portable shooting bench

[Rick in Oregon]

Now that's a bad ass bench,
and gun.

Bad ass indeed! It brings new meaning to "home made".

Well done sir!

How can you save pennies (or even dollars) buying a $600 bench?

Looking at the DOA, it's designed for PD towns. It could be the best of breed for that. Several homebuilt designs here will work well enough for minute-of-PD shooting, even without a swiveling top and seat, just not as smoothly and quickly. But some of us use our "portable" benches for load development, in lieu of a proper benchrest shooting range. As such, my bench needs to be as rigid and stable, after careful setup and positioning, as possible. A PD is a couple MOA wide at 100 yards, I'm trying to develop 1/4 MOA loads off my bench. And in truth, it still ain't really good enough for that, even being an order of magnitude more rigid than the DOA.-

There is no convenient range near me, so virtually ALL my load development and field shooting is done from my BR Pivot Lite. Just for illustrative fun, here's just one target shot at 100 yds from my portable/rotating bench....there's beaucoup more but you get the point I'm sure:



The trick to a good rotating bench working properly is the shooters own weight should preload the entire assembly, making it just as stable as a three or four legged fixed/solid bench. And right now, I'd agree with Brian that the DOA bench is probably the best of the breed out there at present. I doubt that I could shoot any better than shown above from any other bench, portable or fixed (but my shooting ability is always in question anyway! )

 

[retired]

who carries the gun and ammo while you pack in the bench ?
looks like a three man job
rest
guns
supplies

Here is my bench. It's all aluminum and stainless. Chain drive lift. Fine tunable rear rest. Solid as a rock and three legs. Weights fifty pounds and packs up together. Has backstraps is is easily carried. Front leg is guick up and down for quick elevation adjust. The gun swivels a bunch left and right and locks in rear. Can shoot standing up. MattView attachment 1049776 View attachment 1049777 View attachment 1049776 View attachment 1049777

 

[charlieyankeesierra]

that's about what my last 3 leg looked like to get solid, but I had more braces and steel in it.
take apart? not easy
storability=poor
solid=almost

Mine is easy to take apart and stores flat. The brace on the legs helped a lot with stability. The last thing I'm going to do is add removable sleeves at the point where the legs exit the brackets. If after doing that it's still not stable enough for my application, I'll consider welding some bolts to the sleeves and add some dkhunt cross bars.

 

[wholman]

Wagon

 

[dkhunt14]

who carries the gun and ammo while you pack in the bench ?
looks like a three man job
rest
guns
supplies

We usually hunt with three or more. If not you make multiple trips. We have places where we don't go far. Sometimes a few feet. The longest is about 600 yards. Sometimes we take a cart and pile it full. We need glass, tripods, stove to cook. Matt

 

[retired]

do you boil or bbq your p'dogs ??

We usually hunt with three or more. If not you make multiple trips. We have places where we don't go far. Sometimes a few feet. The longest is about 600 yards. Sometimes we take a cart and pile it full. We need glass, tripods, stove to cook. Matt

 

[dkhunt14]

do you boil or bbq your p'dogs ??

No we eat pork loin, sausage, steaks and anything made on a grill. Matt

 

[Fyrchief]

Here's my version based on what I have learned from this thread. I don't need portability as much as I wanted something really solid to facilitate accuracy. The top is double-layer 3/4" pre-finished plywood from Home Depot, and the legs are 1-1/2" pipe at 15 degrees. Very solid set-up!

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Just remember 3 legs are always level and 4 will never be unless youre on perfectly level ground.

 

[retired]

and how do you sit at it with one leg clearly on the shooters side ?
if you can shoot well from it, good for you.

Just remember 3 legs are always level and 4 will never be unless youre on perfectly level ground.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

and how do you sit at it with one leg clearly on the shooters side ?
if you can shoot well from it, good for you.

One leg comes out the back and the front legs come out at 45deg off each corner. Been sitting at 3 legged benches for 35+ yrs now and never thought a leg was in my way even concrete benches with blocks going straight down

 

[retired]

lol..i was talking about his 4 legged bench....

One leg comes out the back and the front legs come out at 45deg off each corner. Been sitting at 3 legged benches for 35+ yrs now and never thought a leg was in my way even concrete benches with blocks going straight down

 

[Nomad47]

Before switching to a rotating bench, I went thru about 5 versions of a 3 legged bench. Along the way, I found that I didn't need a cutout. The rear of the stock sat about 3" off the back of the bench and I sat almost square to the rifle. My last version was a double layer of 3/4" plywood with 3 legs set at angles similar to a lot of the pictures of other benches. I would pivot the bench on the rear leg to shoot at groundhogs at different areas of the field. But for added stability on the long shots, I would flip the bench 180° and shoot with the 2 legs at the rear.
The PVC on the bottom of the stock allows the stock to be positioned more to the rear of the bench. The piece of formica glued to the bench top allows the ski type bipod to slide.

 

[M14AMU]

Shootbn by Sharps Man, on Flickr

 

[Brians356]

Shootbn by Sharps Man, on Flickr

I like that, but it needs much larger diameter wheels where I'd be dragging it!
-

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Before switching to a rotating bench, I went thru about 5 versions of a 3 legged bench. Along the way, I found that I didn't need a cutout. The rear of the stock sat about 3" off the back of the bench and I sat almost square to the rifle. My last version was a double layer of 3/4" plywood with 3 legs set at angles similar to a lot of the pictures of other benches. I would pivot the bench on the rear leg to shoot at groundhogs at different areas of the field. But for added stability on the long shots, I would flip the bench 180° and shoot with the 2 legs at the rear.View attachment 1052919
The PVC on the bottom of the stock allows the stock to be positioned more to the rear of the bench. The piece of formica glued to the bench top allows the ski type bipod to slide.

You must have some loooong arms without a cutout in that bench

 

[JFrank]

You must have some loooong arms without a cutout in that bench

Who hauls the BBQ?

 

[JFrank]

I like that, but it needs much larger diameter wheels where I'd be dragging it!
-

Wonder what that looks like at 55 mph
J

 

[Nomad47]

You must have some loooong arms without a cutout in that bench

Nope. Normal arms for a 5'11" guy. And I have no problems killing groundhogs beyond 1000 yards.
The butt of the rifle is behind the end of the bench.
I don't understand what long arms has to do with it anyway. Isn't the idea to get the butt of the rifle into the shoulder pocket?

 

[retired]

nope///get it in the rear bag...and you cannot because you have no bench.
why spend all the time and money, and then add a variable(holding) by not putting the butt on the solid bench( on the bag)?????

Nope. Normal arms for a 5'11" guy. And I have no problems killing groundhogs beyond 1000 yards.
The butt of the rifle is behind the end of the bench.
I don't understand what long arms has to do with it anyway. Isn't the idea to get the butt of the rifle into the shoulder pocket?