When did 'benchrest' shooting start? Well there is still argument whether it really began as we know it in 1948 on the east coast of the USA at Johnstown, New York or if it happened a year earlier than this on the west coast at Puget Sounds. Whatever, less formal stuff has been going on for years. Essentially the idea of supporting a rifle so one can take a carefully aimed shot has been around for a long while as evidenced by the photo above. This is an old German gun, 16th century, in the Royal Armory at Leeds in England. The inscription says "weighing 50lbs it was supported on a rest or wall when fired".
In the 1948 the National Bench Rest Shooters Association was formed in the USA and formal competitions commenced and the organisation grew and expanded all over the USA. The essential elements consisted of benches to sit at and shoot from, a front 'benchrest' usually an adjustable pedestal containing a sandbag and a rear rest being a sandbag plus a rifle to shoot from this position. Target frames were then arranged at measured distances, rules including time limits set and measuring devices to measure the 'groups'. A group being a cluster of 5 shots hopefully together.
A scoring device to measures the distance between the two shots furtherest apart in the group. The idea is to have a competition where men and women could shoot and compare their results at the same location and at the same time. In Australia some informal matches began at Baulkham Hills rifle range in Sydney in 1955. Many years later Harry Madden from Brisbane managed to get organised competitions and rules on a National basis happening with the SSAA (Sporting Shooters Association of Australia). The sport has continued to grow and expand and now there are world championships held bi annually by an organisation called the WBSF (World Benchrest Shooting Federation) with approx 28 member countries.
There are many interesting things to see at Bench Rest matches. Everybody brings along all of their portable reloading equipment and they reload their ammunition as they shoot throughout the day. They adjust the load to keep their rifles in tune as temperature and humidity change. The target machinery is slightly different and contains a system to count every shot which would otherwise be impossible on those tiny little groups. Each shooter shoots from a different bench on each relay with a system called 'bench rotation'. This spreads all shooters over the whole range so no one gets a little sweet spot or area of any range which is more favorable. There are 4 centrefire classes of rifle for competition with the Experimental Class (or Unlimited Class) is as the name suggests. Most of these are what is known as rail guns.
