Dale53 wrote on Feb 18
th, 2008 at 12:54am:
>>>22RF target rifles, that they will almost always shoot much more accurately, that is, produce smaller groups, from the prone position than from the bench.<<<
This is absolutely an urban myth. If you don't believe this, just look at the modern .22 bench rest groups. I defy ANYONE to equal those from prone. I shot smallbore for several years and while I have met some National Champions, I NEVER saw them equal the groups now being shot with modern bench .22's. I know that, before modern .22 benchrest arrived, that some VERY good prone shooters firmly believed this but the records don't lie.
Dale53
My statement applied to traditional 4-Position rifles with the traditional longer barrels of over 28" or so. Please don't compare the short-barreled modern BR rifles, they're not the same and they don't behave the same way. I personally haven't tried this experiment and so have only some folks' word for it, but I can't dismiss it as merely an urban myth without some rather convincing evidence comparing apples with apples. Comparing a 28"-bbld wood-stocked Winchester 52 with a modern short-bbld fiberglass-stocked Benchrest rifle is like comparing apples with oranges.
The crux of this discussion is 22RF accuracy, and the direction of discussion has turned toward decreased bbl time and/or vibration dampening and its effect on accuracy. Ask these same modern BR recordholders just how well their rifles would group from the bench with the longer 28"-30" position rifle barrels and without the tuners; I can imagine what they'd say!
Apples with oranges.
I agree that the statement
MAY be only an urban myth, but I personally have so far seen no real evidence, either for it or against it, other than the opinions of some shooters and writers.
My shooting skills are mediocre at best, perhaps someone more skilled could conduct this experiment and report the results. That would certainly be better than what we have now.
Regards, Joe