[spitfire_er]

Home Made Rifle Rest!

I was going to post this on another post, but it started getting political, so here ya go! I know its not a rifle, but I think it fits in here.

I build this rest over the summer for about $10 using an old office chair, some scrap steel, and a few nuts and bolts I bought. The center has a acme threaded rod from the chair for elevation along with a locking screw for it. It also has the left and right windage adjustment. Each leg is fully adjustable also. I still need to rework the top rest part it is a little high and I need to get rid of the four bolts but it works till I get motivated to fix it.

 

[StretchNM]

That is very nice, Spitfire. You've got me looking around at our office chairs right now!

I'd like to see some detail shots on that windage screw and mechanism.....

 

[broom_jm]

Turning old and busted into new hotness...good job! I wonder how many thousands of office chairs wind up in landfills each year? You could have yourself a little cottage industry, making good rifle rests out of junk.

 

[marsms]

Looks pretty darn great, and the price is hard to beat!

The rest I'm currently trying to scab together uses the rails from an old sliding compound mitre saw for length adjustment, along with the head of an old power planer for elevation adjustments.

 

[broom_jm]

Any chance you could post some of the steps you took to go from busted office chair to slick shooting rest? Lessons learned?

 

[recoil junky]

I gotta question, what holds up the butt of the rifle.

I'd like to see the windage adjustment as well. I want to add that feature to my "Bob"sled, but I haven't dreamed up a good way to do it.

"Bob"sled named after our good friend Bob Faucett or faucettb.

RJ

 

[slim 60]

ive about decided im going to come up with something that allows ole shaky here to use anywhere.. i got a bunch of ideas ,but havn t put them togather..necessity is the mother of invention.slim

 

[slim 60]

mabe i ll even patent the dang thing an make some money off my own invention for a change..

 

[spitfire_er]

Thanks guys! The windage adjustment is a very simple design. I will take the thing apart next week and show you the inners, but for now I'll try and explain.

There are two bolts going side to side. These are bolted to the bottom piece. On the top piece I have two of those long nuts, about 1 1/2" long (can't remember what they are called), and two of these are welded on to the top piece. The back bolt has a sliding nut that slides back and forth on the bolt. The front bolt has lock nuts on each end and moves freely. This one is attached to the top piece with another long nut, but the one turns on the thread. Very simple, and very affective.

Here's a quick sketch I drew up.

 

[spitfire_er]

I gotta question, what holds up the butt of the rifle.

RJ

I use an eagle rear leather rest.

 

[marsms]

Just curious for your folks' opinion. On a full length, recoil absorbing rifle rest, do you think it would be a big deal if the rest (and therefore, the rifle) would pivot in the middle? I was originally thinking it would be nice if the rest would pivot at the back end, so that very little movement would be required by the shooter for large adjustments. Then I got some sense knocled into me somwhere along the way, and realized that even at 100 yards, only a few inches of adjustment make quite a large difference at 100 yards. It would be significantly easier and more stable to make it pivot in the middle. Think this would work?

 

[spitfire_er]

You could pivot the entire thing in the front and have a locking bolt/mechanism in the rear.

 

[marsms]

I did think about that initially, but decided that would require more movement by the shooter than I would want. I know I don't need 16' of travel at 100 yards or anything, but for some reason I keep getting this idea in my head that it should have considerable travel. But being that you think I could pivot it in the front, I should certainly be able to pivot it in the middle...which is all I needed to know!