Benchrest Front Rest. Bang for Buck

[savagedasher]

I like my bald eagle, I took the cable off and modified the knob to adjusted the windage. It's smooth and good enough for what I do!

Great rest for the money get the cast steel.
Note change the springs and put a sand bag on the cable. Larry

 

[savagedasher]

Guys this is

Great rest for the money get the cast steel.
Note change the springs and put a sand bag on the cable. Larry

Guys this is a good rest with a few modifications .
Take the top apart Clean u the edges of the the slide I laped them did the same with the windage bolt. Changed the springs to lighter .when I assembled it it was smooth. I added 8 pounds t the base and put a speed screw for adjusting elevation. Put sand bag on the cable.Don't have $ 200.00 in it. Not as good as my Sinclair but close. Larry

 

[wmdron]

I did remove the cable and substituted a carb stud on my cast bald eagle. Reused the original adjuster knob. This helped a good bit. I feel it is a good rest for the money.Might try changing the springs.

 

[Linko]

I did remove the cable and substituted a carb stud on my cast bald eagle. Reused the original adjuster knob. This helped a good bit. I feel it is a good rest for the money.Might try changing the springs.

got any pictures of the rest with the cable removed?

 

[davidpatton]

 

[Linko]

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thanks for the shots. looks like it simplified things. I will start looking for springs. I wonder if the home depot will springs that work.

 

[LHSmith]

FWIW- my first real front rest was a Bald Eagle original design with windage top. I actually have 2, have been using the first one since early '90's and it works flawlessly ..even for competition BR. I periodically take the top apart, clean and regrease. I never heard of anyone having issues with the springs until that confounded cable contraption was marketed. It is a fix for a poorly designed remote adjustment system. As the temps get colder and that grease between the plates gets stiffer- you're gonna wish you had the original springs back in-can you say "hysteresis"? The fact is that any hysteresis in rest adjustments will kill scores. Given enough time you "might" work the bugs out but it still won't give you the adjustment speed of a well built coaxial rest. Interesting that the original designer of the rest never released the cable adjusted rest into the market, although I saw prototypes years before the company was sold.

 

[davidpatton]

I didn't change my springs. I've shot from 28 degrees to probably 95 degrees and never had any issues. Just my personal experience, maybe others have had issues but I haven't yet.

 

[savagedasher]

The spring change made mine smother still had as much movement. By putting a sand bag on the cable the adjustment was smooth and positive. Larry

 

[fotohunt]

Buy the Bald Eagle in cast iron either the triangle or the slingshot in non-windage(I chose the slingshot) and add the Shade-Tree Engineering and Accuracy joystick top. All told under $600 before shipping. You wont be disappointed. I love mine, and I shoot f-open at 1K against guys in the top 10 in the world and it does fine. In fact, a couple of them like it pretty well and commented on how smooth it was. I use a 22 lb .284 on mine and no issues with recoil messing it up.

 

[dkhunt14]

What gets me is everybody will spend thousands on a rifle and a thousand or more on a scope. all of this to shoot accurate. Then they turn around and only want to spend a small amount on a rest. The rest is as important as anything else in the accuracy game. Without a good solid rest the others become less meaningful. Matt

 

[savagedasher]

With the modifications mine is as good as my Sinclair BR . Both I have modified for a 8" wide stock . The stock lets me to put the CG in the center of the bore. One adapter I can move the stocks higth from the center of the bore 2" Above to 1 3/4 below . Larry

 

[davidpatton]

What gets me is everybody will spend thousands on a rifle and a thousand or more on a scope. all of this to shoot accurate. Then they turn around and only want to spend a small amount on a rest. The rest is as important as anything else in the accuracy game. Without a good solid rest the others become less meaningful. Matt

True, unfortunately after building my rifles and buying new scopes, I'd have to sell a kidney to get a more expensive rest. So far at 600/1000 the bald eagle has been sufficient. There are plenty of nicer ones, but at the end of the day I've never lost and match and felt the rest was to blame. Well, except when I had that stupid cable! Needless to say if I borrowed my buddy's seb and shot better consistently I would have to get one.

 

[dkhunt14]

The thing I saw about front rests is nobody usually knows it's happening. Set a video camera up from the side and record your rest top while shooting. I have seen an awful lot of them move when watching from the side. it only takes a few thousandths of movement to error a shot at 600 or 1000 yards. Matt

 

[LHSmith]

The thing I saw about front rests is nobody usually knows it's happening. Set a video camera up from the side and record your rest top while shooting. I have seen an awful lot of them move when watching from the side. it only takes a few thousandths of movement to error a shot at 600 or 1000 yards. Matt

I have noticed a lot of new shooters I see on the line fail to fully engage all the locknuts on the adjustments, incl. the legs.
Original Bald Eagle pedistals (with both windage and non-windage tops) are still used by many short range BR notables like Sid Goodling, Jack Neary, Gary Sutton, Dale Boop, just to name a few. Even original Hart rests are used....and they don't even have the rack and pinion....just a simple t-handle to lock elevation. Many of these guys have been using them for decades...some with the same leather bag that gets coated with talcom powder.

 

[NC308]

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Do you know what thread the windage screw is??