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Thread: Good Rest for the AR

  1. #11
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    I am firmly in the "Bipod and and a rear bag" Camp.
    You might lose 1/52 MOA, but you will have items with multiple purposes, especially if you are shooting a weapon that deserves to be benched.
    Jack Leuba
    Director, Military and Government Sales
    Knight's Armament Company
    jleuba@knightarmco.com

  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by jaydoc1 View Post
    Anyone can set a rifle in a sled and produce decent results. What's the point in that?
    That^^
    Sand bags are way cheaper along with a 20 round mag. or smaller so the rifle doesn't have to sit so high.

    Once the rifle is sighted in irons or scope..

    What's the intended purpose?
    punching paper? self defense all around plinking? small game where legal?

    Hows the rifle set up & is it a quality brand?

  3. #13
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    I don't think you give up much just using a good bi-pod - so long as it's minimum setting is the proper height for bench use.

  4. #14
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    AR-Rest

    Last edited by GoinDeep; 06-30-10 at 18:28.

  5. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by GoinDeep View Post
    This may be worth looking at.

    http://www.montie.com/#shooting_rest

    good for using as bipod. not for rest, it jumps alot.

  6. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Skang View Post
    good for using as bipod. not for rest, it jumps alot.
    Yes it does jump, but it beats dragging sandbags to the range.

  7. #17
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    X-Rest / AR-Rest

    Morning,

    We designed the X-Rest and AR-Rest products to be extremely lightweight and quick to deploy. The big advantage is that when you are done you just take it apart and put it in your bag and go. Nothing heavy or bulky.

    Let me know if you have any questions.

    Cheers,
    Montie
    Montie Design
    montie@montie.com
    800-722-7987 x107
    -----------------------------------------------------

    A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.

    -----------------------------------------------------

    Montie Roland
    montie@montie.com
    montieroland - Yahoo IM
    www.montie.com

  8. #18
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    I am also looking for a rest solution. I do not want a sled, but nor do I want a bipod (which I already have and use). For my purposes I need the rifle isolated but stable, and a separate front and rear rest would appear to me to be the best way to do this.

    molon uses the Sinclair Benchrest Windage in his testing but at $370 for the front alone this is more than I want to spend.

    I would like to hear more about what people are using that's moderately priced and is a complete system for front and rear. Specifically something that works well with both free-float rails and standard handguards as well as various collapsible stocks at the rear. I'd like to be into the whole system for around $200.

    The Caldwell Rock pictured above seems like a potential candidate for the front rest and I'd like to hear more from those that have used it and what they used in conjunction with it at the rear.
    Last edited by rob_s; 09-13-10 at 09:02.

  9. #19
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    Anyone can set a rifle in a sled and produce decent results.
    Not so. If you think benchrest is easy, go to a benchrest match and tell the competitors. I'm no bench rest expert, most of my experience is with rifles that kick too much to shoot extensively off a rest. Some things I know for certain: It looks easy. It ain't easy. I don't have all the answers but I do know some of the questions.

    I was benchrest shooting several ARs over the weekend and it took some time and effort to get decent results and I am by no means happy with the results. There are several pitfalls in benchrest. First, the forearm must slide freely on the front rest. If it grabs because of checkering, a Picatinny rail or sling swivel it will cause inconsistency. Similarly the butstock must move freely. If the gun is not sliding freely on the rest or bags you should use a towel, polyester shirt or something to make it slide freely. The front rest must not tip during firing, it will not tip repeatably. As the rifle recoils it should move away from the rear bag not into it. This is almost always accomplished without problem with an AR (see photo above) or a more conventional rifle but the M4 type stocks present a problem. I'm pretty sure my rear bag was grabbing the stock inconsistently so I quit using it. Other problems are consistency of hold, breathing and heartbeat. These issues more or less invisible in offhand shooting but are plainly a problem off the bench. One thing I did use to good effect was this:

    Picatinny Rail Vise Block

    Remove the pins and use on the bottom Picatinny rail, it presents a flat, relatively wide base which slides well on the front rest.

    One thing I would really love to have is an AR15 style stock that would slide onto an M4 extension for just this purpose. I'm thinking about fabricating one.

    Benchrest does have great value in testing. If you are shooting six inch groups offhand at fifty and your ammo shoots ten inches at a hundred then your marksmanship is pretty good but you need better ammo. If your ammo can group an inch at a hundred then it is your marksmanship that needs work. Benchrest is the way to tell which is which.

    The Caldwell Rock pictured above....
    Looks too tall. I can't find height specs on it but I was using a cheap Hoppe's rest over the weekend and found it tall enough at it's lowest setting which is pretty low compared to this Caldwell. I wound up not using a rear bag at all, using my upper body with chest against the bench and elbows planted. The problem was that my heartbeat caused the crosshairs to jump maybe an inch at 200 yards. I accepted this just mentally subtracting an inch from the groups. No big deal since my groups were in the range of eight to twelve inches. If I was getting better groups, say three or four inches and heartbeat was causing an inch jump it would have been of more concern.
    Last edited by Suwannee Tim; 09-13-10 at 10:18.

  10. #20
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    re: the need for the forearm to slide smoothly

    I saw a web page yesterday (cannot find it today, naturally) in which the writer had used the holes in the bottom of a standard hand guard to afix a smooth rectangle of steel to the forearm, which let it slide on a rest similar to the Caldwell fore rest in this thread. I have also seen commercial versions of this plate advertised, and an accompanying plastic piece that was attached to the toe of the stock. This second piece then slid smoothly on a rear sandbag. Not adequate for high recoil rifles, but good for .223/5.56.

    Not a benchrest shooter. Just trying to find out exactly how accurate my rifle is with various ammo, to see if it needs a different twist barrel. I was first headed down the "tie it down 'till it screams" line of thought, but after this thread and a couple of benchrest demos on on the web, I think a better path would be to let the rifle slide back consistently (no tipping) and then re-index to a known fore-and-aft position.

    Thoughts?

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