Custom bench rest gun stock question

[MrMister]

I’m a new-be to the world of bench rest but I have made some observations when it comes to the stocks on these custom guns: Most have some of the wildest,dare I say ugly) color and paint schemes. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder and what I think looks nice might make you nauseous.

Still you’ll have to admit bench guns for the most part are “colorful”. Is their a reason for this or is it some super natural unexplainable phenomena?

 

[artbosco]

Plain old beautiful traditional stocks tend to be boring after awhile to some. Color spruces things up a bit.

There's plenty of variety out there. Take your pick. Beauty "is" in the eye of the beholder.

Art

 

[Forum Boss]

Also, many of the most successful BR stocks are made from fiberglass or fiberglass + carbon fiber. This give you a choice of gelcoat or paint over gelcoat. Ian Robertson offers some fantastic "marble" gel-coat finishes, but in general, if you want something fancy, that means paint. There are some ways to create a simulated wood stock, but usually the end result is not so pleasing.

Think of BR guns as race cars, or custom motorcycles, or bass boats. Some guys just like to make them flashy.

 

[dreever]

Or, you can "Just call em like you see em"

 

[Shelley]

In my case there was an excellent reason. It was a choice of:

this

or this.

 

[MrMister]

Please know I wasn’t being “critical” of the colors and schemes of your custom guns. I was curious as to what makes you guys paint them like that and if it was a “quayside requirement” for competition.

The hot rod/motorcycle analogy makes sense to me! Not my cup of tea but then again neither are hot rods and bikes.

Maybe I'm too boaring!

Shelley-

I have never seen a gun like that. What type or class is it?

I also noticed the flame job on your front rest!

Steve

 

[USAPatriot]

Strictly speaking no paint job ever helped a rifle group any better but I feel confident in saying that all the mechanical things in the gun itself being equal, an owner that thinks his rifle's paint or finish is the bee's knees will probably shoot better than someone that thinks his rifle looks lousy. There's a psychological component to pride on the firing line that is impossible to quantify and would be silly to ignore. If I can make you think my rifle is better than your own, I've got you half beat already.

Personally I like more subdued rifles but have seen some real eyepoppers on the other end of the spectrum. -Rod-

 

[MrMister]

Gunamonth,

I love your name-do you live up to it? lol

Could you shoot me a PM of a close up of the engraving on that barrel?

That looked pretty cool.

 

[USAPatriot]

I like this yellow Ackley...the bee's knees. But would I take one like it into the field, even in a sporter configuration? Mike Tyson I'm not My McMillan A2 with grey, light grey and tan marbling is just fine, thanks. -Rod-

 

[Shelley]

MrMister

The tube gun is something I built in my garage workshop a couple of months ago. It is to be used in Benchrest competition in the light varmint class.It was built for two reasons. One was that I wanted to try a couple of magnets to see if they'd function as a muzzle tuner and a conventional stock has no place to hang the stock magnet. Secondly, I wanted to use a 30BR in light varmint as well as heavy varmint. I already had a very good 30BR heavy varmint,it's the one that matches the flame job on the rest. The rifle stock is a "Kav" paint job and the rest was copied from a photo by a painter in Indonesia where the rest,SEB) was made.

The tube gun has several cool design features. The barrel and action are offset to the right 3/4" to help offset torque from the rifleing twist. And, the stock is a low rider type of design. The fore stock has two tubes. The one on the rifle's left is 1" diamater. The right tube is 5/8" so as to allow the barrel to lean over and set down furthur. So far, testing has shown the rifle to shoot real well. I even took it to Gene Beggs tunnel training facility in Odessa Texas where it did well.

The magnetic tuner has only been tested out in the wind and this winter has been cold and windy so I don't know how well it's working. I think it's showing promise. With a Heavy Varmint contour barrel the gun w/tuner weighs 10.5 pounds. With a Light Varmint barrel the gun weighs about 10 pounds. I've attached one photo showing an agg shot out in a fairly brisk wind. The agg,five five shot groups) is .222 and that ain't too shabby.

Here in the Ft. Worth/ Dallas area, our BR season starts in a couple of weeks. I'll find out then how well it really shoots. A good portion of the fun in competitive benchrest is in trying to out gadget your friends. I think I struck a good blow this winter.

Shelley

P.S Everyone knows a happy gun shoots better.

 

[Mark Walker in TX]

Do you mean like this 6BR I just picked up last week :

,just click on the pic and it will get bigger)

 

[Shelley]

Yep, Walker... That'd be another of Michael Kavanaugh's paint jobs.

Shelley