Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Rifle Rests

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate Paul39’s help with the sale of his son’s rest. Thanks also to Butchlambert1 on his prompt response to a PM and for making me aware of the Grizzley rest. I didn’t know it was available and would have purchased one if it wasn’t for Paul39’s help.

Like most of us I’ve shot off a bunch of differing types of supports including sand bags which aren’t bad. I’d bet that few would return to a previous system after shooting off a heavy front rest and a good set of Prokektor type set of formed bags. It may not be for everyone
, but I like it. Butchlambert1’s Shadetree top is the next level of precision. If I had scopes above hunting magnification I’d have one of them.

Swifty52 do you have a set of plans for the daisy wheel wind flags? I do need to put together a couple.

Thanks again.

Frank

I have a Hart as well as a Caldwell, both work great
I also have a rest with the Shadetree top on it. It works ok but does not have enough travel to cover an ARA target at 50 yards, so I don't use it as much

How do you lose a front rest?

Glad you're back in business with a good rest, Frank.

Good shootin' -Al

They can grow legs and walk off...........

tgg

I just bought a Bald Eagle rest from Grizzly. Made the windage adjustment modifications to get rid of the cable. Very solid rest.

Thanks for your contribution.

If Paul39 hadn’t set me up with another Hart rest , that’s the one I would have purchased.

Thanks Al.

A good discussion, and some great info from very experienced shooters. I'm no expert, but I'll offer this from my experience, i.e., learned the hard way. When I first made the transition from sandbags to a commercial rest, it was a light aluminum model. I had what later proved to be the most accurate factory rifle I ever owned, a Remington M700 BDL Varmint .308., but initial groups were disappointing. Somehow I noticed that upon firing, the rest was rocking on its legs. I put some screws through the leg holes into the wood bench, which helped, but it was a crude expedient. The next thing I noticed was more significant. This was around 1980 when Remington switched to machine cut wrap around checkering. The checkering was grabbing the bag, compounding the issue with the lightweight rest rocking. I just put a piece of plastic under the forearm, a baggie, and groups shrank to a consistent sub half-minute, one ragged hole for five shots. Checkering can be an accuracy killer! A bit later I upgraded to a Hart rest. The extra weight was an advantage.

Now this is old hat to the serious benchresters. If you look at the photos of the bench rigs, a couple of things are apparent. The rests are heavy, even those without fancy adjustment. The stocks are smooth, and the lower surfaces are straight and parallel, so that the rifle recoils straight back. Recently some bags are offered with slick coatings where the stock contacts. Some shooters apply teflon tape to the stock at contact points. The idea, of course, is to promote consistency by reducing friction.

I'm not sure about how this works, maybe somebody more knowledgeable can weigh in. Bag hardness. If the front bag is firm, hard, a hard recoiling rifle like a hunting rifle may "bounce" off the front bag. It may be that a softer bag works better in some situations.

Excellent observations, sir. Your experiences with a good factory rifle off rests is something people can benefit from if they apply it.

Good shootin' -Al

PS: FWIW, I've moved away from the teflon tape to adhesive backed carbon fiber. The texture of the carbon holds the anti-stick powder better for a bit more consistent break away. We use the adhesive carbon quite a bit for wrapping chassis tubes.

I will be purchasing one of these soon. Rod agreed to make me one in purple.

It's worth mentioning again that for sporter stocked rifles being shot off a rest, the Sinclair Accuracy Asset is a huge help. It bolts to the sling stud hole and the nylon screws align it with the sided of the fore end. The bottom is 3" wide so you can use it in the common 3" bags on the rest top. It not only stabilizes the rifle but spreads the load out with bigger boomers so they don't twist as much. Hart and a few others also make these. It wouldn't be much of a trick to make one up, either.

It gets used on all my sporter stocked rifles and those I test.







Good shootin' -Al

I have one of the Sinclair sleds. Use it on my Tikka T1X in local club matches.

Always one to tinker, I made little pads for the side screws so they don't mar the stock.

You can't see them very weill but there are clear vinyl caps on the screws to protect the stock. -Al

The flags are pretty easy to make, it’s finding the 12” daisys. I bought mine at a farm store and Menards for 2.50 each. They are made by Beloit plastics. Right now Amazon has them for ~4.00.

Per flag
1/2” diameter acetal copolymer Delrin rod 3 1/2” per flag
6mm x 300-350mm aluminum or Carbon fiber shaft, I used Carbon fiber but going to see if aluminum works better with a little more weight.
1- 6mmx6mm aluminum or SS motor shaft coupler
1- 6mmx50mm SS shelf dowel pin
6mm I.D x 8mm O.D aluminum tube 2-2.5” per flag.
2- 6mm I.D shaft collars.
1- 6 x 12 x 1/16” aluminum plate. 1/8” thick is way to heavy to balance out.
Stand of your choice the ones I used went up 5.00 in price but are Sensyne 62” selfie stick/tripod.
The pivot nail is 1.5 mm music wire 2 - 2 1/4” long, I can send you a couple 6” pieces for nothing as I had to buy 35 ft.
If you decide to go this route and put the stuff together I will ship exact details with the music wire. Just PM the address.

Thank you Sir.

What's with all of the metrics? 😀

Main shaft is 3/8" diameter aluminum, milled flat to 3/16 thick for vane mounting. Pivot pin and daisy wheel axle are 5/32" music wire, threaded 8-32 for attachment. The daisy wheel spins on Teflon bushings, all held in position by wheel collars (RC airplans parts). Trunion is UMH nylon, pivot housing is brass. Pivot pin holder is tapped 1/4"-20 for light stand tripod mounting.

After attending a few benchrest matched I came up with my own creation. Base, legs and threaded post (3/4-10 acme thread) are stainless steel, the windage top is aluminum. The front leveling screws have pointed carbide tips to grab onto concrete bench tops. Weight is aprox 25lbs, only cost that was involved was the bubble level and the sand bag. 15" triangular footprint.