Sounds interesting Bill. Can't wait to see what you can come up with.
I have never owned a one piece rest so may not be the one to comment here. But, over the years I have had several opportunities to shot off of Pappas', a mix-of-many, and others. And then there was the Grandfield.
You talk about your Cadillac of all rests! Man, oh man, let me tell you something: in my eyes there's no comparison between Mr. Grandfield's design, and any of the rest of the rests. Apples and Oranges!
I'm a fairly large man who tends to cast a big shadow, to say the least (6'6" [and shirking] & ±300#), and who has lots of arthritis ...everywhere. The main problem I have with ALL of the others is the positioning of their control knobs as, for some reason, the restmakers usually push everything back up under your shoulder (armpit). If any of you have arthritis in your upper body, you can certainly appreciate the problem with this as it doesn't take very long for things to start numbing up once you've pinched off a few nerves due to being cranked around while trying to reach an adjustment knob.
But, with Mr. Grandfield's design everything is further forward making it much easier to access, and more arthritis friendly, plus he was thoughtful enough to included a built-in hand rest for your trigger-side hand making waiting out a condition change not bad at all. And then, when the time finally does come around to take the shot, you can do so with your hand and arm fully relaxed. Pure comfort!
Oh, and then there's the way he designed the set-up to hold your rifle in place. All rests use basically the same concept having either Delin balls, or a grooved Delrin guide under the rear of your gun to allow it to track properly, and most use some configuration of Delrin buttons or balls to secure the forearm in place (a couple use Fudd Tops or leather bags, but not many). But the way Mr. Grandfield has designed his, at all times while in the rest your gun is only one click shy of becoming a rail gun.
Now, don't you go getting yourself all excised and figure you'll simply run out and buy one of these rests. As I understand it, and this is only presuming he's still making them, he'll take your order, place your name on a list, then, once winter comes around he'll start working on building what he feels like building. And, if yours gets built, you'll have it by next spring, or it may not be finished until the spring of 2010, depending on where your name falls on his list along with how many he felt like building over the winter.
How much are they you ask? Back 5 or 6 years ago a good friend of mine bought two, one for himself, and one for his wife, for somewhere around a grand each ....plus shipping. Today, I have no idea.
How good could these rests possibly be to make them worth the wait ...and money. We'll, I'll answer that by saying: to this day, I have never[/B seen or heard about a used one come up for sale.
So Bill, will yours be anything like a Grandfield? Because if it is, I'm interested.
Dave
