If that sail shape looks bad on AnnaElesie forgive, they are so old, I think they were recut from the sails Columbus used to sail over in 1492.
A man after mine own heart, I feel ya brother.I doubt it. Shooting a stationary rifle from a bench and being obsessed with the minutia of reloading and the mechanical precision of the firearm is not the problem. I respect engineers, and respect the kind of mind that would gravitate to that as a hobby. Not only do I not have a problem with it, I fully acknowledge that most of our reloading techniques and practices were pioneered in the benchrest community, as well as all the precision machining going into firearms construction. They have advanced shooting and competitive shooting in many important ways.
My issue is with their community as a whole, and the pervasive contemptable behavior of the people in it. The respect does not go both ways. I find them to be very arrogant in general, dismissive of actual skill and ability that they almost never posses, and hostile to anyone outside of their little worlds. The benchrest clubs that I have shot at are chock full of complete antisocial assholes. They enforce dumbest rules with gestapo like zeal. They love rules like having to quality every hundred yards beyond 200 all the way to 1,200, and holding each distance qualification once a month so it takes almost a year to shoot on their long range. I've seen them throw a guy out and ban them from their club for not wearing ear-pro when shooting subs from a suppressed .22. No warning, just banned from the club. Seems to me they are generally unhappy people who's only pleasure in this life are making other people as unhappy as they are. The scorn I've witnessed them heap on field matches and actual marksmen was like bad satire. I could scarcely believe what I was hearing. I like what they do, and hate who they are.
In just about every shooting discipline whether it's black powder, pistol games, shotgun sports, rifle competitions, .22s, etc. the community is open and loves to help new shooters who are interested feel welcome, get involved, and learn. If you don't have the correct gear everyone jumps in to help. Total opposite of the BR community. I've done a little of everything, and shooting sports people are always the best. The benchresters are a closed, cliquish bunch of assholes who are generally shit human beings inside and outside of their little hobby. If there is another shooting sport at their club they will do everything they can to kill it, and are not above little bitch, high school politics of lying and cheating to do it, because they feel anyone who can actually shoot a gun is a threat. Go to any club where they dominate and you'll find the same thing. I've never been to one that I even had a passing interest to join, and I am positive that they want it that way on purpose.
I honestly can't stand them because of their common distain for ACTUAL marksmen when the sum total of their shooting skills is pushing a button. They actuate their guns, they don't shoot them. Their skill level of often less than that of my kids, and I think because of that they act like actual marksmanship means nothing. They're machinists, not marksmen. I've seen them distain even the champions of other shooting sports to cover the shame of their non-shooting with arrogance. Fuck them, and fuck their whole community. You tell me you're a benchrest shooter and I'm going to immediately treat you like an ignorant asshole who is not worth one second of my time. The only exception to that are the guys who also participate in other shooting sports, because they have the patience Job to deal with all the assholes in the benchrest community.
Don't get me wrong, I am friendly acquittances with a couple of benchresters who shoot F-Class matches at my non-benchrest club. Not really guys I care to make actual friends with, but they're tolerable at least outside of their little BR cliques. I don't know why it attracts these kinds of people, but that's been my experience, and it keeps getting reconfirmed every time I'm dumb enough to shoot at match at a club they control (which hasn't been for a while).
Truth be told, BR is not the only hobby like that. I've found the same thing in the cave diving community, and in Funny Car drag racing. The high cost of admission may be a factor, but I know many rich people who are wonderful human beings. There are other high-cost-of-admission sports/hobbies that seem to attract the same kinds of assholes.
Dang, it was more fun when we were discussing tractors and sailing. Honestly, I must have missed something. First we were discussing a really poor (make that really, really poor) way to handle a move. Treating customers not with disdain, just plain ignoring them. They we were into tractors. Just about any of us who farmed can do maintenance on our tractors, but my thought, just because I can change oil does not mean I can do a credible job and threading and chambering a barrel. Then, I tried to steer us to sailing. A wonderful sport that has some of the worst assholes and finest people all mixed together. Finally, we are now railing against Benchrest people.
I suppose, in the end, spending thousands upon thousands on equipment to punch holes in paper would tend to make folks a bit off center, when they realize a 2 buck hole puncher from Walmart, actually does a much better job.
so, lets get back to sex. Now that’s a subject I can get ‘into.’.
it makes Smokey Yunick look like an honest race car builder. (If the rules don’t say you can’t, means you can
David, you really feel that poorly about benchrest shooters? I am very sorry to hear that!
I wish that were not the case, I am sure there are some nice (some) but the truth is my experience has been less than desirable. As more PRS type people enter, hopefully that changes.
I'm not expressing my distain because Accurateshooter.com is so full of toxic assholes, despite it having so many answers and being full of great information about hand loading.
Thanks for the kind words, and yes there is a life lesson in there.
Anything can be an art when you do it for the right reasons.
never tried it, working in plants a millwright was a mechanic that fixed problems in a plant, if they did it wrong bad things happened.
Oh I don’t know about that. I came from a family where the some members wanted to be artist. They did modern “art.” Truthfully, I can’t think of anything that is a greater waste of GOD’s resources than what was put on canvas. Modern “art,” wasting oil and canvas because you can’t paint. Now if you want art, in my opinion, when you go to the dictionary and look up art, it says; “See Charlie Russel.”
