Anybody got any plans or ideas for a portable zeroing bench? I amlooking for something that one person could load and unload in a small garden trailer or pickup truck.

Ideally, it would have a built in seat so the wait of the shooter would steady it. It only needs to be suitable for a right handed shooter.

I have seen the one in Cabelas (below), but was wondering if anybody had any alternatives or other suggestions?

Regards

Pete

Pete

Have a word with Gary at shootingbags.co.uk

The last time I saw him he was in the process of importing some sort of zeroing bench

Tim

Pete

Here is the bench I built a few weeks ago. It is not exactly what you want, but it is very stable.
This guy went out of his way to make some great plans/directions.

My only deviations were I used 1/2 � plywood (2 sheets laminated together) and I used 1/2� pipe instead of 1 1/4�. The legs are plenty strong , no way you will bend them. I believe he calls for the 1 1/4 pipe because it is a little bigger foot print. I�m sure it would have been more stable his way. I just didn�t want to carry the weight.

I also bought some �clips� to put the pipe in that are screwed to the underside of the bench. They are the kind used to hold mops and brooms on the wall.

One more thing is I keep my sand bags in a five gallon bucket. It is the perfect height for a seat.

Good luck
Shawn

Tim,

If you take a look at Gary's web site, he does indeed import a very nice "portable" shooting bench but at �600 more suited to a club or group of friends.

I have actually seen some home made ones very similar in concept (I say "homemade", but the guy was an engineer by trade) and although I was a little sceptical about how stable they would be, they worked very, very well indeed.

Regards,

Pete

Shawn


Ideally I wanted a bench with a built in seat so my weight would add stability to it, but while doing some searching on the subject I came across a few posts saying it was not a good idea and favouring designs like yours.

I love the simplicity of the design for your bench and I am going to see if I can get hold of the various fittings here in the UK.

If the fittings are available off the shelf, I think I will give it a try as it would avoid having to rope my mate in to do some welding...

Regards,

Pete

Shawn,

I 've managed to get most of the parts for the bench and made a start cutting out the top today. I made the "cut out" first and marked the rest of the top as per the plans.

Having made one and used it in the field, is there anything you would do different if you were making it again?

After trying the roughed out bench top, and looking at some slightly different designs on the net, I am going to make my bench slightly longer so there is more "depth" in front of the shooter . I figure if its too long I can always trim it down a bit.

The top will be two 3/4" sheets of ply glued and screwed together and the legs are 1" external diameter water piping. I don't particularly need the bench to be light, but I have sized the top so it will lie flat behind the back seat in my Trooper.

My weekends hunting is cancelled due to bad weather, so I am hoping to get it finished by early next week...

Thanks again for the idea!

regards,

Pete

Shawn,

I made the angled oak spacer's for the legs last night, and the top is virtually finished with it being 41" long overall. I need to get some filler as the end grain of ply has a few voids with need to be dealt with. Once I have done that, I can give it a final hand sanding, and fix the spacers and sockets. Another evenning or two for staining and varnishing, and it will be done!

Regards,

Pete

Pete

You pretty much caught on to the only thing I would change. If I ever build another one I'll try to ad 4" to 6" to the skinny part. Other than that it has plenty of room for sandbags, cartridge boxes or any other things you would want on the bench while your shooting. I also used marine spar varnish to protect it. It looks pretty good with a natural wood color. At least for a shooting bench.

Shawn