Bench question

N

nonliberal

Guest
This kind of goes with my backstop question but is a little different.

The location of my target in relation to my bench will end up being 3-degrees lower than the muzzle of the rifle. My question is should I make my bench perfectly level and just lower the front rest to meet the target or should I set my bench at the same 3-degree angle to match up with the target so the gun is level with the bench?

Basicly is it more important to have the gun level with the bench or level with the Earth? Or does it make a difference since any way you slice it there will still be a 3-degree angle?

It will be concrete so I only want to do it once.

3-degree isnt ideal but its better than the -13-degrees of my last bench location. I could'nt lean into my rest without it wanting to tip foward. Perfectly flat ground is hard to come by around here and the wife dont want a dozer in the yard. She needs to get her priorities staight. ;)

Thanks
 
I think that one needs to keep in mind that three degrees is about 5/8" per foot. I think that a half degree would be plenty for bench top tilt.
 
I would pour the bench top flat. You take up the slack in the rests and bags. Unlike Francis we don't shoot out in the rain........if water or snow or coffee/tea/soda pop is falling out of the sky we put a cover up :D and if I spill the LAST thing I'm worried about is the stuff running away. I'm grabbing for my Billy Towel and notebooks. It's all gotta' be swabbed up anyways...

But this is all theoretical since I've never spilled anything :rolleyes:

Also, if you're going to pour a bench and a surrounding walking area like a slab or a sidewalk I'd take the time to isolate the two. Make sure that folks walking behind or beside you don't shake the bench. I've poured 3 isolated and two where the benches are setting right on the slab..........on the two that are setting on the slabs I was able to roll in the slab subgrade with a 100" vibrating road roller. Even then one of them will jitter when someone walks by.


BTW nonliberal, I disagree with this statement..." any way you slice it there will still be a 3-degree angle?"


A three degree angled surface is wicked different than a level surface with the rests/bags set at a taper. MOST importantly to me is the fact that with a flat bench stuff like pens and cartridges doesn't roll off. As Boyd pointed out, three degrees is HUGE in a bench top. My benches are near on 4" deep front to back. And I'm a contractor who deals in square and level.....2" of pitch would actually make me physically ill :) I could never stop looking at it....


al
 
how did it work?

non liberal how did you decide to make your bench, and what where your findings as far as degrees affecting your accuracy. and did you cover your newly made bench?:p
 
If I was going to tilt a bench, it would be away from the target (higher in the front). First off, I do not shoot short range bench rest, and am just getting started in 600 and 1000, so take this for what it's worth. When I put my bench in I tilted it to wards the target. I don't know how many degrees, but it was no where near level. It was very noticeable. What I found was that my front rest needed to be higher, especially with my new rear bag. It seems like rear bags have been trending up wards in weight, which usually means upward in height also, which also forces you to raise the front rest even more. When pushing my gun back forward to the front stop after each shot I noticed that the rear leg of the front rest was actually coming off of the bench a bit. Now, as a newbie, my bench technique needs lots of work, and my old Heart front rest is no where near state of the art, but after leveling my bench last week and , thus lowering my front rest some, my front rest didn't move and my groups shrank. Now, maybe it was the leveling of the bench or maybe I am just getting the technique thing down a little better. Or both. I Don't know if the short range guns recoil enough to make a difference, but I do notice in the pictures I see of guns on the bench, the front rests are set up kind of high.

Like I said.....:eek:NEWBIE IN THE HOUSE:eek:.....So I may be just talking to hear myself talk and I could be all wrong. Does anyone else here think that what I posted here holds any water??
 
Perhaps a better way

would be to tilt it toward one side or the other. If you are a rightie you could tilt it right. If it's only moisture that is a concern, it won't take much of a tilt to keep water from standing on it. I am guessing 1/4" would do it.

I just joined a club that has their benches dead level. They all had ice covering them all winter! Not a very good deal.
 
Alinwa is right. Pour and finish the top FLAT. Flat, however is to describe the surface of the bench. a nice finish, nice and flat, however I would put my flat surface a bit out of level, to drain rain, snow and drinks off of it.

Paul
 
Gotta agree that a flat - horizontal - bench top is the way to go. Aside from the lovely light breezes around here blowing stuff off the bench, nothing irritates me more than stuff rolling off a bench, table, counter, whatever that's supposed to be flat. Pencils, pens, cases, loaded round, and anything else that can will roll right off the top.
 
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