Sand Bag Tuning for Best Results — Fill Type and Levels, Mixing

January 19, 2022 Sand Bag Tuning for Best Results — Fill Types, Levels, MixingThis discussion on rear bag designs and fill levels might offer new insights for many readers. Tuning your rear bag can help reduce hop on shot-firing, improve rifle tracking, and make it more efficient. This can lead to higher scores, especially for large-caliber rifles. Speedy recently shared his thoughts on how 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 filling arrangements to suit your shooting style. Competitors at the S.O.A. asked me several times how I fill my sand bags. Matches and F Class Nationals asked me how I fill my sandbags for benchrest competition. Here’s a copy of my reply from many years ago. Pat McMillan once said to me 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 flexible stock and a rig with a lot of flexibility. The bags should be set up so that they can absorb the shock of the firing pin moving forward. If this is not done, what happens to the rifle? Let me tell you. The rifles are prone to roll in the bags and jump. This is what causes many of the wild, lost shots one cannot explain. Here’s some good advice for bag setup: Two hard bags should not be included in your bag set-up (i.e. You should not have TWO hard bags [i.e. both front and rear] in your set up. These phenomena are magnified by heavy sand. If you are a bag-squeezer, pack your ears hard and leave your bag flexible enough to squeeze the movements required. You can pack the front bag as hard and as tight as you like. Free recoil shooters pack both bags hard but not too hard that it allows stock jump. Particularly if your stock has a flexible forearm. Play-ground sand is also known as silica. I mix the sand with 25% to 50% Harts parakeet gravel until it reaches the desired hardness. Bird gravel prevents the sand from becoming too dense, which can cause it to become a brick-like state. Edgewood has designed a Edgewood/Speedy rear bag that is reinforced under the ears. The bags are perfectly flat, even though they are filled with sand, there is no bulge at the bottom. 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