High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Benchrest shooting is a sport in which very accurate and precise rifles are shot at paper targets. The rifles ride on a front and rear rest, the rests may or may not be joined, depending on the rules of a particular competition. The rests sit on a table or bench, hence the name "benchrest." The shooter simply sits at the bench, in distinction to other shooting disciplines, where the shooter lies prone, sits, kneels or stands, and aims the rifle without the benefit of a rest. The post-Civil War era "double rest" rifles were one early form of "benchrest" rifles.