A rear bag holds up the butt of the rifle so your muscles do not have to. In our testing, shots landed 28% closer to the bullseye with Sling Steady under the stock. Muzzle rise was about 75% lower. It also helps manage recoil.
Sling Steady is a rear shooting rest bag that sits under the stock. Here is what it changes about the rifle and your hold, for hunters and for range shooters.
What holds the back of the rifle without a bag
From prone with a bipod, the front of the rifle sits on something solid. The back does not. It rests on your shoulder, and its height is set by your support hand, usually a fist under the toe of the stock or a grip on the stock itself.
A hand is not a rest. It is a set of muscles holding a position, and muscles move: with your pulse, with your breathing, and more the longer you hold. Whatever the back of the rifle does, the reticle shows it.
What changes with a bag under the stock
The stock settles. The toe of the stock sits on the bag instead of on your hand. The fill shapes around the stock and holds it, so the rifle comes to rest instead of being held up.
Less work for the support hand. With the butt on the bag, your support hand no longer holds the rifle level.
Less muscle tension. Your support hand goes from holding to fine-tuning. You squeeze the bag to raise the butt, which lowers the reticle, and ease off to bring it back up. Small corrections come from the fill, not from a tensed arm.
Our 105-yard test
Two shooters fired 10 shots each without the bag and 10 with Sling Steady under the stock, with the same AR-platform rifle at 105 yards. We measured how far each hole landed from the bullseye.
- Average distance from the bullseye fell from 0.64 to 0.46 ring diameters: 28% closer.
- David landed 28% closer, and his hits in the center X went from 1 to 4.
- DJ landed 29% closer, and his hits inside the inner ring went from 3 to 5.
Group size did not shrink for both shooters: DJ's got smaller and David's got slightly larger. What changed for both is that the shots landed closer to the aim point. Results vary. The full write-up, with the raw targets, is in our 105-yard test.
For hunters
A hunting shot rarely comes on a bench. You drop prone off a ridge, sit against a tree or rest the rifle on your pack, and the shot window is short. The back of the rifle is often the part with nothing under it.
That is where a rear bag earns its place, and only if it is with you. Sling Steady rides on your sling or attaches directly, so it is under the stock when you get into position, not in the truck or at the bottom of the pack. Our post on field positions for hunters shows where the bag goes in each one.
For range shooters
At the range, the bag does the same job for every string: a stock height you set, and change with a squeeze. You can set the firmness to suit your rifle with the hook-and-loop ports, adding or removing SteadyFill. Hard or soft? covers how to set it.
Getting the most from it
- Set up so the toe of the stock lands on the bag every time you get into position.
- Let the rifle settle before you start the trigger press. Relax the support hand and let the bag hold the weight.
- Use small squeezes for small elevation changes, and reset to a neutral grip between shots.
Choose your bag: the Pro 9", 9.5 oz, for bolt-action, sport and hunting rifles, or the Sport 7", 6.3 to 6.8 oz, for AR-platform rifles. Both ship filled with SteadyFill, fit with no tools and cost $89.99.
Related reading: Building a stable prone position · Prone hunting
Sling Steady is Ready When You Are.