A friend of mine has begun pistol shooting and he was asking me about shooting his pistol from the benchrest position. I went looking for some resources online, especially pictures (this friend lives in another state so I cannot physically demonstrate and teach him things), and surprisingly didn’t find a lot about pistol benchrest shooting. However, I did find a few things worth sharing.

The above image is from this article by Barbara Baird on the BassPro.com website. Ms. Baird is an NRA Certified Instructor, and as an NRA Instructor myself I can say what is being demonstrated above is the NRA taught technique.

It’s not the best technique.

I’m not going to say it’s wrong, because I’m unaware of any “One True Way” to shoot a pistol from benchrest. But there are two problems. 1. Look at what is supported: hands and wrist. Is the gun itself supported? The point of shooting from a rest is to remove you (the shooter) from the equation as much as possible. You strive to do everything you can to reduce or eliminate the gun moving so you are shooting from the most stable platform possible. In the above picture, just a tiny movement of the wrist is all it would take to move that gun. The gun itself is just not that well supported. 2. The shooter is using a semi-automatic handgun, and resting in that manner puts upward pressure on the bottom of the magazine. This can cause the magazine to be pushed further upwards into the gun and could cause feeding problems. It’s not horrible to do this, but just be mindful that your shooting position doesn’t interfere with the function of the gun.

Compare to this picture (and ignore the revolver vs. semi-auto aspect):

The above picture is from the ChuckHawks.com website article on shooting a handgun from a benchrest. What do you notice that’s different? Look at how much support that gun has. The gun frame is cradled in a sandbag. The shooter’s wrists are supported by sandbags. The shooter’s elbows are supported by sandbags. It’d be great if the shooter could have been all the way up against the bench, his chest pressing into the bench, but looking at the width of that bench and I don’t think there’s enough room. Nevertheless, this demonstrates the key: support! The gun and the shooter are as rested and supported as they can be. As much movement as possible has been eliminated without interfering with the function of the gun. That’s the key.

One thing both pictures demonstrate? The shooting position is as close to a “normal” shooting position as possible. That is, the standard two-hand Modern Isosceles stance, but instead of standing just resting on the bench. Isosceles, Weaver, whatever it is you do, just note to continue to do it from the bench.

The reality is, life does not always hand us ideal situations. My friend’s gun is a Taurus 709 slim and there’s just not a lot of “frame underside” by which to support the gun, especially when you compare it to that big revolver in the second picture. Furthermore, the range you’re shooting at may have tables only so big, may have restrictions or limited equipment. Sometimes you just have to make do with what the situation provides you. Just remember, the key is to support the gun as much as possible to eliminate movement and other “shooter influence” from the process of shooting.

Do give a read to Ms. Baird’s article (it’s fairly straight-up NRA Basic Pistol material), the Chuck Hawks article, and also this article from Guns & Ammo Magazine. They all contain good information on pistol benchrest shooting.