Concrete Top Benches - Help

S

SGJennings

New member
Friends,

I shoot quite a bit at a state range. It's a pretty good facility, but the benches are HORRIBLE. I'd like to go to the management with a proposal for replacing them with concrete-top benches accomplished with donations of time, talent and treasure from the folks that shoot there.

I was wondering what you guys thought about the design on this page: http://www.progunleaders.org/ranges/construction.html and if anyone has any input on how to get started on a cost estimate and if anyone has ideas on doing it better or cheaper.

Some ground rules:

1. The design has to be wheelchair friendly.
2. The range can't be out of commission.
3. The design has to be such that I can do things one bench at a time.
4. I would *prefer* something that can be built off-site and transported in whole to the range. Maybe carried by a gang of stout guys, maybe carried with a rented fork lift.

Thanks guys,

Greg J.
 
Pour the concrete tops off site and haul them to the range. Use concrete block "glue" to assemble the benches at the range using the conventional cnmcrete block "T" as the support for the top. Make sure you get it right because that "glue" is a bit more than just glue - it ain't comin' apart.
 
Although I see that the benches have welded bracing, I tend to be suspicious of any design that has pipe legs that skinny, unless I have personally shot off of it, using a high magnification scope. The issue is not the ability to resist downward force, but rather lateral force near the back of the bench, where a shooter would lean on it. Personally, I prefer some sort of masonry, or concrete base, and unless benches are to be exact copies of a bench (including its height) that has already been tried and found satisfactory, a prototype should be built and evaluated by multiple shooters.
 
Greg,

I'd highly recommend you read the chapter in Ratigan's book that deals with range and bench designs and construction. He points out some interesting things that one might not think about until they're in the middle of the project, or worse, until it's too late.

Some highlights:

Pour benchtops directly behind the bench pedestals unless you have access to a forklift.
Box t shaped benches are best all around but require more material and are heavier.
Horseshoe benches require a lot more room center to center and are a pita for rifles with ejectors.
Trapezoidal shape benchtops are easiest to make but not as easy to shoot from.
Pour concrete into pedestals if possible.
Consider angling the pedestal if the range is uphill or downhill.



Another thing I'd throw in, leave yourself an overhang if possible so folks can clamp tarps or umbrellas to the ends or sides of the benchtops.;)
 
Greg, give me a call later. I've got some plans on one of my computers that I can send you. No pics, but I may be able to add pics of my bench to make the plans more reader friendly. It's rock solid and can be made fixed or movable, but weighs about 400lbs. I've tried to find the plans online, complete with pics but can't. When you're back in my neck of the woods, stop by and take a closer look. It's as good as I've shot from anywhere.
 
Thanks everyone. Have read Rattigan's book and did some surfing on the web. This situation is unique. I'm not going to be able to cast on site. I didn't look into the Sono Tube or block construction because I thought it would require downtime at the range and maybe block sawing and other equipment that I don't have.

This place currently has the worst setup that you can imagine. I want to help the shooting public, but I'm not going to have much help. Any plan that disturbs things is going to meet with a lot of resistance.

It pretty much has to be a design that I can build at home, carry in a 3/4 ton shortbed or rented trailer, and carry a max of 12 benches with the help of, say, four or five strong guys. I can back right up to the end of the firing line, and could roll a four-wheel dolly there, if that would be possible. If the design allowed me to put them in place and get them tied down all in one day, I could probably swing renting a fork lift or similar. I have a friend with a big Bobcat kind of thing with a front loader, if that could be used. Maybe lift the bench with chains attached to the bucket?

Thanks again for everyone's help. I really, really appreciate it.
 
Maybe Alinwa who's a concrete contractor will get on and offer some advice/hints, but finding enough guys with strong backs and weak minds who are willing to hoist up a dozen full size concrete bench tops might be a real trick. I have the feeling that those puppies are going to be HEAVY. The only bench tops I was in on building were poured in place with a concrete block front support and a sonotube rear support. They would have been wheelchair accessible I think. The range I shoot at now uses steel tubing to support the concrete bench tops, but the tubes are maybe 3 1/2 or 4 inches in diameter and do not wiggle at all. It'd seen that the rebar braces on the posts would interfere with a wheelchair or the legs/feet of any shooters.
 
