We are going to put in a few new benches at our gun club and I would like to know where I can go to get differant designs. The main bench is one long bench and translates every vibration. So we are putting a few isolated stand alone spots. WHere do I go to get plans/designs?

Precision Shooting Magazine had plans for a portable concrete bench several years back. IIRC, it was a 3.5' square with a big "U" cut out of the back. They made legs out of 6" sonotube and set a round plate with a piece of pipe about a foot long sticking up at the bottom of both front ones. That let them use a pair of roller wheels on the front legs and a 1/2" steel plate across the back two that connected them. That way they could put a husky young man with a hand cart underneath the plate and just wheel them around. They just welded the wheel plates to the bottom and "giddyup go!".

Rich
DRSS

"U" benches are the pits! Every club in our region, that had them, has replaced them with "T" benches. PM me and I'll send you the dimensions or the "T" bench.

Made these for our club and my own personal range. Needed something that was as solid as a concrete bench but light enough to move for other shooting disciplines. Made from heavy wall black pipe and treated plywood. Cost less than $100 each to build. Stools are adjustable for height. Weather very well, these have been outside for nearly 12 years. If you need more detailed photos I can post a photographic "how to do it".

Nice pictues of nice benches Will bring to meeting and see what they all think.

Eddie I PM'd you, I hope it worked.

if I shoot right handed, with a "U" bench I have a completely upright shooting position, much closer to field shooting than slumped over one side of a "T" bench with my left elbow flopping out in space somewhere. Sit upright and extend your arms. With a "T" bench where does the offhand go?

The benches shown are rather nice for the "T-style".

Rich
DRSS
"stool shooter"...

I am open to all designs and suggestions. I have never seen the u design?

RustyD,

Visualize the following platforms:

1. The kitchen table. You sit with elbows at sides and eat. No elbow support, none needed.

2. You shoot at the pictured "T" table, right handed. The right elbow is supported, but the left is...?
Where do you set your spotting scope so you can swivel your head over a couple inches and see the bullethole?

3. You sit at a "U" table. Imagine a square or rectangle with a big upside down "U" out of the middle back. Like the shooting line on a basketball court, they call it the key. You slide in the "U" and position your rest and bags, and set the rifle on them. Your notebook is on the right, and your spotting scope is clamped to the left side of the "U" bench edge. You fire a shot, open the bolt and eject the empty. Lean back against the left side of the "U" and look thru your spotting scope. Ok, draw a 4" square. Draw a line up and down 1" from the left and right edges. Draw a line, left to right 2" up. This cuts the square into two halves. The center 2"x2" gets cut out, that is the "U", except it is rounded.

Rich
DRSS

A "T" or a "V and square" shape is by far the most popular in the benchrest world. Go to the IBS website to the photo gallery, and you will see many ranges, and the benches. Some are wood, some concrete. Doesn't really matter as long as it is stable. Always have a separate seat.

IBS link??? Just designs please. We can decide what we want.

Contact me if your club wants the least costly, all wood design (about $50-60 per bench).

quote:

IBS link??? Just designs please. We can decide what we want.

If you don't know what you want, why not look at what the benchrest ranges are using?

And if you can't look at a simple bench, and generate some dimensions on your own, should you be running a range in the first place?

There is always someone trying to push somebody else's buttons. Forums are for knowledge, if you have all the knowledge you need, find a debate forum. Please suggestions only, debate somewhere else. Thank You kindly.

The "U" design is intriguing me now that I have seen shooters at one. Lots of room for spot scope and all our ammo that we worked up, notebooks, cleaning kit, etc.

unless it takes you half an hour to load everything into the pickup and another half an hour to get set up at the bench with the chrono dialed in...you ain't really trying!! The "U" bench just lets you set everything at hand. Mine is 48" wide, with the center "U" cutout 28" wide and 24" deep. That leaves me room for the spotting scope on the left, clamped to the edge, the notebook just inboard and in front of it (lefty here), and the ammo caddy and chrono readout unit (M43) on the right. I put an extra hole centered and about 6" from the right edge, and clamp my rifle cleaning rest to it with a thru-bolt. When needed, I simply get up and set the rifle in the cradle and clean it. The muzzle extends past the front edge of the bench, and the dirty patches just fall into a 5-gallon bucket I set there. The bucket hauls all the cleaning stuff out and back, and there's a gallon ZipLock bag to put the patches, etc in. I bought half a dozen towels at Costco for 99-cents apiece, and spray one with electro-motive cleaner to wipe the gunk off the cleaning rods. Wait 'til Mamma is gone for the day and run them thru the washer and dryer. The top bolts to the frame, and each piece weighs about thirty pounds.

