01 // ABOUT
History & Founding
IBS — overview
Before 1970, competitive short-range benchrest in the United States operated under a single sanctioning body: the National Bench Rest Shooters Association (NBRSA), founded in the late 1940s. The NBRSA's core mandate was straightforward—demonstrate maximum rifle accuracy by shooting the smallest possible groups.
The 1970 Split
In 1970, a faction split from the NBRSA and formed IBS. The specific internal reasons for that split are, as one longtime competitor put it, "a book within a book"—rooted in organizational disagreements that have long since faded into benchrest folklore. What matters practically is that the split produced two parallel organizations with nearly identical technical rules for the rifles themselves, running competing match circuits ever since.
Timeline of major benchrest sanctioning body developments
Modern Era Development
IBS has tracked Shooter of the Year rankings continuously since at least 2012, with archived results going back through score, group, and long-range disciplines. The organization has continued to evolve its rulebook, with revisions to the score, group, and long-range rulebooks ongoing as recently as 2025–2026.