Shooting USA: The 1,000 Yard Bench

in our 25th year of covering the Shooting Sports you might think there's no competition left that we haven't shown you at least once but today is the first the first time we've covered a thousand yard bench rest Championship there are some surprises in this sport that there are two ways to score for record and some of the guns will really surprise you what probably won't be a surprise is that the appeal of the sport is achieving Precision bench one Michael H bench two Jason forsman it's the international bench rest Shooters International championships White Horse range West Virginia relay one takes the firing line it's competition for light guns less than 17 lbs heavy guns D later and the leader of Team Hornady is literally setting his sights on Perfection x marks the spot 1,000 yds away I'm nervous first relay you ever shoot I mean every time I get nervous is crazy I mean I can't help it but it's fun no wonder John's nervous a car driving the speed limit on an interstate highway would take half a minute to reach that Target there's a little perspective so bench rest Shooters spend a lot of time building their shooting positions settling the rest making it solid adjusting the track of the rifle just trying to get centered up on my Target and make sure every time I shove it back and sit in the same spot with the crosshairs it's what we call making a track right the better the build the more accurate the shot one more path to Precision a small movement here the bench is a big difference at 1,000 yd so anytime you move you wiggle you shoulder it you lean on it you grip it wrong it changes it downrange plus you have all the wind and everything else each relay begins with a 6-minute period for Shooters to zero in their Optics they shoot watch the wind make minute adjustments watch the wind some more I'm going to play the curve there the wind's going this way this I'm going to play the curve in here if you look down there you can see them flags that are straddling the road they're blowing to the right the ones further down by the targets are blowing to the left the wind's coming through there it's whipping around 30 seconds 30 seconds as the clock ticks down on the cider period most Shooters take a final shot to confirm they're on the mark ceas fire ceas fire my ciders are good you know I'm I'm hitting I just had to to come down a little bit that was a little high then the competition begins five shots for record in 10 minutes but most Shooters get their lead down range as quickly as they can firing all five shots in quick succession before the wind changes and throws off their aim it's a little breezier down there than you think yeah I hope it went good but we'll we'll see I don't know hope for the best I found the flag that was telling me the truth for my for my target or whatever and when they said commence fire it stayed where it was at so you send them after the relay light gun shooters head straight to weighin to prove their rifles meet that 17 lb maximum at the same time the competitor's targets rais 6/10 of a mile back to the line where scorers measure two things down to the thousandth of an inch one of course is highest score did you hit the center of the target the other is the tightest group there's competition for both in bench rest group supersedes score so a small group here they they prefer a small group here rather than a bigger group here but both are good and a tiny group will always draw attention what is wrong with her she's like sh like a crazy woman if a 2.1 in group is crazy Ruth wanted to aim a few clicks higher but her husband talked her out of it went that five I'd have been right there well you can blame it on him I blame it on him I'm happy as she should be a personal best now it's time for the big rifles to come to the line no way and required in the heavy gun class heavy gun it's unlimited if you can pack it to the line you can shoot it R probably weighs about 45 lb and how much does this rifle weigh 85 the rules for heavy gun aren't much different than light rifle competition 6 minutes for sighting then 10 minutes for score the heavier rifles are naturally more stable but in heavy gun competitors shoot 10 shots instead of only five giving the wind a greater chance to do bad things with your bullets still JC just shot a fantastic Target a 99 with 5x and a group of 4476 wow it doesn't look good I'm proud of it I was this close to being centered up perfect and and there was a wind change had to been to throw that one out the group is JC's personal record but twice the size of Ruth's light gun target in bench rest that's just how the wind blows it's a win and lose game there's nobody dominat and when you shoot a good Target you're proud of it but the next one may be 20 Ines there's no way to know no way to know it's just you reading the wind and hoping to punch through to print a Target to be proud of so who are the people who find this challenge of coming next you'll meet the team that lives with