Need Front Rest - Beer budget - Champaign Taste

[bojangles]

I am 70 years young - I don't worry about it because my Dr. said old age doesn't last long. OK, I've been shooting and reloading all my life but new to BR. Just had a new rifle built in 6.5 Creedmoor. Took it out with the builder last sunday and tried a couple of combinations and the last load combo put 5 shots in the same hole @ 100 yds. That's what I paid him for but I had to borrow his front and rear rest. I will not shoot "F" class - just off a concrete table. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground on price/quality on rests. I found the "Viper" on the net and would buy it in a heart beat but my child bride is still on me about the rifle and there is about a 3 mo. lead time in getting one built to my specs. I don't like compromise. You get what you pay for. All the others I have found are in the $150 - $300 range and really look like crap! This is a HEAVY rifle - is there a general rule on weight ratio of rifle to stand? Any comments or brand suggestions would be welcomed.
Thanks from a newcomer,
bojangles

 

[Boyd Allen]

I shoot off of an old Hart base, with a Hoehn windage top that is no longer available, that is similar to this one that Sinclair sells.
http://www.sinclairintl.com/.aspx/pid=38062/Product/Sinclair-Generation-II-Benchrest-Windage-Tops
Truthfully, if a base can be locked up so that it does not wiggle, and if it has enough adjustment range, any windage top can be adapted to it, by having the main adjustment shaft drilled and tapped for the size of fastener that the top requires. Sometimes flipping the post and drilling the other end is a good workaround. Another thing to check before buying is whether a rest base will go low enough. Some stock designs, are more critical than others in this regard. My benchrest rifle has a butt that is quite short from toe to heel, and that combined with the fact that the range that I shoot at is slightly downhill, means that my front rest needs to be short enough, and my rear bag tall enough. How heavy is your rifle?

 

[Centerfire]

Just my 2¢ worth. Get any old cast base, new or used, give it a coat of paint and buy SE&A co-ax top.
Yes, it is worth it, ever penny.
Centerfire

 

[abintx]

Any comments or brand suggestions would be welcomed. Thanks from a newcomer, bojangles

You might take a look at the Cowan Front Rest. Here is Joe Cowan's email address and phone number: cowanhaus@verizon.net, 814-946-8450 X1235. A couple of us at the Austin Rifle Club have Joe's rest and find it to be extremely stable and a great value which includes shipping. Joe's also a nice person to deal with. The picture in this attachment shows the rest in Red. It's actually gold, silver, and black and does not include the Sinclair speed screw shown.

The windage-adjustable front rest is made in the machine shop at the Altoona Area High School Career and Technology Center. Many shooters call it the 'Cowan Rest'. Joe Cowan is the instructor for the Altoona HS program. These excellent tripod rests have been sold world-wide, with all proceeds going back to the students. This program and what the students have done with some of the money is worth a story by itself. The Cowen Rest ia a very nice design--stable and easy to adjust, and you know your money will be going into a worthy endeavor.

Here's a picture of one: http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek039.html

See your personal mail.

 

[JerrySharrett]

My suggestion, buy cheaper beer and a better rest. All beer pees about the same. Most cheap rests will not shoot the same as a good rest. Best; Jon Loh, next Bald Eagle then Sinclair or Hart.

 

[glp]

My suggestion, buy cheaper beer and a better rest. All beer pees about the same. Most cheap rests will not shoot the same as a good rest. Best; Joh Loh, next Bald Eagle then Sinclair or Hart.

I used to have a Loh. Sold it and pee'ed away the $$. No money, no rest!

 

[bojangles]

Good advice but I started T-Totaling 5/16/79 so about the only vice I could give up is snuff or dip - sure would take a lot of cans to buy an expensive rest! I agree though, if you need a watch and can afford a Timex today, just wait till you can afford that Rolex that you really want.

 

[virg]

Good advice but I started T-Totaling 5/16/79 so about the only vice I could give up is snuff or dip - sure would take a lot of cans to buy an expensive rest! I agree though, if you need a watch and can afford a Timex today, just wait till you can afford that Rolex that you really want.

Although the Timex keeps better time.

 

[bojangles]

Although the Timex keeps better time.

