Henry Rifle Forums

A week ago I posted some mods I've made to my Benelli 20-ga Nova Pump shotgun....with the good help of Andy Larsson at Skinner Sights http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2398. Today I tried out the new equipment for the first time, and sighted-in the s/g. Fun day, easy to set the Skinner rear peep, and got quite good results. The ghost ring is simply the Skinner peep with no aperture.

Benelli 20-ga with Skinner rear ghost ring and front bead sights
Weather was mild -- 55* with a somewhat brisk wind coming from behind me. Placed target at 25 yards, and I shot off a bench rest. Used Herters 3/4oz. 2-3/4" Rifled Slug ammo, 1600 FPS, and shot two 5-round groups. Most of the first 5 rounds were high, but windage looked pretty good. Lowered the Skinner ghost ring, turned it 180 degrees. Here are the two 5-round groups after re-setting the sight.

Sight-in target @ 25 yards For the life of me, I've always thought a person should be able to shoot better with a rifle or shotgun or revolver using a rest. Logic tells me the aim should be steadier and more solidly locked on target. Translation = closer POIs. I cannot figure out why I shoot so poorly off a rest compared to off hand shooting. Glad to put the bench rest away after each time I use it!

My shotgun sight-in looked good to me. So just for fun I shot two 5-round groups, again at 25 yards, using Win Super-X 3/4oz. 2-3/4" Rifled Slug ammo, 1600 FPS. The only difference was shooting off hand.

3" orange bull, 7/10 slugs in the bull Lastly, I shot some off hand rounds at 50 yards, but need to practice more at that distance. It was a good day on the range.
Thanks for looking at my targets.

Nice shooting, thanks for the report!

PT, loved that you shot better offhand than from a rest. You're my kind of shooter, for sure.

One issue with shooting from a rest that will open up groups for me with some guns, especially lighter guns like yours with some recoil, is jump off the bag as the gun recoils if you are resting the gun directly on the bag. On these guns, I am always careful to place my support hand between the bag and the gun and rest that hand on the bag with just enough pressure to steady it. I sometimes don't even rest the hand fully on the bag, sometimes just the front of my hand.

Thanks to you both, Dutch and NCG.

Yes, "...jump off the bag" is what probably happened today, NCG. I was resting the shotgun directly on the rest, and bet anything that the pump arm movement back toward the receiver when shot brought that muzzle upwards.

With this firearm, what about placing the non-trigger hand on top of the stock just behind the top rail? That position would be keeping the sight visible, and would be holding the gun more firmly onto the rest, correct? Shouldn't that downward pressure sufficiently keep it from jumping?

Yes, agreed. Off hand shooting is most fun to do!

Deadwood Dutch wrote:Nice shooting, thanks for the report!

North Country Gal wrote:PT, loved that you shot better offhand than from a rest. You're my kind of shooter, for sure.

One issue with shooting from a rest that will open up groups for me with some guns, especially lighter guns like yours with some recoil, is jump off the bag as the gun recoils if you are resting the gun directly on the bag. On these guns, I am always careful to place my support hand between the bag and the gun and rest that hand on the bag with just enough pressure to steady it. I sometimes don't even rest the hand fully on the bag, sometimes just the front of my hand.

PT, my experience with adding a pressure point in your hold is that it seldom works because of lack of consistency. You simply cannot apply the same exact pressure, shot after shot and, as a result, accuracy suffers. The best hold is one that you can repeat, identically, over and over. Adding pressure points just makes that all the harder to do.

I can also guarantee that the gun will shoot to a different POI when you then shoot it without that pressure point, especially when you switch back to offhand work. In fact, even without significant pressure points in my hold, I often find that the POI changes when sighting in from a rest and then switching to my offhand shooting. When I do sight in from a bench, I always check and tweak sights as needed when switching to offhand.

Thanks again for a great report that prompted a considered response and follow-up discussion from an expert (NCG) about your results. It is very helpful, all the way around. Thanks to you, too, Northern Country Girl. Great comments and advice.

I've had similar challenges before using a bench rest when I was sighting in my Henry .30-30 rifle, NCG. My son-in-law did his best to teach me how to hold a gun steady and still, but I never did catch on very well. In fact, I believe he also said that the less sight-in shots needed, the better. That lessened the challenge of trying to maintain consistency.

I'll be glad to put my bench rest on the garage shelf for a while now, and let it gather some dust. But I plan to do as you suggest, and I'll pay some attention to whether or not my ghost ring/bead sights need any "tweaking" when I shoot off hand again. I was just very pleased with those last 10 rounds I shot today. I wasn't working any longer at the range, other than trying to keep the grin on my face under some type of control!

Thanks for the pointers.....much appreciated/valued.
PT7

North Country Gal wrote:PT, my experience with adding a pressure point in your hold is that it seldom works because of lack of consistency. You simply cannot apply the same exact pressure, shot after shot and, as a result, accuracy suffers. The best hold is one that you can repeat, identically, over and over. Adding pressure points just makes that all the harder to do.

I can also guarantee that the gun will shoot to a different POI when you then shoot it without that pressure point, especially when you switch back to offhand work. In fact, even without significant pressure points in my hold, I often find that the POI changes when sighting in from a rest and then switching to my offhand shooting. When I do sight in from a bench, I always check and tweak sights as needed when switching to offhand.

Thanks for the report, PT, and good shooting.

Appreciate that, Les. I was a little nervous heading to the range, wondering how well the new sights were aligned on the shotgun rail. I'd never worked on anything quite like that barrel config before. But Skinner Sights came through with a job well-done, the sight-in was easy (windage perfect, elevation a tad high), and the slug shooting was a blast!

Les wrote:Thanks for the report, PT, and good shooting.