Good advice for everyone would be avoid the bench altogether, and shoot as hunting rifles are meant to be shot, off hand. Standing sticks / monopods are also useful, and in the field there are no benches, so beyond sighting in the scope there is little reason to shoot a hunting rifle that way. Perceived recoil will drop to half when standing compared to sitting at a bench, your field accuracy will increase drastically, and you'll probably have more fun at the range to boot.
Yep, prone position even worse. I would try standing first, with shooting stick or even a shooting tripod. While in a hunting situation, the recoil just disappears when you have a nice bull in the crosshairs.




















































