Portable Folding Shooting Benches

Some of us are not blessed with single use areas, therefore we must adapt to be able to chase our tails. My particular group shares space with the archery group indoors. Therefore we have to be completely portable. Not having access to a hydraulic exoskeleton or the local body builders group severely limits what is portable. That said I have shot a 250, 249, and a pair of 247's last weekend off my poor rickity fold up work bench at 25 yards, but your mileage may vary. Oh, the 4 lost points were the drivers fault, not equipment!
 
I agree. Though I DO have around nine pretty heavy benches (though still considered "portable" by a few folks I guess, they take a crew of three or four guys to move and reset), I am NOW totally SOLD on the idea of emphasizing the use of portable benches owned by the individual shooters and brought and set each time.

There are several reasons, the primary being what you cite Blades, that of not being blessed with a single use range where benches can be left permanently, but a couple others are these:

By the individual shooters investing in their own bench like that, they are more likely to use it elsewhere, such as at home, or at other shooting events, thus improving their skills, and also exposing more potential shooters the the game that might not otherwise ever SEE an airgun being used in such a way, nor realize just how accurate and fun they can be! I think the benches also add yet another element of fun, by giving us another piece of gear to customize, show off, and talk about as well, as we all know we talk more than we shoot!

So, though I will still keep and use the heavy concrete ones at my more formal matches, I will for sure be using my own foldup portable as well, and will be encouraging the other shooters to also give it a try, using just standard sandbags bags up front, and even just handheld at the back, or whatever.

Yesterday I shot off my foldup bench using a sand bag up front, and holding the buttstock toe on my hand at the rear (my wrist was on a flat sandbag. Anyhow, i only shot one card, but I did really well, about as good as I am used to off the heavy bench with a more technical front rest and a wide flat forend to fit, with super duper tall, small-eared rear bag full of heavy sand. 25M oursoora, with some wind, not heavy gusts, but switching. I used one flag.
 
"stick with concrete", well, most of us were thinking abut benches we could tote in the back of our cars I think. Anyhow, I have thought seriously about modifying an ironing board for airgun benchrest use, but I feel it would need some pretty extensive mods ..... but I love to see you do it and show up and use it (I for sure wouldn't laugh if it looked like some thought was put t it).
 
Benchrest is and will always be at the very cutting edge of extreme accuracy. If you shoot at a single use range with concrete benches or a multi-purpose range that uses a forklift to move someone's custom creations, be thankful for your good fortune and do not apologize for it.

However, we all want to bring more shooters into our game and if that takes ironing boards, pink hula skirts or bean bag chairs to do it, we should all be behind the effort.

If you have a better idea, design or concept, please share it with someone, so others can try it and truly determine if it has a place. BR50 passed away, IFP is gone and AGBR met the same fate. History should teach us that for organizations to survive, support must come from all corners, big and small.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I could'nt view em, but can only assume if they are good enough for you guys, they would be good enough for most of us. Do they fit in a compact car ok?
 
There is a guy that makes a pretty stable and simply built bench that can be taken apart and carried. Stukey I think is his name and he has a websight. The benches are a welded 1 1/5" angle iron triangular steel frame with a 3/4" plywood top. His leg attachments are needlessly complicated but he is making them commercially. You can use 1" or 1 1/4" pipe legs screwed into cast pipe unions welded to the frame. They can be made for around $50 his sell for $550 or so. For practice and varmint hunting they should be fine.
 
cris said:
Benchrest is and will always be at the very cutting edge of extreme accuracy. If you shoot at a single use range with concrete benches or a multi-purpose range that uses a forklift to move someone's custom creations, be thankful for your good fortune and do not apologize for it.

However, we all want to bring more shooters into our game and if that takes ironing boards, pink hula skirts or bean bag chairs to do it, we should all be behind the effort.

If you have a better idea, design or concept, please share it with someone, so others can try it and truly determine if it has a place. BR50 passed away, IFP is gone and AGBR met the same fate. History should teach us that for organizations to survive, support must come from all corners, big and small.
Click to expand...

From my experience, there is no way to make portable benches that will allow folks to shoot at the same accuracy level as can be done from stable concrete benches. Not all concrete benches are 100% stable, however. A way to accomodate folks from benches that are not so stable might to use targets that are larger and more forgiving. If one wants to encourage new shooters, giving then something to shoot at they can hit fairly easily couldn't hurt. The other side of that is how many folks are willing to acquire the best rifles and chase lot numbers of pellets? This part of the Benchrest Sports is what thins the players out, IMHO. Make it too eay and it becomes boring, make it difficult and only those who like pain are left.
 
Last edited:
Well, I finally finished my version of a portable bench. The top opens with two doors, one is wide enough to shoot from, while the other can open or close while shooting. The legs are removable and secured with 5/16"x 2" carriage bolts and wingnuts. When tightened, the legs are very stable without any bracing. This allows one to fit ones legs under any side of the bench. You can fit two guns or one gun and lots of other gear in the other half. It's pretty stable too.. I shot an Open Class- Outdoor 25 meter, 249 -13X, 247 -15X, and 247 -8X for 743 -36X yesterday with it on it's first use.

