Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Anyone shoot benchrest?

I'm thinking about taking the plunge into rimfire benchrest. Anyone on here compete?

Not a bench shooter yet, but I was contemplating taking the plunge too a while back. Man the equipment bug bit me. I almost bought an Anschutz bench rifle. I ended up getting a 1710 dkl and shooting some informal shooting at the range off the bench. If you are serious about it, and boy do I mean serious (because these guys take it seriously) take a look on benchrestcentral Good luck

yea benchrestcentral and rimfirecentral i got a 40x with a schilen 4 groove barrel with most ammo it will shoot 1/2 in at 100 yds and good ammo better and is not good enough for benchrest so get ready but it is lots of fun i am just a silhoutte shooter here

I'm planning on getting a Suhl 150, I'll likely shoot it as is, then depending on how it shoots blueprint the action and fit a benchmark taper lapped barrel and bed it in a br stock.

I shoot the ARA target, therefore everything is unlimited. RF brnchrest is a ball, the equipment is expensive and so is the ammo, you can't buy a rifle and expect it to shoot with the cheap stuff. The prize money dosen't go far either. I would suggest you vist Benchrest Central and read the RF Forum. Remember not everything written will work for everybody, as the disclaimer says YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY. Look at 40x.com and 'The wind is not your friend" and 6mmbr.com. Come on in and get your feet wet, are there any BR Ranges in Alaska? You will meet a lot of good people and have some fun.

Len

A group of us have started shooting groups at 50 yards a couple times a year. It has proven challenging, and the competition and trash talk has become a lot of fun. We are just a bunch of Red necks who like to shoot, and the rimfire has made us all better shooters. After the first shoot, I bought an Annie 54 match and put her in a Don Stith 250 stock. Bought a Fudd rest and Weaver T36 scope and have been whoopin' em pretty good for a while. After I won the the last three, four of the guys have gone out and bought Anschutz rifles.

I guess what I am alluding to is this. Rimfire is a lot of fun and totally different than centerfire. It seems to be an equipment game first and an ammo game second. I have learned a ton and would guess that if you like to shoot, rimfire will prove to be both challenging and fun.

Yes. I have a Suhl 150, two Martini's and a custom built rifle on a Swindlehurst action, Hart barrel and a Six stock. One of the Martini's has a Hart barrel installed.
It is a ball shooting rimfire benchrest. The question you must answer for yourself is, what level of competition do you want to participate in? The higher the level, the better the rifle must be. The best rifles are expensive, between $3K and $5K, and custom made.
The Suhl and both Martini's are very competetive, but a slight level below the high priced custom rigs.

A couple of pix of my Rimfire benchrest rifles.

This is one of the Martini's with a Unertl 1 1/2", 24x scope up top. Martini's are excellent rifles, and make a good showing at matches. This rifle cost $750, and the scope was about $1K. Martini's are equal to Anschutz rifles as far as accuracy is concerned.




This rifle is an H&R Model 12 that I had, and sold. The stock on the M-12 is not benchrest friendly, so I modified it for bench use. The scope on the rifle is a Mitchell 2 1/2", 32X target scope, much like the older Unertl's except the Mitchell's have current glass technology. Looking through this scope is shear joy, with its diffraction limited objective lens.

I think that the main reason for buying a Suhl 150 is for the barrel, which is chocked at the muzzle. And that chocking delivers the excellent accuracy the Suhl's are famous for. That barrel is why the price of Suhl's is so high. Removing the barrel leaves you with just another action, and there are better actions available for rimfire benchrest shooting competetively.

Don

With all due respect Don, this article tells a different story.

http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek078.html

What kind of a different story? In what respect?

Sorry Don, I was thinking those rifles were Suhl actions. I guess its just the purple gun that he won the 2006 agg. championship with. Still, the Suhl would be a damn good starter gun for a fella to get his feet wet.

You were probably thinking of this article

http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek089.html

While the suhl might not be the pentultimate 22rf br action, it seems like a good rifle for the $ in stock form, and with the action trued a top notch barrel fit and a br stock it will be competitive.

458, From the replies you are getting you can see that there are a lot of different levels in BR50. You can start where ever you want and just keep on going. The Shuls and some of the Annies are very competive right out of the box. Glass and ammo are right up there in importance too. Like highbeam we started shooting groups, a lot of fun until someone wants to win too much. The 25 bull targets are a very easy way to keep the troops honest. By the way did I say wind flags, you have to use them and belive what they tell you. Good benchs are a must we started with knock down portables, next were block pillars with the wood tops now they are all concrete which realy makes a differece. I can't belive who well we shot when we started, just not as consistant as now.

Len

No question that the Suhl world be a great rifle to begin with. Mine has shot a whole lot of 5 shots groups in the teens at 50 yards, using weight and rim thickness sorted Wolf Match Target ammo.
I guess I was thinking that there are better actions to use when building a rifle from scratch. I'd let Bill Calfee advise me on just what action to use for the ultimate custom rig. I also had in the back of my mind that there are no parts available for Suhl's if a need for something came up, like a trigger part.

Think he will tell you a Turbo? Have you got a build date set up with Mr. Calfee yet?

Turbo or 40X I would think. But who really cares what he says? He aint gonna build it for you. Look at what the top ARA shooters are using and you will see what is worth while. I think if you are wanting to play with the big boys and travel to all the sanctioned matches, then by all means, bid on one of his spec rifles. If you are just wanting to compete at the local range for fun, get an Anschutz or a Suhl and a Weaver T36, a nice rest, and get started.

i'd say the turbo action would be the way most are going now. benchmark barrels are great, but i believe the 2 groove barrels are very tempature sensative.

i myself have a suhl-150. all i did was put a tuner on it, a piller in the front of the stock and glass bedded it. the factory trigger is set at 2oz's. it wears a weaver t36 with a optical booster on it.

as far as parts you can find them if you know where to look. you can also modify annie trigger parts to work.

buy the suhl as a starter gun. upgrade it as you go along and you'll be glad you did. they simply shoot well.

I got into rimfire benchrest last year. Started with an iron sighted Savage/Anschutz Model 64 that I put a 20 or 24x scope on. Part way through the year saw an ad on a range wall for an old Remington 40x. It was a 1st or 2nd year of production rifle and had a 36X Tasco on it. Eventually replace the Tasco with a Weaver 36X. I never won a match, but had lots of fun. Got lots of good advice and help from all the shooters. Can see my progress in the game. Lots to learn. Enough others had out wind flags so I looked at theirs, but finely bought a few of my own. You don't need to spend a fortune. Competitive shooters are often looking to sell what they have to buy something else. You can probably get outfitted that way for least money. Good ammo is very important. Likewise a good trigger and learning to read the wind. Lots of trigger time helps too. Best of luck.

My brother-in-law is WAAAAAAAAAAAAY into Benchrest, if I dropped his name some people might recognize it.

Anyway, he also has been active with www.vintagebenchrest.com

Here is and equipment list for anyone interested.

ARA equipment list.