot at 25 yds. My hunting rifles are zeroed at 100 yd. because that fits the ranges I hunt at. My rifles I don't hunt with are sighted in at 100 or 200 yds. depending on what I usually do with them.

The thing we shooter tend to do with the least information is evaluating groups. I use ten-shot groups to evaluate a load/rifle/shooter/conditions combination. The Speer manual suggests a minimum of seven, but I would rather work in tens. Less than seven is wasting your ammunition. I enter the X and Y (windage and elevation) coordinates of the ten shots into an Excel spread sheet I made. It tells me many things, but of importance here is the group sizes. Those ten shots make 120 three-shot combinations. That is a lot of info if you can grab it.

For example I have a Savage 99 G takedown in 300 Savage made in 1927 with a Marble Arms tang sight. The best load I've tested in it was the 150 gr. Sierra SBT/41.5 gr. IMR4320/W-W Super cases/WLR primers. The ten-shot group, which is also the worst three-shot group, measured 2.432". The smallest three-shot group measured 0.280". The average of all the three-shot groups was 1.548". Any of these groups could have been the first one you shot, and either of the extreme would have been quite misleading. An easy way to get this info from the ten-shot group is the two farthest shots in that group. They define your ten-shot group. A quick and dirty way to get your average three-shot group is to take the ten-shot group size and divide by 1.6. This is close enough to work with. If you want to make distinctions between loads that preform similarly you need to do this, e. g. should I load 41.5 gr. or 40.5 gr.

If your needs are no more stringent than can all my shots hit the paper plate at 100 yd. then you don't need this.
 
There is many opinions on your subject. I suggest you get on good old You Tube and find David Tubb. There really ain't much shooting he ain't done from the bench and off of his hind legs, he is the real deal. I doubt he can remember all the competitions he has won.

I am not a "bench rest" shooter and my technique is a bit different. I keep my hand underneath of my rifles forearm and try to grip the rifle in the same way I would grip it from a standing, kneeling, or sitting unsupported position. The reason is when I am shooting at a critter I won't be shooting off of a bench, so when I zero my scope that is on the rifle I want my bench shooting to simulate my field shooting as closely as possible.

Some want to rest the forearm of the rifle on a bag or other shooting aid and have no other contact with the forearm, that may be ok for bench shooting, but I have never shot a critter that way. If I don't hang on to the forearm of my .338 Winny it gets a mind of it's own when I fire it, same with my 30-06. My .22's or AR 5.56 are much milder and do not bounce around.

For a bench I think good bags are the best as is sitting up fairly straight in a comfortable position. I do not care for the variety of forearm shooting rests that are three legs and adjustable with a pad on top to rest the forearm on, they bounce too. Bags are what I use when checking a scopes zero and the rifles groups. I have a Lead Sled and can never get as comfortable with it as I can my bags, so I only use it for chronograph work and early load development.

There are many good examples of bench rest shooting do's and don't on You Tube and they should be of help.
 
There is many opinions on your subject. I suggest you get on good old You Tube and find David Tubb. There really ain't much shooting he ain't done from the bench and off of his hind legs, he is the real deal. I doubt he can remember all the competitions he has won.

I am not a "bench rest" shooter and my technique is a bit different. I keep my hand underneath of my rifles forearm and try to grip the rifle in the same way I would grip it from a standing, kneeling, or sitting unsupported position. The reason is when I am shooting at a critter I won't be shooting off of a bench, so when I zero my scope that is on the rifle I want my bench shooting to simulate my field shooting as closely as possible.

Some want to rest the forearm of the rifle on a bag or other shooting aid and have no other contact with the forearm, that may be ok for bench shooting, but I have never shot a critter that way. If I don't hang on to the forearm of my .338 Winny it gets a mind of it's own when I fire it, same with my 30-06. My .22's or AR 5.56 is much milder and do not bounce around.

For a bench I think good bags are the best as is sitting up fairly straight in a comfortable position. I do not care for the variety of forearm shooting rests that are three legs and adjustable with a pad on top to rest the forearm on, they bounce too. That is what I use when checking a scopes zero and the rifles groups. I have a Lead Sled and can never get as comfortable with it as I can my bags, so I only use it for chronograph work and early load development.

There are many good examples of bench rest shooting do's and don't on You Tube and they should be of help. Good shooting to you!
 
Started doing prone at 600 yrds recently.Bolt action 308 with bipod and rear bag.
But,I bench shoot mostly.I use a Caldwell Rock and a Caldwell rear rest whenever I shoot levers.All bolts and ARs ,I use a Harris swivel bipod and a home made bag in the rear.
Bag is a sock filled with #60 silica sand.If I want lightweight,I use cat litter or air soft pellets.
Works well for me,my groups are pretty tight.
.
 
I always shoot off bags sighting in. Last year a buddy had the Lead Sled and I shot #3 Ruger in 375w off it. A #3 is a small rifle and
harder to shoot off bags than a full size rifle. It made a believer out of me, I was doing a lot better than bags. No more of the Flyers
that only occur because of "operator error"
 
I have some good shooting rim fire bolt rifles i shoot from the bench rest and i line up the rifle by moving the rest before i set then adjust the rest until the cross hair is where i want it to be then grip lightly the stock with my trigger hand with my thumb just behind the rear of the bolt, shoulder just putting slight pressure against butt stock all the time keeping the cross hair on the bull by only adjusting the rest not by putting pressure on the gun . Each one needs a slightly different approach you just have to learn each rifle. Some are hold sensitive so are not but when shooting my hunting levers i put my off hand under the fore end just like i do while hunting. I like shooting my old ML's more than any thing .
 
To shoot a Lever gun benchrest, crank your front rest as high as it will go. I also turn my Rock rest backwards so the lever clears the feet.
then put the rear bag on anothe sand bag. A real sand bag not one of Those walnut hull bags.
This will raise the rifle enough so the lever clears and you won't have to move it between every shot.
I place the very back of the forearm on the front rest.
On the receiver would be better but that gets in the way of the lever.
Aim the rifle using the benchrest controls and fine tune using the rear rabbit ear bag.
Only worth it if your using a scope or target peep sites.
 
Hey CG - here’s a pic of what I use. Cheap but effective. I rest the barrel in the front “black fork” and the butt of the stock goes against my shoulder. (There’s also a black fork for the back but I take it out.). If I’m testing new loads I wait for 5 minutes between shots.
 
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