REPOSTED in General Benchrest section

I wear eyeglasses with progressive lens. i.e. each lens has a lens that starts at the bottom of the lens with a Rx intended to facilitate "close distance" viewing (like reading books and computer screens), and gradually "progresses as you move upward on the lens to a RX intended to facilitate long distance viewing (like highway signs in the distance).

These eyeglasses do not work well when shooting a rifle with a 60 power scope, for a couple of reasons:

1. The eyeglass frame and lenses are physically too large, are in a non-adjustable position on my face, and are at an inappropriate angle when I a properly tucked into the rile / scope assembly. It is unnecessary, and muscle-stress creating work for me to stay in that posiiton, which naturally causes premature fatigue during the sighting process.

2. The "best" position that I finally get to is one that results in me looking through the uppermost lefthand side of the righthand lens, where I am actually seeing the left upper corner of the lens's frame, which means I have no choice but to use the long distance section of the lens, AND have the lens's frame as a constant distraction.

So, I bought a Varga frameset. That will enable me to basically put the lens almost anywhere in 3D space so that my right eye can look right through any portion of the lens that I choose to position right in front of my eye, and ot have the lens properly perpendicular to the ground.

The Varga lens holder accepts a 22mm diameter lens.

My local eye doctor at the local eyeglass place says the shop can grind and size the lens to fit the Varga, no problem. The eye dcotr is even willing to have me bring in my rifle (no magazine and no bolt of course), set me up on a table behind the shop, and use a device that lets him try different lens prescriptions in front of my eye while I look into the scope at the reticle and a distant object. (He is a military vet, so this is all cool to him)

However, I am thinking that his device might not physically fit between me and the rile, given the presence of the rifle stock.

So, I am wondering if it possible to instead simply grind a lens that matches my eyeglass Rx. The question is: what PORTION of the progressive lens should that Varga lens be ground to match? 22mm is too small a diameter to simply say "use the whole progressive range as found on the eyeglass lens." The resulting lens would transition SO much within a tiny fraciton of an inch as to make exact posiitoningsuper critical and even then, the actual size of the "ideal" portion of the lens might be too small.

I asked the eye doctor what prescription would be "right": the "distance portion" or the "reading portion"? He doesn't know anything about how adjustable focus and adjustable power rifle telescopes work, which is why he offered the "bring in the rifle" option.

I asked a good friend of mine who does F-Class shooting with the same types of scope I use, and he says that I should simply use the distant prescription, as the telescope adjustments take care of everything else.

Is he correct?

Jim G

I am not, at least yet, a "benchrester", but I figure I should post here on a Benchrest site in order to get some guidance on proper form and proper use of equipment when specifically doing load development shooting from a bench.

Currently, I am an experienced shooter, but mostly handgun, and very casual and short range rifle. I am trying to learn all the necessary aspects of F-Class shooting (600 to 1000 yards) and PRS shooting. I'm finding there is a lot to learn.

But my greatest challenge right now is that my rifle, and my test ammunition handloads so far, appear to both perform better than I do. I have never been coached on how to set up my rifle, my accessories, and my body to achieve consistent enough results.

Yes, "sometimes" I can shoot 5-shot groups in the .25" or .30" size range, but I shoot at least half my groups larger than that (as bad as to 3/4" currently), and that's simply not consistent enough to PROPERLY evaluate one handload versus another. It's also not necessarily "good enough", since I am load testing at 100 yards, where F-Class shooting is done at 600 to 1000 yards! In essence, I am a big uncontrolled variable in my load testing, and since the rifle, and even the initial test loads are apparently quite good, my shortfalls are masking the true differences in performance of the different handloads.

This is despite my conscious focus on fundamentals such as scope setup, natural sight picture, breathing, and trigger control. One specific issue is that I don't feel totally relaxed, although I am certainly more relaxed than I was a few weeks ago.

I had an epiphany a few days ago at my last range session. I was shooting my typical mix of inconsistent group sizes, and suddenly realized that I was very subtly STRAINING to get my head high enough to get the cheek weld and scope sight picture needed. In examining why, I realized I was sitting on a different chair than at my last range session.

For the first time, I actually thought about the chairs at our club range. They are all "donated" by members, and they are all mostly different. Some are padded, some not, and the heights and overall dimensions vary. I grabbed a piece of scrap carpeting typically used by club members on the wooden bench tops, folded it up, place dit on the chair, and adjusted the carpet height until I could get a good cheek weld and scope sight picture without straining.

The next several groups I fired were instantly notably smaller than the earlier ones, and also notably more consistent (although still not great!  ) So, I ordered a strong, adjustable stool that I will bring to the range when doing load devlopment, and find what height seems to work best for me, and then KEEP that height consistent.

That made me wonder what OTHER body positioning mistakes I might be making. I've never been taught how exactly to sit when at a shooting bench, what is ideal sitting height for a 5'7" shooter, how far forward or rearward on the adjustable comb is optimal, should my head be level front to back (cannot be level side to side because runs into the comb before getting the right sight picture in the scope), should my back be upright or leaned into the rifle, how far right should I be into the t-shaped bench (I am righthanded), what scope magnification is appropriate for 100 yard and later 200 yards load development shooting off a bench, etc. etc.

I have a great F-Class buddy who advises me on a lot of shooting aspects and handloading, but he does NOT do any benchrest shooting, so he can't guide me on this.

If there is anyone here who thinks they might be able to offer some guidance, I can post details of my rifle, my available accessories, my physical build, etc. I would like to be able to do things RIGHT before I practice with bad habits that could be hard to break later.

Jim G