Precision every day [Music] [Music] [Music] shooting USA is brought to you by less Fair Customs 1911s hand fitted to Perfection because you'll accept nothing less and by Hornady accurate deadly Dependable if you get hooked by the challenge of bench rest you'll quite likely build your own rifle and you're definitely going to be loading your own cartridges but you'll be buying Precision bullets from some company unless you're a member of the Hornady team in which case you'll make the bullets Monday through Friday that you'll shoot on the weekend one great thing about working for a company in the shooting industry is getting to test drive the product these exotic Precision rifles are fueled by Hornady the industry-leading ammunition manufacturer and driven by Hornady Factory workers who compete in international bench rest shooting at distances out to 1,000 yards it's great to be part of the team yes it is we got a great team back there in Grand Island Nebraska and we got a great team out here you know representing at the IBS thousand yard mat I run with some guys from work that we're really close friends we have a good time with it uh Hornet a is so good to us that they want us to promote this deal and they want us to go out and and mingle with these guys and shoot with them I get to do the fun stuff you know so yeah it's great shooting at 1,000 yards Demands a very specific set of skills not to mention a meticulous nature being off at the bench by one minute of angle means a Miss at the target of at least a foot only one one word defines this sport Precision Precision you have to be precise with what you're doing we're we're designing these machines and stuff like that and these guys run them they got to be safe for team Hornady that Precision Focus begins long before they arrive at the range it starts at work on the factory floor where you find the shooters on the bench rest team applying their Keen eye for detail to every bullet Inc cartridge Justin is turning out 65 creedmore bonding copper jackets and lead for the 140 grain hollow point match to be precise in the field you got to be precise in the factory that's what we do best here trampus goes about his day job with similar attention to the Fine points today he's making a Precision bullet the 140 grain El match El for extra low drag it's the AC ual bullet he and team Hornady shoot in Long Range competition and trais quickly stops the Press when he sees an imperfection putting the Polish to this machine tool gets everything back on target every once in a while you got to take stuff out just clean it up get it back into good shape and then you're back to making better bullets Craig claims he's no perfectionist but you wouldn't know it to see him at work setting a tolerance on on this machine to a thousandth of an inch he says it isn't a perfect world but each press he sets up better be what he dials in on the factory floor impacts every customer in the field he and his teammates included it all translates out to the thousand yard stuff if you're off a little bit up on the bench you're going to be off a long ways down there if we're off a little bit here when it goes in a bucket it's not going to be right the shooting team captain is a hard man to catch as he moves from task to task troubleshooting solving problems some before they occur now John's running a quality check on a 223 Caliber hollow point match checking diameter length and weight making sure the product is perfect everything's about Precision there's that word Precision just everything you're doing that you're putting into that ammo translate into tighter groups higher scores out at the ring in the factory and on the Range there is simply no substitute for precision it's critical at the reloading bench too and John is painstaking in the process measuring every piece of brass with hornady's heads space gauge then bumping the shoulder so it's 2,000 shorter than the Chamber of his rifle that's good I'm shooting for 2000s that I know every round's going to chamber fine John is just as precise with his powder measuring the charge for every cartridge down to the tenth of a grain Up On Target charge weight 72.5 not4 not6 they all need to be exactly the same they need to be 725 then comes concentricity using the tool to straighten each round down to a quarter of a thousandth of an inch I could win a match with those I could I can almost guarantee you I could win a match with those they are precise they very precise and that is Team hornady's game you have to do everything right at the reloading bench and you have to do everything right at the shooting bench you got almost be like a machine you can really see it bench rest is the perfect game for the guys who live with Precision every day and coming next we're talking tech for bench rest how about a 61 lb rifle with a 4 oz trigger [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] bench rest Shooters will tell you they like to tweak things it's part of that Precision thing to try for those