What do ya think? hope the pics work:)

IMG_5466.jpgIMG_5467.jpg
IMG_5480.jpg
IMG_5475.jpg
IMG_5472.jpg
IMG_5479.jpg

if all else fails.. here is my photo bucket album

http://s424.photobucket.com/albums/pp325/wayne177/

Wayne Burns,
Match Director,
Ashland Air Rifle Range
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Pete Wass,

REALLY? What kind of experiences do you have with airgun benchrest? I know some of centerfire guys feel they can directly apply the experiences and "common knowledge" of firearm shooting to airgun shooting, and in many cases, its a sound foundation, but not always, and not, I think, in this case.

Until fairly recently, I too felt the heavier and more rigid a bench was, the higher the scores you could shoot on it, but I DID recall that some years back, in the 90's, I had some great successes with portable benches out in the groundsquirrel hunting fields of Norther Ca. and Southern Or. that showed I could effectively and routinely take small groundsquirrels in fairly strong breezes out to around 170yds with good rimfire rifles.

So not so long ago I played around again with portable benches, but this time, using airguns at fifty yards on very tough targets (10M airgun bulls). At first, with more or less standard "Workmate" benches, it WAS a bit harder to shoot decent scores, but after a bit of study on technique and a bit of minor redesign of the benches, it became obvious that good scores COULD be obtained on light benches. Yes, one does need to learn up on how to set up and use such a bench, just like any other piece of equipment, but to say good results cannot be obtained without going to large targets just shows a lack of direct experience in this exact situation.

See, I too once felt only a great big solid bench of steel and concrete would deliver the truly great results from bench shooting, but I never thought to accept this as fact, but rather, I wanted to learn WHY. Sure, I have shot big centerfire guns off rests, and a heavy one works better than a car hood, but I ALSO realize some good shots can deliver the goods better than most any of us readers here, even when layin on their belly with the forend on a rolled up jacket. So I kept up with my experiments, and now KNOW that good scores can be fired on the same regulation targets and specified distances outdoors as used in most official matches, but under less than perfect conditions using benches that weigh less than the combined gun/front rest/rear bag weights of many benchrest shooters.
 
How can that be? Were you using pistol targets at 10yds, or what? Oney keeding! Nice workm but let see how it holds up on trips and in the weather an stuff.
 
Well, the good times did not last long and the resident guru is at it again.

"REALLY? What kind of experiences do you have with airgun benchrest?"

Is this another of your clever, promotional slogans designed to bring more shooters into our game? Now that we know you are associated with the future factory shooting team for FX, I would think FX would appreciate a glimpse into how you coin your motivational phrases.

No need to defend Pete but for those who are unaware, this gentlemen needs no introduction to benchrest.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I use a portable rest made by DOA in Utah that is quite stable and could even be more stable if anchored by stakes/ ground screws and adjustable straps. I use them for praire dog shooting out to 1,000 yds. They are not as stable as the concrete benches we use for center fire Benchrest shooting but if you sit real still they are very good. They are adjustable for different sized shooters and easily portable. Don
 
Don,

I'd say this: If a bench can work at all well using good technigue with a centerfire rifle for long range shooting, it CAN work even better for airgun benchrest shooting. As many of us realize, long range outdoor shooting is a wind doping game, mostly. but you DO need to be able to aim precisely where you want and break the shot when you are on aim. Of course when a centerfire rifle goes off, some of the commotion it creates CAN affect the shot, so extreme repeatability of the shooting technique is important for good accuracy. I KNOW a good portable bench that can deliver decent results from centerfire rifles can deliver good results from airguns, because most competitive airguns really don't disturb the setup nearly as much during the shot cycle.

There is a club that shoots almost every week in San Diego at a police pistol range. Though they are allowed the use of the range, there are no benches, and they are not allowed to put any up permanently.

There is a series of long 2"X12" boards at hip height delineating the firing line. Shooters generally place their guns and ammo on that board and shoot from behind it. So, some of the airgun club members got together and made some plywood tabletops with (two) folding legs. They attach the front of each table to the underside of the 2"X12" board, and the two legs hold the rear of the bench up. Though it doesnt take a lot of time to set up and tear down the benches, they are really not very stable.

I have shot at that range a number of times, and, after the first few matches, I began to bring my own portable, because It was so hard for ME to shoot good scores n the two legged ones. See, I found that by simply pushing a bit with my arm laying on the bench I could engage more than one bull on a card in either horizontal or vertical deflection. I also noticed that if I shot next to Howard, his rather violent loading motions could physically disturb my aim.

BUT ... here's the point, and its a very important one: These folks are enjoying their regular weekend matches, which are fired at regulation distances on regulation targets, including the rather difficult International 25M airgun one, as well as the old BR50 target, which is perhaps MORE difficult, and, were it not for the temporary benches, they wouldn't be shooting there!

And there's this: Even though it's usually a bit gusty, and there is some tricky swirl due to the layout, there are good scores being fired there all the time! Charlene Pray essentially dominates the standings there, and can shoot alongside the best airgun BR shooters in the World and hold her own. Roger Lovett does real well, nipping Charlene's scores quite often ... I have shot there and done fair myself. We ALL use temporary benches.

To be clear: It would be foolhardy to say ANY portable bench could be BETTER than a really good heavy, well-designed permanent bench, but for sure decent results CAN be obtained from good portables.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top