Distance to target measured from front or back edge of shooting bench?

Kind of a silly question I guess -

I don't see it explicitly stated in the rules. Maybe it's there right in front of me and I'm missing it. Maybe it's so obvious that it doesn't need to be in the rules. 

Is the distance to the target measured from the front edge or back edge of the shooting bench?

I'm setting up a bench on my range and I realized I don't know the answer.

I assume it's the rear edge of the bench, since if there was no bench, it'd just be a line on the ground 25 or 50 yards from the face of the target. Since you can stand right up at a bench (but not touching it) it would make sense that the 25 or 50 y distance should be to the shooter's side of the bench.

I'm probably overthinking this.

Firing line. Wherever that is.

I’ll take a look see at the range design manual i have.  As I recall, most rules state that no part of the shooter shall CONTACT the ground forward of the firing line.  To this end, a lot of ranges construct their pistol benches so the FRONT (towards target) edge of the bench is on the line.  That means your foot will generally be behind the line.

This has come up before.  The firing line is at the back of the bench, not in front of it.  The NRA Range Book gives specific plus or minus distances from the firing line to the targets.  Putting the firing line in front of the bench violates that rule of distance for the shooter.  The NRA Precision Pistol Rule book has an illustration of the shooter at the firing line on Page 14.

Front as in portion towards the target not the rear where the shooter stands.
Ranges are measured from the front of the bench as found in the range manual. . Camp Perry is an example.
The NRA rule book notes the firing line under Range Standards rule 6.1
“The firing line is immediately in front of the several firing points. All ranges are measured from this line to the face  of the targets when the targets are hung in their proper position.”

From the NRA Range Source Book:
3.01.3.3  The firing line must parallel the target line and be marked for easy identification to warn against any movement forward of the firing line. On most conventional (precision) pistol ranges, a bench, in front of the firing line serves as a barrier.

As I said, the rear of the bench is the firing line, not the front.

james r chapman wrote:

 With butter?

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So without an actual line on the ground how am I as a match official going to determine if someone is in front of the firing if its x number of inches from the back of the bench?

You need to look at the illustration on page 14 of the current rule book. The shooter is at the firing line. Now imagine where the bench would be....directly in front of him.  Not with him two feet back and the bench with the firing line at the front edge.

I double checked the technical drawings at the back of the NRA Range Resource Book.  They definitely show the firing line at the back of the bench, not in front.

Probably deliberately vague.  That 2ft difference isn't of any consequence as long as all the shooters in the match have the same conditions to compete under.  Half cannot shoot with the benches behind the measurement with the rest shooting with the benches in front.

cdrt wrote:I double checked the technical drawings at the back of the NRA Range Resource Book.  They definitely show the firing line at the back of the bench, not in front.

Here's the image from the NRA Range Resource Book (figure C2 on page 513 of the PDF):




And a zoomed in view:

What a pity that the Atterbury Project Managers apparently did not give a copy of the NRA Range Resource Book to the Atterbury Construction Team when it was first being built. Ho hum!

Or have I caught JB disease?

RoyDean wrote:What a pity that the Atterbury Project Managers apparently did not give a copy of the NRA Range Resource Book to the Atterbury Construction Team when it was first being built. Ho hum!

Or have I caught JB disease?

Let’s see…. The NRA built a new range for their National Championship matches and didn’t follow their own Resource Manual and guidelines. I think that’s par for the course….for the NRA. Go figure…
JB May be contagious.🫣

CR10X wrote:Deleted and replaced with:

So without an actual line on the ground how am I as a match official going to determine if someone is in front of the firing if its x number of inches from the back of the bench?

CR, rule 3.01.3.3 quoted by cdrt says that the line is to be clearly marked so as to warn of a shooter being forward if the firing line.  The rear of the bench can act as that line. 

If there’s no line of any kind, then seems like there is a rule violation. A line should be established prior to commencing the match. Maybe one of Wayne LaPierre’s 100 dollar silk ties could be laid on the ground parallel to the row of targets?

(Yes, I went there. Guilty!)

All the ranges I’ve shot at (indoor and outdoor) had a line approximately at the front (target side) of the table.

This is the NRA indoor range showing the red lines at front of benches denoting the firing line.

O lord this is funny, 
The firing line is at the back of the bench. 
Some here forget that there are more than bullseye shooters at most indoor ranges. 
U know… the red line is a hard stop at most indoor ranges, which don’t shoot bullseye matches.

just think, if you practiced your shooting from 3 yards longer, then match standard, who knows you might win, instead of worrying about 18 inches