very tight groups at 1,00 yards whether it's building a rifle from scratch or just handling the cartridges before loading every step is part of the Precision game setting up a heavy gun for long range competition is a team sport of sorts for some bench rest Shooters about what you'd expect from a rifle division with no limit on weight or imagination I made it you made it yes how much does that weigh uh about 110 lb Edward's rifle has an aluminum chassi and a 2-in stainless steel barrel with a 30 caliber boar he wipes off every cartridge before shooting and gives each round a shake you just can't be too precise not just wiping the tip off and shaking the powder the powder gets packed in there when you drive 7even hours so I just make them sure they're all the same consistency at the bench means Precision at the Target few competitors own a handmade rifle but that's not required to compete or win in but bench rest Shooters do love to tweak customizing is part of the sport this is a Model 12 Savage bench rest rifle uh you can buy it about anywhere I mean but we've tricked it out a little bit we've had a new Barrel put on this thing uh this particular rifle is chambered in a 65x 284 which happens to be a favorite of mine uh I shoot the 147 El match bullets that we that we make at Hornady day Craigs also tweak the bolt and chamber of his competition light gun on the line his action must run smoothly his teammates are all about the tech too this is a shahane maxi tracker stock uh this is the aluminum one they also make a wood one so this is all one piece aluminum here then you got a barrel block that comes with it and that's what's actually clamping the Barrel in action in there the action is free floating I mean you could take a piece of paper and slide it underneath here John's bolt is made of stainless steel the Remington 40x action is two the heavy gun weighs in at 61 lb a jeweled trigger touches the big gun off and John has tweaked it a bit the trigger weights like 4 o it's real light pull it takes more than just a touch but not much more team Hornady is shooting the newest line of company match grade bullets the El extreme low drag John's heavy gun is chambered in 30 375 a Ruger case necked down for a 30 caliber El bullet this is one right here these are some that I hand loaded down in my basement that you know I'm shooting at the matches here uh I made some of the first ones of these out in production on the floor at the factory and it's kind of fun to see how they shoot just pretty cool to actually use while we're making a matter of pride in precis shooting out here I see a lot of what everybody else is shooting and as far as me we want horned manufacturer to be making the best bullet out there high expectations in a high stress sport but bench rest Shooters do have fun team Hornady included oh it's awesome yeah we're we're one big family it's fun it's challenge it's very challenging it's good competition good people to be around that's a lot to like in one shooting sport but the very reason many folks come hundreds of miles to compete I just love long range shooting just meeting all the good people here that shooting and just in the idea of just hitting the little Target out there thousand yard shooting thousand yards that that's that's just my passion just my love you're good sir good to go I can't shoot but I do have a good time every time I go that's that's the most important things have a lot of fun is that right that's right where you shoot good or not but if you do shoot well say a personal best you're an instant shooting star like 13-year-old Amber it's a 2.76 get out of see that yep woo we that's good a 2.76 in group and at the Championships a performance and a shooting sport that both are hard to beat especially when it's part of the job it's like I get to be an elf in Santa's workshop I get to do the fun stuff you know so yeah it's great I'm extremely lucky not very many people can say that they love their job me I love my job thanks again for tuning in to the shooting USA YouTube channel we hope you enjoyed the content a couple of notes make sure you take advantage of ssa5 snapsafe docomond when you start talking about mod modular safes and Vault doors also if you haven't done so already please consider subscribing and turn on notifications so you don't miss any of our new content as always a like and a comment helps us with that algorithm

Channel: Shooting USA

Views: 14,476

Keywords: Shooting USA, guns, Jim Scoutten, firearms news, guns tv, 2a, Outdoor Channel, Hornady, Colt, John Scoutten, USPSA, IDPA, Three-Gun, Precision Rifle, History's Guns, Pro Tips, firearms, shooting sports, gun training, marksmanship, shooting competition, gun safety, shooting techniques, shooting tips, shooting gear, shooting events, shooting range, firearms training, shooting show, shooting entertainment, shooting news, shooting equipment, shooting industry, competitive shooting

Id: qhVetDKjjtY

Length: 19min 48sec (1188 seconds)

Published: Fri May 24 2024