It just works for me...

Rich
DRSS

Ya, I alway thought I spent way too much time loading and unloading truck and setting up then cleaning and breaking down again. Most shooters just pop out and shoot some and say, I hit the target thats good enough for me. Well I am anal about accuracy when I really want it from rifles that I expect it from. Thats why we need a fwe of these for those times.
When I want to pop I shoot my model 94 in 45 LC. If I hit the target I am happy, more happy with the poppin' of shooting though. SHoot it from the hip a lot doing my best "Chuck Connors" aka "The Rifleman" Imitation w. great groups for no practice.

I much prefer the T shaped bench tops.
Butch

RustyD:

We've gone to the trouble of giving you our inputs/suggestions. now please give us the courtesy of some feedback on what you've decided - pictures would be nice too.

Too often people come on here, ask for info, and then fade away and we never know what happened. Never heard from you on my wood design (cheapest).

Appreciate it.

Well I will be presenting all the designs I have compiled from here and other sites at our Board meeting later this month. It is up to the club which design we go with.

Thanx again for your input, when I know which one(s) I will tell you. NOt sure on time frame of them actually being built and put into action.

I built one of these for my farm

http://horstguns.com/ShootingBench.htm

It is easy to build, rock steady and costs me about $50 in materials. ( I don't know where they shop, but $120 seems way high per bench)

quote:

Originally posted by Duckear:
I built one of these for my farm

http://horstguns.com/ShootingBench.htm

It is easy to build, rock steady and costs me about $50 in materials. ( I don't know where they shop, but $120 seems way high per bench)

I see some inherent problems with this design. Mine does not have any problems and is lowest cost and highest stability short of cement/masonary bench.

Regardless which style you choose, "T" or "U" or whatever, would you consider making at least one that is wheelchair accessible? "U"-shaped benches I've tried are frustratingly impossile.

Thanks!

Bench configuration and size are much like everything else, nothing is absolutely ideal in all conditions or there would only be that one design. I've shot over both styles and made my own based on that experience.

I have a personal range with a "U" shooting bench, it's great for my purposes. Right handers have a large open left side for a spotting scope, note pads, etc., vice versa for lefties. No "T" top has served me as well.

My bench top itself is 3" of steel reinforced concrete, 4' wide and 5' long, with a 22"x24" cutout. I used a scrap piece of 3/4 ply for the bottom of the form and 1x4 boards for the edges.

The top sits on four legs of 9" diameter (used) power line pole stuck 3' into clay soil. It's solid as a rock, not a hint of pulse is transmitted from the bench to the rifle.

IIRC, I used about 7 bags of premix concrete, 20' of 1/2" re-bar and stray pieces of wire fencing in the top. Legs were free power co. scraps. Total cost, 6 years ago, about $50.

I also made a 3'x5' cleaning table, a simple long-gun rack for 12 and a "park bench" to sit behind the firing point, all from treated lumber. Those were good additions to the range but it ran the cost up some.

+10 on Jim C.'s post.

My local range has U-shaped tops on the shooting points--all individual. Top is about 36" wide by maybe 42" deep and 4" thick. Legs (3) are two cinder blocks end-to-end connected with mortar.

Only 2 criticisms: 1) the roughness of the tops. Shooting anything but bench guns or .224 cal rifles is "rough" (no pun intended) on the elbows. My shooting box has a large bath towel that I lay on the bench top. 2) the U-cutout is too small but at the same time too large. What I'm trying to say is that if I built my own, I'd make the top about 12" wider and 6" deeper and the U-cutout about 3" wider (yes, I have lots of stuff on the bench when shooting).

I also discovered last week that my favorite bench is loose on its legs, and when I lean against it, it moves about a half-inch. Potential foot breaker for sure. And, imagine the pain of seeing your rifle, rest, spotting scope, ammo, etc. all tumbling in a heap!

quote:

Originally posted by RustyD:
Well I will be presenting all the designs I have compiled from here and other sites at our Board meeting later this month. It is up to the club which design we go with.

Thanx again for your input, when I know which one(s) I will tell you. NOt sure on time frame of them actually being built and put into action.

And the results are...

???????????

Your guess is as good as mine. I persented about 10 designs and they got one from NRA. They started cleaning shooting house so th ey could icorporate thebenches into it and never heard since. The range officer and another guy are working on it or NOT at this point. Neither was present at last meeting.