When it comes to shooting consistently enough to properly sight in or print a group; a good bench sure helps. But if you're not going to a dedicated shooting range chances are, you're going to shoot off something less than a proper bench. Commercial portable benches tend to vary between flimsy or very expensive and hard to find.

Gary found a nice place to go shoot but found himself shooting off various stacks of gear that never got right. He fixed his problem by designing a sturdy bench that is solid when up yet breaks down to about 6" thick and some parts when not in use.

That's the bench on an early outing. Note that it can be used lefty as well or a spotter can sit.


That's Gary giving it a go.

I liked the design so much I asked for permission to copy it. The 3 oldest boys and I made a family project out of it.

That's PJ routing while Chris provides light and waits his turn to use the power tools.


Timmy was on the job from the start and never let up.


Pretty soon, one sheet of plywood, a couple 2x3's, assorted hardware and some seats from WalMart turned into a shooting bench.


Within days it was alongside the original in a shooting "camp" that keeps getting better!

Sweet. I dug this picture up from last February:



We refer to Jerry's bench as the "deluxe" version, with some improvements over Gary's "beginner" version, such as the rifle rack in the back of the bench and its amazing shiny finish. Here, I'm admiring Jerry's handiwork up close while being caught by the papparazzi.

These benches set up in about five minutes and are as solid as shooting off of a very heavy picnic bench. In theory, you could have a LH and RH shooter using the bench at the same time, but in practice that would probably shake things a little too much. We have, however, had one guy shoot and the other guy spot for him while sitting in the other chair.

We haven't used these in awhile at the range as we now have the War Wagon (which has really cut our setup time), but they're still great to have. I'm probably going to build one for around the house.

-- Jim

That would be a good excuse for getting a whole truckload of power tools for Christmas!

Gary

Jim,
You should just pay the exorbitant Surefire price for a bench instead of spending all that money on tools and bandages. Besides, that will leave more money for custom slugs...

Ummm, Jerry, Gary, any chance of some specs on that bench, I think I need one.....
It's gotta be better than this:

Regards
Neil

Neil,

That rig of yours looks very .... portable. I like the component design.

Yeah - what we need is a nice little factory somewhere to make our benches. We're thinking of sending Jerry to China on a scouting mission.

Hey ... who do we thank for the additional smilies?

Gary

Heheh . . . I put some of those up yesterday AM.



-- Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/13/2008 02:55PM by Jim.

Neil,
I don't think there were ever any actual specs for the bench. Gary made it up and I just copied what I saw.

It was a fairly easy build though. All the panels come out of one sheet of cabinet grade plywood. The top and bottom panels are 3'x4' and the legs are 1'x4'. Done right, two cuts on a panel cutter (free service where I got the wood) will yield the four pieces to start from. The top panel was cut down to about 14" wide for about half it's length to form the shooting positions. All corners were rounded and then all the edges were routed with a roundover bit.

The legs are cut down to form a tenon in the center of one end about 4" wide and the same length as the top or bottom panel is thick. The other end of the leg is relieved on the "inside" corner edge to allow room for the hinge barrel.

The top and bottom panels get a mortise cut at one end and a hinge barrel relief groove routed in the other. The only trick here is to remember to cut the mortise in the bottom panel opposite the hinge relief in the top panel. The front leg is about 3" from the leading edge of the top and bottom panels but I placed the back leg about 5" in so I would have room to cut slots in the top and put non-skid on the base and have a place to hold the guns when not being used.

Below the base panel are runners that add some strength and keep the bottm panel off the ground. I used two 2x3's (actual dimension 1.5" x 2.5")to form two runners under each side. After cutting to length I tied them together with the scrap. I separated the runners just wide enough that I could use lag bolts to hold the seat bases with each bolt going deep into a runner. I used a couple screws and "Gorilla Glue" to attach the runners to the base panel.

The bench is made rigid by pulling three corners tight using chains and turnbuckles hooked on to hinged tie-downs. The tie-downs need to fold flat to the panels so the legs will fold flat to the base and top for transport or storage. I made a template out of paper so I could trace the required relief cut onto the panels. Then, a router and straight bit did the rest. Then the hinge and tie-down hardware was test fitted and the hook, chain and turnbuckle assemblies were made to fit the three corners. With the bench assembled, I cut the slots for the gun rack (they could have been pre-cut but I hadn't settled on the design yet) and positioned the seat post bases. (In the pictures there are only two seat bases. I have since added another base on the left side behind the original. This allows me to use a higher, further aft seat for shooting the Prairie III which is a long, tall gun)

For the chains I used a turnbuckle with a hook on one end and an eye on the other, some chain and a pelican hook. The pelican hook allows a quick release or attachment with minimal fussing with the turnbuckle.

After the test fits everything got torn down for finish work. I also added some 1"x1" aluminum angle to reinfore the top panel a bit.

One thing I did wrong during the build was to let the back leg ride up a little when screwing the hinge to it. That raised it off the base some and allowed side to side play. That was fixed by gluing on some thin strips of wood later but could have been avoided by ensuring interference when the hinge was installed.

Some pictures of the project in work:


That's the base panel in process.


I'm smoothing out the runners here.


Thats the underside of the top panel.


After finishing and adding aluminum angle.


PJ ready to go.

Well, there goes my retirement .....

Hey Jim,
Maybe you should just buy the bench from Gary instead of Surefire. I think I owe gary some retirement business...

Hey wait a second! Gary, I thought you were making scope knobs for retirement!

No Jerry,

The scope knobs were going to be my gift to humanity. It was the shooting bench project that was gonna keep me from freezing and wheezing in the dark ...






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2008 03:39PM by barnespneumatic.

Thanks Jerry, that's given me some good ideas for a future project. Could I borrow your workshop by any chance..it looks immaculate and puts my garage/ workshop to shame

Sounds good neil, come on over and make whatever you need. I"ll just stand around and drink coffee or beer and watch you work. I'm fascinated by work, I could watch it all day! Just ask Gary.

I've just noticed that this post has seen a remarkable number of views given this site's limited exposure. I'm wondering if we've been linked to from another site? Maybe someone will check out the bench, join this site and let me know in return for the secret build tricks....

I'll bet you're right Jerry. We set a new record for simultaneous guest visits last night.

-- Jim

Yeah, and the night before I saw 14 folks were checking out the gear shack and nothing else on the site. Apparently someone is interested in benches and scope knobs! That's great. I'm still saving the how to's on the next improvement to the bench though...

More likely a conference call was taking place between a distributer, and the Chineese firm that's planning to manufacture them by the shipping container (without the burden of my endorsement). As I mentioned when this post was made, there goes my retirement. Let's not help anymore.

Middle of the night you say? As in ... other side of the world???

Heck ... I just designed and prototyped it. Insignificant.

Gary