Traditional rifle rest.


            Joe.

My first bobsled was from a set of castings that used a Pope front rest as a pattern. Allowing for shrinkage it looks like that was about 3 1/2 inches wide. Over the years I have seen old originals made from a variety of materials some wood cobbled together affairs some made from castings some milled from bar stock. Of all that I have seen even the ones built to mount on slug guns the longest was about 6 inches. If you wish to remain �In the spirit of the match� you can make a case out to about 6 inches and have a historical back up. Beyond that ????

40 Rod

My opinion is that for a dedicated benchrest gun (-----wide flat forend,  flat bottomed stock--both to full legal width  shot free recoil with the shooter touching nothing but the trigger---)  a "muzzle rest" offers basically zero advantage.  It just adds a layer of complexity and "he who dies with the most toys wins" fun.

For a shooter who is using a traditionally stocked offhand rifle---especially the high-style Euro-schuetzens---it DOES add more stability over trying to shoot them off standard benchrest bags.   The "spread legs" of the muzzle rest commonly used, (see RKaires' photo above) when combined with a well designed front rest surface and properly shaped and positioned rear bags, give the rifle a solid 3-point-stance.  However it still requires a pretty fair sold shoulder behind the butt since the sloping belly-line of the stock and the protruding cheek-piece of a high-style schuetzen stock cause the gun to recoil in a cork-screw manner unless controlled.
I think that it is highly unlikely that such a rifle will ever be able to compete well with a state of the ASSRA art Bench-rest rifle.  
But to me that is not the point of using a muzzle rest.   In the original context the muzzle rests (other than the early slug gun types) were fixtures purposed for research and development of guns and loads to be used in offhand competition.   (The Pope replica in the Etna Green clubhouse makes that pretty obvious)
For me they are simply a valuable tool in helping me in the process of learning the loads and settings I hope to be using in my traditional-class offhand center-fire rifles as my offhand shooting adventures progress.  They have already helped me greatly in ammo testing for my rimfire euro schuetzens. And especially with one lighter rimfire rifle the added muzzle weight seems to help when shooting offhand.
Just my personal experience and opinion of course and its pretty limited to my euro-schuetzen style riffles

Chris,  there well may have been, we are an odd breed and tend to respond well and creatively to challenges.  I was speaking more in a general sense.  
I have seen photos of early heavy barreled percussion rifles--from upper new england as best I recall that actually had what looked like cast iron wheels attached to the sides of the barrel near the muzzle.
  Bench rest had to start some where and shooting from a "rest" goes clear back to crossbow days. After all shooting for group-size  i.e. "string matches" goes back to flintlock rifle days as does stump-shooting and chunk-guns.  As best I recall, the Berdan's Riflemen/snipers of the Civil War were formed from New England/NY region heavy bench gun shooters.
 And there was a real competition/conflict in MANY areas, including competitive shooting, involved in the transition from Muzzle loading & percussion to breech-loading and cartridge as well as the evolution from BP to smokeless.  the international long range matches were as much a conflict in the evolution of the rifle as they were a matter of national and commercial pride. 
Lets face it,  when gun nuts get to tinkering strange things happen.

But just for added consideration; we need to remember that "original era" schutzen also involved beer, AND GAMBLING.  Though we talk about it less-----betting and side matches were a much larger part of the shooting game that we consider today. the "professionals" who traveled the circuit probably make as much if not more off the gambling as they did in actual prize winnings. 


Given humane nature, if we all put 100 bucks in the pot at a given big match with the winner getting the lions share; it'd probably inspire a lot of creativity and rule bending   (I picked 100$ out of the thin air as an approximate WAG for the difference of inflation over 100 years)

rkaires wrote on Mar 24^th, 2015 at 8:13am:


Maybe I should have written - one type of traditional rest. 

If a rest has deer whistles, levels, tip over alarms a GPS and a built in timer with alarm, would be safe to say it's not a traditional rest. 

      Joe. 

It's a discussion, not a can of worms. 

           Joe.

To whom it may concern.
The ASSRA rules contain general description of a barrel clamp/bob sled/muzzle rest and a reference to staying within the spirit of the game.
The ISSA has a slightly more precise definition for those who might be interested in competing in that organization's matches.  The essence of it states:
In the spirit of this competition, no device or devices which approach a machine rest will be allowed.  However, a muzzle rest attached to the barrel is allowed provided it is no more than six inches wide, with a maximum height of 3 inches between the bottom of the barrel and the bottom of the muzzle rest. The attachment can be no more than 1 ½ inches front to back.
The entire rule set can be accessed at:
issa-schuetzen.org   
then clicking the Rules button on the left screen edge.

Jeff_Schultz wrote on Mar 22^nd, 2015 at 6:24pm:


True dat.  Some time rules do get confusing.  So i would be legal to have the typical  Hart rest and a front leather sand bag that I used to use in BR matches or not?