I got asked this at my gun club: Where can I get plain old canvas bags to use as weights for my rifle rest?

He wants two canvas bags that he can fill with sand and put on the legs of his rest. I suggested the dollar store, but apparently he went to a few and the material is too thin. That got me thinking, is there a place that sells jute or cotton bags you can use for this? I told him that I would ask online. I use old blue jeans, bought at Value Village. For some reason, he didn't like that idea.

Any place that sells prospecting, forestry, or geological supplies will have them.
Worth asking at the local bank if they can spare a couple coin bags.

Thanks. I'll pass that along.

Shot bags are heavy material, the right size and can be found on line. Made up half a dozen this year by filling with sand and sewing shut. Work like a charm

Doesn't the sand work it's way through the material?

These might work:

Canvas Shoting Bags

There's a bunch of old, used ones on flea-bay as well.

Really powder fine sand will sift through a bit. But most river sand will stay in a shot bag ok..

Tag

What I did with mine was put the sand in a heavy plastic bag (HD Glad freezer bags) which sits inside the BJ bag.

I had one end of the blue jean legs sewed closed. I took a heavy plastic bag and placed it into the blue jean bag. The open end of the plastic bag was sticking out of the blue jean bag. I filled the bag, twist tied it shut, folded over the top part of the plastic bag, and pushed it inside. For good measure, I took a piece of duct tape and taped the plastic bag end down. Then I got the other end of the BJ bag sewed shut. It took about 15 minutes to make two.

The ones built by SR work quite well. Be Well. Rusty

I asked the bank for coin bags and got 6. Went to another bank and got 4 more. Soaked them in bleach/water mix, washed, drier on hot to shrink and tighten the weave. Have used 4 for 14 yrs. The remaining 6 are on a shelf in my reloading room.

The bank coin bag idea seems like a good one.

As far as durable and simple goes, 35 years ago I used the lower legs from a pair of Lee jeans to craft a couple of bags. Machined sewed the bottom leg inside out with lower leg seam intact. Then pulled leg denim rightside out, folded over top of leg into the bag a good inch and sewed a triple seam leaving a two inch or so opening. If remember right I started out using a funnel to fill the two bags with sand and saw right off that was not going to work as the funnel was too constrictive. I then used the lower half of a plastic milk jug to get the flow I was looking for, had to tamper the sand in. Sand was probably somewhat wet as well. Think I used "play" sand the type used in kids sand boxes. Hand sewed opening closed. The bags are now on their last leg but still serviceable. Dont ever recall any sand leakage problems. They are a bit heavy to cart back and forth to the range but the primary use for me at the time was for initial revolver sight in and load development.

Save two or three plastic bread bags. Put one inside the other.

Cut a jean leg off at the knee, sew one end shut.

Place bread bags in the jean leg. Fill with dry corn or soybeans from the bin (beans are like little ball bearings so work well but might go rancid if not dry enough after a few years).

Sew the end shut. Have used mine for about 2 decades with no problems. Not as heavy as sand and more pliable.

Have used shot bags for over 20 years no problem with leakage when filled with play sand.

Steal a couple of your wife's pillow cases.

If caught tell her Jorge suggested it.

I'll pass that along.

Photographers use weight bags like this to stabilize tripods, lights, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/ABCCANOPY-Sa...;qid=1567987362&s=gateway&sr=8-6