Home made shooting bench.

LawrenceN

LawrenceN

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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Toronto (West end)
My buddy carved out a range at his place in near north Ontario, and so (as a woodworker) I decided to make us a shooting bench to sight the rifles in for hunting season. I made it ambidextrous, as I'm right handed and my bud is left handed, as well as having the capability to have the spotter sit at the same bench. I just thought I'd love to share the pics of this thing with my fellow CGN'ers, and maybe one of you may decide to build your own. We'll give it some outdoor stain later, but you get the idea. The built-in adjustable rifle rest is a piece of hickory with the holes drilled to allow 1/4" height adjustment. I cemented neoprene on the cup to prevent marring the stocks.
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That shaft on the rifle rest was originally meant for a collapsible rifle rest I've made for prone shooting (pics to come later). In the other design, the legs fold apart, the shaft is pulled up to the correct height, and when the legs are extended again, they lock the shaft at the height it's been adjusted to. The pics will explain it better.
 
can you give us some dimensions?

hight, seat hight, distance from seat to table, might try to make a folding one if I can get the geometry to work, just don't want to think about the sizes.
 
darkshadow said:
can you give us some dimensions?

hight, seat hight, distance from seat to table, might try to make a folding one if I can get the geometry to work, just don't want to think about the sizes.
Click to expand...
I realized later that it was dumb of me not to include dimensions, but then again, I didn't know how much interest the bench would generate. The table measures about 3 ft across the face and about 30" deep. The seat sits about 18" high, and it's about 38" overall height.
 
Add some support for the 2 x 12. Just leaning on it, will cause it to bend a tick. A 2 x 4 on the bottom and butted against the bench will do it. And get the forestock rest closer to the balance point of the rifle. Farther back.
The shooting position looks uncomfortably high to me too, but that may just be me. Being able to wrap yourself around a rifle and lean into the recoil makes shooting off a bench much easier on the shoulder. Padding the seat will do it. Friggin' wood is hard on one's butt.
Round all the seat and top edges too. Parts of me still hurt from bashing into a square corner.
 
sunray said:
Add some support for the 2 x 12. Just leaning on it, will cause it to bend a tick. A 2 x 4 on the bottom and butted against the bench will do it. And get the forestock rest closer to the balance point of the rifle. Farther back.
The shooting position looks uncomfortably high to me too, but that may just be me. Being able to wrap yourself around a rifle and lean into the recoil makes shooting off a bench much easier on the shoulder. Padding the seat will do it. Friggin' wood is hard on one's butt.
Round all the seat and top edges too. Parts of me still hurt from bashing into a square corner.
Click to expand...

Hey Sunray, you wouldn't be an ex-meathead like me, would you? That was the RT tag we used for the MP officers when I was in the mob. As to the bench, my bud and I are both around the 6' and 200 lb mark, and we fit the bench just fine. I might machine a second slot for the rifle rest into the bench, but I was less concerned about the actual balance point than I was that when we got comfortable, the forestock was nicely supported. I used a level to see if there was any deviation or deformation of the 2X12 when we sat at the bench, and the free span never budged. I did round off the end of the top piece, but I wasn't too concerned about the bench, though I may round off the ends at some later date. As to padding, I don't plan to spend enough time sitting on it for that to be a factor. I do thank you for the input. You may want to check out the new thread I started on the prone rest.
 
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