Help! Need advice on type of filler for my shooting rest bag

[Goofycat]

My old Uncle Mike's shooting rest field bag has been a thorn in my side because it has always been too heavy to comfortably lug around. I had filled it originally with sand, then went to rice. Both fillers made the bag too heavy, and I am looking for a different filler that is lighter than either sand, rice or walnut tumbler media.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to a good light filler material, such as possibly corn cob husk material or a spherical styrofoam, etc., that would make the shooting rest bag easier to carry and be easy to get into the bag? I use it mainly for .22 rimfire rifles that don't have much recoil. The bag is shaped like the letter "X" and has four individual spouts for each of the four chambers, and is similar in shape to the Caldwell Tackdriver Shooting Rest Bag.

 

[dennisinaz]

Parboiled rice is preferred. Polystyrene beads will work but are kind of shifty.

 

[jonbearman]

fill it with expanding foam.

 

[Goofycat]

Vermiculite or styrene beads might be worth looking at as long as they don't tend to compact or crush up when using the bag. The bag I use never really worked as I had hoped; in other words, the top two rabbit ears never effectively clamped onto the barrel. I ended up just resting the rifle across the top of the bag. It wasn't a big deal, and still isn't. My gripe was mainly that the bag was very heavy---at least ten-fifteen pounds, although I forgot to weigh it---and because of the weight, I didn't like to have to carry it around.

The heavy weight might be good for shooting off a table with a rifle with a lot of recoil, but I don't plan to use it for anything but .22 rimfire shooting. I'll look at vermiculite at the local garden store and will also check out styrofoam beads if I can find them (possibly at the pet store or at Michaels of Oregon crafts store).

I bought a seat cushion at WalMart several years ago that used some type of what I imagined was styrofoam inside. It was very light, and had a good insulating quality that allowed me to sit on snow without getting any cold radiated to my rear end when hunting coyotes. The cover of the bag was not of the highest quality, and it ultimately burst, so I tossed the bag away.

IIRC, styrofoam seems to cling to other surfaces due to static electricity; I don't know about vermiculite. Anyway, I'll check it out and report later.

 

[markm87]

My light bags get Walnut lizard media from the pet store.

 

[Goofycat]

I checked out vermiculite; it eventually tends to get pounded into powder. I purchased some small animal bedding material from the local Petco Pet Store for less than $7. It would have been enough to fill the shooting rest bag, but the Uncle Bud's bag's input spout's inside diameter (where it is sewn into the bag) is so small (about the size of the diameter of a pencil) that about the only thing that won't hang up is (again) sand or rice. It was a nice try, but no cigar.

I called Caldwell on the phone today. They advised that they use untreated corn cob media in their shooting rest products. After striking out on filling the Uncle Bud's bag with a light weight material, I think I will just refill it again with rice and buy another bag that is already filled, or just toss it into the trash can. Sadly, Uncle Bud didn't allow a large enough orifice through which almost any filling material can be introduced into the bag. They had engineered four leather spouts that tuck into leather pockets on their respective individual bag compartments, but the spouts are sewn flat and collapse upon themselves unless a solid tube is thrust into the bag a couple of inches to bypass the pinched-off area where the leather tube is sewn to the bag.

The problem here is that in order to bypass this area, introducing a solid tube results in even a narrower channel through which the filling material must pass to get into the bag. Lousy engineering, Uncle Bud. I haven't checked out the Caldwell bags yet, but I hope that they have put more thought into the construction of their bags than Uncle Bud did. The Uncle Bud bag is well-made, but poorly designed. My bag is about 15 years old, and maybe Uncle Bud's has improved their product. I haven't been able to find their bags on the internet or in the Midway catalog, so maybe they are out of business. If so, I would guess that the hassle one must go through to fill their bags may have been a cause.

I think I will spend the extra money this time and buy a Caldwell (or other) bag that has been already filled, provided that the corn cob media is light enough to make the purchase worthwhile.

If any of you can offer advice on bags that outshine the Caldwell, let me know.

