How are you guys shooting from a rest? I have a small rifle sandbag and an adjustable rifle rest. I cannot afford a ransom rest.
Great question.
A Ransom or mechanical rest when used properly eliminates human interference. The vise holds the gun and allows it to fire without a human hand on the gun, finger on the trigger, or eyes aligning sights.
At short handgun ranges, i.e., 25 yards and closer, it is very useful to “rest” the gun and reduce wobbling. The potential for accuracy increases. Very, very few shooters can properly test the accuracy of a handgun by shooting it without a solid, unmoving support or rest.
Sitting behind a bench, comfortable, grip the gun with both hands in a proper firing grip. Rest your forearms and hands on the bench, propped in place as necessary by small bags that won’t move. Socks filled with sand will work.
Do not rest the front of the gun on anything. It may tweak the barrel and produce inconsistent groups. Your hands benefit from support at the sides, not just underneath, to reduce lateral wobbling.
Shoot at a real paper target with aiming points and at a known distance. Start closer (10 yards) until you are good with this. In truth, start at home (even at 10’) with such a set up and dry fire. The goal is to have perfect grip, sight alignment and trigger actuation that produces no movement of the sights.
At the range you will deal with recoil. Control it through proper grip. This is a real mental exercise as well as a physical one. Try for perfection. Reset your position after each shot. Go slowly. Shoot for a group with a minimum of five shots. More is better. Make notes on each target.
I’m sure others will chime in with their methods. The point is to test the accuracy potential of a gun/load while reducing to the greatest extent possible human interference.
Failure to control rested horizontal spread: