Box To Bench: precision with a purpose

Mecomber sights in a rifle

By Liv Stecker

Joe Mecomber likes to hunt. The thing about hunting, especially for one on a serious quest, is it requires precision accuracy at long range to be effective. Mecomber’s search for success in the field led to some serious geek-out sessions at the workbench, custom loading ammunition with the exact number of powder grains to gain maximum consistency in long range shooting. It’s a hard-core science that he found himself calculating and calibrating on targets made with torn up Amazon boxes and Sharpies.

Mecomber’s real life background in law enforcement requires a certain attention to detail that the brawny Michigan native has carried over into his recreational endeavors. An avid hunter, Mecomber and his hunting partner were more interested in an efficient route to maximum accuracy with an out-of-the-box hunting rifle than they were in the parts and pieces of building a gun from scratch, which many distance shooters spend thousands of dollars to accomplish.

Box To Bench Precision was born when Mecomber realized, as a fairly new shooter, that a load developing target was something every distance shooter needed, but few had developed as a field usable tool. He set to work honing his cardboard and Sharpie model to meet the exact needs of load adjustment shooting, adding features for site measurement and scope adjustment and printing the whole thing on special weather resistant, rip-proof paper.

The Box to Bench target

Tired of patching pieces of soggy cardboard together to gather his loading calculations, Mecomber came up with a target that can be taken down and tacked back up without shredding to pieces. It’s a 100 yard long range load development target, one of the few on the market today, with details that many custom loaders overlook but can benefit from greatly.

The first batch of 5000 targets began to sell like Tickle Me Elmo in the early 90s. The novel concept captivated shooters as Mecomber found outlets for his new product and reviews and articles about the revolutionary target started to surface in the shooting world. The initial success took Mecomber by surprise.

Working full time jobs in addition to the new Box To Bench responsibilities, Mecomber and his partner could barely keep up with demand in the first few weeks that his target came out. He set up a store front of sorts in the big shop on his property where he not only did his ammunition loading, but handled the shipping and sales of his new company with some help from his wife and other friends.

As word of the innovative target spread among precision shooters across the internet, reviews started trickling back in, including a feature in Long Range Hunting Online Magazine and a shout out in one of Rex Reviews popular long range shooting Q&A videos. Box To Bench continues to grow a national following as long range shooters from around the country hear about the product and the unique niche that it fills.

According to their website, the goal behind Box To Bench is to help the long range shooter get results without the costly investment of a customized rifle.

tools of the trade, long range optics

“B2B is able to provide a reliable and accurate rifle without the high cost of a custom firearm. We have put in the time, money, and dedication to provide shooters with a realistic approach to long range hunting and shooting.” The innovative target meets the shooter at the bench with a cost effective means of gaining precision results. “This is for the development of a long range precision rifle from start to finish all on one target. the entire data collection process can all be logged on this target during its development. The target is tear resistant and waterproof. It has been designed to last.”

Box To Bench targets are available for purchase online and they recently became an authorized dealer for GRS products including rifle stocks and more. To find out more about Box To Bench visit their website www.boxtobenchprecision.com, or find them on Facebook.