On Spotting Scope stands:

[Pete Wass]

I am in search of the PERFECT Spotting Scope Stand for Benchrest Shooting. I have had a number of them of Home made, Custom and Commercially available and none of them, to date seem to fill the bill.

I am currently using a Sinclair which is good but positions the scope back too far and too far to the left. It is also in the way of being able to use a Farley Tiller Handle efficiently. What would be Ideal is one like the Doolies Doozy except the base of that one takes up too much room and it is too sensative to movement. It also allows the scope vibrate thus eliminating a good view through it.

Challenge: to those who want to invent and sell something that will be an instant hit; make a SOLID Spotting Scope mount for Benchrest shooters And we'll see what we can do about getting you mentioned at the Hall of Fame .

The biggest problem one will encounter is if the supporting members get very long the dang things bend very easily so Rigdity is parimount. I guess that should be obvious but it is the biggest problem to lick.

 

[deadwooddick]

2¢

I am in search of the PERFECT Spotting Scope Stand for Benchrest Shooting. I have had a number of them of Home made, Custom and Commercially available and none of them, to date seem to fill the bill.

Have you tried the Freeland, my antique red one w/ the saddle head, FWIW is as close to perfection as a stand can be. No bouncing images even w/ the scope at 60X and the "tripod" design allows placement with no crowding of front rest or shooter position. It is unweildy when opened for use, tho it does fold up pretty compactly for travel.

Richard

 

[ShadowChaser]

Pete,
I do not use a Farley rest with tiller handle so don't know how my solution to a spotting scope stand would work for you.

What I use is a Caldwell Rock shooting rest base that I have adapted a camera tripod heavy duty ball style top to a spare rest center column piece. The center column is sold by MidwayUSA (and others) as a option for the Caldwell rests and I made a stud of a cut off bolt to couple the tripod head to the column. Its a simple process to swap columns in the Caldwell rest so it is still useable as a shooting rest when needed. And it also makes a great table top tripod for a camera...

Happy shooting,
Mitch & Shadow...

 

[Big Al]

Have you tried the Freeland, my antique red one w/ the saddle head, FWIW is as close to perfection as a stand can be. No bouncing images even w/ the scope at 60X and the "tripod" design allows placement with no crowding of front rest or shooter position. It is unweildy when opened for use, tho it does fold up pretty compactly for travel.

Richard

I'v only had the same stand since 1967 so I haven't really made up my mind yet? I do know that this stan d was really made with position shooters in mind for rimfire. So far mine has worked out for HP and benchrest. It is fr and away better than many of the home made abortions I have seen other shooters try to make work.

 

[Pete Wass]

A big problem is

Limited space on a lot of bench tops. I have seen the Freeland and it is not suitable for my needs. It is too big for one thing.They do make a nice adjusting head though. Ideally I guess some sort of tubular arangement that could be clamped to the front of the bench and hang back toward the shooter with some sort of right angle surface that would allow an adjusting head to mount a scope to. Perhaps a telescoping tube fore and aft and up and down for height. Rigidity is parimount. The weight of the good ED scopes demands rigidity or one won't be able to see anything because of vibration from all sorts of stuff but basically the wind. perhaps some largish aluminum tubing?

 

[Pete Wass]

Thanks

They DO offer "The Ultimate" benchrest model for $200. It looks superb from the pictures but it could prove to be an expensive experiment. I appreciate your mentionng this. I have looked at their site in the past but I didn't remember their having a Benchrest stand but perhaps the cost turned me away. I hope I have learned my lesson on that one though.

P.S.

The BR model was introduces last month. It appears to be the nicest stand I have seen to date. The "outrigger" feature could prove to be the "Fix" for the problems.

 

[Larry Elliott]

Pete, I built a scope stand a couple of years ago out of 1" aluminum rod that was faced on both ends then drilled and tapped for a length of 1/2" all thread on one end and 1/4-20 for an old tripod head I had on hand on the other end. There are two 1/2"x1 1/2"x3 1/2 (bottom) or 4" (top) aluminum plates, one on the bottom of the aluminum rod held in place with a 1/4-20 set screw. The other slides on the all thread with a washer and wing nut under it allowing it to be tightened up onto the bottom of the bench. A couple of pieces of skateboard or step safety tread tape were cut and stuck on the bottom of the upper plate and top of the lower plate to get a little traction on a concrete bench top. A piece of grey plastic pipe was slid over the all thread to keep the threads from getting beaten up on the edge of the bench.

It's attached to the bench top by tightening the wing nut tight against the lower plate which isn't too handy, but so far I haven't managed to knock it off the bench. It would be handier if the bottom plate were fixed to the 1/2" all thread and a screw through it to tighten against the bottom of the bench top. That might get done this winter.