Accuracy testing.

If a shooter does not have ransom rest available to them, what is best way to test shooting off the bench ? I normally , get comfortable, rest my hands on the bench, aim and shoot 25 or 50 yards.  I am just using iron sights , no  sand bags , no pistol rest , no scopes, red dots etc.

I use a couple of sandbags. You can use a bunch of them if needed. But I just support the grips and my elbow on the bench and shoot one handed. That way the pistol will still be close to zeroed when standing. You can also get a "Lee" rest for a lot less money then a Ransom. They work pretty good with a little practice.

I dont understand.  You shoot off the bench to test accuracy using one hand ?  What would be a reason?

Two reasons actually. The first one is I am actually finding out how accurate the ammo is in my hand in that pistol. That is the most important thing about any ammo you test. The second thing is that the second hand adds an additional force to the side stress on the pistol. A little more or less grip can pull the shot all over the place. My shooting hand has thousands of more hours of practice keeping the pressure even. I even putt one handed because my left hand just messes with everything. You will notice that the "Lee" is designed for one hand operation. This is how I do it. I am sure there are lots of other ideas out there.

Len

So the gun recoils similarly to when it is held normally.  I support the wrist and shoot one handed sometimes with my left hand under my wrist to be comfortable.    

Shoot at 25 yards particularly with irons.  A good gun and load should group X-ring at 25.  

This was shot at 25 from a rest while chronographing.  Most of the fliers were called.

10 shots ?

Yes.  It was shot behind a Labradar unit and we needed 10 shots to get 5 good readings!  Go figure.

Some have mounted higher powered scopes to their pistols to test from sandbags. Any way you test will require a learning curve, even a Ransom Rest.

Sheriff, don't take this as a personal attack but do you have a reason to think your ammo is holding you back? Is your 22 score above 855 but you can't break 800 with the 45 and you have off call shots even at 25 yards? Until a person regularly cleans 25 yard targets their time is better spent improving trigger control. You have mentioned having quality pistols and federal ammo, that is better than most people here use. Practice will improve your score more quickly than testing. If a person can't hold the sights inside the ten ring does it really matter if they have a one inch gun?

True.  What You are saying is that I should  FIRST reach a point when my pistol and load are holding me back. I agree. So at  what point would a shooter know the difference between  2" @ 50 gun and 4"@50 gun?

I shot this Tuesday. You have to look real close at the X ring. This is a double shot target (I'm lazy) You will see a dime size group of .22 holes in the X ring and .45 holes working their way from right to left. I was slowly cranking the scope to the left on the 25-2. The .22 holes show what a one handed group looks like with my 41 and the big holes show that he revolver is not as accurate, but I knew that. One handed with hand resting on sand bag.

BE Mike wrote:Some have mounted higher powered scopes to their pistols to test from sandbags. Any way you test will require a learning curve, even a Ransom Rest.

If you are shooting off a sandbag don't go above 4x it will drive you crazy - even off the bag.  I've used a 20x off a Ransom Rest bolted to a concrete bench though, works pretty nice, but not really needed. 

I don't rest/test on a target bull anymore, now I use butcher paper with a dot/target the same size as the dot.  1/2" at 25 yards and 1" at 50yds for a 2MOA dot size.  Double that for a 4MOA dot.  Testing this way I get better/more consistent results.
- Dave

After people have been calling you high master for a while you might be able to tell.

I've developed a bit of distrust for the Ransom Rest if your not using a tight frame /slide/barrel gun.

When everything is right it works great, but, if you have some things a bit loose, it will show it much worse than it is.

Many guns have good slide, barrel bushing tightness that will shoot much better of bags than in the rest.

The best of all world's would be those 1.5" groups consistently from the Ransom.