As I evaluate my shooting technique on the bench with sandbags I have my left hand holding and adjusting the rear bag. Nothing holding the barrel end of the gun down. Do I need to? Does the bullet leave the gun and then the gun recoil or does the gun recoil and then the bullet leaves? What are your thoughts?
No need to apply any downward force on the gun to prevent muzzle jump. Your left hand on the rear bag and right hand merely operating the trigger is a good setup.
Be sure to apply a little forward pressure on the bipod legs (pushing the gun forward) so that the drag of the bipod legs doesn’t cause a bounce during recoil.
Ideally, the gun wouldn’t have any muzzle flip. In theory, I could see it causing a minor amount of accuracy issues if it’s starting to happen before the bullet leaves the muzzle, but I’ve also shot some accurate guns that had a good amount of flip.
This depends on you gun caliber and gun weight.
Cal. 260: 260Rem 1 Tight - YouTube
Cal. 308: 308Win 1 Tight - YouTube
Cal 30-06: 30-06 Tight - YouTube
Cal. 7 Rum: 7RUM - YouTube
Enjoy your shooting