The shape of benches.

Mickey Coleman

Mickey
We are in the process of building a few benches for our local range which right now has wobbly wooden benches.
We were thinking 36 inches wide and 48 inches long with the rearmost part being 20 inches wide.
How does this compare to your tops?
Also we are coming out at 34 inches tall.What is your height?
Lynn
 
Our benches are 32 inches high. I have some photos with the measurements. I'll post them when I get a little time. I'm too busy shooting big groups at the Super Shoot and looking for the suicide hotline number right now. :)
 
Here you go. Didn't take as long as I thought it would. Hope this helps. These are the best design I've ever shot from. They are four inches thick.

The time Turk Takano came to our match he walked up to me and said in utter amazement, "Your benches don't move". I told him they aren't supposed to.:)

bench3.jpg


bench2.jpg
 
Now that's a bench !!! ...

Mickey's bench should be the standard by which all others are judged. Art
 
Mickey Coleman

Mickey
Thank You very much.If you ever make it out to Two Rock,California the benches will make you feel at home.
Lynn
 
A very good shape

Mickey, Your bench tops are about the perfect shape. They are about 6" wider than they have to be and that gives a shooter more room to set their stuff. If they were 6" wider yet, there would be no advantage gained and it would require a tighter squeeze in passing between the benches.

Good job Mickey, but what would anyone expect from you.:)

Concho Bill
 
abintx said:
Mickey's bench should be the standard by which all others are judged. Art
Click to expand...
Thank you but they are not my design. I was given the first ten for the range by James Messer from North Carolina. They were in use at an old range and were stored when the range went under. James gave them to me to help me get started. He was the director of the southeastern region at the time. Buddy Ross made me the second ten but it is the best design I've ever seen.
 
Murphy,
I was just surfing around following links from another post and came across this web site, that has a good picture of benches that seem to be of similar shape to Mickey's with a different rear leg, that is probably a little harder to build, but may be a really good feature for shooter comfort. If they don't move, this could be the way to go.
http://www.rpsinternational.com/index.html
 
To Bryce and others.

Yes Bryce I am just an accuracy nut,as opposed to a serious competitive bench rest shooter. Just want our new range to be of a high standard so that serious benchresters can come and shoot on it. The benches at Belmont have the carpet hinged at the front so You can get rid of it if You wish. On the question of lead polution on carpet,the stuff is probably settling on the ground as well. Once the Do Gooders get on to that we wont be able to shoot at all. Kind reguards to all Murphy.
 
MColeman said:
bench3.jpg


bench2.jpg
Click to expand...

I hope you don't mind me using your photos of your benches to illustrate a point, Mickie.

There are so many different combinations to make a bench top. Concrete is the material of choice and a "T" shape is my choice. To establish the dimensions of my "perfect bench" I took one of my workbenches and used plywood scraps to form the tail of the "T". I determined that you needed enough space to set up a rest and allow room for your elbow. A comfortable and ample width was about 13". I chose a depth of 44" overall so that your muzzle of your rifle would hang over the end of the table in most cases. I chose an overall width of 37" because I feel that is as wide as you need with one rifle at a time and to allow the benches to be set as close as 5' on center. The angle provides a comfortable nitch to sit in and it looks good.

I am very aware that good benches can be built in various sizes. In my short article I used very few dimensions for that reason. All of the dimensions that I came up with can be changed. I would, however, not go less than 12" on the tail of the "T".

Concho Bill
 
My 2 cents.........

FWIW..............I have built several concrete benches for local clubs and they look very similar to what Concho Bill has posted above....with the following mod's:

* In lieu of an angle between the "legs" of the "T", I made this a radiused transition by using Trex decking in my forms..................It allows you to get up to the gun easier without your ribs or belly digging into the top.


*I built the molds to provide all top and bottom edges with a healthy radiused edge for safety and comfort.

* I used 8" sonotubes and poured with concrete to make the 3 legs ......making it much more comfortable (more room for knees and feet)



Been there, done that.......and it's going to take a lot of beer to get me to build another.
 
The Shape Of benches

Ours are a modified bench like the Lyman. [Camillus]Last year we finally had plywood put on the tops.
Just make sure you can accommodate a left handed shooter next to a right handed shoot. You need about 4 ft between each bench. Our are 42inch,s and work pretty well, even with us stout older fellow's
 
To Bill Wynne

Thanks Bill for the photos and deme:eek:nsions, your bench looks perfect for our needs. Will do a print out of Your thread and show it to our comittee. Reguards Murphy.
 
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