A mason buddy built mine. Its kinda a homemade deal but its solid. The top is about 4 in. thick. He made it then the legs. They are concrete blocks. He used a skid steerer to put the top on and hold it while he got it level. I dont remember the height but Im in a wheelchair and I can get under it. The concrete block legs are a little thick but there fine after you grt used to it. If you want me to Ill go measure the height and post it. Doug
 
I have some bench articles that might interest you, if you PM me your email I'll email the document to you.......Ian
 
There should be a number of threads in the archives as this subject is discussed at least once each year. A problem with making benches is everyone has their own idea on what they want. I prefer benches that have no 90* corners to stick into my fat belly and benches that allow me to get behind my rifle instead of drape over it. Others seem to want benches that are longer and wider in the back so that 2 people can set up and leave their equipment on them. I have shot on some pretty small benches, and prefer them over long big ones. Most benches I have seen have a lot of wasted space or un-usable space and lack space where one is to be working. Of all I have shot on those shaped something like "Home Plate" are best.

Having room to eject is a big consideration since more and more people are going in that direction. Sure is nice not to need to handle empties until after one has finished shooting.
 
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Greg, give me a call, O have built several styles and I can get you through the concrete one with a simple block block base and concrete top. If your interested just PM me and we'll exchange numbers.
 
Greg,

We 22 shooters at the San Angelo Gun Club have "perfected" a moveable bench rest bench. I use the term perfected with quotation marks because we all have our own ideas about shape and such. We have built 22 benches for our range off-site in a building and in the shade. Many others have used our plans with success, including Dan Killough of ARA fame at his Winters, Texas range.

These benches have a 4" square tubing frame and weigh about 450 pounds. The concrete tops are cast in plywood molds with embeded steel weld plates. They are welded to the frame in the upside down position. We have found the best was to move them is upside down on a low utility trailer. Two men can slide these things to the back of the trailer and roll them off and over into position and upright. Although two men can do this, three are better.

These benches are rock steady. World records can be shot off of them. They are not portable, yet they can be moved if necessary.

I have photos and drawings that I am quite willing to share. My e-mail is. hab@wcc.net.

Bill Wynne
San Angelo, Texas
 
I had my steel fabricator BiL make my base frame out of 4" round pipe with 6" square feet. We had a truncated wedge shaped top with 6" plates set in using rods wired back into the re-bar poured thanks to a friend who's a concrete contractor who made the form and poured the concrete on one of his job sites. We set the base up, filled the legs with dry sand to increase the weight, trucked the top in and lifted it into place using the trucks crane. BiL then welded the top to the base. I can move it about using the farms teleporter.
 
Benches

Greg..I was at our local private range the other day and took these photos. don't know how these were constructed or installed. Maybe you can tell from looking at em. I have a Drop port Viper and a right eject Panda. I spend a lot of time picking up brass off the concrete when I shoot the Panda. Other than that, The benches are rock solid and I like the recently added Sinclair stools.






Glenn
 
Those benches are great. They will fit a left or right handed shooter equally well.

This is only an observation and not a complaint: This style is what is sometimes called a "horseshoe" style and it requires a bit more space on a firing line than the "T" style but it does give a shooter more table room for his stuff. A spotting scope fits easily on the "horseshoe" bench.

Bill Wynne
 
Has anyone tried 2 parallel rows of concrete blocks with the bench top made from 6X2 concrete lintels with a 3/4 plywood top glued over the lintels?
 
The biggest problem with this type bench is there is not much room around the rifle and rest for either placing rounds to be shot or ejected empties. There are very good reasons that the Home Plate style of bench has evolved. One needs extra bench top space beginning at their rear bag and extending forward, more as one goes. The benches pictured have the majority of their usable top space where it can only be used for storage, IMHO.

The other issue is how the shooter seats themselves. I would rather belly up to the bench than sit parallel to it. I find if I sit parallel to the rifle, I end up pulling the rear bag toward me constantly, vs bellying up. That way I don't move the rear bag much, if ever. As I said, there are reasons for the evolution of bench shapes.

The surfaces of the benches are finished very nicely though.
 
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Pete

Like you I prefer to go from the rear "doggy" style. Thats why I made my bench the way I did with the one round pipe central rear leg. I'm not thin and lanky enough to shot from the side for extended periods without having rear bag problems.

I have always thought that you yanks manage to achieve a very fine finish to your concrete be it floors, pillars or bench tops. I'm not sure if thats down to the use of a finer aggregate or whether you spend more time trowelling up. What ever it is, it works.
 
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