No argument there but I'm anal retentive and can't get past personal pride of ownership. Don't want to show it off but like knowing I own it. Same thing on firearms - I won't own an ugly gun - owned a new Glock for a week till I took a loss on it and sold it (bet I stepped on some toes). I think the same should apply to rests - BUY QUALITY the 1st time (just learning & y'all have been great teachers). I talked to John Loh today and am definitely impressed w/his product. I've spent so much $$s on multiple guns lately that it caught my child bride's attn - not good! Guess I'll sell off 1 or 2 & buy a great rest. Thanks for all the humor and advice!!! This is a great forum.

 

[Charles E]

Good advice but I started T-Totaling 5/16/79 so about the only vice I could give up is snuff or dip - sure would take a lot of cans to buy an expensive rest! I agree though, if you need a watch and can afford a Timex today, just wait till you can afford that Rolex that you really want.

If you mean that, can't help you. But if following fashion isn't your thing, about $70 plus the bag should do it.

First of all, unless your hands are too crippled up, you don't need a windage top. Tony Boyer was a bag-squeezer for years until the arthritis got too bad. Bag squeezing is as fast and as accurate as any joystick, with a little practice.

So all you need for a top is something to hold the bag. You can make one with hand tools if getting it done fast isn't important.

The base: I made one using a 3/8 inch thick piece of steel plate I paid $30 for. They threw in cutting it to my pattern -- a simple triangle.

Five threaded holes -- three at the corners for feet, two more to take threaded rod. Ah, the threaded rod -- cut strips of 3/4 inch ply & notched it so I could add/subtract from a stack held by the threaded rod w/ wing nut on top. Mount the top on one of the 3/4 inchers, but have a1/2 and 1/8 as well, for finer vertical adjustment.

It sounds crude, but if you can envision it, you can make it as purdy as you want. I made this one for a 1,000 yard rest, because the heavier rifles we used would tip over a lighter commercial rests when you pushed them forward.

Total cost back in 1997, about $70, with sandbag.

How did it work? More solid than any other rest on the line, and as you know, if you're wining, no one criticizes your gear. There were a lot of home-built rests in the early days of 1K, cause no one made a suitable commercial version.

 

[bojangles]

If you mean that, can't help you. But if following fashion isn't your thing, about $70 plus the bag should do it.

First of all, unless your hands are too crippled up, you don't need a windage top. Tony Boyer was a bag-squeezer for years until the arthritis got too bad. Bag squeezing is as fast and as accurate as any joystick, with a little practice.

So all you need for a top is something to hold the bag. You can make one with hand tools if getting it done fast isn't important.

The base: I made one using a 3/8 inch thick piece of steel plate I paid $30 for. They threw in cutting it to my pattern -- a simple triangle.

Five threaded holes -- three at the corners for feet, two more to take threaded rod. Ah, the threaded rod -- cut strips of 3/4 inch ply & notched it so I could add/subtract from a stack held by the threaded rod w/ wing nut on top. Mount the top on one of the 3/4 inchers, but have a1/2 and 1/8 as well, for finer vertical adjustment.

It sounds crude, but if you can envision it, you can make it as purdy as you want. I made this one for a 1,000 yard rest, because the heavier rifles we used would tip over a lighter commercial rests when you pushed them forward.

Total cost back in 1997, about $70, with sandbag.

How did it work? More solid than any other rest on the line, and as you know, if you're wining, no one criticizes your gear. There were a lot of home-built rests in the early days of 1K, cause no one made a suitable commercial version.

Thanks Charles - I lived on a farm for the 1st 26 years of my life so I have fixed a lot of machinery with bailing wire and binder twine. Sounds like you made yours look good though - yes I think I get the picture and thanks. Another learning experience. By the way, I sold my beautiful Colt SAA .45 LC because of arthritis in my thumbs - hurt like the Devil to cock but I can still play the piano.

 

[Charles E]

"Bag squeezing" is an art, but not exactly a hard one. How far forward you push the rifle (don't use a forearm stop) gives you some vertical control. Squeezing the bag gives you the rest. Horizontal is all bag squeezing, but the whole setup makes you pay a bit more attention to tracking when you set the rifle & bags up, so once again, the squeezing is for a fine adjustment only.

As long as you're doing this, if you've got a right-right (or left-left), practice reloading with you trigger hand only. The other hand never leave the bag. As you're pushing the rifle forward, you're already re-acquiring the target. OR variations, open & close the bolt with the right hand, and load with it, but pull the bolt back with the left, so you can be reloading. As you close the bolt with the right, the left is dropping to the bag. I make it sound harder than it is.

If you've got RBLP, you've got to do it differently of course. Just remember, it isn't how fast you can reload, it's how fast you can reload AND re-acquire the target.