Home made rifle rest

[Mac66]

When my nephew joined me at the property last week he brought along a rifle rest made from a scissors jack stand. I asked him to send me a photo of it. I liked it because it is adjustable up and down to fit the height of the table/platform you are using. You can even use it on the ground shooting prone. He zip tied a Caldwell shooting rest to his (another good idea).



I thought that was a pretty good idea so when I was back up this week I dug through the shed and came up with a pair of them. Mine didn't have a metal plate on the bottom so I bolted on a foot square piece of plywood for stability with a hole cut for a handle. The top part swivels.



I had to figure out what to to with the top part to make a rifle rest. I cut a piece of plywood to slide through the slots and then screwed another piece over the top, sandwiching it in place. If one rifle rest is good, two is better.



I still have to decide what pad to put on top of the wood. Maybe pipe foam or maybe a piece of pool noodle. Not sure yet. I'm going back up next week and have time to decide. Maybe try both or something else.

[ratf51]

Now that is all sorts of neat! I can see this catching on.

[Mac66]

Well, the more I look at it the more ideas I have. For example, one could put a lip/edge all the way around the plywood base to make it an open box. That way you could put empty shell casings (keep them for rolling around or off the table). Or mount plastic boxes or ammo boxes in front of and/or to either side of the handle to hold stuff i.e, tools etc. Or turn it around so the handle is in the back and mount a larger box, with a lid in the bigger open space.What is a simple idea could get quite sophisticated if you wanted it to.

[Mac66]

Sanded the edges and around the handle to eliminate splinters. Made some padded leather tops for my rifle rest today. That's it for now, though I'll probably make a hand crank for it while I'm sitting around at home doing nothing.

[Mac66]

Been dinking around with my RRs. Made some hand cranks, one from wood, the other of piece of plastic pipe with a 223/556 cartridge stuck through it as a handle. Both are pinned in place with nails.

I also moved the bolt holding the wood on to the outside corners of the jack. That allows it to go down all the way. The jack would stop on the nut before. This give me a range of 16" fully extended and 4.5" all the way down.