Kcb,
Lot's of good advice already given.
I pull back with the pistol grip while actively pushing forward against it with my shoulder (isometrics). It requires two distinct actions of the trigger hand; pulling back with the lower three fingers and the fine motor skill of pulling the trigger. With the offhand I pull down against the rest/ground. . These AR's are just not heavy enough that you can relax and rely on gravity to prevent them jumping around. Plus the handguard is not wide and flat enough to prevent the rifling from kicking the gun in the opposite direction (it jerks anti-clockwise with every shot). AR handguards are mostly round tubes which is the worst possible shape to prevent this. Bipods mitigate this more than a rest I think. Sometimes I put the trigger finger of the offhand over the top of the handguard and grip the gun against the rest with the thumb underneath the rest, to help keep it from moving.
When I shot F-Class for several years we used to have visitors turn up wanting to try it out. Typically they would wait until the competition was over and then be offered the chance to shoot. They would get down behind the gun and pull the trigger. The gun was already set up and pointing at the target. They would get a bullseye first shot and wonder where all the skill in shooting was (not a V-Bull, a Bullseye). That's because it's a 16lb gun with a three-inch wide flat fore-end with a flat bottom to the stock which you set up to track in the recoil parallel to the sight axis. We preferred cordura rests powdered with talcum powder to reduce friction in the recoil, plus they don't grip the gun like leather does in the rain. In that situation it's best NOT to have your body pushing and pulling the gun too much because you're introducing forces which are hard to keep consistent shot-to-shot. Gravity however is always consistent. Which is why there are weight limits in F-Class, and tracking rules in Bench Rest, to keep it from just being the best gun on the day. We tried all sorts of things to reduce the need to hold the gun. Here's a couple of ideas; one that worked and one that didn't;
Lead in the bottom of the fore-end,
[ATTACH=CONFIG]12470[/ATTACH]
and a row of skateboard bearings trying to reducing the friction of recoil to almost zero (the scores were no better, we think because what was gained in friction reduction was lost in the rest being too hard to absorb bounce),
[ATTACH=CONFIG]12471[/ATTACH]
With a light-weight AR you cannot rely on gravity. Recoil overpowers the weight of the gun, which is why I'm all over the gun like a rash.
Lot's of good advice already given.
I pull back with the pistol grip while actively pushing forward against it with my shoulder (isometrics). It requires two distinct actions of the trigger hand; pulling back with the lower three fingers and the fine motor skill of pulling the trigger. With the offhand I pull down against the rest/ground. . These AR's are just not heavy enough that you can relax and rely on gravity to prevent them jumping around. Plus the handguard is not wide and flat enough to prevent the rifling from kicking the gun in the opposite direction (it jerks anti-clockwise with every shot). AR handguards are mostly round tubes which is the worst possible shape to prevent this. Bipods mitigate this more than a rest I think. Sometimes I put the trigger finger of the offhand over the top of the handguard and grip the gun against the rest with the thumb underneath the rest, to help keep it from moving.
When I shot F-Class for several years we used to have visitors turn up wanting to try it out. Typically they would wait until the competition was over and then be offered the chance to shoot. They would get down behind the gun and pull the trigger. The gun was already set up and pointing at the target. They would get a bullseye first shot and wonder where all the skill in shooting was (not a V-Bull, a Bullseye). That's because it's a 16lb gun with a three-inch wide flat fore-end with a flat bottom to the stock which you set up to track in the recoil parallel to the sight axis. We preferred cordura rests powdered with talcum powder to reduce friction in the recoil, plus they don't grip the gun like leather does in the rain. In that situation it's best NOT to have your body pushing and pulling the gun too much because you're introducing forces which are hard to keep consistent shot-to-shot. Gravity however is always consistent. Which is why there are weight limits in F-Class, and tracking rules in Bench Rest, to keep it from just being the best gun on the day. We tried all sorts of things to reduce the need to hold the gun. Here's a couple of ideas; one that worked and one that didn't;
Lead in the bottom of the fore-end,
[ATTACH=CONFIG]12470[/ATTACH]
and a row of skateboard bearings trying to reducing the friction of recoil to almost zero (the scores were no better, we think because what was gained in friction reduction was lost in the rest being too hard to absorb bounce),
[ATTACH=CONFIG]12471[/ATTACH]
With a light-weight AR you cannot rely on gravity. Recoil overpowers the weight of the gun, which is why I'm all over the gun like a rash.