Anyone who shoots prone are off of a bench understands the importance of stability of your platform to hit targets at long range. While you may be rock steady, when it comes to the really long stuff I know I needed a little help.
There are a lot of options when it comes to supporting the back of your rifle. There are monopods and bags galore. After experimenting with both, decided that I prefer bags. But realize there are all sorts and and sizes of bags so do a little research to get a bag that does what you need it to do.
You will find soft bags and rigid bags, some of which are very heavy. Some of these are suitable for bench rest but not much else. I know I didn’t need the specialized bags the guys in PRS use. I needed a bag that I use for everything. Which means it needs to be somewhat light but also adjustable. I also like things simple and simple is good when it comes to an all around bag. Which for me, meant a soft bag.
Adjustability
Great thing about soft bags is that you can alter their shape to change the support. Simply folding over the soft bag will give you additional height and gently squeezing the bag will stiffen it up for some finer control. But when I tried to use a bag this way it just didn’t seem accurate enough for me. It also was a bit of a pain if you had to release your support hand to make an adjustment, you lose that support and have to reset. Maybe in a pinch (bad pun) I could use a bag the traditional way but it’s not the way I want or like to shoot.
My support bag was empty when I got it. Just a hollow bag which left it up to me to fill it. I decided to use Airsoft pellets, cheap, available and I knew they would not break down like some foam beads will. They have the right amount of movement in the bag once I settled on how much to put in it. Only drawback is that the pellets are a bit heavy once you put that many in a bag so I have my eyes open for an alternative.
Next, I did something pretty simple to the bag. It had one strap on it to change the height but it wasn’t in the right place and had limited adjustment. Took a look at what was happening to the bag during use and this is what I came up with.
Basically, my support bag is a rectangle so it has 3 heights the bag can be used at. Low, Med and High (3″,4″ or 5″) Works fairly well but the elevation adjustments are pretty severe. What about needing a height that is between sizes? I decided to expand on what the bag originally had.
I used paracord, cord locks and some creative knot tying to drastically increase the adjustability compared to the limited single strap it came with. So now my bag has waist cords…. Subtle changes to the elevation are now super easy and accurate. Proof of concept was a definite success.
Decided that the knots would just get in the way so changed over to grommets and some small loops to hold the cord to the bag which works even better, you might call it the Gen ll version.
Very easy to make adjustments on the fly as well. Use the side of the bag that gets you as close as possible then just tighten the waist cord to fine tune the elevation.
The bag should be placed under the butt or bag rider with the cord locks available to your support hand. Hold the bag with your trigger hand and pull the cord tight with the finger loop, then slip the cord lock tighter to hold the adjusted shape. Too much height, just let off a little on the cord. Release is pretty much one handed.
Tightening the horizontal cord squeeze’s in on the loose fill (the waist) and forces the bag to get taller. Additionally the bag also gets stiffer, giving you some of the benefits of a bag designed solely for bench use.
What’s really nice is that the cord locks ensure that the bag stays in shape at the adjusted height, no worries about relaxing your grip and loosing that adjustment. Stays in place shot after shot. Your support hand goes where it’s needed the most, it’s no longer stuck holding the bag….
Plus you can still use the bag the old way…. squeeze and hold.
Sources
If you don’t have the ability or where with all to modify your own bag, Tab Gear in Texas has some bags like I really like. Click on the link below to get to their website.