Michael, I find it interesting that you found the competition day boring. I remember you being at the match and I'm pretty sure you came pre loaded. I guess you would have had some time up your sleeve in between targets. In saying that, the shoot should have been very relaxing for you where you could have jumped behind a spotting scope and watched a few of the shooters on each relay and try and see what some of them are doing, what condition they shoot, what there group was like etc... At the Aus Day shoot last week I was busy for the whole day. I was in detail 2 so I would load and clean my gun after my target while detail 3 was shoooting and then go and watch detail 1. If I had time in between, I would have a chat with someone, carry on with a bit of banter and so on. The day is certainly not boring for me, in fact I'm flat out all day.

As far as attracting new shooters, I think that we have, there a lot's of new faces at the shoots. Do we want more? Sure we do. But the reason the numbers are down is not the concept, it's been around for many years. I think there are other factors at play, and our current economic situation and cost of living would be at the top of the list.

I guess like everything else, this game is not for all, you either love it or you don't. 

Hope to see you at Silverdale some time.

Hi all, 

I have been reading this thread and interested to see the valid points being raised. In the whole life of Benchrest in Australia I am extremely young considering when the sport was first adopted. To one a point Chris raised I know of a very large amount of custom (I’m not referring to Remington’s or Sako’s just yet), that are actually out there where I’m from I know of six registered (the current number system) shooters. Three of those are currently participating in some kind of registered mate a year, the other three have lost interest or due to another reason unable to attend. All the rifles are a custom rifle. On top of this I also know of another 3-4 custom rifles that people own in my area and this is not included of the Remington and sako conversions from the previous generation that number could be as high as 10-15 rifles.

These are what I know of mostly because people like to tell you when you have a benchrest rifle out they know of one and it’s the most accurate rifle they have shot or seen. A interesting point is that shooters quite often don’t want to part with them because they use the action/stock configuration for an extremely accurate rabbit gun. 

I thought I would have a look at components (not the rifle or scope) as if I was a new shooter. This is a rough pricing off google most of this is also showing out of stock.

• 65gr Berger BT $59.79 per 100
• Fed205m $28.00 per 100
• 1kg BM2 $160
• 220 Russian brass $330

I hope this helps some and a few other shooters help add to this thread. 

I didn’t matter what shooting your into it’s all expensive or hard to get components for currently. 

Hi All
I did a quick costing on getting started in BR

Front rest. $2500-$4000

Rear bag. $ $250

Loading presses. $400-$600

Powder throw. $400-$600

Reloading dies x2 $600

Cleaning rods x2 $175

Scope rings $200-$400

These Prices are only roughly based on brand new prices.

With the cost of:

Rifle. $3000-$5000

Scope $2000-$4500.

As stated rough prices.

If starting out a new shooter should really ask the folks on this site wether they have excess equipment they are willing to part with at way better prices than I have listed.

Fortunately that’s the only way I got into Benchrest 

Cheers Chris