 

[in2deep]

I filled my leather elbow bag with corn cob tumbler media somebody gave me and it seems to be very light weight and fairly durable so far and medium firm. Not sure how it would work in your bag but cheap enough to try and you can always use it in your tumbler if it doesn't pan out.

 

[Forum Boss]

If you want really light, try packing peanuts, aka "Ghost Poop", the little white kernals used to fill shipping boxes. You've probably got some left-over from Xmas. If you need more weight, you could fill the lower halves of the bottom chambers with hard plastic beads you can get at hobby shops.

Ghost Poop:

 

[Killshot]

Well Dave it was probably a powder GOING IN.....how the hell DID you get it in there?
And Ghost Poop? Yeah, that's not going in the fill hole either.

Goofy needs to lift some weights or get someone to carry his gear. I'd go with the latter. 8)

 

[Goofycat]

Dave, LOL here. You are right. I can carry the weight; it's just more of an annoyance to have weight that I don't really need. As for the weight-lifting, I could use that too.

Regarding the ghost poop, vermiculite, etc., the problem is getting it into the bag due to the small orifices in the bag. The stuff going in evidently has to have enough mass to allow gravity to pull it into the bag without having it stick to the side of either the funnel tube or the leather fill spout that is attached to the bag.

If you have ever received merchandise in a box with Styrofoam filler, you might remember how the stuff stuck to the side of the box. I don't know about vermiculite. At least the particles appear smaller than sand; whether or not it would do the trick---I don't know. I suggested this to my gardner-guru wife, and she replied, "Well, you know that Vermiculite attracts moisture." :-\

BTW, I found bags similar to the Uncle Bud's in the Sinclair catalog. They appear to be the same bag, but now under the "Bull's Bag" label. The ad states that they "come pre-filled with dry media that's as effective as sand but much lighter." A dry media that is as easy to get into the bag as sand, but is lighter than sand? Sounds like it was developed by NASA. They didn't mention what the mysterious stuff is, so I'll see if I can get them on the phone.

 

[Nomad47]

What about kitty litter? Or would it attract too much moisture?

 

[Goofycat]

Bill, it would work, as long as the particle size is small enough to get through the bag's filler spout. I think I tried it before and had problems getting it into the bag. I'm not really concerned about moisture because California's climate is usually dry, and I don't shoot in the rain.

I don't know if Caldwell or the other bag companies have filler spouts as narrow as the Uncle Bud's (maybe now called the Bull's Bag), but it seems that such an obvious error in design could have been avoided by making the filler spout larger. The rest of the bag is well-made.

 

[CJ6]

Another 1 for Corn cob media or Walnut for a bit more weight. I'm sure you or your buddies have some used up tumbler media.

 

[Goofycat]

Just got finished with a conversation with Marshall at Bull's Bag (www.bullsbag.com). They are the manufacturers of the original Uncle Bud's bag. Marshall informed me that their filler design has changed so that the filler tube is 3/4 inch, is shorter and is inserted into the bag, instead of exiting to the outside of the bag. The orifice is sealed via velcro instead of having to tuck the filler tube into a pocket, such as was the case with the old design.

The newly-designed Bull's Bag can be filled by using a 3/4" PVC pipe that can be inserted into the filler spout on the bag, after which you can insert your choice of funnels into the PVC tube.

The bag has a lifetime guarantee, and if the bag ever wears out (even due to constant use) or fails for any reason, you just send the bag in and they send you a new one at no charge.

Marshall was skeptical about bird seed because it attracts mice and tends to swell if moisture is around. He said he had no problem with kitty litter; he said if litter is to be used, it should be Purina...40% lighter than sand. They also use a polyfiber filling material that can be purchased at Walmart.

That being the case, I will try to salvage the old Uncle Buds with either polyfiber or birdseed (moisture or no moisture), then purchase a 15" Bulls Bag for range use. The Bulls Bag is designed so that most of the weight is at the bottom part of the bag. Marshall invited anyone who has questions about bag design and bags in general to give him a call (717-294-6000).

 

[T 700]

Just get a good friend to carry the bag for you!!!