Sand Bag Filling – How to “Tune” Rear Bags for Better Results

December 1, 2021 Sand Bag Filling — How “Tune” Rear Bags to Get Better Results. This discussion on rear bag designs and fill levels might offer new insights for many readers. You can improve your rifle’s tracking and hop on shot-firing by tuning your rear bag. This can lead to higher scores, especially for large-caliber rifles. Tuning Your Rear Sand Bags Thomas Speedy Gonzalez, a Benchrest Hall-of-Fame Inductee and noted gunsmith, has learned a few tricks about tuning rear sandbags to achieve the best performance. Speedy shared his thoughts on Facebook about how the sandbag fill levels (hard or soft) can affect accuracy. Speedy suggests that you don’t want both your rear and front sandbags to be filled up extremely hard. To provide shock-absorbing and prevent stock jump, one bag must have some “give”. You should also adjust your fill levels to suit your shooting style. Bag squeezers, who have softer ears and a harder bag, may require different fill levels. Speedy Gonzalez – SAND BAGS AND HOW TO FILL THEM Matches and F.Class Nationals asked me several times how I fill my sandbags for benchrest competition. Here’s a copy of my reply from many years ago. Pat McMillan said that two bags should not be filled so hard that your gun bounces on them while firing at your target. This is especially true if you have a rig which has a flexible stock. The bags should be set up so that they can absorb the shock of the firing pin moving forward, igniting it. They must then retain their shape and absorb the second shock wave, as well as the rifle’s rearward thrust and torque. What happens to the rifle if this is not done correctly? Let me tell you. The rifles are prone to roll in the bags and jump very badly. This is what causes many of the wild, lost shots one cannot explain. Here are some good tips for bag setup: Two hard bags should not be used [i.e. You should have both front and rear hard bags in your set up. 2. These phenomena are magnified by heavy sand. 3. If you are a bag squeezer pack your ears hard and leave the bag flexible enough to squeeze for the movement you need. You can pack your front bag as hard and as tight as the rules allow. 4. Free recoil shooters pack both bags securely, but not too hard that they allow stock to jump. Particularly if your stock has a flexible forearm. 5. Playground sand is also known as silica sand. I mix mine with 25% to 50% Harts parakeet gravel until it reaches the desired hardness. Bird gravel prevents the sand from becoming as solid as bricks. Another problem that can occur when shooters use heavy zircon sand, is that the ears become a low point under the recoil. Then the rifle will rock back and forth with the ears, resulting in many low shots. Edgewood has designed a Edgewood/Speedy rear bag that is reinforced under the ears. Below are the most recent SEB Bigfoot bags. The bags are perfectly flat despite being “stuffed to the brim” with sand. General thoughts about Bag Construction and Ear Materials
Solid double-stitched leather bottoms are not my favorite. This seems like a great idea, but I see more shooters having problems with them. They can slide on the recoil and slide along the bench. I recommend the standard Protektor with Cordura rabbit ears, an Otto ring bag with Cordura front, or one of the Edgewood/Speedy rear bags. These mimic the “Donut”, and have a leather ring around the bottom circumference to prevent the bottom from rocking on the ground or bench. Last note: If you are using the Cordura bags, make sure to spray them with a good silicon spray. This prevents them from becoming sticky. — Speedy Similar Posts: Tags: Bag Tuning, Parakeet Gravel, Protektor Bag, Rear Bag, Sandbag, SEB Rear Bag, Silica Sand, Speedy