Shooting Bench Plans

[TrapperBR549]

Nice! How much does the top weigh? Is it attached with anything except gravity?

 

[longrangebanker]

Nice! How much does the top weigh? Is it attached with anything except gravity?

I didn't actually weigh it, but according to some rough calculations, it was approximately 380lbs. We didn't use quikrete, I actually took it to a local concrete plant and had them fill it with some leftovers they had on the truck. I used mortar for all the concrete blocks and I also mortared the top to the blocks as well. It's definitely not budging. The main reason I used mortar is so that I could make sure the top was precisely level both side to side and front to back. Not all of those concrete blocks are identical, so I wanted to make sure the top was exact.

 

[gdbleb]

Very nice. I'm curious about the polished vs. rough concrete surface arguments.
I do recall that Williamsport has sacrificial plywood tops on their concrete slabs that permit driving your spiked rest into. Don't know how they glued the plywood to the concrete. Don't know how often they replace the plywood. I thought that was a good idea.

 

[NF1E]

Love it. Been “ planning” a similar bench for my home range for 5 decades and just never manage to get er done. This is a nice incentive to get off my butt and do it. Whatta Hobby!

 

[vonb]

That looks excellent. I poured a concrete top a few years back for the farm field. I mixed the concrete in the bucket of the tractor and cleaned diligently after pouring. I lined the concrete form with smooth shower paneling for a slicker finish. One thing about it, that top was HEAVY. The tractor bucket came in handy once more to move it.

 

[dusterdave173]

Concrete benches are the way to go, Our club has all concrete benches (Bench Rest Rifle Club of St. Louis)
They simply DO NOT MOVE or SHAKE.
Our surfaces are in general very smooth, but the club requires that no spikes enter the surface, so we use aluminum disks with o rings on the bottom to prevent the rest from moving. Rubber on the rear rest will do the same.

We shot a match in SC off concrete bench--they had a pretty decent earthquake about 100 or less miles away--I saw the crosshairs "jiggle" --when I saw the news that evening and they mentioned the earthquake I noted the time was when we were on the bench--that was just plain weird.

 

[longrangebanker]

If you have some free time I could schedule a job for you Looks great!

Thanks, I have one more to build at my range at the farm that I can get to 700 yards safely. But after that, I think I'm done with shooting benches for a while!

 

[dusterdave173]

I didn't actually weigh it, but according to some rough calculations, it was approximately 380lbs. We didn't use quikrete, I actually took it to a local concrete plant and had them fill it with some leftovers they had on the truck. I used mortar for all the concrete blocks and I also mortared the top to the blocks as well. It's definitely not budging. The main reason I used mortar is so that I could make sure the top was precisely level both side to side and front to back. Not all of those concrete blocks are identical, so I wanted to make sure the top was exact.

Really nice work! Looks great! Enjoy

 

[slm9s]

Our club has concrete benches but they have a thin rubber layer on top that gets changed out occasionally. It might be a roofing product? Its very thin and is adhesive on the back side.