Benches again

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oldpup223

Guest
I would like to know of any ranges with (horseshoe) shaped benches and what is the opinion of those that have shot on them.
Thank you
 
Dick Grosbier said:
I have shot at several ranges with U shaped benches and they all sucked.
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Horseshoe benches are the WORST design ever thought up. The most user friendly are rectangular with the rear corners clipped, 36" x 48" with the clip starting at 18" from the front edge and the rear(tail) of the bench being 12" wide, centered. Another good one is the same outside dimension, but the clip is a curved cutoff, not a straight line.
 
i have shot for years on some horse shoe benches and i like them!

now i shoot left handed and it allows me a steady shooting platform,and by rotating on my shooting stool a bench with my stuff....
solid benches mean you have to reach over to get to anything..the horse shoe leave the gun out by itself and the rest of your stuff in easy reach....

just one persons opinion...

mike in co
 
Thanks guys I want everyone's opinion as our club is considering building some.
 
Until about 4 years ago the u-shaped benches were what we had at the Kettlefoot Gun Club. The biggest advantages are 1) plenty of room to spread out and 2) no interference with right-hand shooters shooting beside left-hand shooters. Disadvantages include 1) they take up more space than T-shaped benches so you get less benches per linear foot of firing line and 2) they are more difficult to get equipment situated for shooting especially the way benchresters do it.

The old centerfire firing line at Kettlefoot had 20 benches and the new line has 30 benches in just a few more feet of firing line. The benches we have there now on the centerfire range, IMO, are too small but on the rimfire range we put 60 benches in a not too long line.

Look below the meeting shed at the rimfire range and you can see how dense T shaped benches can be placed. This photo on the IR 50/50 site is the 60 bench Kettlefoot rimfire range.

http://ir5050.com/
 
at my home range we have u benches and they work ok. I've used the t benches at other ranges and they did allow more benches and room for larger shooters. One plus i will give to the U shape is its nice to set up my range press on the left hand side when im developing loads and never have to leave the bench. I know at a match this is no help but handy if you only get a little while after work or on a saturady morning to work on a load.
 
U shaped bench's @ Palmetto Gun Club in Summerville SC, Nice club, nice bench's too, it all boils down to what ya like,,,,,,,,,

the wind is my friend,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

DD
 
ok...i said why they are better ans so did one other shooter....
you guys that are saying they are not...tell us why....( other than more benches per foot)
thanks
mike in co
 
Two problems I've seen with U shape:
is when setting flag rows for a lefty and a righty using the same bench. If the rows need to be staggered to suit the shooter's preferences, they cross into each other's line. On a t-shaped bench, this is never a problem.
Also, when a lefty and righty share a U bench, they have to usually slide each other's stools out of the way. No biggie but it gets old doing it 20 times in a weekend. T shaped benches can leave the stools where they are.
 
What I have run into with the U benches is running out of room on the right side for my right eject action. With some creative engineering this can be solved, but without some clamps and a towel or such you end up with brass on the concrete. We have "t" shaped benches and this is a non-issue for both right and left handed shooters with actions of any configuration. I think that Willie also makes a good point for people of generous proportion having dificulty maneuvering comfortably unless the U is made wider...unfortunately this widening sacrifices needed area for equipment on the sides. The ideal U bench would be a behemoth. Go with a T or modified T and 1) have more benches, 2) accomodate more shooting/body styles, 3) avoid the scenario that goodgrouper mentions with regard to flag setting.
Mike
 
savet06 said:
I think that Willie also makes a good point for people of generous proportion having dificulty maneuvering comfortably unless the U is made wider...The ideal U bench would be a behemoth.
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Recreational, not competitive, rifle shooter here so my opinion is worth less.

