Benchrest shooting is one of those corners of the sport where the obsession goes deep enough to make precision rifle guys look casual. We're talking five-shot groups measured in thousandths of an inch at 100 yards, handloading treated as a discipline inside a discipline. The NBRSA has been the organizing body for that world since before most of us were born.

This is a sport where shooters obsess over seating depth in thousandths of an inch, chase sub-0.1-inch groups at 100 yards, and treat handloading as its own discipline nested inside the larger one.

I've known a few benchrest guys over the years, and this line sums them up exactly. The reloading bench isn't just prep — it's half the competition. If you've ever thought you were being careful with your loads, spend an afternoon with a serious benchrest shooter and recalibrate your definition of careful.

The practical effect is a fragmented record system — a world record under NBRSA rules and a world record under IBS rules aren't the same thing, even if they're shot by the same person with the same rifle on the same day.

This is the part that would drive me crazy if I were competing seriously. You can shoot the best group of your life and it only "counts" under whichever org sanctioned that match. Before you write a check to either organization, find out what your local clubs are actually running — otherwise you're building points and records in a system that doesn't apply to where you shoot.

The mentorship program is worth flagging too. Most shooting organizations at the national level are pretty much a card, a magazine, and a membership number. Having regional directors who will actually walk newer shooters through rifle tuning and match procedure is a real differentiator — benchrest has enough of its own vocabulary and technique that coming in cold from the precision rifle world is humbling.

For those of you who've crossed over from PRS or any kind of precision shooting — what was the adjustment like getting into benchrest, and did you go NBRSA, IBS, or both?

Read the full article in The Handbook → | By The Boise Gun Club Team