Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Favorite rest for sighting in a rifle

Girlfriend's butt cheeks. Gotta figure out how to make her stop giggling though...

I used a 70's vintage Hoppes for years (and still do sometimes). Now it's one I built out of a heavy iron laboratory stand base, with fine thread height and windage adjustment. Sand bags are a mixed assortment gathered over 40+ years of shooting, selection of which is determined by which rifle I'm shooting.

One of the more insightful, true posts in a long time.

Hart rest with cordura bags front and rear. I too got tired of the baby powder trick to make the rifle slide in the bags. Tip - make sure you lock the adjustments to eliminate any extra movement in the front rest.

I also put a Sinclair speed screw on the rear leg for quick vertical adjustments.

I used to stop at the Hart gun shop - Wally and Bobby were great company.

This is not as much a recommendation as it is a question. I came by my current arrangement somewhat by accident, and it worked.

One day, shortly after I bought the farm, I left town without my shooting stuff. I had deer rifles to sight in and ammo, but nothing else. I fashioned a quick rest out of scrap wood, covered it with carpet and shot some of the best groups I ever had with both rifles. I paired that with a rear bag filled with kitty litter, and pretty much have been shooting off that ever since.

The rest is about 2 feet of 2X6 nailed to a 2 foot scrap of 2X4 in an 'L' arrangement. I put a layer of carpet pad and then a layer of carpet scrap over it and nailed it on the inside of the 'L'. Here's a pic:



My question to all of you is this: Is there anything wrong with this arrangement? I get good results, but should I consider changing it?

Wow, the way that started out, I'm glad it had a happy ending.

IMHO, if you're getting good results with your rest, that tells you all you need to know. The only real advantage of a store-bought front rest is it's easier to adjust the height for different rifles but if you don't need that, why bother.

Homemade stuff, you can't beat it with a stick.

That's kind of what I was thinking. Thanks.

I just always felt kind of cheap and amateurish not having invested big bucks in a front rest.

Yes, I guess it did start out rather ominous, didn't it? I had a buddy who used to do freelance anti-terrorist work. She'd never say she was going to the Mideast to ace some bad guys. She'd just say she was "Flying to New York to check out some farm property."

It took about a year for me to get the bugs ironed out in getting back and forth to the farm without leaving important things behind. You should have seen me scratching my head the day I brought the rifled deer barrel for my Mossy 500 instead of the turkey barrel. The patterns were awful.

The one thing that I finally figured out was that ammo is down at the farm and inventoried at least 2 weeks before the start of deer season. Ditto for all underwear and socks.

New loads get tested with a front block and towel under the fore arm and a rear bag that more often than not is a jacket. If its a keeper, I'll sight in and shoot just like I would in the field. Off sticks, pack, sitting...

You might want to check out the latest copy of Rifle Magazine. Page 34 - "Rifle Rests - Tips for Better Shot Placement Afield" by JB

No but a good friend of mine is good friends with him and his family. Actually my buddies deceased grandfather was pretty close with the Hart family for quite a few years.

I heard plenty of good things about the Hart family........

I use the one I sell both for competition and hunting rifles.




This is with a BR rifle and I change the bag for hunting style rifles. The coaxial joy stick makes it quicker to get back on target after each shot.

I've been making these for 9 years and have 900 units out there. I sell the top only to fit your base.

I have one of the cheap plastic rests from Midway that I have equipped with a Protector bunny ear bag. I have found it adequate for the task of sighting in hunting rifles and feel no need to spend money on anything fancier.

For sighting in a hunting rifle, I made a clone of a Sinclair rest with the screw and nut from Sinclair.

For bench rest guns, a Bald Eagle cast iron, one of the newer ones from Taiwan. Nicely made and works well.

I have a BullsBag X7 shooting system and love it. No problem shooting at 800 yds.

http://forum.nosler.com/viewforum.php?f=40&start=50
JD338