Nevertheless, being one of those "people of generous proportion", I have to express my strongest possible agreement. I've seen U benches that couldn't be comfortably used by anyone over 5 feet tall and 100 pounds. There's a public range north of Houston, Texas called Carter's Country and anyone who has ever shot off their U-benches at their 50-yard line knows that it's possible to so poorly design and construct a bench that it's literally (properly) usable by NOBODY. T-shaped benches or some variation thereof can usually be made to work at least minimally well by most shooters.

If I were ever blessed with a range of my own, I'd only need one bench and it would be U shaped. It would also be bigger than an average conference table. IMO, that's the only way they can work for everybody.
 
The Conservation Park in Richmond VA has both u-shaped benches and T-shaped benches. The non-benchrest shooters like the u-shaped benches since they can pile all of their "stuff" on the bench. Most of the regular benchrest crowd like the T-benches since they are easier to setup and shoot. "You can't please all of the people all of the time".
 
Doesn't make a lick of difference to me except when shooting an ejection port rifle. With the U-shaped there is a lot more real estate to spread out into, if that's important to you.

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In the years since I headed a project that included building 42 monolithic benches at the club that I belonged to at the time, I have taken a strong interest in all things related to bench design and construction. The design that we built was by the late great stock maker, Lee Six, who replaced one of the existing benches at the Visalia range with one of his design, so that the competitors that would be using them could have a chance to try it and comment, before the rest were built. Since I have not traveled to many ranges, I have asked highly experienced benchrest competitors that have about their experiences and preferences. From these conversations I have concluded that most range builders do not study the subject of bench design and construction nearly enough before starting construction, and that lack of information about such things as how to build forms for some bench top shapes, combined with unwillingness to ask for help, has resulted it benches that could have just as easily, and cheaply been a lot better than they are.
 
so the best i can tell from the comments..( this is a benchrest forum)...
if you are only shooting benchrest matches..the t shape...
but
if you do load developent or shooting other than benchrest..then the u shape has advantages...as in room for stuff one might use out side a match....

mike in co
 
The replies to this have truly been instructive and a tremendous help in helping with a decision on the design we will choose. Whenever the final decision has been made I will report back (maybe a month or so). Again I wish to thank everyone for taking a chance and replying as I know sometimes that can draw lots of flames.
Thanks
Denton Smith
 
The bet benches are those that are rectangular with a 45 from about 2/3rds from the front with 8 or 10" at the back. I have shot on a lot of benches over the past 20 or so years and if one is honest, those I just discribed are as good as it gets. T shaped benches must harken back from the "Creedmore Days". Holton, Michigan has an entire range with the benches I have discribed. Some of them may be a mite short but they have corrected the situation with their new ones.

The benches at the club I am Rangemaster for may be the worst benches I know of and those at Caledonia a close second. The problem with those two club's benches, from what I have heard, anyway, is they were both diesgned by an Engineer who did not shoot Benchrest.
 
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MOST OF WHAT YOU SAY IS TRUE BUT
it aint YOUR RANGE.learn to share...
if our range red flag is up no part of your body is allowed forward of the bench...follow the rules.
we have close to 30 benches...put your stuff up away from other shooters....
pull the trigger they will be quiet for a while
sorry it just aint so.....
my comment was simple
if it is a competition range only go with the t, but if it is a common use range at a club it is not fair to the rest of the shooters to put the br crowd above all else.
sorry francis we will continue to disagree..again...
mike in co
FBecigneul said:
Mike in Co;
In a word the one thing I have against your plan to do other things on the bench is "safety". Here you are shooting and the guy next to you is loading, cleaning, whatever and something falls in front of his bench. He forgets for a second that you are shooting and retrieves the object he dropped. That goes well 99 times but on the 100th time, disaster strikes.
The second objection I have with people doing things other than shooting on the line is confusion. You are concentrating on shooting and the guy on the next bench and perhaps his buddies are talkin about loads, cleaning techniques, or the baseball game. The third thing I have against people using the benches for things other than shooting is clutter, cleanliness, litter. You know patches and other things will be left behind. Heck, look at the stuff left behind in a cleaning area.
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