Warrigul wrote:
Purpose is necessary, I don't believe that joystick rests and specialised rifles are a good way to learn, their purpose is to take the human error out of the equation which ultimately leads to poor shooting skills- especially trigger control, there is a huge trend towards light triggers and this is leading to a whole crop of faults directly related to triggering.
With minimal instruction you can put an idiot behind a joystick setup and they will shoot well (yes I hear the people I shoot with saying I often use a "proper" rest, but it does have its place).
I mostly agree, especially about joystick rests and specialised rifles not being an ideal way to learn though I would say that having a rifle sitting firmly in front and rear rests, be they any kind of mechanical rest or sandbags actually takes a lot of the concentration off other things and allows you to focus more on the finer elements like trigger control.
I learnt to shoot as an adult, not blessed with being country raised I didn't have any real exposure to guns until about 2008. However I was fortunate enough to join a club that shot service rifle and high power style matches every Saturday morning so that's what in did. Every week I went to the range and shot at 100,200 or 300m standing, sitting, kneeling and prone either with a sling or bipod. For me it was a steep learning curve but within a year I learned a lot, and even managed to move up a few grades. We could shoot modern hunting rifles with scopes but the service rifle format proved a great challenge because of the different pace and shooting positions.
Looking back I wished I'd had some better coaching but the reality was the RO's had enough on their hands watching 18 shooters at a time doing a 3 p match and coaching took a back seat.
Most of what I learned came from conversations with other more experienced shooters, guys and girls who were 10, 20 or more years further into their shooting career than myself and that's where shooting with a club or at a range will help a new shooter. Ask questions, look at the gear people are using, chances are its because it's the best equipment for the job.
No point buying a $300 atlas bipod for a metallic silhouette rifle, and no point buying a max box foam rest for benchrest competition.
Chronos