Dumb question about rifle/hand gun shooting

[beemanbeme]

Was reading Reloader mag the other day and the thought struck me:
 when shooting a rifle from the bench it is an absolute no no to have the barrel touch anything.  And, of course, the stock must not press against the barrel as it will also disrupt the harmonics.  But in most of the pictures I've seen of shooters testing pistols and TC's and such for accuracy (I'm not a pistol shooter), they have the barrel laying acrost a sand bag or some sort of rest. 
Why is this? Wouldn't this disrupt the harmonics or accuracy as well? 

(this is the sort of stuff old, retired farts think about when they're not reloading, shooting, or downloading porn off the internet.)

[Savage]

Sounds like a good question to me! Sighting in is about the only time I bench a pistol or revolver. With a pistol  the forward contact on the bag is with the dust cover, so no problem there. With revolvers, especially longer barrelled ones, the barrel is in contact with the bag. Doesn't seem to make any difference, at least in my hands. Don't have a contender, but would suspect the forearm is the front contact point with the rest. Maybe someone with more handgun bench experience can jump in here and enlighten us.
Savage

[Tom W.]

It makes a difference to me. I'll put my Encore pistol as far as is comfortable on the forearm in the front bag. I don't want the barrel touching anything, nor do I want the hand grip to have a chance to touch or bounce up off of the bench. I made that mistake once, and it cost me a deer...

[jhalcott]

  I TRY to keep some thing between the gun and bag, like my hand, to prevent the "bounce" that comes from barrel/rest contact. When shooting off the bench, I rest my fore arms on the bags . Occasionally I will rest the guns fore arm on the bags,making certain the barel is NOT touching. You just have to watch putting the gun back into the SAME place after each shot. The "bounce" is different for lighter loads than heavy ones. Some of MY cast bullet loads barely move the gun.

[Graybeard]

The proper part of the handgun to touch the bag is the frame just in front of the trigger guard. You want it as tight up against that trigger guard as possible not further out. Same really with a TC Contender or Encore. Plant that fore end just in front of the trigger guard on the bag. You'll find if you use loosely filled sand bags made from jeans legs or old cloth shot bags to rest them on there is little to no bounce anyway. use hard filled bags and especially those of leather and you'll get far more bounce.

[Ladobe]

The word "dumb" doesn't apply to anyone asking a question IMO, but it does apply to any shooter who disrupts the barrel harmonics inconsistently by resting the barrel itself on a rest, either shooting off a bench or shooting in the field.   The operative word there was "consistency".   Why target shooters and hunters go to great time and expense to bed actions, float barrels and dial in compensators to also dialed in loads, and consistency goes out the window fast when the barrel harmonics are disrupted.  

As for the handcannons, I have to go with what works for me after using them to hunt evereything from varmints to big game with for over 40 years.   All of my long range specialty pistols have "floated" barrels (TC Contenders, Remington XP-100's and custom Sako), so I can get away with front support just about anyplace on the forend.     Most of mine have a bipod stud installed, and that is my consistent front support.   With unfloated handguns, I'd support just in front of the trigger guard with a bag, or off hand, and as already said... never rest the grip or butt of any firearm on a hard surface.    Same applies to a "lean" shooting offhand (as in big game hunting) with either a handgun or rifle.   Setting the firearm directly against a solid object is going to cause bounce, so if you want a lean, make the contact with a part of your overly plump body to soften the bounce.    

[buck460XVR]

The proper part of the handgun to touch the bag is the frame just in front of the trigger guard. You want it as tight up against that trigger guard as possible not further out.

yep works for me, altho the .460 tends to blow holes in the bags from the blast from the cylinder gap. Small price to pay actually......

[Tom W.]

My .480 was bad about that, too. I ended up carrying an old towel that I folded up several layers and put over the bag. Worked good, too, but I had to be careful about it catching fire...

[PaulS]

If you sight your gun with a rest from the bench the your point of impact will probably be different when fired off-hand.
If the barrel doesn't connect with the stock at any point in front of the action then you have a better chance that a rest won't affect the point of impact.

[Glanceblamm]

beemanbeme Wrote:.

when shooting a rifle from the bench it is an absolute no no to have the barrel touch anything.

Ladobe Wrote:

The word "dumb" doesn't apply to anyone asking a question IMO, but it does apply to any shooter who disrupts the barrel harmonics inconsistently by resting the barrel itself on a rest, either shooting off a bench or shooting in the field. 

This Sure Sounds Good To Me.

Graybeard Wrote:.

The proper part of the handgun to touch the bag is the frame just in front of the trigger guard. You want it as tight up against that trigger guard as possible not further out.

I dont like Any Part of the handgun to touch Anything. Instead, I will rest my wrists on the bags and let the handguns do their thing upon the recoil (specially those single actions) I use just a moderate grip force on the cap n balls + the Vaquero and the SBH but have a little birds head in the .45 that drives tacks but wants a very light grip on that rounded handle.

[Grumulkin]

Most of my handgun shooting is with Encores and Contenders.

I've not found that resting the handgun on a sandbag causes too much bounce but rest it on a hard ungiving object and accuracy will suffer.  My sandbags are suede leather but not filled until they're exceedingly hard.

With Encores and Contenders, I rest the forend on a bag.  I have a rabbit eared rear bag; the usual kind used to hold the buttstock of a rifle.  I put the butt of the handgun on the SIDE of the bag with the palm of my right hand cradling it and holding it into the bag.  By adjusting palm pressure, I can raise or lower the sight picture in little tiny increments.

This target was shot at 100 yards with an Encore in 460 S&W Magnum.  Two bullets went through the top hole.  The group size measures 0.561 inches center to center.  I've also shot a 1.5 inch 3 shot 200 yard group using the same load and same technique.