I’m not the most steady handed person, so sighting in an optic on a pistol would be very difficult for me. I just picked up a Holosun 507k x2 in trade for the recovery rope and soft shackles I had from my Jeep.

I was sitting and thinking how can I hold this pistol extra steady to sight in the optic. I took the LaRue quick disconnect light mount off my rifle, and it fit nicely on my pistol. I cut up a few pieces of wood and a few screws later, I had a pretty decent benchrest that holds the gun very, very steady. It’s pretty ugly and I was making this at 9pm the night before I went to the range, so I was focused on function over looks. I’m very happy with the results.

I sighted it in at 15 yards. It was perfect. I moved out to 25 yards to see how tight of a group I could make, and was at 1.75” at 25 yards using the benchrest.

I wish I could say that was freehand, but sadly no. At 25 yards I did ring my steel plate (9x18) with all 17 shots, which is really good for me. I couldn’t do that with iron sights, so the optic is an improvement for me in how I acquire the target.

Anyways, here are a few pics of my homemade benchrest for optic sighting.

Innovative, I like it.

That's great! But, now I'm thinking of ways to mount handguns to my rifles with those QD mounts. I would never have thought to use the rail on my handguns to mount the handguns to something otherwise.

interesting but this goes against what I was taught.

I'll Wait to see what the experts here say, but during recoil your home-made rest puts mechanical stresses on the gun that it simply was not designed for.

This is why the Ransom Rest holds the gun only by the grips and has a spring which allows the gun to move at recoil, the way your hands would.
I suppose the wood pops up on your jig during recoil but still the added stresses to the frame at the rail are not per the design.

I'm cheap and I just use sandbags and have had great luck resting my hands on sandbags.

I'd really be afraid to go with gun held like this. can't be good.

A friend was out shooting the other day and just couldn’t help using his pistol rail to clamp to a tripod to do a mag dump. It definitely makes things a lot steadier. I’ll bet that your benchrest was a lot more cost effective than his RRS tripod though.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
That's great! But, now I'm thinking of ways to mount handguns to my rifles with those QD mounts. I would never have thought to use the rail on my handguns to mount the handguns to something otherwise.

A couple M-Lok screws where the drywall screws are, and it would easily mount to a rifle with an M-Lok hand guard.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
interesting but this goes against what I was taught.

I'll Wait to see what the experts here say, but during recoil your home-made rest puts mechanical stresses on the gun that it simply was not designed for.

This is why the Ransom Rest holds the gun only by the grips and has a spring which allows the gun to move at recoil, the way your hands would.
I suppose the wood pops up on your jig during recoil but still the added stresses to the frame at the rail are not per the design.

I'm cheap and I just use sandbags and have had great luck resting my hands on sandbags.

I'd really be afraid to go with gun held like this. can't be good.

Radioman, as far as the stresses to the gun, the whole platform moved everytime it shot it. So the recoil was absorbed by the platform moving.
Honestly, if 50 shots from the gun mounted stationary would cause the gun to be stressed to the point of it being a danger, I wouldn’t want that gun. I would want something that was more durable.

It is a good point you brought up though. Thank you for bringing it up. I would like to see what the more knowledgeable people have to say. I had not thought of the possibility of the recoil causing harm to the gun.
I shot 45 rounds sighting it in on the benchrest.
Another 34 freehand after that with no issues. (I would have stayed out longer but the amount of little flying bugs gnats and midges were enough to make me go home).

As far as sandbags and sighting it, when I have to be extra steady, and focus on that, I start to shake like Mohammed Ali. I have been doing a lot of different exercised to steady my hands, and they are working well, but not for sighting in an optic, yet.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
I'm cheap and I just use sandbags and have had great luck resting my hands on sandbags.

Same, I used three sandbags to sight in my one RD- one under my elbow, and two stacked for underneath the gun/hands. Worked out great.

Very creative!

I agree with Radioman. The point of aim can change and accuracy as well.

Windage yes. Elevation will probably be off, possibly a lot.

I use a “statistical benchrest”. Shooting unsupported, I put five shots on each target, and save all of my targets. When I get back from the range I count the number of hits to the left and right of dead center, then adjust windage by one click accordingly. Similar for elevation. After a few range trips sights are dead-on.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
I use a “statistical benchrest”. Shooting unsupported, I put five shots on each target, and save all of my targets. When I get back from the range I count the number of hits to the left and right of dead center, then adjust windage by one click accordingly. Similar for elevation. After a few range trips sights are dead-on.

Serious question: why not do the adjustments at the range then you can confirm? It will take only one range trip.

^^^^^
I just don’t want to mess with it at the range. I usually shoot with a friend and don’t want to waste his time.